Posted by X_ander on November 16, 2008, at 22:44:12
Hey all..first time poster-longtime reader..
I've read a lot about anhedonia and along with some journal articles this site has enabled me to get a grasp of what's likely to work and what isn't...so cheers to all who have posted before on this topic.
Right, I'm in Australia, and as a result stimulant medications are out. Methylphenidate, d-amphetamine and the like are all out simply because psychiatrists and GPs alike are not legally allowed to prescribe them for any condition other than ADD/ADHD.
I suffer from severe anhedonia. I'm as certain as I can be that it's not the "conventional" form of depression (if there is one)that would respond to SSRIs (luvox, lexapro) and mirtazapine,cymbalta (haven't tried efexor cos I've read the horror stories...) simply because I've tried them before and they make the lack of drive/motivation/ the apathy/emotional numbness worse.
This is, I'm assuming from other posts I've read, very VERY familiar to you all...serotonin is great for anxiety relief and deep sadness, anger, crying spells, but in relieving those symptoms it tends to numb everything.
So I really want to get into the dopaminergic side of things... bupropion, selegiline, maybe low dose amisulpride or aripiprazole, and then some of the dopamine agonists...
BUT I'm having big insomnia issues as well. Which would seem contradictory to low dopamine levels/transmission.
The most recent AD I've tried was cymbalta 60mg...it really helped me sleep..but that is ALL I wanted to do. It made apathy/anhedonia even worse if that's possible.
SO so so sick of this...it's been going on for over a year and a half now...apathy towards everything, feeling nothing at all...it's like feeling dead but still breathing...it's worse than the more medically familiar sad, angry, negative affect (emotion) form of depresson which I have experienced 3-4 yrs ago.
So..I'm just wondering what your thoughts are??
It appears that serotonin acting meds help with sleep, but only the dopamine acting meds have any real shot at alleviating anhedonia/apathy. And more than this, dopamine acting meds are liable to induce insomnia...so like where do I go??Do I have to choose between sleep and feeling any kind of emotion??
If I took bupropion together with say sertraline (zoloft)...do you think they'd sort of cancel eachother out?? Or is that just way too simplistic??
Sorry the post is so long..I just wanted to give as much relevant info as possible...
Thanks again, X_ander.
poster:X_ander
thread:863507
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20081114/msgs/863507.html