-
The Dark Side 💕 Welcome Guest 💕
Posting Rules Bluelight Rules Notable Threads Urgent Hotlines Bereavement Mindfulness Suicide Support Anger Management -
TDS Moderators: AlphaMethylPhenyl | Eligiu | deficiT | paranoid android
Mental Health Which SSRI/SNRI do you take? or used to take?
- Thread starter strity1994
- Start date
Well, I take a wide variety of psych meds, all in a careful cocktail that has taken years to develop. i am bipolar type I major rapid cycling manic with full featured auditory, visual, tactile and olfactory hallucinations. as part of my bipolar, i do get depressed, though it is more of a baseline mood of non-engagement, rather than something sad or whatever.
you may find that some of the medications i take may be appropriate options to discuss with your doctor. with these medications it is important to always remember that you are not an MD, and aside from the few side effects you see in a Cymbalta or Lexapro TV commercial, etc, there are thousands of reactions which could occur. All these drugs carry a strong risk of tardive diskinesia and death. Never, never, never think you know more than your doctor.
daily medications
------------------
Geodon 80mg / BID (highly recommend geodon, best med i have ever taken, not widely prescribed, few side effects, marketing war result)
Trileptol 600mg / BID (oxcarbazampine, a great mood stablizer, and a very sedative effect, also like the geodon, though can cause low sodium levels, an issue i'm dealing with right now, not widely prescribed AT ALL, great med! victim of pharmaceutical marketing war, but on the market and great to treat a variety of on and off label conditions)
Klonipin 2mg / QID used for impulse control and mood stability, very effective
Seroquel 300mg once at night for sleep and psychosis control, works wonders
Xanax 2mg, once at night for sleep, works great
Benadryl 50mg capsules, 2 capsules at night for insomnia, works great
Geodon 40mg 1 capsule in the afternoon with a klonipin to maintain calm and prevent or deal with adverse panaic attacks or anxiety attacks, works great
these medications caused me no weight gain side effects, as this is a specific condition i will not tolerate, hence the combination of Trileptol as my primary mood stablizer,, though it has lowered my sodium levels significantly, and may need to be replaced.
Replacement options on the table with my doctor:
Topamax, taken it before great medication, most common side effect, weight loss
Lamictial, an option if i can taper on to it without side effect, low to no incident of weight gain as side effect
and one other that i can't remember but are in his notes.
as for SSRI / SSNI medications, i have always found that when i need to add one, i prefer Wellbutrin XR 300 mg tablets, this works great as an SSNI, and Paxil has always worked wonderful for me as well as an SSRI. i tend to stay away from the others as i think you may as well if you ever took the time to read the full prescribing information fact sheet that comes from the pharmaceutical firm, they are barbaric, even more so that the two i listed above, and are worse than taking a shotgun to the head.
i have never had any sexual dysfunction issues while on any combination of these medications, though i am an atypical personality type these days. i currently do not have a partner, but regularly masturbate on a normal level for a person my age, and my sexual desire or function is fine.
the drugs that have given me sexual dysfunction are the medications i take for pain management of systemic, chronic and debilitating pain diseases (which i really do not want to discuss):
fentanyal 75mcg mylan transdermal 72hr patches
roxycontin 10mg tablets, 40 mg/ day
and of course tylenol
occasionally i need an emergency injection of 3ml of Toradol, which is an NSAID (though it does come in a pill form), which my stomach can not tolerate, but that is on an ER basis IM, or a self administered IM injection using the proper equipment and preparation as taught by an MD to me, so as to bypass the digestive system. Another excellent NSAID IM choice for those of you experiences extreme pain, especially if you do not or can not take narcotics (which I'm sure is quite a few) are IM injections of Volteran, another quite powerful NSAID used primarily by orthopedic surgeons, both courses followed up with the NSAID in a course of pills.
Best of luck, i would go with the Wellbutrin 300mg XR tablets for 24 hour relief, then see how you feel after about a month, perhaps after stepping up from the 150's for 2-4 weeks, then perhaps add an anti-psychotic, they really help with calming you down, and helping with insomnia. just remember, we all want to feel better as quickly as possible. with these medications, you truly do have to wait 4-6 weeks to see if they are having the desired effect, so the best approach is to keep a date/medication/dosage/effect journal over the course of each appliction, so you can truly see how you are feeling with your doctor at the next check up, not just saying how your feeling that day, or whatever, but look at the progress over the month. this is critical in psychiatric care, and a technique they teach at harvard med.
FYI, you don't have to be a schizophrenic or whatever to need an anti-psychotic, some people take them just to help them sleep. that seroquel works wonders for me with the Xanax and benadryl. it took 3 and half years to come up with that combination, where for years i was among the walking dead of complete insomniacs. i am forever thankful to my psychiatrist in NYC and my inpatient doctors in Westchester, NY.
