Posted by chemist on May 6, 2004, at 2:52:24
In reply to Re: Question for Chemist; OCD ADD and Stimulants, posted by temoigneur on May 5, 2004, at 22:43:43
well, actually, i was listening to jaco pastorious' first (solo) album, so i wasn't on-line...in the traditional sense...now, let's get started....first off, you are clearly a creative-type person, and the zyprexa does not appear to be working for you. the ritalin had some efficacy in the past, come back to that later. as for 16 mg/day of klonopin, NO DICE: unless you suffer from epilepsy (absence and/or myoclonic seizures, there may be more...), you are WAY above therapeutic levels for GAD, SP, panic, etc. if you were epileptic, you would max out at 20 mg/day. as for effexor, the standard high-end is 375 mg/day for refractory depression, with which you are not presenting. stay where you are on klonopin, dump zyprexa, keep the remeron, and consider going down on effexor while titrating adderall or dexedrine. sounds to me like your OCD diagnosis is off, and that ADD/ADHD with some dysphoria is present. i think your mood swings are due to extremely high doses of effexor and lack of a stimulant: but that is just my take. i will share with you some of my history with these meds, having been diagnosed with all the things you have been, and more (bipolar I as well as II)...the SSRIs didn't do much for me other than send me into self-destructive (don't worry, folks, it wasn't that bad) hypomanic states; the MAOI parnate was nice, until a very manic psychotic break made it clear that anti-depressants of any kind - for me - were out of the question. all the benzos and xanax were tried - and i mean almost all of the ones available in the u.s. - and finally, trileptal/tegretol/depakote/topamax/gabapentin/remeron/geodon....which leads us to now: dexedrine and xanax. this is my cocktail - it doesn't work for everybody and i'm still weird, but that's okay - and i'm sticking to it. aside from my scientific pursuits, i have a creative side (classically-trained on upright bass, over 20 years ago), which fell off with more meds. again, that's just me, but it might work for you. the zyprexa is bringing you down, going to 16 mg/day on klonopin will result in your sleeping through life, and i think that you might benefit from a stimulant (i am predisposed to dexedrine, but adderall or ritalin are good alternatives, provided that ritalin doesn't impair you as before, and strattera is lightweight, as it was originally targeted as an anti-depressant and later remarketed as a remedy for ADD/ADHD). hope this helps, please let me know, all the best, chemist....p.s. piano? composers?
> Hi Chemist, you must feel so overwhelmed, what a service you're rendering here, I forgot to say that I also have BAD anxiety, GAD, SP, Panic Attacks, that seem to feed into my OCD. Thank you so much>
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> Hi chemist, I have severe OCD and some ADD it seems. I think I have ADD because years ago when I was preparing for a demanding piano examination I took ritalin, I don't think I was on anything else at the time
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> > It gave me laser like focus for hours, then; and the sequence is hazy in my mind, but some time after I would always have very painful moodswings, and find myself crying from depression. My OCD is the masochistic type, I'm always doing things to embarass myself, to purge myself and ward off a sense of impending doom.
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> > Currently I have a new psychiatrist and he is more than willing to try new approaches if it looks like it might hold some promise. I extra fortunate to live in Canada, where through the special access program, my psychiatrist can access drugs through the states, I'm not sure about europe, (thinking about pregabalin)
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> > I am on 300mg Effexor, 15mg Remeron, 10mg Zyprexa and 5mg Clonazepam. Here's the thing, the zyprexa takes away my personality, and creativity. It sedates me and I feel like a vegetable.
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> > My strategy was to ramp up the effexor to 450, go way up on clonazepam, (maybe 16mg) keep the remeron, and hopefully get off zyprexa. I was wondering if you think it might be advisable to add Adderall, I've never tried it, or even perhaps ritalin with a mood stabilizer. The way I am now I'm not getting anywhere. I was down on zyprexa to 2.5 mg for months, my anxiety was higher but I was more alert. I came off zyprexa, and my ocd came back with a vegeance, I was debilitated, I couldn't move without shouting profanities around others to purge myself.
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> > The effexor and zyprexa are controlling my ocd very well, but I'm a vegetable, any suggestions. Thank you so much.
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poster:chemist
thread:343851
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040505/msgs/343906.html