How's everyone been?

I fear that this place is still in the state of degeneration I knew last I was here, so this question might be a waste of my time.

Has anyone ever been on more than one type of antidepressant at any given time?

I've been considering a Remeron - Bupropion mix, to attack seratonin, dopamine, and noradrenaline (i think) simultaneously.

I'm not really depressed, but I'm looking for a sleep/anxiety solution that doesnt involve benzos.

Your thoughts?

mike

You are going to end up being one of them old crazy people that take like 50 different pills a day.

celexa helped me sleep but didn't seem to help much with the anxiety.
thats all i got.

Have you talked to your doctor?

Bupropion is metabolized to hydroxybupropion, which is a CYP2D6 inhibitor. CYP2D6 breaks down mirtazapine (remeron), so you maybe want to start with a very low dose of mirtazapine.

I'd say, if you're going to take it, and I don't recommend it without a psychiatrist's (or at least a gp's) approval, you should take the bupropion early morning-midday and the mirtazapine right before bed. And start with a low dose of each, particularly the remeron.

Just my 2 cents

I mix Sertraline, Effexor and Prozac all the time without any bad effects. Sounds like your approach is worth a shot.

An all round sleep/anxiety solution - have you tried alcohol?

Hey man,

I know how you feel.

My anxiety has been acting up A LOT lately and I'm not one of those that are deeply depressed constantly, it comes every now and then, and when it comes, it really sucks laying around the house, being bored and depressed about everything...

I have been reading about an older tricyclic antidepressant that I've become very interested in and perhaps trying it/discussing it with my doctor in a few weeks here.

One of the reasons I became more interested in this drug is because not only did it contain tricyclic antidepressant properites by inhibiting the re-uptake of serotonin and noradrenaline, but also has anxiolytic effects, falling in the same category as say Clonazepam and Diazepam, etc., but obviously, I wouldn't think as strong. I have heard most people take it at night because it can be quite sedating; but hey, if I can kill two birds (Anxiety and occasional depression) with one stone, why the hell not?

The drug is called Doxepin, and to get a little more info, read the Wiki page on it [at least] at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doxepin

From the article:

"Doxepin is a psychotropic agent with tricyclic antidepressant and anxiolytic properties, known under many brand-names such as Aponal, the original preparation by Boehringer-Mannheim, now part of the Roche group; Adapine, Sinquan and Sinequan (Pfizer). As doxepin hydrochloride it is the active ingredient in cream based preparations (Zonalon and Xepin) for the treatment of dermatological itch. Doxepin is currently investigated for the treatment of insomnia, and the proposed tradename of doxepin for this indication is Silenor."

"Doxepin inhibits the reuptake of serotonin and noradrenaline from the synaptic cleft (dual action). The reuptake-inhibition of dopamine is very weak."

I have been on A LOT of anti-d's for both depression and anxiety from just about every family of meds including tricyclics, but this one I have not heard of/tried and am possibly interested in doing so. Figured I would share and hope to help one other than myself.

Take care and be safe!

djONE.

I take Wellbutrin and Remeron together currently. Well I don't take the Remeron every night, but I do more nights than not. I'm prescribed 30 mg of the Remeron but usually take 15 mg, and I take 150 mg of Wellbutrin SR, twice a day.

Don't take the Wellbutrin too late in the day as it actually has slight stimulant properties and may cause more difficulty getting to sleep. But you're right, it works on noraephedrine, and to me it's an awesome antidepressant. If you really aren't depressed though, then you probably don't need the Wellbutrin.

Remeron is indeed an antidepressant, but 9/10 times it's used primarily as a sleep aid because of it's sedative effects, which are more pronounced than its effect on depressive symptoms. It always helps me get to sleep, even after a long day of coffee or a couple of late-afternoon Adderalls.

Be warned though, it ain't really cheap. There are generics, though.

You ever tried Vistaril, or Atarax? I use Vistaril nowadays for anxiety/sleep etc. (kicked the benzos) and it works a lot better than I used to give it credit for. Yeah, I gotta take 3-4 of the 25 mg caps to get any real sedation out of it, but it works nonetheless. Cheap as dirt, too, and docs tend to think highly of it.

Hope this helped.

The sedating properties of Remeron are the largest reason I wanted to use it. But, I figured that since Celexa didn't touch the anxiety on its own, maybe attacking three neurotransmitters would have a more pronounced effect.

