Psycho-Babble Medication Thread 1099318

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Who here feels better at night?

Posted by Prefect on June 27, 2018, at 21:04:44

My days begin in horror, and after lunch I start feeling better, and by night time, after 9 I feel good. I find it strange, but it's like clockwork, I feel better at night.

The other thing that makes me feel good is a big greasy meal.

Anyone else share this pattern?

 

Re: Who here feels better at night?

Posted by SLS on June 28, 2018, at 8:27:27

In reply to Who here feels better at night?, posted by Prefect on June 27, 2018, at 21:04:44

> My days begin in horror, and after lunch I start feeling better, and by night time, after 9 I feel good. I find it strange, but it's like clockwork, I feel better at night.

How do you react to tricyclic antidepressants? Your diurnal pattern fits that of melancholic depression, which is thought to be particularly responsive to tricyclics.


- Scott

 

Re: Who here feels better at night? » SLS

Posted by Prefect on June 28, 2018, at 12:00:23

In reply to Re: Who here feels better at night?, posted by SLS on June 28, 2018, at 8:27:27

It appears more autonomic activation that eases up as the day goes on and I move around. In the morning my veins are constricted and my hands are pale, and as the day goes they open up and by night they pop out in my arms and my hands are gorged with blood. I've noticed this seems to coincide with when I also become calmer. That's why I think alcohol seems to help me, because it relaxes the autonomic nervous system. Clonodine and Propranolol haven't help. I'm wondering if there is an anti-depressant the relaxes the autonomic nervous system?

 

Re: Who here feels better at night?

Posted by bleauberry on June 28, 2018, at 14:03:34

In reply to Who here feels better at night?, posted by Prefect on June 27, 2018, at 21:04:44

If you research adrenal fatigue you may find that you fit into that description. What you are feeling are the changes in cortisol levels, which spark pretty much everything else mood related, up or down. Adrenal fatigue can be a result of too much stress, bad grocery choices, or unsuspected Lyme disease.

When I was on psychiatric meds, the daily patterns were more pronounced.

I don't think I experienced 'normalcy' in all of this until about 2 years into lyme treatment with mostly herbs and rotation of antibiotics. I tried every adrenal trick in the book, of which there are many. Nothing really worked until I got rid of the actual underlying problem causing it all.

But anyway, that's what it looks like to me. You could rule that in or rule it out with a simple test. You can get a saliva cortisol test that you do at home - you take 4 different samples in a 24 hour period - and then you see your results on a chart compared to a normal chart.

Based on your descriptions, I would be willing to bet that your entire cortisol curve is low, but that it ticks upward in the evening and you feel better when that happens.

Cortisol has daily patterns of ups and downs which is normal. When that pattern gets out of whack we feel weird stuff.

> My days begin in horror, and after lunch I start feeling better, and by night time, after 9 I feel good. I find it strange, but it's like clockwork, I feel better at night.
>
> The other thing that makes me feel good is a big greasy meal.
>
> Anyone else share this pattern?

 

Re: Who here feels better at night? » Prefect

Posted by beckett2 on June 28, 2018, at 17:58:05

In reply to Who here feels better at night?, posted by Prefect on June 27, 2018, at 21:04:44

> My days begin in horror, and after lunch I start feeling better, and by night time, after 9 I feel good. I find it strange, but it's like clockwork, I feel better at night.
>
> The other thing that makes me feel good is a big greasy meal.
>
> Anyone else share this pattern?

For a few years, I was like two people (oh dear, like night and day you might say), and the mornings were like a horror to use your word. I couldn't get out of bed. I'm much better now, but what remains is energy. Very tired in the mornings and picking up by afternoon. My mood, fortunately, has stabilized.

My doc only commented that this was a type of depression and that as my overall depression improved, the pronounced diurnal variation would lessen. Keep the faith.

 

Re: Who here feels better at night?

Posted by sigismund on June 30, 2018, at 16:03:36

In reply to Who here feels better at night?, posted by Prefect on June 27, 2018, at 21:04:44

https://psychotropical.info/a-cruel-trick-diurnal-variation/

 

Re: Who here feels better at night?

Posted by Robert_Burton_1621 on July 2, 2018, at 5:23:59

In reply to Re: Who here feels better at night?, posted by bleauberry on June 28, 2018, at 14:03:34

Prefect, I would be much more inclined to attribute your diurnal variation of mood - "horror", severe anhedonia in the mornings, beginings of improvement in the early afternoon, and marginal relief at night - to a biological depressive disorder; as Scott says, the variation you describe is classically indicative of "melancholic" depression. I certainly experience precisely the same, painful, variations, and alcohol does "help" at night to "loosen-up" my affective and cognitative capacities, "frozen" as they typically are by the effects severe depression. But I cannot ignore the fact that, whatever be the episodic anxiolytic effects of alcohol, cumulatively it worsens depression (the CNS effects are similar to those of benzodiazepines, apparently) and of course can lead to dependency. I would avoid alcohol as much as you can: that advice must also apply to myself. In its place, the very best thing you can do it pursue treatment of what sounds like a severe biological depresson. My view is that "treatment" means "remission": do not be swayed by psychiatrists who advise - usually as a function of the inadequacy of their own psychopharmaceutical knowledge - that you ought not "expect" any "miracles" from medication (after all, who would expect miracles?), and that you ought accept a regime which is patently not fully effective.

In regard to cortisol and the HPA Axis, there may be anomalies, and these may be implicated in the aetiology of depressive illness; in my case, however, I had my blood cortisol levels assessed and they were perfectly normal.

One blood test that I would recommend is thyroid secreting hormone: TSH. have you had this tested before, to exclude autoimmune thyroiditis?

I am not sure whether "adrenal fatigue" is a recognised medical or clinical condition.

The supposition that you may have undiagnosed Lyme disease strikes me as implausible, going simply on the symptoms you describe.

 

Re: Who here feels better at night? » Robert_Burton_1621

Posted by ed_uk2010 on July 2, 2018, at 14:36:01

In reply to Re: Who here feels better at night?, posted by Robert_Burton_1621 on July 2, 2018, at 5:23:59

>I am not sure whether "adrenal fatigue" is a recognised medical or clinical condition.

It's not, no. Adrenal fatigue is something that people self-diagnose based on vague symptoms, or are told by an alternative health practitioner than they have it based on symptoms or non-validated tests.

 

Re: Who here feels better at night? » Robert_Burton_1621

Posted by Prefect on July 2, 2018, at 16:32:36

In reply to Re: Who here feels better at night?, posted by Robert_Burton_1621 on July 2, 2018, at 5:23:59

I've had my morning cortisol, ACTH, and TSH tested, all normal. And, yes, I no longer use alcohol to get relief from this, though I do smoke a lot of cigarettes (bad habit picked up over the last year to help with concentration) to get me going.

I've suffered from variations of this for the last 20 years, though it's been mild up to my severe relapse 2 years ago. It all started with a mild case of hepatitis I caught overseas 20 yrs ago, though I've tested negative for every hep virus there is.

I agree, I don't think I have lyme disease, but I have tested positive for Bartonella by a public health lab, not some holistic test kit.

Do you have any medication suggestions? Luvox kept me functioning for 18 yrs, but pooped out 2 years ago, and so far since Zoloft and Trintellix haven't done a thing. I'm tempted to give Luvox another try, or augment Trintellix with Abilify.


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