I am putting myself on Zoloft
 

hi.

i've had it. i am just not doing this life thing, at all. apathy anhedonia melancholy thoughts hoping to die in my sleep guilt... i could go on but i'll stop.

my pdoc is away until mid august.

i am going to start taking Zoloft. situational or not, if it can help even a bit, for right now, i want the bit.

i just took my first 25 mg. will go up by 25mg a week to 75 mg, even 100 if i don't find it activating.

that's 3-4 weeks, at which point my pdoc will be back.

wish me luck.

~ waves ~

I wish you luck.
 

Waves,
I can't made any sense when I write. (I'll try anyway.)
I want you to do well on your Zoloft plan. You've gone up and down on Zoloft before. You've even managed your own meds before when pdoc was not available.

Keep us updated. Perhaps by writing down what is happening you can be observant about whether or not Z is activating.

I don't remember how Zoloft works. What is generally the therapeutic dose?

M.

Thanks Mari

therapeutic dose varies quite a bit. i've taken as little as 50mg, as much as 200 mg (very high) for short periods, and everywhere in between. a typical dose for me is between 100 and 150mg. last time pdoc started me at 50 and i had headaches and could not increase the dose after a week. so i'm doing the first week at 25 this time, hopefully won't have the headaches.

i am not logging anything these days. i do need to start that again to monitor meds. i know it's "easy" but ... sigh. bother.

~ waves ~

Hey waves,

First of all, so sorry to hear you are not feeling good :( Aw :hug:

Good luck with Zoloft... Why did you stop it ? Was it due to side effects or...?

I agree with Mari, write down how are you feeling so you can then tell your pdoc with all details...
I don't know about you, but later on, when they ask allllllllllll those questions, I can't remember how bad I was feeling :o

Let us now how are you doing !! :hug:

Dear Waves,

I didn't mean to give you a task. You can check into this thread once in a while. This can be your log if you want.

M.

Dear Blue ... thanks. i stopped Zoloft a couple years ago because it was not needed/not helping. SSRIs are associated with bone density decrease and osteoporosis, so i am not comfortable with taking one all the time. i almost always have a mild undercurrent of depression but an anti-depressant won't help that anyway. i take them when it becomes palpable.

Dear Mari ... it's ok. i didn't take it as a task. i have already made efforts to log again - when i started taking the benzo for a short time, but it didn't last... i may very well use this thread as a makeshift log. it beats nothing! :o

~ waves ~

Oh ! I understand !! How I hate side effects or whatever you want to call them :mad:

I like my prozac but hate its side effects... my skin can bleed and my vision would really suck ! :mad:

Do you think it will help you a bit at least ?? Hope so !

Silly depression :mad:

How is it going ??

Love ya ! :hug: :hug: :hug:

Dear Blue

Prozac is also an SSRI, like Zoloft. i will see if i can find the article again on the association between SSRIs and osteoporosis. it has to do with the drug inhibiting bone mass accumulation to compensate for cell death. but i don't remember anything more specific. i wish i had bookmarked it.... sigh.

~ waves ~

Waves,

Here is an article in Science Daily:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1030183243.htm

Connection Between Depression And Osteoporosis Shown By Hebrew University Researchers


M.

Whoops. You mentioned SSRIs and depression.
I will look for that.


1.
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retri...40673697095287
Use of selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors or tricyclic antidepressants and risk of hip fractures in elderly people

2.
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/con...ct/167/12/1231
Mend the Mind, but Mind the Bones! Balancing Benefits and Potential Skeletal Risks of Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors
I can't get access to much without membership to the site.


3.
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/con...ct/167/12/1240
Use of Antidepressants and Rates of Hip Bone Loss in Older Women The Study of Osteoporotic Fractures

=-=-=-=-=

A few days ago I came across a site explaining how calcium mechanisms relate (cause) to depression.
I did not book mark it. :o


M.

Thanks for all the info !

YEah, I know... It's like when my Celecoxib helped with pain but was going to induce me a cardiac attack... :rolleyes: Hell... :mad:

Mari, that thing about Calcium and depression sounds VERY interesting... :eek:

SSRIs and Osteoporosis / bone health
 

i cannot find it. i ran into it ages ago quite by accident. it has something to do with interfering with osteoblasts more or less than osteoclasts and they get out of balance.

i can't remember if it was even online. maybe it was in some of the stuff i got from my pdoc. (i asked him if he had any medical-stuff he didn't want that he could give me rather than recycle it.) there was a book on women's mental health that discussed all kinds of things related to drugs too, right down to the bone (haha NO pun intended, i don't know if it was in there... if i can find that i'll check.)

oh here. well this isn't it, and it doesn't say much, but at least you know which tree i'm barking up:

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/Depression/6040

i'm ok with using an SSRI, i just think staying on one all the time is a bad idea even if it does work. especially with my poor vitamin D status.

