Posted by gardenergirl on June 7, 2007, at 14:26:59
In reply to Nardil effects waning at 45 mg, posted by stargazer2 on June 5, 2007, at 20:31:05
Lithium seemed to be the "missing ingredient" to get me all the way over the depression hump. It's hard to characterize exactly what it did. I guess it was more uplifting or mood enhancing, maybe? Before I was always hovering between sort of depressed and sort of not depressed, but I never really felt like myself or felt good. Once lithium kicked in, I felt happy, though not euphoric. But generally cheerful, goofy/silly, which is my normal personality, and less fatigued and sluggish.
Before that I'd added Lamictal, which helped some, though I wonder if it's doing enough to warrant continuing it now that I've started Lithium. And Provigil to combat the afternoon fatigue and to help regulate my sleep/wake cycle. My new pdoc doesn't seem to agree that I need Provigil, but he doesn't object enough to suggest DC'ing it. Every visit, though, he asks, "What are you taking that for again?" It helps a teensy bit with inattentive ADHD symptoms, too, but not as much as I'd like.
Oh, and I read below you're going to 60 mg. I used to take that in four spread out doses. I now take 2 in the a.m., one around 2 p.m., and the last one sometime between 8 and 10 p.m. I try not to take that last one too late, because I suspect it plays a role in the nighttime eating I often do, to my detriment. In the past, I took one in the a.m., two at 2:00, and one at night. I don't know that there's much difference, but that might have increased the afternoon sleepiness. Not sure. Occasionally if I get up really late, I take two when I get up and two in the evening. That doesn't seem to hurt anything, but it's hard to sort out because sleeping really late is not good for me in general.
Good luck! And as a reassurance, many of the side effects I get at 60 mg or higher have eventually gone away. Some took awhile, but they went away.
gg
poster:gardenergirl
thread:760120
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070604/msgs/761653.html