12 replies to this topic

[j03]

Bupropion is working fantastic for my dysthemia and is bringing all the colors of life back... I'm starting to feel emotions I almost forgot existed, but it is increasing my social anxiety and avoidant personality disorder, which was already high. When I go out I'm a nervous wreak, like over caffinated, heart rate rises, feel really out of place and defensive, etc. so I've just shut myself in.

SSRI's are not an option. They never worked for me and I only ever felt the side effects.

Currently taking:
Wellbutrin XL - 150mg
L-theanine - no clue on the dose, I use powder, but it's probably high
GABA - same as above
Relora - 300mg twice / day
Methylfolate - 5mg

This supplement stack is having possibly some effect, but obviously not enough

Things I've tried in the past: Every SSRI, SNRI's, mirtazepine, nortryptaline, beta blockers, hydroxyzine, lithium, gabapentin, inositol, st. john's wort, bovine adrenals/cortisol, rhodiola, as well as various other things like CBT, meditation, hypoglycemic diet, month long abstinence, cold water immersion therapy, etc.

Out of all the things I tried, sleep deprivation and surprisingly diamine oxidase enzyme (for a week at least) cured my anxiety.

So, what options are left?

[j03]

Because diamine oxidase enzyme worked for my anxiety, and the only time my GERD (gastric reflux) was totally cured was on mirtazapine and nortriptyline, two H1 blockers, I suspect histaminosis/histadelia. But, I've been down the Orthomolecular road many times before only to waste money and have my hopes dashed, so I am not enthusiastic about researching or investing any money into this hypothesis

Diamine oxidase enzyme is too expensive for me at the moment anyway. Mirtazapine and nortriptyline had too many side effects. But I'm open to trying another anxiolytic H1 blocker that could be used with bupropion

[Reformed-Redan]

A good B-complex. Get your blood checked out. Might be the simplest of things. Dunno, maybe lithium orotate might be of use. Psychotherapy should help. I'd drop the GABA. Exercise possibly. Dunno about deprenyl.

Oh and definitely give the Uridine+DHA combo a try.

Edited by yadayada, 13 June 2013 - 10:16 PM.

[Tom_]

Gabapentins younger brother pregabalin is licensed for anxiety and an exceptionally good drug. Buspirone is also a potent anxiolytic.

get rid of the GABA it doesn't cross the blood brain barrier and is useless.

[golden1]

methylfolate gave me anxiety after a week or so, just as a note.

[j03]

I forgot to mention I take a bcomplex, Thorne brand, and I also tried pregabalin and buspione. Buspione did nothing except give me brain zaps at higher dosages, and pregabalin did work but put what felt like a lock on my brain. It seemed to destroy my short term memory, much like gabapentin did! I also tried uridine+DHA, but honestly, I didn't feel much, if anything, even at high uridine dosages. I'll try cutting out methylfolate for a bit and see how I feel.

Thanks for the good responses so far though! I hope to receive more

Edited by j03, 14 June 2013 - 05:31 PM.

[LetMusicRule]

Theanine, Lithium orotate, ashwaganda, holy basil, all are effective for me. I would warn you about bupropion. There seems to be a honeymoon period with it.

[Nickotin]

I would strongly recommend yada's suggestion of UMP+dha. I used to take Buproprion and it stopped working after a while. About two months ago I started the UMP stack and almost immediately reminded me of Buproprion, but better.


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[Thorsten3]

UMP was rubbish, for me.

It actually worsened my depressive symtons. The only benefit from the stack came from the fish oil.

[Introspecta]

Gotu Kola is a good anxiolitic i've found. Does cause drowsiness but not for everyone. Theanine, Good magnesium, and Ashwagandha has worked great for my social anxiety. I refuse to medicate although i'd like to try afobazol

[socialpiranha]

benzos....despite their negative side effects are the best drug for anxiety hands down, could at least tide you over for a couple years til something better comes out. just use them responsibly. Adrenergic blockers like propranolol are worth a try as well.

[check]

Wellbutrin definitely can have some nice peripheral effects- I'm curious as to how you describe your anxiety, though. You have GAD as a tag but only mention social anxiety and avoidant personality disorder. How you describe your anxiety in more detail? Plenty of physical terms, any mental ones? (Evaluatory thoughts? Self-contained observance? Worry? [Defensiveness] That wonderful sense of judgment?) Or some combination, like types of tension.

I was on 300-375 of bupropion, (75s from starting out- I usually go very slow with medicines, but ramp up pretty high. Ex. 5mg Prozac to 80mg.) and had a strong tremor going on, especially in public places, along with the same sort of edginess you described. Part of what helped me was removing part of the self-analysis and expectations and instead describing things in the environment or playing mental games, but only after a long period of work with a therapist and a few different medicine combos. (Buspirone helped at lower doses, along with lithium, although I know both of those didn't seem to work for you. Augmentation and a relative goal path seem to help.)

There's a pretty interesting recent study with buspirone and melatonin as well. http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/22998742

Equally so, depression was a bigger problem in exacerbating my social anxiety, and the wellbutrin didn't quite cover it. Now I'm on Parnate (70-80mg) and still working in a few different therapies. (CBT by itself wasn't that great with removing negative analysis at some levels, or with stopping the nullification of positives, for me.) I wouldn't suggest Parnate, as it isn't an easy drug, and it didn't especially help my anxiety. Oddly enough though, I started low-dose naltrexone as part of my depression regimen, and my social anxiety has been much better. (Which is weird as I tried low-dose naltrexone before, and it didn't seem to do anything.) Combinations and time seem to be important.

I guess I would ask what sort of social experience you hope to have, and what timeframe you see for the problem. Considering the amount people think about other things in social situations, just framing another person's mindset, at least in a rough sense, can be great.

Definitely agree with the post above as well. For breaking heavy sweating, tremor, panic, and really high pulse though, most people go for a course of benzos at first. Absolutely needed to break some awful cases of anxiety, as people can get a break and transition to a different course. Even a quarter of clonazepam may work for some at first.

You have had a break from social anxiety though, and that is really good. And you're posting, which is a lot better than some social anxiety. (I find it very difficult to even approach that sort of contact from time to time.)

A course of time and choice of bearable side effects, with realistic expectations, may be the best was to go in a long course of trials of medicine. Getting used to the feelings of discomfort and working from there. More medicines will come out in time.

Sleep deprivation reversal does point to ongoing depression.

[Also, L-theanine wasn't all that great for me- really weird with socialization. Lot of distance.]

Good luck.

[3AlarmLampscooter]

I personally found propranolol to be highly effective in helping the physical side of anxiety. I'm assuming this is the beta blocker you tried. What dose were you on? For me it took 160mg of Inderal LA daily to fully stop racing heart/tight stomach/etc from anxiety.

Aside from that, I've found Afobazole to work quite well.

Large doses of Niacinamide/Nicotinamide (I did 500mg) also work about as well for me as 3mg of Klonopin, minus the big drop in cognitive performance (in fact I found Nicotinamide to be a nootropic).