Posted by Noa on November 2, 1999, at 8:23:39
In reply to Re: Organizing our diag./symptoms to JohnL OOOOPPS, posted by Carol on November 2, 1999, at 6:36:00
Diagnosis: Best bet=Double Depression.
Symptoms: "atypical"=fatigue, lack of energy, eating a lot, crying, sad, self-loathing, pessimistic outlook, hopelessness, anhedonia, lack of motivation, etc. etc. Also, anxiety, which seems to be the tradeoff for depression.
Treatments: many years of psychotherapy with much improvement, but recurrent bouts increased in frequency and intensity later on.
Also, medications:
Trazodone-about 6 months, not much effect
Prozac-two periods of time when I was on it for about one year, 20 mgs. Almost immediate improvement, within a week or two. Felt better, went off (the prevalent thinking of the time was you only needed to be on it for a while).
Prozac again-up to 30 mgs, about 16 months, discontinued because of tinnitus, rash, headaches.
Paxil-about 20 mgs about one year, pooped out. Increased dose, developed bad myoclonus, headaches. Lowered dose and added wellbutrin.
Paxil plus wellbutrin: developed bad diahrea. discontinued.
Effexor, about 150 mg, about six months.
Trazodone added to enable sleep.
Effexor-Begins to poop out, raise dose. Developed bad sweating, myoclonus, headaches. Lowered dose and added synthroid and cytomel. This worked for a while, then more poop out.
Effexor+synthroid+cytomel+Ritalin: good combo for a long time.
Get treatment for sleep apnea: severe fatigue goes away. Begin to feel better, but still dysthymic.
Switch to effexor XR=makes sleeping easier, fewer problems with forgeting dose, less myoclonus, sweating goes away. Increase to 225.
Serzone added in place of trazodone, when bad bout of depression happens. ALso-increase effexor to 375.As for the anhedonia: I wonder if this problem as you both describe it, is related to the problem I have: When I come out of the deeper depressions, I am highly anxious, and afraid to feel good, because it seems the good times don't last, and I will be whallopped by another killer depression just when I am letting down my guard. This is something I am focusing a lot on in therapy right now, how the major depressive episodes make the dysthymia so much more difficult because I am always on the alert for another episode. Having fun, feeling good, connecting to people terrify me because the loss of good feelings would be devastating if/when the next major depresion hits. So, pleasure=anxiety, which leads me to avoid pleasure.
poster:Noa
thread:14407
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991028/msgs/14428.html