Question:
I have been being treated for depression for a couple months, first with
Zoloft, and now with Wellbutrin. Neither of them have done a thing.
Now my shrink says that he thinks that I don't actually have clinical
depression, I just have been deprived of sleep to the point that I show
many of the symptoms of depression. The cause for my inability to sleep
is high anxiety. I am high strung all the time, I can't relax. I also
have migranes often, and stomach problems that haven't stopped with
medication. I suspect that both of these are due to the anxiety. I'd
like to know what would be the appropiate therapy under these
circumnstances. Antidepressants have done nothing for me, but they
still have me taking them. I think that if I was given anti-anxiety
medication that it would allow me to sleep, help me keep from being so
high strung, and decrease the frequency of my migranes and stomach
problems. It makes perfect sense to me, but my doctor doesn't seem to
want to prescribe anti-anxiety medication for me, perhaps concerned
about addiction?
Answer:
Sounds like it's time to find another doctor. Sleep deprivation can be
brutal. Have you tried Melatonin to help you sleep? Please read the new warning label
now included on most brands of melatonin. It has apparently been
discovered that melatonin affects human brain chemistry in ways which
make it incompatible with anti-depressant medication. I don't know the
details, but the labels now say "Do NOT take melatonin if you are
currently using anti-depressant medications." Also, several people
have recently posted in websites about their very bad reactions
to having taken melatonin while they were on a-d's. Why doesn't your doctor want to prescribe anti-anxiety drugs? I
assume you are talking about benzos, right? It could be that your
doctor is what we call a benzophobe. Unfortunately there's a strong
prejudice in some areas against using any benzos because they were
overprescribed and abused in the '70s. It might help if you were to
print out some of the scientific evidence that shows that benzos are
extremely unlikely to be abused by people with anxiety, as a matter of
fact they tend to be underperscribed. I will email my copies of this
stuff. It's all scientific, not personal anecdotes. At the very
least, try to get him/her to prescribe them on a "temporary basis".
