OK, so it seems I have more motivation than I thought. Just to provide a little more backstory and explain what my situation is about. So, I've been on Zoloft for about the last four months (currently at 200mg). Suffice it to say it seemed very promising in the beginning, but it was very up-and-down, and there were a variety of issues that I think lead to impaired functionality (namely, it severely disrupted my sleep at points, and lead to over consumption of caffeine and Advil (which can apparently disrupt it's efficacy as well). I tried getting those factors under control, and eventually did. I continued to wait it out from there, but the situation had been dire for a long time, and after enough time of it still not working that well, I basically lost my shit.
I started drinking, about two months ago, only occasionally at first, but more recently it has become almost daily and sometimes quite heavily. I know that this is negatively impacting whatever chance the Zoloft might still have of working, (not to mention just negatively impacting me in general), but I've been pretty hopeless and lately have just kind of lost control. re the pharmacology question, I guess I'm just curious as to what the possible mechanism might be so I could better understand the extent to which this is affecting my medication. I'm also equally, or honestly moreso interested to hear anyone elses subjective experience with this as an issue. The more details the better. I know that the ideal route is to not drink at all. But I don't know if I can do that right now, and on some level I'd like some level of insight into precisely how destructive it is. I know that's kind of an impossible question. I don't expect a perfect answer. But namely, I don't know whether to caterigcally blame the medication's lack of efficacy on the drinking (because it had had points where it started to work, but for all I know these were just placebo, because they were weirdly few and far between) or whether I might just genuinely need to switch to another med and/or add an adjunct. I am extremely hesitant to switch, however, as the Zoloft has definitely had some positive effect, and other SSRIs I've tried in the past were sometimes quite negative, and given how unstable I am right now, I can't risk getting any worse.
The Adderall question is honestly more pressing to me, however. I've always had an extremely positive relationship with Adderall. I find it to be extremely therapeutic, and during the periods of time I take it, as I said, I do so in moderate doses about once a week as a way to get my shit together. I haven't' t taken it in over a year (in fact I've been clean from basically everything since the last year (and continue to be recently, other than the alcohol, obviously). But I've been trying to locate it (adderall) this last month and have just succeeded. I feel pretty confident that I could use it, once weekly, in order to get off of alcohol completely. I've never even liked alcohol, honestly, but it's just the only substance I've had access to. But I feel confident I could use the Adderall in a much healthier way, to get some of my motivation back and be productive, if only occasionally, and hopefully to help make it through this extremely difficult time while I wait and continue to give these SSRIs a chance and/or to switch to or to add a new one. But I'm concerned that even this minimal Adderall use would disrupt their efficacy. And I'm curious if anyone has any first-hand experience with this issue as well. Does taking any recreational drug, just in general, impair an SSRI from being able to work? Even if you only take it occasionally and in moderation? Is there even a definitive answer to this in the literature? I know this is all a gray area, fundamentally. It all comes down to the drug, and the individual, and the frequency and intensity of use. But based on what I've described of my proposed pattern, if anyone has had a similar one, I'd really like to hear about it. I'd be immensely grateful for any advice or details that you could give me on this issue. Thanks guys!