Best of luck.
you may find that some of the medications i take may be appropriate options to discuss with your doctor. with these medications it is important to always remember that you are not an MD, and aside from the few side effects you see in a Cymbalta or Lexapro TV commercial, etc, there are thousands of reactions which could occur. All these drugs carry a strong risk of tardive diskinesia and death. Never, never, never think you know more than your doctor.
daily medications
------------------
Geodon 80mg / BID (highly recommend geodon, best med i have ever taken, not widely prescribed, few side effects, marketing war result)
Trileptol 600mg / BID (oxcarbazampine, a great mood stablizer, and a very sedative effect, also like the geodon, though can cause low sodium levels, an issue i'm dealing with right now, not widely prescribed AT ALL, great med! victim of pharmaceutical marketing war, but on the market and great to treat a variety of on and off label conditions)
Klonipin 2mg / QID used for impulse control and mood stability, very effective
Seroquel 300mg once at night for sleep and psychosis control, works wonders
Xanax 2mg, once at night for sleep, works great
Benadryl 50mg capsules, 2 capsules at night for insomnia, works great
Geodon 40mg 1 capsule in the afternoon with a klonipin to maintain calm and prevent or deal with adverse panaic attacks or anxiety attacks, works great
these medications caused me no weight gain side effects, as this is a specific condition i will not tolerate, hence the combination of Trileptol as my primary mood stablizer,, though it has lowered my sodium levels significantly, and may need to be replaced.
Replacement options on the table with my doctor:
Topamax, taken it before great medication, most common side effect, weight loss
Lamictial, an option if i can taper on to it without side effect, low to no incident of weight gain as side effect
and one other that i can't remember but are in his notes.
as for SSRI / SSNI medications, i have always found that when i need to add one, i prefer Wellbutrin XR 300 mg tablets, this works great as an SSNI, and Paxil has always worked wonderful for me as well as an SSRI. i tend to stay away from the others as i think you may as well if you ever took the time to read the full prescribing information fact sheet that comes from the pharmaceutical firm, they are barbaric, even more so that the two i listed above, and are worse than taking a shotgun to the head.
i have never had any sexual dysfunction issues while on any combination of these medications, though i am an atypical personality type these days. i currently do not have a partner, but regularly masturbate on a normal level for a person my age, and my sexual desire or function is fine.
the drugs that have given me sexual dysfunction are the medications i take for pain management of systemic, chronic and debilitating pain diseases (which i really do not want to discuss):
fentanyal 75mcg mylan transdermal 72hr patches
roxycontin 10mg tablets, 40 mg/ day
and of course tylenol
occasionally i need an emergency injection of 3ml of Toradol, which is an NSAID (though it does come in a pill form), which my stomach can not tolerate, but that is on an ER basis IM, or a self administered IM injection using the proper equipment and preparation as taught by an MD to me, so as to bypass the digestive system. Another excellent NSAID IM choice for those of you experiences extreme pain, especially if you do not or can not take narcotics (which I'm sure is quite a few) are IM injections of Volteran, another quite powerful NSAID used primarily by orthopedic surgeons, both courses followed up with the NSAID in a course of pills.
Best of luck, i would go with the Wellbutrin 300mg XR tablets for 24 hour relief, then see how you feel after about a month, perhaps after stepping up from the 150's for 2-4 weeks, then perhaps add an anti-psychotic, they really help with calming you down, and helping with insomnia. just remember, we all want to feel better as quickly as possible. with these medications, you truly do have to wait 4-6 weeks to see if they are having the desired effect, so the best approach is to keep a date/medication/dosage/effect journal over the course of each appliction, so you can truly see how you are feeling with your doctor at the next check up, not just saying how your feeling that day, or whatever, but look at the progress over the month. this is critical in psychiatric care, and a technique they teach at harvard med.
FYI, you don't have to be a schizophrenic or whatever to need an anti-psychotic, some people take them just to help them sleep. that seroquel works wonders for me with the Xanax and benadryl. it took 3 and half years to come up with that combination, where for years i was among the walking dead of complete insomniacs. i am forever thankful to my psychiatrist in NYC and my inpatient doctors in Westchester, NY.
Best of luck.
bipolar-sunshine
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2016
- Messages
- 129
I take Cymbalta 12mg for my anti depressant. I also take 300mg Seroquel, 15 mg Abilify, 60 mg Vyvanse and 20mg Adderall.
This is my current cocktail. I used to be switched on a lot of different psychotropic drugs as a child.
This is my current cocktail. I used to be switched on a lot of different psychotropic drugs as a child.
Last edited: