Experience with a psychopharmacologist?

I also have an open mind to alternative options, I’ve had trouble with finding SSRI’s to no avail so I had to concede that it wasn’t for me. I used cannabis for many years and called it my antidepressant medicine, it helped me for years to lift my spirits but unfortunately it didn’t help much with anxiety. I know several people who use mushrooms for depression and say that it is the best medicine they’ve found, apparently a small amount once or twice per week was enough, Ketamine treatment is also not helpful for everyone but for those who use it say that they get good results from it. I suppose it’s like everything else, it does however require some medical advice especially with Psilocybin because you need to find the right product and dose and also if it can interfere with any other medication you may be taking. To date I’ve had to give up cannabis because I started having problems with coping with it, I never smoked it because of my lungs but I ingested it and this made it much stronger, now I’m only taking Ativan for anxiety and that’s it.

@frouke how are you tolerating the arivan? How much do you take and how often?

@jneener I take 0.5 mg. once in the morning and then 0.5 mg. at bedtime, however earlier this year I added an extra dose of 0.5 mg. midday, I was going through serotonin withdrawal and I needed the help, I reduced this dose by half to 0.25 mg. a few months ago. I want to eliminate this dose completely but I’m not ready yet.

How do you handle interdose withdrawal? How was the withdrawal dropping your midday dose to .25?

@frouke are you finding Ativan not enough for anxiety? I only take a small dose occasionally. I did prefer oxazepam but was taken off of that when I went through an extreme anxiety episode but Dr had put me on Seroquel also which had a weird effect on me...cant even explain it. Only took that for 2 days ! Went onto nortryptaline, not sure if correct spelling. Id love to take Ativan more often but afraid of not being able to quit it but why quit when it works? Antidepressants dont really do much for anxiety.

@jneener I fortunately didn’t really feel the decrease but when I tried to do it again with the remaining 0.25 mg., I had anxiety and couldn’t sleep.

I took Amitriptyline many years ago, it was prescribed for pain relief from pelvic floor contractions, apparently it’s an older antidepressant but I can’t say that it helped me with depression, I suppose in a way it did help because the pain I had was very bad and I felt very happy when this medication helped me! I mentioned it because Nortryptaline is in the same category.

@frouke I'm afraid to take either of those because they are antipschotics being used off label.

I am recovering from a TBI 11 months ago. Much better except for balance and anxiety. Every morning I wake up between 5:00 and 6:00 nauseous sometimes sweaty. Doctors think it's anxiety and I'm on Zoloft 175 mg. Has anyone else gone through this

@margaretallen
I too wake up in the early hours and the anxiety is already there to greet me! Nausea and sweating, catastrophic thinking, ruminating thoughts. Psychiatrist had me on Lexapro which amped up the nausea. Same with the zoloft. Now I'm gonna try Abilify. Benzodiazapines, (xanax, Ativan, etc.) give me the best relief. Xanax 0.5 -1.0mg in morn works for me. Not 100% but at least some relief. You know what really helps the most? Connecting with people like you and this entire community! What a difference it makes knowing others like us are out there struggling. Sharing our disappointments in meds that don't work, anxiety over what to do next -- all of it gives me strength to go on with my struggle and that I am not mine alone. My struggle is one shared by many. Thank you everyone for sharing your trials and tribulations. Knowing I am not alone is the best Rx! Love and more...