Posted by zeugma on December 26, 2003, at 14:40:27
In reply to Re: clonazepam concerns, posted by cybercafe on December 26, 2003, at 3:56:33
> > I'm concerned that although the low dose of clonazepam I'm taking (.25 mg/day) is helping my social anxiety, and general anxiety too, it is causing fatigue, need for excessive sleep, and weakening the effect of the other meds I take. I have been drinking tons of coffee to stay awake lately and I have not needed to do that in a long time. I feel that with my nervous system, a depressant is not going to help long term. I was pretty desperate when I started clonazepam, and it definitely has been working- maybe now I should reduce the dosage and see if that helps my energy and mood? I think tomorrow I will reduce it to .125 which seems like a ridiculously low doseage but obviously I am sensitive to these things.
> >
> > On a general note, I think my depression/ADD gas a lot to do with dysregulated arousal systems- i.e. when my depression is in in full force I can't get any restorative sleep because I constantly have hypnagogic halucinations and intrusions of waking consciousness into sleep, while conversely when awake I often feel like I'm dreaming, I find it impossible to properly guide my attention to the salient features of the environment (inattentive ADD). I feel like the clonazepam, unlike the other meds I'm taking, is pushing sleep and waking closer together which is the last thing I need.
> >
> > or maybe it's just the holidays that have me depressed?
> >
> > Or some combination of the two?
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> >
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> wow.. i'm taking 2 mg of clonazepam twice a day... fortunately parnate helps me get up on time... and ritalin also helps me stay awake... we'll see when i get a job (maybe i'll drop the morning dose) ...... to answer your question... no i'm not really sleepy on 2 mg of clonazepam, though i used to be sleepy on .5 mg a few years back ... maybe abilify is also helping? i chose only activating drugs for mood stability/ADD/depression so i could take benzos and still concentrate...
>How is Parnate for ADD? I'm very curious about this one but there is little data on MAOI's for ADD. Theoretically though the rise in NE and DA would be good for this disorder.
I consider Strattera, nortriptyline, and buspirone to be 'activating,' in the sense that i generally feel more awake when I take these meds. I am having a very hard time now with excessive sleep. (I didn't have this problem before the holidays, so I'm hoping this is only temporary and will abate when I go back to work.) How does Parnate compare to Ritalin in terms of 'activation'?
Abilify seems like the most interesting of the AP's. Isn't that one mostly a 5HT-1A agonist like buspirone? Does it also help with anxiety? It should have an AD effect too, right?
poster:zeugma
thread:293164
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031225/msgs/293543.html