Posted by Dragon Black on August 30, 2007, at 21:10:36
Dear Babbleonians,
Guess who’s back? (think to yourself “Dragon Black”) Just thought I would give you my initial thoughts on tianeptine (Stablon), since due to it I am now apparently out of this, now former, depressive episode. It is day 9 for me. I started at 12.5 mg x 3/day on day 1, went to x 4/day for days 2-8 (except one day I forgot the 4th dose) and now am switching back to x 3 today. I started to feel effects on day 3 – in fact that morning I got the Zang! moment, where it’s like someone turned a light switch on and I know my depression is over. Great mood, super relief, etc. But, I always mini-cycle into and out of my episodes, and remembering what happened to me when I started SAM-e in the spring I refused to get my hopes up (I didn’t expect the downturn after being SO relieved to be out of my depression and it hit hard and was completely demoralizing. Didn’t realize at the time that I was on my way out and only had to experience a couple of bad days). Sure enough, by the afternoon I felt less than special and was cozily nestled back down in the dungeon for days 4-7. Yesterday I felt quite a bit better, which was bizarre given that I had gotten quite drunk the night before (yes, I know, I know; this is a whole ‘nother story). I managed to stay sober last night and go to bed at a decent hour so as to stop sabotaging my AD trial (something that I would not have been able to do two days earlier, when my depression was crescendoing, it’s worth noting), and today I’ve felt more or less very good all day and I know that it’s over. It’s quite possible I’ve got another mini-cycle in my future but I doubt it. This has been a really weird depression for me and there are lots of confounding factors that make it difficult to talk about tianeptine in isolation - I’m tempted to try to cover them but I don’t want to write a book. However, suffice it to say that in general, my life circumstances have certainly not improved since I started it, I’ve gone out of my way to sabotage myself (by eating and drinking like I’m literally trying to kill myself, which I invariably do when it gets really bad), and here I am on the other side of my depression. Of course I know that it’s still early and perhaps it’s premature to declare victory, but I’m pretty in tune with how my illness (at least the Alpha pathology, depression) functions and I feel fairly safe saying that tianeptine works for me. My biggest problem has not been that I don’t respond to medication but rather that I can’t get or afford the medication I need. Happy to answer any questions if I can. Good luck everyone!
poster:Dragon Black
thread:779832
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070824/msgs/779832.html