Hey CarlOs and Futura,
I remember the days when I desperately wished for a pill to fix the problem.
In fact much of my contribution to BL arose from my endless search for information - with the hope of a valid treatment as my primary motivation.
Regretfully, I came to the understanding that if a successful treatment were available it would be WELL known among neurologists.
Most puzzling to them is the lack of effectiveness of SSRIs in people like us.
It fails to provide the primary endocrine benefits seen in other people.
This may be due to a failure in targeting the prefrontal cortex.
Tianeptine lacks many of the risks of SSRIs - it isn't nearly as activating or stimulating and is thus unlikely to cause severe anxiety as seen with some SSRI patients.
But many former SSRI users suffering through withdrawal have attempted tianeptine to aid in recovery.
Generally they report temporary benefits only.
Tianeptine modestly invokes a DA release in the Nucleus Acumbens, which is the cause of its opiate-like effects, even though it has modest effects on DA receptors.
It also lowers extracellular serotonin although it has no effect on the SERT.
Its effects are believed to be indirect and it shows no real effect on serotonin structure in the long-term.
A great paper that I haven't read -
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2902200/
It probably has little risk, so it is worth a try.
And I am certainly interested in your follow up reports.
Just be prepared for a temporary effectiveness, including a fading of the opiate like effects.
Lithium...
I must advise caution LOUDLY.
I believe this is a medication that is special.
Its strong immediate effects do fade and allows the user to feel like continued dosing has little effect past the first week or two.
This is the danger.
Although you may not sense it continuing to work at all, it is slowly building up in your tissues.
After about a month of modest dosing there is a good possibility that you will need to TAPER down your doses.
Regardless of what you perceive only blood tests will reveal when you are approaching the toxic range.
And the difference between almost too much and WAY too much could be only one or two doses!
Just eating too much salty popcorn at a movie last week caused me to change abruptly!
I was fine until the next day.
Upon awaking I felt like my lithium was just invading my whole body and brain.
Utterly sickening.
I laid on the couch for six hours waiting to feel ok.
Only drinking lots of fluids and pissing it all out made me return to earth.
Trust me - this is a medication that requires supervision.
Acute on therapeutic toxicity is a term that means a lithium patient suddenly increases their dose, perhaps modestly, and enters a toxic reaction. This can reach poisoning status that involves long-term neurological impairment.
Be careful with this alkaline metal my friends.
Its first few doses will AMAZE you, probably more than the tianeptine.
I really releases BDNF in the higher brain.
But it is quite strange to experience and you must lower your doses over time.
It can hurt you, so please be VERY careful.
If you plan to forge ahead despite my warning think about it VERY logically.
The smaller the doses the slower the onset of toxicity.
No matter what, do not take doses past 180mg of the carbonate.
It may very well be that former MDMA users have a lower threshold for problems versus most bi-polar patients that use this stuff.
All of this being said, I believe that lithium had more potential to intervene in the crisis of MDMA brain damage early on.
The initial months of insanity may have been prevented entirely by this medication.
I wish I had known.
Nothing else in all of my research even comes close to its potential for early onset depression/psychosis in MDMA users.
Except ECT.
