Posted by Sparkboy on October 6, 2001, at 18:38:54
In reply to Re: A-Typical » Sparkboy, posted by Ant-Rock on October 4, 2001, at 21:14:07
> Hi Sparkboy,
> I was wondering if you found any solutions to your A-typical symptoms. Any info would be much appreciated.
> Hope all is well and thanks for your time.
>
> AnthonyHi Anthony
The only thing that ever really worked was Parnate, but I developed
tolerance after 3 months. That was a long time ago. For the last 5
years I've been taking a half tab (75 mg) a day of moclobemide from
Canada and 600 mg/day of Neurontin. Re-uptake inhibitors have been
worthless, though I used to take 50 mg/day Zoloft with this combo. I
get no true AD effect from moclo., but it stops the seasonal changes
and prevents the deep, oversleeping depression of winter and the mildly
hyper episodes of April and October. Seems to hold me in a summer phase,
like a low-grade depression. I think it does this by stabilizing
serotonin (lithium is useless). Neurontin helps a lot with anxiety.
It stops the sharp spike of anxiety I used to get on waking every day,
and controls the keep-your-distance feeling in stores.The doses of both these meds are low. I've found higher doses do no
better. What remains is low-grade depression and low-grade anxiety.
More distressing is the very poor modulation of warm emotions and isolation
from the social mainstream (the negative emotions are easy). Family
support is good. Cognitive therapy taught me how not to pile on to
an already difficult problem. Also helpful to me was recognizing the
negative inputs from society, particularly a mindset that revels in nihilism,
doom, and cowardice (probably not appropriate to discuss here ;-) ).Mine is a pretty textbook case of atypical depression. The best description
I ever got was a whole chapter in a book, Modern Perspectives in the
Psychiatry of the Affective Disorders (1989). I wonder if there's a
newer resource like that. The personality elements were always there, and
the nasty mood and physical stuff kicked in during teen years. I tried
to fake it for a long time. Fighting fear to make every move is not
conducive to coordination, so I never went through the sports-playing
buddy phase. LOL, I hate to think when I finally get this fixed, people
around me must put up with a nearly middle-aged adolescent. Those are
insufferable, but maybe my excuse is better than most.I've tried to figure out why Parnate is the only thing that worked
for me. It's a modified amphetamine molecule, yet I don't take well
to Dexedrine augmentation (no lift, just irritability). Other US MAOIs don't
work, though Marplan almost broke through. Parnate really boosts dopamine
and phenylethylamine (PEA), the so-called love chemical. A guy OD'd on
Parnate in 1985 (MEDLINE) and they found a lot of beta-PEA in his blood.
Presumably, this turns one into a love-puppy (?), but unconscious and
stretcher-bound is no good. An experimental protocol, patented by one
of the doctors, is to give 10 mg/day selegiline with up to 60 mg/day
encapsulated PEA (MEDLINE). Selegiline is easy, but getting PEA is not.
I like chocolate, but not *that* much.Yesterday, I started Provigil (only 50 mg). Maybe this will activate
some positive emotions, or at least deal with the 4-5 hour daily wake-up cycle
(though I don't oversleep). One of the unexpected joys of Parnate was to go
right to sleep at night and wake up calm and rested (and awake!) in the morning.If not unconscious or comatose at this point, lol, maybe you can tell me some of
your views and experience.--John
I expected it to kill me. But it looked into my eyes,
and I heard myself say, "can you help?" And it said,
"can I not?""The Bellero Shield"
The Outer Limits (1963)
poster:Sparkboy
thread:79741
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010927/msgs/80473.html