Posted by wcfrench on August 25, 2002, at 16:30:35
In reply to Starting Geodon, posted by CLS on August 24, 2002, at 2:35:26
I took Geodon and it worked GREAT after even a week or so. I never had true psychotic symptoms, like hearing things or imagining things, or being paranoid, but I did have a very wierd depression where things that normally were't negative seemed bad, and some other wierd symptoms. Anyway, it worked great, but after a few weeks I started to get big time social phobias, much different than I had before, and I got anxieties about performance (I play music) and getting up and talking in front of people (like a presentation). To this day, when I take more than 20mg of it, I get very bad social phobia. I think the only thing that would have curbed it a little would have been a benzo, like Klonopin or Xanax, which I didn't take at the time. Before Geodon, I took Seroquel and it worked, but didn't get rid of all my symptoms.. wasn't strong enough. And after I got off of the Geodon, we tried to go back to Seroquel because it had caused less adverse effects, but it was just not strong enough and only worked for a few days before giving out completely. When I was taking Seroquel, I had heavy sedation but not really any other trouble except I would sleep a little longer. I couldn't take even 100mg during the day time without wanting to crash. I think your doc might be suggesting that the Seroquel will slow you down a bit and cool off the anxiety trouble, but I don't know how much of an effect it could have on you if you're already taking Geodon. Geodon is definitely a stronger medicine.
For me, the Geodon eventually got to where the cost/benefit ratio was too high, and the anxiety and tiredness was outweighing the positive. We then tried Zyprexa, a brother to Geodon but once-a-day, and didn't seem to cause the same anxiety problems, and it didn't make me feel this encompassing tiredness that would occur when I took the Geodon during the day. On the whole, the Zyprexa seemed more stable for me than the Geodon and didn't cause anxiety problems.. but the anti-depressant qualities of it seemed to fade after a couple of weeks or so. For many people, though, Zyprexa works well and doesn't give out like it did on me. You might try that route if the Geodon is giving you some good effects but causing other undesirable ones. I think I'm getting immune to these medicines or something and it's really making me worry. My new doc seems to think that I should have never been on anti-psychotics and that we should have tried Lithium augmentation first, which is what I'm trying now, but even now it's still a crap shoot. I'm waiting for Remeron to start working (or not).. in week 4.. I'll have to see how it goes.
Well, that's my experience, hope you can benefit from it. Good luck.
-Charlie
poster:wcfrench
thread:117622
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020821/msgs/117731.html