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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 10 of 10. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by your#1fan on January 2, 2008, at 19:52:05
Here we go again. No emotion, no intrest. I hate it when i get like this. I've drink coffee maybe to pep, im just irrtible.
Ughhhhh i hate this nasty numb, feels like my brain is just a still pond. Nothing, no waves, or anything. You know i'll just be like this and never say anything during socials. I hate it. I would rather feel some emotion, like motivation to do things. Im serious, its like my nuerotransmitters are just flouting dead in the water. Cant take L-tyrosine, that will just make me irritible and insomniac.
Life is so dull........right now. Give me some ECT get these lazy nuerons a sting! you know i wonder what a homemade one would feel like?
dulled fan
Posted by Phillipa on January 2, 2008, at 20:06:28
In reply to Im numb again....., posted by your#1fan on January 2, 2008, at 19:52:05
Fan no comment on that one okay? Love Phillipa
Posted by your#1fan on January 2, 2008, at 20:53:17
In reply to Re: Im numb again..... » your#1fan, posted by Phillipa on January 2, 2008, at 20:06:28
no problem, this was like a closed question.
fan
Posted by Maxime on January 2, 2008, at 20:54:48
In reply to Im numb again....., posted by your#1fan on January 2, 2008, at 19:52:05
Posted by your#1fan on January 2, 2008, at 21:07:53
In reply to When do you see your pdoc? (nm), posted by Maxime on January 2, 2008, at 20:54:48
i believe next week, wednesday. But he's so booked all the time. takes off early..
but yea...
lithium at the lowest dose i may ask, but he's really "conservative", doesnt like to jump around on meds. Only if its impartive that its not working.....
but i've been treated well.. my general doctor stared down my medication list.... i mean its not that bad. He said and you take these? yes, are you drug illerate?
wish me luck...
fan
Posted by bleauberry on January 3, 2008, at 19:24:25
In reply to Im numb again....., posted by your#1fan on January 2, 2008, at 19:52:05
I think one of the big mistakes doctors make in treating depression is....treating depression. Instead, they should treat the specific symptoms of the kind of depression the patient in front of them has. There are many different styles of depression. Yours is apparently vulnerable to emotional blunting. That is common with ssris. From the doctors point of view the AD is working because you aren't depressed. He has not been taught in medical school about emotional blunting. It is just recently becoming recognized as either a stand-alone symptom on its own, or a delayed side effect of too much serotonin.
Treat the symptoms, not the syndrome. In your case, treat emotional blunting, not depression (unless you are still depressed of course). Theories are that the excess serotonin gradually dulls down the dopamine system. I saw in one study that there is evidence serotonin actually gets forced by ssris to transmit through dopamine receptors, where it is not supposed to be, and thus crowding out dopamine.
Emotional blunting as best I understand it is basically a hypodopamine condition. It is impossible to predict which dopamine medication or mechanism would help, but some that would be on the list would be wellbutrin, provigil, ritalin, adderall, adrafinil, low dose deprenyl, mirapex. I have seen some scientific studies on this topic that showed the most rapid and effective treatments for emotional blunting are dopamine agonists. Worth noting is that contrary to theoretical logic, dopamine antagonists can also work, but usually only in the low dose range. Example, prozac plus zyprexa. A friend of mine does well with lexapro and risperdal. In any case, your symptoms probably mean messing with the dopamine system in one way or another.
If your medication has gotten you to a point where you are not depressed any more, then it might be wise to not mess with that. Instead, augment something with it to specifically target the cluster of emotional blunting, anhedonia and motivation.
Posted by Maxime on January 4, 2008, at 8:17:47
In reply to Re: Im numb again....., posted by bleauberry on January 3, 2008, at 19:24:25
Hi Bleuberry
While what you wrote is true, there is something else that could be going on here. Fan is bipolar and it's not being treated properly. When that happens, the person mistakes feeling normal with feeling flat. They like the buzz they get from hypomania.
Just a possibility based on my experience.
Maxime
Posted by Racer on January 5, 2008, at 2:19:57
In reply to Im numb again....., posted by your#1fan on January 2, 2008, at 19:52:05
> Here we go again. No emotion, no intrest. I hate it when i get like this. I've drink coffee maybe to pep, im just irrtible.
>
> Ughhhhh i hate this nasty numb, feels like my brain is just a still pond. Nothing, no waves, or anything. You know i'll just be like this and never say anything during socials. I hate it. I would rather feel some emotion, like motivation to do things. Im serious, its like my nuerotransmitters are just flouting dead in the water. Cant take L-tyrosine, that will just make me irritible and insomniac.
>
> Life is so dull........right now. Give me some ECT get these lazy nuerons a sting! you know i wonder what a homemade one would feel like?
>
> dulled fanI'm curious about a couple of things: how long has this been going on? When did it start?
And please don't take this the wrong way, but I'm curious about something else: is it possible that you're bored, rather than in a relapse? Your posts suggest that you may react to transient states by assessing them to be different disorders. Sometimes feeling flat and unenthusiastic isn't depression, but merely non-pathological boredom.
Today it's storming here -- heavy rain, heavy winds, it's dark out all day, and I felt like hibernating. Some of that, in my case, is depression, since my current medication trial seems to be a bust. Some of that, though, is that sometimes it's hard for ANYONE in this weather to feel motivated and energetic! I'm assuming you're on break from school right now, and probably don't have a lot of structure in your daily life at the moment. That can lead to boredom, which really is different from depression, or even from emotional blunting.
Just a couple of thoughts that came out of my head when I read this. I hope they give you something to consider.
Posted by Racer on January 5, 2008, at 3:01:29
In reply to Im numb again....., posted by your#1fan on January 2, 2008, at 19:52:05
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/studs/20070526/msgs/801139.html
This is over on the Students board, in response to one of your posts regarding finals sneaking up on you. Did you read it? It contains a couple of very good points, which I think could be quite valuable to you.
Posted by Jeroen on January 5, 2008, at 15:35:52
In reply to Im numb again....., posted by your#1fan on January 2, 2008, at 19:52:05
hi try seroquel 50 mg twice daily or XR 75 mg at night for 2 weeks, it worked for me once as a miracle, a godsend
that was in 2004
now were 4 years later (let's have a laugh shall we)
This is the end of the thread.
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