There's two issues with this that I've encountered. To those of you who have taken bupropion, do you think that the stimulant properties could cause an increase in anxiety?

Second, and more severly an issue, the fucking Remeron seems to be giving me RLS. Will this go away during the course of treatment, or do I need to try for something to treat the RLS if I want to keep using remeron?

Also, PoC, did you smoke cigarettes? I heard bupropion might help you quit, and since Chantix makes me so fucking sick, this might be an alternative for me.

Also, I was on the hydroxizine whilst in a psych ward a few months back for my benzo overdose (oh, I've forgotten to mention that to totse, but thats a story for another time, or never, if no one's interested). Anyways, I might consider getting an Atarex prescription. I'd have to find time to get to the fucking free clinic. We'll see though.

mike

I smoked, and still smoke, albeit not much; the most I averaged was maybe half a pack a day. I smoke rarely now, because I'm engaged in a good amount of physical training, but I use dip, so there's still nicotine in my system. In my opinion, I do think the bupropion helped to curb the psychological cravings for the nicotine. Helps ease up the tight-chest-nervous feeling I'd get when I hadn't had a smoke for a while.

I've had anxiety for quite some time, as you likely know, and the bupropion never made it worse. Then again, I might've been misdiagnosed with the anxiety disorder, because now I'm being treated for Inattentive ADD with Adderall, and that doesn't make me anxious, either; it makes me calm. I don't use any benzos anymore, either, but if your anxiety is really bad and you know for sure that it IS anxiety, then bupropion might make it worse. What kind of effect does caffeine and such have on you?

Remeron has never given me RLS-like symptoms. The biggest drawback I find with it is that if I stay up a few hours extra after taking it, I get artificial "sleeping pill hunger" and wind up snacking on junk stuff in my kitchen at like 1-2 am. Other than that, no side effects for me.

How much Remeron are you taking, anyways?

Also, attacking more neurotransmitters isn't always a good thing; if the problem is arising from one of them specifically, targeting the others as a means to ensure that you get the troublesome one can actually agitate the entire anxiety aspect. No reason to mess with your natural dopamine/serotonin/noraephedrine all at once if only one is broken.

Chantix is supposed to make you sick, by the way...at least I think it is. That's the whole method in which it makes you stop smoking: it makes you feel like shit if you do. Kinda like Anatabuse does for alcoholics.

Well hope some of this helped, if you want to know/ask anything else feel free to hit me up on AIM sometime.

I thought Chantix was more similar to methadone, blocking the nicotine and such. Someone else told me the mechanism was to make you sick, though, so I'm not sure.

I take 30mg a day. I've started splitting it into two doses because it doesnt give me such severe RLS.

I honestly believe I might have the ADD too, adderall just makes me feel normal. How did you bring this up without sounding like you were trying to cop pills.

mike



mike

I didn't, really, my old doctor did. He was basically a quack, kinda crooked, but it wound up working out for me, I guess.

He asked me randomly one day why I wasn't going to college yet, and I answered him honestly: "I just don't feel up to it. I already dropped out of high school; I'm lucky I got my GED. I don't think I could handle all the stress college would involve, between having papers ready, being on time to lectures, organizing my schedule...I'd probably just be overwhelmed and say screw it and waste a lot of time and money."

Then he said how he noticed that my eyes moved around his office a lot when I was there, which is 100% true. People have always noticed that about me; I've been told a lot I "have very active eyes".

So he asked if I was ever treated for ADD; I said no. He asked me to try Modafinil, and I did, and it was horribly expensive (after the samples he gave me ran out) and didn't seem to do anything but slightly reduce physical fatigue. I reported this to him, and then he tried Adderall XR, 10 mg a day. Had a 1 month free trial, then after that my insurance wouldn't help much with XR, so I complained of price and he switched it to 10 mg IR twice daily. This went to 15 mg twice daily after I tolerated it, but shortly after that I wasn't able to see him anymore because I went to jail and when I came back he wasn't accepting anymore patients, even though I was one in the past.

Went to a new GP now and told him the situation, my past dose of the Adderall (15 mg IR x2) and he started me now at 10 mg IR x2, just because it's been a while and "to see if I tolerate it."

See, I've always had awful racing thoughts and just been kinda scatterbrained. I can be watching a TV show, a character might say something, anything, that will make me think of something/someone else for whatever reason, and then I start thinking about that person/thing, and before long I've run a total loop in my thought process in the course of 15 seconds and have no idea what was just going on in the show.

