Posted by jaby on May 14, 2002, at 14:02:37
In reply to I do, for the moment, posted by katekite on May 14, 2002, at 13:43:15
Thanks for your message. My situation sounds somewhat similar to yours. Psych problems run in my family and I have suffered with GAD/depression for about 5 years now. I have done all the SSRI's (more than once), the other newer AD's, have done best on mood stabilzers, but nothing gets me back to normal. I now use valium and neurontin. I just started effexor again and have had some good things happen, but some unbearable side effects as well (mostly horrible headaches).
My dr. has me taking sudafed around the clock for a sinus problem. The stimulant effect of that has helped somewhat and that's why I inquire about the true stimulants. My last pdoc in S. CA felt they were some of the best antidepressants.
So what kinds of things got you the ADD dx? I question whether I might have some of the same characteristics and if maybe my depression is dopaminergic more than anything.
Also, why do you say that you are using the ritalin just for now? Are there things you don't like about it?
Thanks for taking the time.
> I guess I fall in that category. I'm taking ritalin. And gradually going off of klonopin, which for me does almost nothing.
>
> Technically I've been diagnosed as ADD, though I do not recall my organizational problems being as bad as a kid as they are now. That diagnosis was about 6 weeks ago and I completely agree that I fit the characteristics and have for a couple years at least. At this point I am happy to have a drug that helps and feel like it doesn't matter whether or not I was actually born this way.
>
> I started with zoloft back about 10 years ago after a genuine depression. Then since its been a see-saw of medicated and unmedicated times, tried probably 25 or 30 meds altogether. No one ever suggested ADD as a possibility, just different drugs. Nothing ever really helped to the point where I felt reasonably happy and good about life for more than a few weeks. Anxiety and moody not-really-that-depressed-just-occasionally-suicidal was sort of the theme.
>
> Basically how I got "here" (at ritalin only) is that I ran through all the serotonin active drugs -- and last fall started thinking along the lines that maybe they were all wrong about me.... started just randomly typing in descriptive words about myself into the yahoo search engine, things I didn't even think were actually bad, just my characteristics, things like "can't seem to hold a job" and "lazy" and LOL after a while I noticed ADD websites came up a lot. I didn't think it was possible since I did well in school but finally read one anyhow. It said I didn't have to have done poorly in school. And so I followed up on the idea.
>
> I also should say that while I'm pretty happy overall now on ritalin, I'm still in the midst of a medical evaluation since my pdoc keeps saying that no one but me has hypertension in response to 2.5 mg of ritalin (hypertension I'm living with instead of stopping it, since it helps so much).... ie I may have medical issues which were making me depressed/anxious as well. Not that I wasn't "appropriately" medically screened, I was checked about 10 times for thyroid problems.
>
> Don't know if that helps, but that's my story
>
> Kate
poster:jaby
thread:106237
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020510/msgs/106352.html