2 replies to this topic

[jvlouis]

To make a very long story shorter, I'm in the midst of finding a new psychiatrist to help give me the proper medication(s) I need. I'm currently on 300mg Trileptal for Bipolar, 60mg Cymbalta for depression/anxiety, and 60mg Wellbutrin to combat the side effects of those two . I've always struggled with finding a medication that could help me, I've been on Lexapro, Prozac, and a couple others I honestly don't remember the name of. I've been doing a lot of research lately to try and learn more about mental health disorders because I didn't feel that my diagnosis of Bipolar resonated with the things I experience, I stumbled upon a Dr. on YouTube who specializes in personality disorders and I have the strong belief that what I experience and why my meds haven't quite worked the way I would like them to before, is because I may have Borderline Personality Disorder. Of course, I'm going to get evaluated to be sure, I just have never felt like anything I have been diagnosed with before makes as much sense as BPD did after learning about it. 

I've been sure I want to get off of my Trileptal, and most likely my Wellbutrin too. I was debating staying on Cymbalta because even though I have experienced negative side effects, it's helped better than any other med I've been on (which still isn't much ), after getting the feeling I may have BPD, I'm now about 80% sure I want to wean off of my Cymbalta. I've only been on Cymbalta for a handful of months but I've had short periods where I've had to go without it before and it was the farthest thing from fun. I recently got switched from 30mg twice a day to 60mg once a day, I took the 60mg in the morning and couldn't function due to lethargy. Also, I fell asleep every time I sat down  . So, yesterday I decided to wait until the nighttime to take my pill so that I could avoid as much drowsiness in the day as possible, my day actually went pretty well despite the skipped dose. I did get a bit anxious in the afternoon but I had a really good day at work and I got a new job, so that definitely helped my mood. I decided "hey, why not just try another day without it because today went so well?" which is exactly what I'm doing. Hopefully today goes well for me and I don't have to rebound, I did have an odd dream last night (but I've always been an odd dreamer) and the night before, the only weird thing was my dreams took place in the same setting with the same dream people, which is atypical for me. Nothing concerning though.

I'm not sure what my point in making this post was, I guess to see if anyone has words of wisdom/encouragement to offer? Maybe any comments from someone else with BPD? Interesting dream stories? 

 

Also, it's fine if you think I'm totally crazy, but does anyone know anything about or believe in astral projection? I don't have really any opinions, I just find it incredibly fascinating and was really getting the feeling that my Cymbalta dreams/nightmares were "otherworldly" in a sense. If anyone wants to put in their two cents, I'd love to hear!

 

[fishinghat]

Interesting post. So many thoughts come into mind. First of all, all of thse meds you are taking effect various parts of the brains involved in sleep, fear, anxiety, depression, paranoia, and much more. It has been my experience that people on these med cocktails have complicated perceptions of life that are not easily understood. There is a lot of research on individual meds and thier effects and a little research on combinations and thier effects but vertually no research on 3 or meds taken in combination. To further complicate things many other non-psych meds effect the action and absorption of the psych meds. Then there is the issue of an individual's genetic variations. Dozens and dozens of common genetic variations have been found that effect brain function, the ability to properly process psych meds, metabolism, etc. It is beleived that the variations in genetics may be the reason a peron will not find a particular medication effective but a similar medication works well. Genetic scanning has been on the market for around 10 years now and the most important thing it has revealed is that we are a long way from understanding the scope of these genetic variations and what they mean. I guess long-story short, drs are just left to trial and error to treat many psych conditions.

[invalidusername]

Genetic scanning has been on the market for around 10 years now and the most important thing it has revealed is that we are a long way from understanding the scope of these genetic variations and what they mean. I guess long-story short, drs are just left to trial and error to treat many psych conditions.

 

Couldn't have put it better myself.

 

Not much to add to Hat's input other than to reiterate what the reality of the situation is with your little cocktail of drugs may well be doing. The more you add, the more complex it becomes. What you need to understand is that adding a med changes the characteristics of the pre-existing meds that are being taken, which is why I said it is not a good idea to combat the ill-effects of one drug with another as it will alter the way the drug works rather than (possibly) reducing the side effects. If drinking too much coffee has ill effects, you don't drink more water to dilute it, you stop drinking the damn stuff! Pills only mask issues that are still there. 

 

Only stopping the meds will give you an answer as to what life is like without them, but one thing is for certain, you need to do one at a time and at a speed whereby you can statistically catalog the effects so you are well aware of what is happening. 

 

Regarding astral projection, I have a working theory of this, but not much in practical experience. The closest I have got to anything similar is through meditation. LDN would have some interesting insights in this area and I am sure he wouldn't mind if you dropped him a PM for his thoughts.