Question:
I've been to a variety of Doctors and prescribed different medications, but the
situation does not seem to be going away. I go to see the Psych doc in a week and a half and don't have many suggestions
for him. I'm not getting worse, but I'm not getting any better. I'm not good
enough to say I can deal with this. I don't honestly know if the Serzone is
doing ANYTHING. Other options:
!) Wean down off the Serzone and increase the Buspar to the normal dosage of
20-40 MG per day 2) Wean down off the Serzone and replace it with another Anti-D and increase
the Buspar to the normal dosage. I couldn't live with the side effects of Paxil. Effexor ?
Remeron ?
Manerix ?
Zoloft ?
Answer:
I am not sure I understand. IMHO, you should find a psychiatrist and a
therapist that you can work closely with. If you bounce around from
doctor to doctor every month or so, you will be prescribed medications
based only on what they happen to see and hear at that moment - and you
will have to live with that somewhat less informed prescription for all
the time in between those visits. I am not sure I understand the rational of prescribing two or more
medications to be taken continuously at the same time as a first line
approach. There are LOTS of different antidepressants out there. It
sounds like you need to find one that works. Good luck. BTW, what side effect of paxil do you think would be worse than the
symptoms you are now experiencing? I was experiencing both severe depression and severe anxiety. I too would wake up
in a panic (i.e., I didn't have to be in a panic-causing situation). I found
Lorazepam very helpful (1 mg) but it only lasted about 5 hours. My psych coupled it
with Zoloft and the *panic* part really relented. It didn't help my depression
much, but I think that is my problem with anti-D's. You may want to try the Zoloft
(100 mg)/Lorazepam (1mgx3) combo. Effexor(250mg)/Loraz(1-2 mg as needed) also
seemed to work well for both depression and anxiety and I actually preferred that
combo (except, again, I had problems later with the anitD). Serzone (nefazodone) is a unique drug unrelated to the others. It might be
helpful to have your doc try an SSRI like Paxil or Zoloft. They tend to
improve sleep patterns even before the depression clears.It sounds like you are trying to convince other sufferers of mental illness
that depression and anxiety are physical illnesses brought on by physical
causes. I bet that many people here already regard mental illnesses as being
medical conditions. So this makes me think that, due to some inside insecurity
for the cause of your own depression, you have this strong need to try to
convince fellow sufferers your depression is caused by identified external
causes. And to this, I just want to say that anyone who is suffering from a
mental disorder, regardless of the possible cause, is not to blame for their
condition. Nobody of sound mind would freely choose to feel miserable, would
they? I have no reason to doubt anything that you have said. In fact, I agree
with it. But there are so many potential causes of mental illness that I don't
believe that a specific cause can be readily isolated and attributed to being
the exact cause for an individual's illness.
