u/Jaded_Confection_785

I was reading the most recent posts and see a lot of people are really struggling. I wanted to share that I’m feeling so much better on my medication. We’re probably going to change it because I have side effects and I’m luckily I’m getting pharmacogenetics testing results back in a few weeks, however I actually feel great in terms of mood (in spite of the side effects).

It’s been about a year so far of trial and error to find the right meds and we’re not there yet, but this has shown me that things can work. I’m feeling very hopeful I’m nearly there.

What I want to say to you all is stick it out, work with your medical team, you’ll get there. It will get better. We’ll all be fine in the end!

I’ve recently tried sertraline (Zoloft), duloxetine (Cymbalta) and now vortioxetine (Trintellix). Even though it’s not common side effects all 3 have given me extreme sleepiness - like I’ll sleep around 18 hours a day. My theory is that it has something to do with them all working with serotonin: SSRI, SNRI, SMS classes respectively. I was fine on Wellbutrin which works on norepinephrine and dopamine, not serotonin.

Has anyone experienced the same thing with multiple serotonin-modulating medications?

So happy glad to have found this group because I’ve never met anyone else with focal aware epilepsy in real life. My friends always ask me what my seizures feel like… Because my seizures are in the temporal lobe they affect my ‘senses’ and ‘perception’ so the concept is like trying to describe a new colour to them if they’d never seen it. Even my neurologist looks at me weirdly. Can anyone relate?

PS: I’m probably going to be “spamming” the sub with a number of topics where I’d appreciate hearing others’ experiences /opinions. Thanks in advance.

Any men taking amisulpride? I took many years ago for MDD, before I was diagnosed with dysthymia. I likened it to a “happy pill” and to this day reckon it’s the best medication I’ve taken. I’ve read it’s one of the most effective treatments for dysthymia. I stopped it because I was worried about potentially increasing my prolactin.

I’m wondering if any men are successfully being treated with amisulpride and not being impacted by increased prolactin’s knock-on effects (breast enlargement, breast milk, sexual dysfunction)?

Any men with negative experiences feel free to chime in too.

What are people’s experiences with pregabalin. It came up as an option for treating my GAD and then noticed it’s also used for ET. Would be great to take one med for both. Taking topiramate now and it works extremely well… but 2 birds one stone.

I like to invest in companies that excite me. Mostly this has been tech for me but now my portfolio is very tech heavy. I want to diversify but stay true to my principles.

Who has examples of non-tech companies doing exciting/innovative things in their industries?

Trying my 4th antidepressant of the year and my doc is suggesting pharmacogenetic testing (finally? I think?). Of the 4 meds, some work more than others, all have side effects, and most ended with us pushing the dose up - none ever justify the dose.

So now I’m on Brintellix/Trintellix (Vortioxetine), and it’s definitely having a positive effect on my mood, and with no side effects. I feel my depression is under control, but I’m still searching for better when it comes to PDD/dysthymia, so I asked to put it up (from 10mg to 15mg). I felt a difference but started getting super sleepy all the time. This had happened with the others too.

Yesterday my psychiatrist and I talked about dropping back to 10mg: I’d lose the extra efficacy of the extra 5mg and go back to “pretty effective” meds, but lose the side sleepy effects altogether. Controversially, we decided there might be even more benefit in pushing it further to 20mg, and that the sleepiness could be worth riding out, for two reasons: 1) maybe it’ll just pass, the way the tremors on Duloxetine did after about 3 weeks; or 2) I work on activating myself more (something we’re so bad at with dysthymia) - walks, activities, getting to the grocery store, and so on.

She also said my ideal dose might be lower, given how my liver processes the drug, and that’s when she brought up pharmacogenetic testing at one of the advanced hospitals here. It would look at the genes that control how my body breaks these meds down, so we can match the drug and dose to my metabolism instead of guessing. I assume the reasons not everyone does it are: 1) almost everyone responds to first-line meds anyway; and 2) it’s expensive. Apparently the fact that I haven’t come right after several attempts, plus the dose-related issues, makes me a good candidate.

But it all sounds too good to be true. Has anyone here actually done pharmacogenetics testing?

My doctor has asked me to be open to the idea that as we treat my GAD it might resolve what I have always called, and taken medication for, ADHD. Theory is that my anxiety is so bad that my brain is just unable to focus or not be overwhelmed by the task. I’ve said I’m open to the idea but it just feels incomprehensible to me that “concentration” this severe could be GAD. I can’t imagine functioning without Ritalin.

Has anyone experienced this after treatment? Specifically, has anyone been able to fully stop/transition from ADHD meds altogether.

I’m in the Netherlands and it looks Revolut charges €35 euro per position being transferred? That’s a wasteful amount of money altogether - would rather be investing that. It looks like there aren’t any major tax implications for selling and rebuying but wondering if there are big downsides to losing the historical trading data. Any advice welcome?