Posted by janejj on November 16, 2001, at 15:29:31
In reply to Alcohol still the best med for social phobia, posted by 3 Beer Effect on November 16, 2001, at 12:24:50
What about MDMA, you haven't mentioned that. >
I haven't drank in a long time but I am using anti-anxiety, anti-depression medications which have been very discouraging. I am a college student & would take 20 mg Ritalin (methylphenidate) twice per day on Monday through Thursday (as prescribed by GP), and then get drunk (binge drink) Thursday, Friday, & Saturday, & then recover from my hangover & take Ritalin to study on Sunday. On this regimen I managed to get about a 3.0 GPA every semester at a very academically demanding university- the University of Texas at Austin.
>
> I was sick of people telling me that I get drunk too much at every party so I started taking Zoloft to help decrease the need to drink. It turned out that Zoloft counteracted the Ritalin & then made me "dumb as a brick" & I barely passes through finals even though I previously had A's & B's in all my classes. The next semester I had to pursue a medical withdrawl through the college dean because of the debilitating effects of these anti-depressants. I would never recommend any anti-depressants to college students, especially those who drink once in awhile on the weekends, unless they go to a ridiculously easy college like Texas A & M University.
> I was referred to a psychiatrist at this point who took away the Ritalin because of my history of binge drinking. He then put me on Remeron (Mirtzapine) -no anti-depressant effect at 45 mg, and I did not drink alcohol anymore at this point, but the Remeron just made me so tired (slept 17 hours per night) I could not get out of bed to go to class in the morning), then Effexor XR (which I had to stop on my own accord because I had rapid heartbeat, palpitations, insomnia, & chest pain- I even had to fly home to my parents house because i thought I was going to have a heart attack (& i'm only 23!)
> Now I am taking Celexa which even thought I have just started on it at half the starting dose for a week (10 mg) it seems to not make me nervous or cause insomnia like all the SSRIs I have tried. I read that Celexa may be the best SSRI for anxious patients b.c it doesn't affect the adrenergic glands or dopamine like Zoloft does (slightly) & has no norepinephrine effect (norepinephine= nervousness) & also has a slight sedating effect.
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> The Celexa is augmented by Klonopin(Clonazepam) for social anxiety/phobia 1 mg per day split into 2 doses but this doesn't seem to do a whole lot for me (cross tolerance from previous alcohol abuse?).
>
> If this Klonopin/Celexa combo doesn't work I am then rapidly running out of options (I also tried Paxil long ago- nausea & nervousness). Klonopin is supposed to be the best social phobia medicine- the only thing better is Nardil-the cheese effect MAO inhibitor drug (I could eliminate cheese/tyramine from my diet but how severe are the other side effects?) Or I could get the psychiatrist to increase the klonopin dose, but nowadays doctors seem to think benzodiazepines are the devil even though they are much safer than vodka! Plus Benzos, unlike alcohol, cause no long term damage to kidneys or other organs, hence there is no reason not to take them if needed, even for the rest of your life.
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> The only reason i drank on the weekends was to release my inhibitions so i can socialize with girls/women. So I am trying to find a 'disinhibitor' that approximates the disinhibiting, relaxing, wonderful feeling you get after drinking three beers, but one that works 24 hours a day (like antidepressants do) instead of only a few hours.
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> I've also learned that 1-2 beers clears you arteries and lessens you chance of a heart attack. Maybe i should have 1 beer at lunch & 1 beer at dinner & stop taking these worthless antidepressants.
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> The only other meds I can think of that have these 3 beers properties are the following, although I have no experiences with them- perhaps one of you would be likely to elaborate on you own personal experiences.
>
> 1. Meprobamate (Miltown)
> 2. Phenobarbital
> 3. Nardil
> 4. Parnate
> 5. Chloral Hydrate (actually metabolizes to ethanol in the system, the only true alcohol in a pill- perhaps this is the answer to my social phobia?)
>
> 6.Neurontin- Someone said something about this once, what is this medication & what does it do?
>
>
> It is a shame that with a hundred years of pharmaceutical research, the medicines for social anxiety pale in comparison to the 3000 year old drug alcohol, & the one medicine that may have equaled alcohol in effaciousness for anxiety/disinhibition (GHB) was banned immediately. Could you imagine if alcohol had been invented a few years ago instead of thousands of years ago- IT WOULD BE BANNED AND PLACED INTO THE SCHEDULE I NARCOTICS CATEGORY INSTANTLY- it is probably, next to Heroin, Opium, Morphine & its stronger derivatives, & LSD, the strongest drug out there.
>
> Cocaine, Amphetamines, & Marijuana (All Schedule II drugs) result in a much lower level of intoxication than alcohol. You can excel in your studies & work productivity by using Cocaine, Ritalin, or even better the Amphetamines (especially Dexedrine). Marijuana just makes you a worthless member of society who sits on the couch all day & turns you into a burn out, but doesn't increase people's tendency to be violent, it just increases their tendency to become a waste of space.
poster:janejj
thread:84423
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011113/msgs/84437.html