Topic: I need meds for depression/anxiety/pain, but don't tolerate them well! Suggestions?
Rumigirl
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 15091
posted
Any suggestions??
This year I have had way more severely difficult things to deal with than I can really absorb---unending treatment problems, horrible insurance denials, illness and death of my mother, and way too many other difficult life issues.
I have been unable to do psychotherapy, because all my money and then some is going towards paying out-of-pocket for IV treatment, LLMD, other meds and supplements, etc. I may have to dig deeper, so I can get some therapy.
The problem is, I seem to be so intolerant of antidepressants and other meds: 80% of the many ones I've tried, even at teensy doses, give me head-banging daily migraines. The rest make me horribly out of it, or make my unquenchable thirst worse.
I already take Sam-e, 5 HTP, and sometimes L-Theanine, which help quite a bit, but they aren't nearly enough. I want to keep taking them, but if I try to add meds to these, then I get too much serotonin, which causes migiraines, non-stop sweating, and other side-effects. It's hard to find a psychiatrist who knows how to blend the two (and, ideally, has some understanding of Lyme).
I'm a health care practitioner, and am already doing lots of supplements, cleansing, etc. Now what?
[ 11-15-2009, 11:11 PM: Message edited by: Rumigirl ]
Posts: 3771 | From around | Registered: Mar 2008
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posted
Sorry you are having such a tough time right now; if I DIDN'T have psychiatric symptoms, I would be so much better off, so I feel your pain and misery with regards to those issues.
I am SUPER sensitive to things now also, and I can only assume it is related to the progression of my illness.
Have you tried SSRI's and SNRI's? What about strictly dopamine receptors?
You mention that you get too much seratonin if you add to what you are taking; have you gone off the homeopathic completely and tried antidepressants? Personally, I cannot take any of the mentioned supplements you are taking with my antidepressants.........makes me feel like CRAP.
Hormone levels have a lot to do with this sometimes, and if something is off kilter there, IMO an antidepressant may not do what you are wanting it to do.
Also, you probably know this, but good fish oil and magnesium do help.........fortunately for me magnesium got me off narcotics......that isn't saying I don't hurt, but I can live without the pain meds........
I hope you are able to find something that will help you......
Take care,
-------------------- TL Posts: 365 | From OK | Registered: Jul 2007
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julielynne4
Unregistered
posted
I don't know where you are located (other than NY-I think that's what it said at the bottom of your post)...but I recently learned of a Lyme-Literate Pscychiatrist in NY - two offices in two different areas...maybe she would be someone you might want to try.
Obviously, this would only make sense if you are somewhere near her offices.
I have heard wonderful things about this doctor, and due to my neurological symptoms, am thinking myself about making an appt.
One of her offices is in or near NYC/the other, in Ulster County.
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Rumigirl
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 15091
posted
Yes, I've tried a number of SSRI's and SSNRI's---they're the ones that give me head-banging daily migraines. One SSRI, Celexa, I was able to take for a while, after I got over horrific initial side-effects. But it made me sweat horribly all the time, in addition to the usual sexual side-effects.
Which ones are strictly for dopamine? I hate to go off the Sam-e and 5 HTP, as they help without side-effects, esp the Sam-e. But anything that increases the serotonin additionally gets me in big trouble.
I already do the fish oil and magnesium, etc.
Posts: 3771 | From around | Registered: Mar 2008
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posted
I know we're all different, so who knows if this will help you - I took one tablet of a homeopathic remedy, pulsatilla 12x, sublingually one night and it caused me to go euphoric the next day, and I couldn't remember why! It beat anti-depressants.
Posts: 13116 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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posted
I'd highly recommend finding a good psychiatrist. My psych is Lyme-tolerant (not exactly friendly, but tolerant), and she *really* knows her neurochemistry.
She's managing my SSRI, anxiety/sleep meds, as well as one of my pain meds.
It was difficult to find the right combo of medications, but she was able to help me find it.
Emphasis on GOOD psych. Not someone who will see you for 10 minutes and then forget your name. Find someone who is really invested in their patients and knows their stuff.
-AnnaL
Posts: 398 | From By the Salish Sea | Registered: Dec 2008
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posted
During my first year of being ill, I was continually told "it's all in your head". I was handed out SSRI and SSNRIs like they were candy. I was even tried on beta blockers.
I had horrible side effects with each and every one. This culminated in an ER trip after my 2nd dose of Effexor XR.
My LLMD did also try a few drugs in a different class in the beginning of treatment. Same thing -horrible side effects that make me almost non-functioning.
It's as frustrating for him as it is for me. He feels that my central nervous system is ramped up on high alert but I can't take what he wants to calm it down.
I have only said no twice to medicines he wanted me to try. After the go around with the last one - Lamictal - I declined to try Sevilla (spelling?)- something they've used in Europe for awhile.
I simply couldn't face the set backs and the struggle to regain ground I have lost after every one I try.
The one and only thing I've been able to take is Klonopin. It is the one thing that I seem to be able to tolerate and still function.
I hope you are able to find something to help soon. I wish I had more to offer.
Posts: 237 | From WV | Registered: Mar 2007
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Rumigirl
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 15091
posted
Motown,
Thank you; just your corroborating having the same experience helps! The side-effects I get from the meds even at teeny pediatric doses, are worse than what I'm trying the meds for!
Thank you everyone else, too. I just got two referrals for psychiatrists that utilize natural remedies, along with meds. Hopefully, I will get some help there. Yes, my LLMD was exasperated, too, that I couldn't tolerate any of the meds he had me try---even at infinitesmal doses.
[ 11-17-2009, 01:55 PM: Message edited by: Rumigirl ]
Posts: 3771 | From around | Registered: Mar 2008
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