Posted by bulldog2 on June 27, 2009, at 18:07:27
In reply to Re: Cabergoline and sex - anyone actually tried?, posted by atmlady on June 26, 2009, at 20:43:52
> Yes, I was taking Ixel this time last year, and it was good for a while. No large increase in appetite and could still orgasm, though it did take about double the time it would usually take. I slept well and the cold, achyness in my joints (no arthritis, just an old runner) disappeared - I can see why it would be good for fibro.
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> As it got closer to August I became quite anxious about starting law school. I was afraid the Ixel wasn't working well enough. I wanted to get away from serotonin re-uptake. I thought it would be better to approach from an ADD standpoint. I decided to switch to strattera and provigil. I had heard strattera could cause depression but ignored it. I found a doctor who would prescribe me what I wanted.
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> After a couple months in law school I became VERY depressed. Crying every day. It was hard to tell, though. All of the students were stressed out and depressed. I put it all off on school, instead of the med change. I had so much invested in "my" diagnosis, I wasn't about to say I was wrong. Heck no. I must say, the strattera really helped with attention, though it did make me quite sleepy. Oh yeah, and freaking depressed as hell.
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> So after exams in December, I said screw this, I'm not taking meds anymore at all. Everything was fine, sort of, I wasn't crying every day, but I was very fidgety in class. Then moot court began. You have to make an argument in front of the "supreme court" (really just upper classmen). The argument they want you to make is riddled with holes on purpose, so they can interrupt you and ask you a bunch of questions you can't possibly answer intelligently. I was SO nervous, but so was everyone else. You could hear a little tremor in every student's voice, not just mine. But that sick nervous feeling never went away. Weeks after the competition I was still a wreck, became so nervous and paranoid I couldn't talk in class anymore, was terrified of being called on. This was not a problem first semester.
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> It was then I knew I really NEEDED the serotonin re-uptake, not just to feel good, but to live my life as a normal person. I started back up with the Ixel on the last day of classes, and by exam time felt so much better. Just not good enough.
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> The lexapro that has been sitting in my cabinet for three years was singing a siren's song to me. Lexapro rings my bell, makes everything better. I wouldn't take it because of the weight gain and the anorgasmia. Spent 3 years of my life trying to find a way around it, find some magic combo that would make me feel like lexapro does, but without the side effects. So far, no luck.
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> So after exams, first part of June, went back to the pdoc and got the lexapro, and wellbutrin in the hopes it would help with the anorgasmia. It hasn't, but the pdoc says give it time. OK, so I'm giving it time, this time. I have not been happy in SO LONG. Just faking it and feeling like everyone else in the world was happy and I'm just pretending.
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> Just as I thought, the lexapro has helped tremendously already. I'm starting to feel like a normal human being again. I wish it didn't have these side effects, then again, I suppose I'm lucky to have found something that works so well, that doesn't cause me to bleed from my eyeballs or worse.
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> Still, I know me. I'll be feeling better and I'll think Oh, I don't need this anymore, I want to have orgasms again. I'll switch to back to Ixel, maybe. It really is a good med, it just doesn't get me to where I want to be mood-wise. It lifts, just not high enough for me. Though here's something interesting: Ixel and Lexapro are made by the same people so I read.
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> So there's my long boring story, why I haven't posted in so long. Busy with school, but more just too depressed and overwhelmed to write.
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> HeatherCan't find the archive discussion right now but I remember a few possible solutions for ssri sexual issues.
1. ginkgo biloba certified extract sometimes works. Possibly has some dopamine activity.
2. supplement with ritalin
3. wellbutrin usually doesn't work.
4. Buspar. I read about this in another book. A p-doc has a very high rate of nullifying ssri sex problems with buspar. It may block some serotonin receptors that ssri stimulate and cause sexual issues.
poster:bulldog2
thread:902998
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090620/msgs/903504.html