A lot of my social anxiety also stemmed from feelings of inadequacy and that I wasn't good enough, wasn't smart enough, would say something stupid, make an ass of myself, and so on. When I started taking Adderall, these feelings went away: I started feeling normal, on par with everyone else, and far less inhibited to share my thoughts or feelings on something because I wasn't worried that it would sound dumb. Words seemed to come to me more easily, my thought pattern stayed on one course long enough for me to focus on what it was I was thinking of/saying, and my anxiety was greatly reduced because my mind didn't play a scenario of something as simple as buying a cup of coffee at Starbucks into 500 different scenarios of how it was going to happen. I became a lot more in tune with "the moment", and less so with "what if, what if, what if..."

I've been on Xanax XR, Xanax, Ativan, Klonopin, and Valium, all at different times, sometimes together, and often illicitly and in high daily doses. Matter of fact, when that doc put me on the 10 mg Adderall twice daily, he was also writing me scripts for 100 counts of 2 mg Klonopins with a refill at every visit.

I don't take any benzos now, I have very low anxiety, my social phobia has receeded, and my work and relationships and outlook have all improved drastically. And I don't even take the 15 mg x 2 again yet.

But anyways....you take two doses of Remeron? That's somewhat unusual, most people take just one dose at bedtime because of the sedative properties. Does the RLS type side-effects occur with both doses or just the earlier one?

Hey Piles Of Crack. In a lot of your message I saw that you had similar thought patterns to mine. Such as the racing thoughts or just zoning out and thinking about something completely random. What kind of signs could I look for to tell whether I may potentially have ADD or something like that? I've always thought that I might have it but when I was fucking around with methylphenidate I got really speedy. But thats if I snorted a lot.

you mean if you dont want flames and dipshits all you have to do is request they dont post?

so much time wasted...

How the fuck has no one suggested simple melatonin pills?
Easy way to fall asleep at night. Also turn off all the lights.

You may want to try out 5-htp, I know it's credited to not do much but I've literally taken dozens of anti-depressants and I haven't found anything with so little side-effects for so much positive effect.
Cut my depression back by a large amount and cut my anxiety back too. Fucking love it.

EDIT: Also Adderall also made me really chill, I could take a nap even and I hate naps cause I never could take them. I also was way less anxious because of the reason PoC stated and I found myself in a much better situation. Though before 30mgXR Adderall I was on Concerta 54 and it worked better for me, it just took like 4 hours before it started to work, I was also less aggressive and irritable on it, so the day before yesterday I went and got switched to 72mg Concerta and I'm enjoying the aid it gives me sooo much more then Adderall.
For some reason the extra dosage level made it kick in faster and work so much better then at 54mg. I feel much better socially on Concerta and less anxious too. Lot's of people I've spoken too say I'm insane for switching because "adderall is better" but I know what I feel, don't really care if it's unusual. Anyone else found this? Or the opposite?

lol antidepressnts that shit is for stupid fags who cant get heroin lol speaking of which im gonna go shoot sum rite now lol you all suck

What kind of signs could I look for to tell whether I may potentially have ADD or something like that? I've always thought that I might have it but when I was fucking around with methylphenidate I got really speedy. But thats if I snorted a lot.

Any of these, really.

-Procrastination
-Racing thoughts
-Chronically late (meetings, work, etc.)
-Disorganized; "pack rat" syndrome; disorderly room, house, etc.
-Low attention span
-Irritability
-"Wandering eyes"
-Easily distracted (sounds, colors, etc.)

And so on and so forth. You get the drift...

Also, I've heard from a good amount of people with true ADD/ADHD that used methylphenidate that it actually made them more sped-up and jittery while things like Adderall and Dexedrine calmed them down. Have you ever tried an actual amphetamine before? Ritalin has similar properties, but it's certainly not the same thing as true d-amp/l-amp/m-amp.

And if you're using a lot of any stimulant, even with legitimate ADD, it's going to speed you up regardless, especially if administered intranasally. I don't know about Ritalin, but amphetamines like Adderall have a fairly low bioavailability orally due to having to pass through the liver and insufflation actually increases the amount of the drug that you get therapeutic (or recreational) benefit from. A lot of people rag on recreational users who snort their Adderall, especially IR, because they figure "Well damn it's already IR I can wait a little while for it to digest" when really there's actually a noticeable difference between popping 30 mg and railing it.