# med that can help the introverted become extroverted?



## Sunny Day (Aug 1, 2006)

Is there anything that just fixes us? Is there anything at all? I am so tired of dealing with this. I don't know what to do. Maybe I can live life in a cave. Are caves rent free?


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## D.B. Cooper (Jul 21, 2006)

Theres no magic cure and nothing that will change your personality. All anti depressants and benzos do is help you push yourself to make the changes you want.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

Sunny Day said:


> Is there anything that just fixes us? Is there anything at all? I am so tired of dealing with this. I don't know what to do. Maybe I can live life in a cave. Are caves rent free?


If such a magic pill exists, I haven't found it. I thought I'd finally be better once I found a doc who wasn't a sissy afraid to prescribe benzos in large doses. I found him and even a prescription for 10 mg of Xanax a day still leaves me too disabled to work or function in most social situations and I still have zero friends and still no girl friend and still afraid to do so many things that it's far too long to list them all.

I have a dream. I dream of a libertarian America where the DEA is DOA. I dream of an America where my rightful freedom is returned to me. I dream of an America where a men is free to ingest any substance he so desires without the need for governmental permission. In this utopia I'd like to sample various goodies the DEA currently keeps from me. Topping my list are: MDMA, GHB, methaqualone, barbiturates, heroin. At worst these drugs could take my life, but first they'd have to find it!

MLK isn't the only guy with an "I have a dream" speech.


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## No Limit (Dec 6, 2005)

I've been down that road. At one point, I thought about becoming a monk, but what's the point if I'm running away from the problem. Anyway, in my experience, probably a benzo like Xanax or Klonopin can make you relaxed enough to actually go out there and do some sort of exposure therapy. It'll be hard at first, but it's rewarding at the end if you can accomplish something that you haven't done before because of SA no matter how little it is at the beginning.

If you're talking about something that might be construed as being illegal, occasionally (for me, only a couple of times per year) smoking cannabis helps me deal with anxiety. Although most will say they become depressed as they come down from it, I've never experienced that coming down myself.


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## korey (Apr 25, 2006)

Caves are generally rent-free unless they're one of those tour caves where people walk through daily oohing and aahing at the rock formations.

Karl, you mentioned barbiturates on your list of things you want to try. What about phenobarbital? It's the only pure barb that I know of that is still prescribed today.


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## D.B. Cooper (Jul 21, 2006)

Barbiturates went the way of the dinosaur after the introduction of benzos. I dont think they're ever prescribed unless under direct supervision from a doctor.


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## mayblue (Oct 1, 2005)

Sunny Day said:


> Is there anything that just fixes us? Is there anything at all? I am so tired of dealing with this. I don't know what to do. Maybe I can live life in a cave. Are caves rent free?


Paxil made me an extrovert. I was 100% cured, and yet it wasn't a good thing. I was crazy, self-destructive, loud, and had no judgment at all. It was fun to experience being an extrovert for a while, but it convinced me that drugs are not the answer.


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## friendly stranger (Jul 30, 2006)

mayblue said:


> Sunny Day said:
> 
> 
> > Is there anything that just fixes us? Is there anything at all? I am so tired of dealing with this. I don't know what to do. Maybe I can live life in a cave. Are caves rent free?
> ...


paxil huh? sounds cool, can't do much damage to me if i'm allready crazy and self-destructive :lol


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## Caedmon (Dec 14, 2003)

Yes, with creativity it would be surprising not to find something helpful, although a pill itself is probably not a complete solution for most. 

I would be fairly surprised to hear of a nonresponder to (dextro-)amphetamine + MAOI + benzo, for example; or, subbing in/adding buprenorphine or Depakote as well. There are many ideas one could try. This is where many doctors run away, screaming.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

Caedmon said:


> I would be fairly surprised to hear of a nonresponder to (dextro-)amphetamine + MAOI + benzo, for example; or, subbing in/adding buprenorphine or Depakote as well. There are many ideas one could try. This is where many doctors run away, screaming.


Isn't dextroampehtamine and all other amphetamines on the list of things you shouldn't mix with an MAOI? I can see why docs run away screaming.

