Posted by sowhysosad on October 9, 2009, at 13:07:53
In reply to Re: Going back to old-school - lithium. » sowhysosad, posted by SLS on October 8, 2009, at 10:04:06
> How are things with you?
Not too bad, thanks for asking.
Had a heart-to-heart with my soon-to-be-ex wife a while back and smoothed things over. Contrary to her previous emotional coldness, it became clear she still loves me and doesn't want anyone else but I had to agree we just can't live together right now.
We may even continue our relationship on new terms. Being in that house is making me slump further into depression, so I'm looking forward to a fresh start in a new environment.
Meds-wise I really don't know what to do. Pdoc was supposed to be switching me from fluoxetine to another SSRI because of tachycardia, anxiety and dysphoria.
However, I'm now having a total rethink on SSRI's. They all seem to provoke the return of a movement disorder in my jaw, which in itself makes me miserable. And I suspect I may still be highly sensitive to serotonergics after rapidly discontinuing Lexapro a year ago.
I've pretty much just drifted off the fluoxetine but have had no withdrawal effects thanks to the long half-life of norfluoxetine.
The biggest improvement in mood I've had of late was by adding 1-1.5g of L-Tyrosine. I also hoped it might help the movement disorder by increasing dopamine levels in the substantia nigra and nigrostriatal pathway, but the improvement has been subtle at best.
If I can get to see the neuro again (no appointments available for months on end due to appalling NHS resources) I'd like to try an anticonvulsant, dopamine agonist or low-dose buspirone. That said, the movement disorder may spontaneously resolve as my brain returns to baseline after the fluoxetine. I had maybe an 80% improvement during a med-free period in the summer.
I might just add a tiny bit of 5-HTP or tryptophan at night to balance out the tyrosine in case the dopamine inhibits serotonin release.
Apologies for rambling! Any thoughts on what I should do, med-wise?
poster:sowhysosad
thread:904699
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20091001/msgs/920262.html