Psycho-Babble Medication Thread 915284

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uncouth

Posted by hyperfocus on September 1, 2009, at 15:35:24

I saw your post last month about not doing so well and just wanted to give you some support. I know what you mean about seeing people from the past. The past for me also has a lot of painful experiences and bad decisions that I probably would not have made had I been well. I'm actually terrified of meeting certain people from those dark times. It's not just the memories it would bring up, but I'm ashamed of those people seeing me like this - not having got ahead in life.

Have you ever done any psychotherapy? If you have concrete memories and traumatic feelings about your past it would probably benefit you tremendously to talk some of these things out. You don't even have to see a professional - for me posting stuff here was a gateway to opening up more to a trained psychologist.

I think that for many people with MI there are many dimensions to recovery. It's not enough to rationally know what is right or wrong - reason is just part of our faculties. You have to do psychological work to confront and deal with the past. You have to consciously change how you think and what you do and how you react to feelings, and learn how much in control of certain things you are. You have to ground yourself spiritually and philosophically. Sometimes hitting on the right med might get a person right in all these ways - but other times it may go more slowly. I know for me that working on these things produce measurable changes in me which I could not achieve with meds alone. Do you think your illness is purely biological or is it malleable and can be treated with other stuff besides meds?

Wrt meds I'm not an expert but it seems like it would be difficult to sort out what is doing what in your cocktail. Your cocktail is too large. If you feel like your pdoc is not in touch with how you are feeling then find a new one. The best thing would be to have your psychiatrist working together with your psychologist.

Taing 12.5mg x 3 of tianeptine always produces a feeling of wellness in me. If I could make that feeling last forever I'd consider myself cured. But it doesn't last very long. I read somewhere that tianeptine's action produces a short lived dopamine rush. Not sure what it's effects are long term but it's a good drug to just get up and start doing stuff. The manufacturers of Stablon also came up with agomelatine which also has a unique mechanism. Maybe you could give it a shot.

Hang in there, we'll all get to that place one day.

Re: uncouth

Posted by uncouth on September 1, 2009, at 19:07:42

In reply to uncouth, posted by hyperfocus on September 1, 2009, at 15:35:24

Thanks for your thoughtful post, I really appreciate it. Yes I have done years of therapy, not sure how much it has helped. The past still taunts me every day. Just tonight I woke up at 4am, with violent (!!!) thoughts about this girl who broke my heart 2 years ago. I was shocked i was having such violent thoughts and took a lunesta even though the night was over just to get back to sleep. Mind you this was after I started reading the Book of Matthew the night before, too. I can't ever get away from the regrets and mistakes but i think with the right medicine, right distractions, and NEW challenges and experiences, we can all successfully grieve our pasts.

Funny you should mention tianeptine as I recently added it to my cocktail, this time at 75mg/day as 37.5mg/day didn't do anything for me last time. I am also in the process of tapering off of Luvox. I know I have too much going on but hopefully at my next psych appt we can simplify. So far tianeptine seems like a good drug and I'm wowed by it's unique mechanism of action, a little romantic attraction i'd say, but i've also heard it's not as effective in the field. But maybe doses have never been high enough?

Currently on:

Aplenzin (bupropion) 522mg <-- can tell it's making a difference
Luvox 100mg <--tapering off, i'm sick of the SSRIs
Geodon 120mg <--think its too much but pdoc wants it to stay
Lithium 400mg
Tianeptine 75mg
Rilutek 100mg <--don't think it's doing much so planning to taper off
Namenda 5mg <--tapering off
Lunesta 3mg

I think I'm going to suggest to my Dr. that I want to be on this combo:

Aplenzin (higher dose)
Geodon
Tianeptine
Agomelatine
Lithium

Hopefully i won't have to take Lunesta anymore with the ago.

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