Then there is also the issue of the amphetamine being Schedule II, which isn't something doctors hand out lightly. Then you have the MAOI issue, where psychiatrists don't use it often, and you'd be hard pressed to find a GP who's ever written an MAOI script.


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## Caedmon (Dec 14, 2003)

Yeah there are "lists" that say not to combine stimulants and MAOIs. It doesn't seem to be very prohibitive from an evidence-based POV although it is theoretically tricky.

e.g.

J Clin Psychiatry. 2004 Nov;65(11):1520-4.
Combining stimulants with monoamine oxidase inhibitors: a review of uses and one possible additional indication.
Feinberg SS.

BACKGROUND: Among antidepressant augmentation strategies, the addition of a stimulant to a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) has received little attention in the literature in recent years because of the diminished clinical use of the latter and concerns of precipitating a hypertensive crisis or other serious complication. Despite that fact, experienced clinicians continue to use this combination for a variety of indications after other options have failed. This article reviews these reported uses and presents a case suggesting another possible indication. METHOD: A MEDLINE search was conducted for articles published from 1962 to December 2003 using relevant search terms (psychostimulant, stimulant, amphetamine, dextroamphetamine, pemoline or methylphenidate, atomoxetine, bupropion, monoamine oxidase inhibitor, and selegiline). A manual search was conducted of cross-references and other relevant recent psychiatric sources (2000-2003). RESULTS: The described uses of the MAOI-stimulant combination have included treatment of refractory depression and the MAOI-related side effects of orthostatic hypotension and daytime sedation. No documented reports were found in the recent literature of hypertensive crises or fatalities occurring when the stimulant was cautiously added to the MAOI. Also presented here is another possible indication for this therapeutic regimen: treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in an adult patient whose major depression had uniquely responded to the MAOI tranylcypromine. CONCLUSION: As in other fields of medicine, potentially hazardous medication combinations are utilized in psychiatry after cautiously weighing the danger of the treatment against the morbidity and risk of not adequately addressing the illness. Particularly, as the potential arrival of the apparently safer transdermal selegiline may increase the use of MAOIs, we feel this combination deserves additional controlled study.

PMID: 15554766 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Also, see MAOIs in high doses and with stimulants


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## Moonpuppy (Jul 26, 2015)

You should check out Somlia; that's what no central government looks like. 
Stop letting yourself be manipulated by 1% 'ers who don't want to pay their taxes.


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## kageri (Oct 2, 2014)

There are lists saying not to combine any med I'm taking with any other med I'm taking. Not dead yet. I was highly concerned when I just pitched the belsomra in there without it having seen any real world use yet. Still alive. I think it's harder to get stimulants than sedatives and medical professionals all want to sedate away anxiety. Which worked well on my end with discovering my sleeping problems as a side effect of the random meds and then sleep as a side effect to random antidepressants and anxiolytics. I did lose insurance recently and I know no other doctor in the area (most definitely not on the covered list of medicaid) is going to touch my prescriptions and the office staff of my psychiatrist are being unhelpful. The one person yelled at us for calling 2 weeks in a row and then failed to pass on the information. Yeah.. kinda important to get prescriptions of the right dosages required to make things work through medicaid and low income programs provided by the drug companies as fast as we figure them out. I don't have a month in advance planned here.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

kageri said:


> I was highly concerned when I just pitched the belsomra in there without it having seen any real world use yet.


Belsomra was a bust for me. It didn't work even at 180 mg, and the FDA in their infinite lack of wisdom, wouldn't even approve Merck's application for a 40 mg pill, declaring that 20 mg would be the maximum size.

I told my GP how 180 mg didn't work when I saw him the other week. He didn't seem at all surprised given my stunning history of requiring staggering dosages. And the FDA's moron's seriously think 40 mg would be too much.:roll


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## AussiePea (Mar 27, 2007)

I think it depends on where your anxiety originates from. If it's environmental then the use of drugs as a means to help you escape your shell for a finite period of time can be very useful during exposure exercises. If it's genetic then, well there's no magic cure but there are things which can make it a little less ****.


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