Dopaminergic drugs for social phobia?

[jstn789]

I am not an expert on anything, but I would tell you to run fast and far away from antipsychotics. I also have problems with avoidance, social phobias/anxiety,depression and functioning in good order, and I can tell you from experience that an antipsychotic will in no way help you with any of these things. I would even say taking them will multiply your already difficult situation by 10...and the withdrawal will send you straight to hell.

Psychiatrists have their heads in the fucking clouds when it comes to the drugs they hand out like candy. Maybe she's different from other ones, but I'd be leary of any doctor prescribing an antipsych for the disorders you've mentioned.

I wish you good luck though, and I hope you get some good help...I sure didn't.

 

[ebola?]

Exposure therapy for me has always led to addiction to this or that drug (usually cocaine or heroin). This is especially prominent in group therapy. The problem lies in the fact that for addicts with social phobia, the original addiction often came about by desensitization and subsequent involvement (read mentoring) with/by other addicts.

er...an interesting wrinkle. . .I was thinking primarily of social anxiety well rooted enough to predate subsequent intertwining with substance abuse. I was also drawing my advice from what worked for me first, and what appears to work for most people second. I'm not quite sure what adjustments need be added for addicts.

No matter: exposure therapy works fine without pharmaceutical techniques, and thus should be suitable for recovering addicts.

ebola

 

[emjay]

I was thinking primarily of social anxiety well rooted enough to predate subsequent intertwining with substance abuse.

Funny you mention that...

I've been honest with both my psychiatrist and psychologist about my past drug use and they've both been kind of confused at how I've even been able to acquire them. I don't feel comfortable telling them, but my sources have always been familial or ordered online. Except for the one time I got some great E through a ridiculously outgoing dude sitting beside me on a 2 hour bus ride Point is though, even the worst social phobics can have access to drugs under certain circumstances.

I'm certainly what I would call "desensitized" to drugs. Enough to have been comfortable doing H, anyways. But I've never even come close to having an addiction. I'm having a really hard time seeing how this makes addiction more probable than being involved in any other social group... but it's not really an issue for me right now anyways, as both my psychiatrist and therapist agree that I'm not even close to being able to deal with group therapy.

 

[seep]

er...an interesting wrinkle. . .I was thinking primarily of social anxiety well rooted enough to predate subsequent intertwining with substance abuse. I was also drawing my advice from what worked for me first, and what appears to work for most people second. I'm not quite sure what adjustments need be added for addicts.

No matter: exposure therapy works fine without pharmaceutical techniques, and thus should be suitable for recovering addicts.

ebola

Never mind. I guess not everyone has to do lines just to get through an NA meeting (those resonant little bathrooms make me sound like a fucking hoover). And like MJ said, it's all about your circle. Junkie girls are easy.

 

[emjay]

geez... now I'm really not sure. Just did a check and Nardil doesn't seem generic here either. I thought it was supposed to be old... anybody know if this is true?

In Canada we have "universal healthcare" but drugs aren't covered outside of a hospital. Crossing my fingers hoping it's just so cheap that generics have no reason to be in the market

I guess I'll ask my pharmacist about the prices next time I see him, because my psychiatrist really doesn't pay any heed to the costs of what she prescribes me

Well apparently even though those MAOIs are only available as name brand, they're still cheaper than any other antidepressant I've taken. The pharmacist on duty, before checking the prices for me, told me she didn't even think they were available anymore... so I guess they're extremely rarely prescribed nowadays.

 

[seep]

Well apparently even though those MAOIs are only available as name brand, they're still cheaper than any other antidepressant I've taken. The pharmacist on duty, before checking the prices for me, told me she didn't even think they were available anymore... so I guess they're extremely rarely prescribed nowadays.

One of the docs I work for refuses to prescribe them because she's afraid of being sued.

 

[Shattered Mind]

I came here to ask the same questions as the OP...


I to think I might have "ADHD-PI", looking back at my childhood at school they thought I was Stupid and tried to put me in a Special Class...

Anxiety/Depression for me are related to having (Might)ADHD-PI...


ect...brb

 

[otto]

I'm reading a lot of anecdotal reports, and a very small bit of clinical evidence to support the use of selectively dopaminergic drugs to treat social phobia, avoidant behavior, and concomitant depression.

Looking through the list of meds I've been through, there's only 1 drug that had a considerable amount of action on the dopamine transporters and this was wellbutrin, which my psychiatrist took me off of immediately because she felt it could only worsen anxiety. The reason that's a concern for her is that I get panic attacks that can't really be called panic disorder because it's directly caused by my social phobic response to social situations.

For a few reasons I definitely feel that if anything, it's my dopamine system that is less active than it should be, and looking into all of the drugs she's given me so far, I've noticed they really only target the serotonin and noradrenaline transporters, with even the TCA I'm on (Nortriptyline) seemingly selected for its low dopamine activity.

What's worse is... she keeps trying to push me onto anti-psychotics, which, if I indeed do have a somewhat lethargic dopamine system, is clearly only going to make things worse.

I should also mention that I'm pretty certain I have inattentive-type ADHD. Problem is, since I was maybe 9 years old I was placed in a "gifted" program and that's not exactly where they look for kids with learning disabilities, even despite the fact that, although intellectually on par with my peers, my schoolwork lagged far behind.

It didn't go totally unrecognized though. For instance in my final year of high school, I had the highest calculus grade in the class, and this was only possible because the teacher was giving me extra time - sometimes up to double the time allotted - to finish tests, as even though I understood the material very well, I'd be nowhere near finished when everybody else was.

So I'd like to see what the brains have to say regarding this. Recently my psychiatrist has also put me on klonopin, and I'm thinking that the clonazepam plus modafinil might be a good place to start that shouldn't catapult my anxiety.

I'd like to know what some of you knowledgeable biochem guys think of this whole situation, and hopefully give me a bit fodder to use next time I meet with my psychiatrist. Of course, if I'm way off base here, I'd welcome some insight into that as well

sulpiride

 

[nuke]

There is an interesting way to induce anxiety in mice, which is by isolating them from other mice until adulthood and then putting them in with other mice to be social. One study looked at the effect of methylphenidate upon the mice and found that while the drug made the rats pro-social, it did not reduce anxiety.