~ waves ~

Okay is cymbalta, the same way with osteoprosis. Or things like this.

Donna:grouphug:

Dear Donna

Cymbalta, Effexor and Pristiq are SNRIs (Serotonin and Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors). (for Mari: Wellbutrin a little different affecting the dopamine/norepinephrine system).

so, while the studies i've read have all talked about SSRIs i'd think there would be some theoretical concern with Cymbalta and the other two as well, because they all inhibit serotonin reuptake. i don't know to what degree as compared to SSRIs... and if different receptor subtypes are affected... it is possible that there is inferior or no risk with these drugs.

a long way to say, maybe. ;)

i'll see if i can turn up anything specific for you Donna.

:grouphug:

~ waves ~

Donna - Cymbalta / SNRIs
 

from Psychiatric Times

Bone Mass Density Loss and Antidepressants...
By James M. Ellison, MD, MPH
October 1, 2008

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/disp.../10168/1336555

also - this explains it in a more similar fashion to what i originally read.

CHANGING THE PICTURE IN DEPRESSION... (MS Word document)
Sinan Duzyurek, MD
July 18, 2009

~ waves ~

sounds like a good plan! hOpe you feel much better very soon.
I am sorry that you are feeling rotten.
(((((HUGS))))
bizi

thanks bizi! :hug: welcome back!!! :)

~ waves ~

Even though im young i know that medication may feel like it can help but all it does is numb the mind. Save your family greef , & try something to substiute it ? May i suggest fish oil , it did wonders for my mother who had chronic spine pain & cogested heart failure . I wish nothing but luck ,
Kitty .

Thank you Kitty!

welcome to Neurotalk!

actually i was going to try 5-HTP but i am pretty broke as far as buying anything at all. as it happens i already have a lot of Zoloft left over from before. and it has typically worked for me in that past. i don't have side effects from it at moderate doses.

i am sorry if you have had bad experiences with meds. some folks have a very difficult relationship with meds/finding something that works.

~ waves ~

Oh oh oh !! Ive always wanted to try 5-HTP, but they dont sell it here alone, or I dont know where !! :mad: :(

Kitty, welcome !! :hug: And sorry for contradicting you, maybe Im the exception... but Fish did NOTHING for me... :(

Hugs for everyone ! :grouphug:

5-HTP and serotonergic meds
 

Dear Blue

if you should find some 5-HTP and decide to try it make sure you are not taking serotonergic medications at the time - and if you had been, that enough time has past for them to have cleared your system. these include SNRI or SSRI type antidepressants (Prozac) and dextromethorphan (cough suppressant). you risk serotonin syndrome. caution with triptans to avoid migraines. there are other serotonergic medications these are just examples as you mentioned the prozac.

i am a smudge of sludge
 

the time seems to trickle by so slowly.................................. why is it the minutes crawl but the years race?

i am tempted to hop straight to 50 but... sigh. patience, patience.

i more than halved the 2 big piles of papers i had under the desk. found a bunch of obsolete stuff i could throw out. hooray. also managed to file some of the more important stuff. i did it very slowly. a bit at a time.
what's left is mostly "miscellaneous" ack... :confused:

i have been staying up all night for a while now. at first i was trying to sleep and unable to sleep. even with meds. the past few nights i haven't bothered. who cares. i sure as ehll don't right now. :rolleyes:

oh i do sleep - in the day. in the past i would have woken up by house sounds... have been sleeping through everything - talking, laundry, cooking, tv, you name it. one time i stayed up all night and then all day to try to 'wrap around' ... failed. come night, i wasn't tired and was up all night again. screw it. i don't want to be around in the day anyway. i don't want to be around life i just want to be alone in the dark.

~ waves ~

hey there girlie,
gonna have to watch your sleeping...you know that can really screw us up if we don't sleep.
(((((HUGS)))))
bizi

Dear Waves,

It is hard waiting for meds.
M.

don't worry.... :hug:

i get about 7 hours a... day. SOLID. today i may try to stay up/wrap around coz the tech is coming. but when i did that before to try to reset... the day after ... i slept for like 12 hours straight. sleep per se, is not a problem. sleeping-at-night is a problem so i'm just going to sleep in the day for now. shhh, don't tell the sleep police! ;)

~ waves ~

yes it is.... :(:hug: day three here at piddly 25mg....

Three days so far toward progress. :)

So, how is it going waves ?? Are you feeling any better ?? or do you need to reach the correct dosage ??

