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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 9 of 9. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Brainbeard on September 5, 2010, at 8:14:35
I'm experiencing dissociative effects since a while. It started after I raised my clomipramine from 150 to 187.5mg. I felt weirdly disconnected from my physical reality. Like not being there, yet being there. (Or the other way around.) While picking nervously at my nails, as I usually do, it felt like I wasn't feeling myself. I had had a cup of coffee and first tried to blame the caffeine.
But now, about a week later, I began experiencing these dissociative effects on a new level of intensity after smoking marijuana one night. Boy, I felt like being on the verge of getting sucked into a tunnel starting at whatever point I would be focusing on. I had to make conscious efforts not to drift away into.. Yeah, into what?
Time seemed to shift aberrantly, running wildly into the unreal.The day after, the dissociation came back. We visited a zoo. Everything seemed so unreal. When I looked at the ground I felt like being soaked into blankness. Now it's two days later. I've had another raise; I'm taking 225mg now. The dissociative effects are still there.
Well, I don't mind feeling spacey all that much, but I'm worried that maybe this is the prologue to having a seizure or something. Does anybody recognize these experiences? Would it be the TCA causing it? Or the marijuana? I had smoked marijuana about two weeks before I first experienced the dissociation. Personally I suspect that marijuana merely potentiates a side-effect of one of my meds.
Posted by Phillipa on September 5, 2010, at 10:44:33
In reply to Being There Yet Not Being There, posted by Brainbeard on September 5, 2010, at 8:14:35
Not being judgemental but maybe you should not smoke marijuana. Does your doc know? I'd think you should call your doc. Hard to tell over the internet as if at the zoo you are functioning? Does anyone else notice something different? Tough question. Phillipa
Posted by chujoe on September 5, 2010, at 11:36:05
In reply to Re: Being There Yet Not Being There » Brainbeard, posted by Phillipa on September 5, 2010, at 10:44:33
Bb, as an ex-dope-smoker I guess I'd suggest giving up smoking marijuana. I have had that same dissociative effect with marijuana even when I wasn't taking psych meds, so it might just be the pot acting by itself, or it might make the effects of clomipramine stronger, or some combination of those two. I gave up smoking partly because of the dissociative effect of marijuana.
Posted by ed_uk2010 on September 5, 2010, at 12:33:42
In reply to Being There Yet Not Being There, posted by Brainbeard on September 5, 2010, at 8:14:35
>It started after I raised my clomipramine from 150 to 187.5mg.
Perhaps you should return to 150mg. The central anticholinergic effects of clomipramine might be making you feel strange.
Posted by Brainbeard on September 5, 2010, at 14:27:37
In reply to Re: Being There Yet Not Being There » Brainbeard, posted by Phillipa on September 5, 2010, at 10:44:33
> Not being judgemental but maybe you should not smoke marijuana. Does your doc know? I'd think you should call your doc. Hard to tell over the internet as if at the zoo you are functioning? Does anyone else notice something different? Tough question. Phillipa
There are lots of things my doc doesn't know. I could tell him about the pot, but I don't think he would do much with the knowledge - silently admiring my rock'n'roll life-style, perhaps.
Yeah, functioning at a zoo may be hard for anyone, except for the animals perhaps.
My wife hasn't noticed anything unfamiliar in the way I have acted and behaved for the last couple of days. She's the one who should know.
Posted by Brainbeard on September 5, 2010, at 14:33:53
In reply to Re: Being There Yet Not Being There, posted by chujoe on September 5, 2010, at 11:36:05
> Bb, as an ex-dope-smoker I guess I'd suggest giving up smoking marijuana. I have had that same dissociative effect with marijuana even when I wasn't taking psych meds, so it might just be the pot acting by itself, or it might make the effects of clomipramine stronger, or some combination of those two. I gave up smoking partly because of the dissociative effect of marijuana.
Well, there was a time when I liked some dissociation to a certain extent. For example, I once ate space-cake with a friend on our national 'Queen's-day' festival, and we sat at a terrace in Groningen, where I went to the toilets for a pee - and when I was done, I was looking at the toilet door and thinking: 'I have NO idea where I am and what I'm doing here, but I do have a faint recollection that I'm here with a friend; I'm curious who it will be!'. I stepped through the door with the merry feeling of receiving a surprise.
I also think that the dissociation is stronger when I smoke/eat pure pot instead of pot mixed with tobacco. I think the nicotine makes one more grounded, although it also inflates the self.
Hash may be a better option - and not smoking ANY dope may be the brightest one.
Posted by Brainbeard on September 5, 2010, at 14:37:50
In reply to Re: Being There Yet Not Being There, posted by ed_uk2010 on September 5, 2010, at 12:33:42
> >It started after I raised my clomipramine from 150 to 187.5mg.
>
> Perhaps you should return to 150mg. The central anticholinergic effects of clomipramine might be making you feel strange.That's my idea too. About the central anticholinergic effects, I mean. Perhaps growing tolerant will save my *ss here. Or indeed I need to cut back to 150mg.
Oh, and another idea: I remember how strange I have felt on higher doses of codeine - could it be that the high blood levels of clomipramine are hitting my opioid receptors hard enough to make me feel weird??
Posted by ed_uk2010 on September 5, 2010, at 15:19:11
In reply to Re: Being There Yet Not Being There, posted by Brainbeard on September 5, 2010, at 14:37:50
> About the central anticholinergic effects, I mean. Perhaps growing tolerant will save my *ss here. Or indeed I need to cut back to 150mg.
Hmm, I think you should cut back for now. You can always increase later.
>Oh, and another idea: I remember how strange I have felt on higher doses of codeine - could it be that the high blood levels of clomipramine are hitting my opioid receptors hard enough to make me feel weird??
I don't think it will be that. I think it's probably the anticholinergic effects, or the cannabis - or both.
Posted by Brainbeard on September 7, 2010, at 6:30:28
In reply to Being There Yet Not Being There, posted by Brainbeard on September 5, 2010, at 8:14:35
Well, the dissociation from my physical reality just carries on. I seem to get more used to it. I drink coffee in the morning to keep sharp - the caffeine gets spread out over the day because of Luvox and clomipramine inhibiting its breakdown.
I'm still on 225mg clomipramine. I think about making it to day five or six and then have blood drawn, after which I would feel free to lower the dose. I wanna know if my blood levels are really (too) high or that it's just my (potentially hyperchondriacal) perception.
This is the end of the thread.
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