Posted by Tomatheus on March 14, 2013, at 20:56:00
In reply to New to Posting: Meds Social Anxiety / Atypical Dep, posted by aster on March 14, 2013, at 18:00:28
aster,
Hello, and welcome to Psycho-Babble. Unfortunately, I can identify with a lot of the symptoms that you've been experiencing, and even though my medication responses haven't been the same as yours have been, I can identify with having difficulty finding a treatment or combination of treatments that successfully relieves my symptoms -- especially the symptoms associated with my chronic fatigue or vegetative depression. It might not be a bad idea to try an SSRI again, perhaps with a beta blocker, although considering the fact that you haven't been responsive to that type of antidepressant in the past, I don't know how optimistic I'd be about being treated with yet another SSRI. It sounds from your symptoms like you could be a potential MAOI responder, but I can understand wanting to wait until you've tried some more non-MAOI antidepressants before "giving in" to Nardil, Parnate, Marplan, or EMSAM. Other options that you might want to consider would be Remeron and the tricyclic antidepressants, although these antidepressants (from what I understand) tend to promote somnolence and as a result may not be the best choices for someone like you (or me) who suffers from hypersomnia.
I don't have much else to say right now other than to recommend hanging in there and doing everything else that you can to keep your symptoms at bay. Talk therapies, while they may not give you the boost in energy that you need, are oftentimes more helpful in combination with medications for depressive disorders than they are alone. As you probably know, therapy can at least give you the tools to help you cope with your illness and can also help you take the steps that you'll need to take to overcome any functional impairment that you're experiencing once you find a medication that helps you. There are also other strategies that tend to be recommended for people with depressive disorders, such as exercise and meditation. Not everyone necessarily finds such strategies to be effective, but some do, and I think that they're at least worth pursing along with medications.
Well, that sums up everything I have to say now. I wish you luck with your treatment and hope that you get some good suggestions from other members here regarding medications to try.
Tomatheus
Dx: schizoaffective disorder
Treatments: Abilify & vitamin D3
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