Oh ! and I would never mix prozac with something else... I dont want a panic attack :p Thanks for the reminder anyway ! :)

Dear Blue

i am the same...

it is going to take several weeks. i have to be at least at 50mg for it to have any effect but it may take more. once at therapeutic dosage it takes a few weeks to act.... :o

:Sigh:

~ waves ~

Dear Waves, :hug: :hug: :hug:

We will count down the weeks with you.
One good thing is that you can expect a good outcome since you are familiar with Zoloft.

You are not shooting in the dark like we've done with other meds. Take care of yourself.

M

Thanks Mari.

yes, i feel comfortable with Zoloft. it isn't stressful like starting a brand new med. i am not fearful about side-effects. i could run into some activation, but i have some Depakote on hand. i'd rather not take that, but i will if i need it to give the Zoloft a fair chance.

i don't actually know how effective the Zoloft will be. my pdoc is right that a lot of what is going on is situational. but i've been realizing lately that even if some things are improving, my attempts at life are completely empty. i don't feel hopeful about anything. when i am lively, or joke around it is superficial... when i do important things like look for work etc... it's only because i feel i have to. nothing feels satisfying or rewarding, let alone exciting.

i did one of those depression questionnaires on the web... and it's not so much the score that got to me (high) but my own answers were sort of in my face. for instance, do you think about death... umm not much... only on a daily basis. the thoughts are more on the lines of wishing i didn't exist than actually wishing to die... the mechanisms scare me. pain scares me. but the non-existence wish is perpetual. sometimes it is even a painful sort of yearning. how situational is that.

it seems likely the Zoloft can make at least a little difference. it's worth trying.

i have nothing to lose.

~ waves ~

Dear Waves,
Cripes!
You have been suffering this down-ness for a while and you are right to do the Zoloft. It's a shame that Zoloft couldn't also help you with your situation.

M.

maybe indirectly it will.

the depression is worse than i thought. it is the subtle kind and i think it crept up on me and because i did't exactly feel great before... and my situation isn't great, i underestimated it.

before, i had other problems with getting around but i also had a great deal of anxiety. the physical problem is resolved, and in general so is the anxiety. i still become anxious with job-hunting but only to what seems a normal degree.

soooo.... if the Zoloft makes a significant improvement in the degree of depression, it could help me to help myself out of my situation.

for now, much as i hate to say it i am out of the running. whatever fumes i was running on for the last run of interviews are gone. if something had come through, it might have had a bootstrap effect on me from the outside. but my inside bootstraps ain't happening. i feel like there is a weight on my chest most of the time. not an anxious pressure/pain thing. its more, like ... crap, i have to bother to breathe. in, out. there, another one.

~ waves ~

speaking of breath
 

i wrote this in 1989 before being thrown out of university. i wrote a lot back then. i was going through the motions then too, like i am now. not enough motions: not going to class... not taking exams...

it is called, none, all lower case, and the lines also are expressly all lower case. i myself was in lower case:

stark and bare

no feeling left
to feel
the evening air

cold and still

no movement left
to move
the broken will

all and one

no breath to take
no breath
at all

none

I am sorry that you are suffering waves.
I wish it were easier for you...
I am hopeful for the zoloft to provide you with some comfort sooner than later.
(((((HUGS)))))
bizi

on youtube they have yoga classes etc that might give you breathing exercises or just breathing exercises. I really do think we forget to breathe and hold our breath from terror. I am sure this happens to me.
I wonder if my friend who has had horrible things happen to her such as loss of her little girl to cancer handles these things better because she is a singer and knows how to deep breathe. I never thought of it til just now. She never hyperventilates.
Love
Bobby

thanks bobby.

i can't be bothered to do anything. i don't give a damn about anything.

i breathe fine. it's about wishing i didn't have to bother to do even that.

i have been trying to stretch lately. literally - physically. but that is already a stretch goal for me, no pun intended.

love

~ waves ~

Oh dear waves, so sorry to read you are feeling like this :hug: :hug: :hug:

Hopefully Zoloft will help !! at least a bit...

Are you sleeping enough ?
Are you out enough ? (you know, to feel sun light)
Are you eating anti-depressive food ? :rolleyes:

Oh darling, you are so funny to read, you are very wise, you are very nice and caring with everybody, I hate to read you are suffering !! :hug:

:grouphug:

(((((HUGS)))))
bizi

Dear Blue,

thanks. :hug: maybe the Zoloft will help. but it will take time to find out.

i do sleep.

i do not get sun. it has been sunny but i do not like going out.

lately i prefer rain anyway - rain is mood-congruent weather right now. sun makes me feel guilty for not being happy. rain is like the sky crying so i do not have to.

i am eating whatever i feel like eating. i don't eat much junk food or sugary stuff. but i am not trying to constrain myself in any way. i am allowed to eat whatever i feel like and equally allowed not to eat anything i can't be bothered to deal with.

Dear Bizi

thank you for the hugs. :hug:

~ waves ~