Avoidants and medicine /what have helped you?

Hi there all of you!

This subject have probably been up many times before?
But, anyway, I am interested to hear from you all, your experiences, what medications have helped you to make feeling better and to handle your Avoidance disorder a little better.

Of course, I know that it´s very much from person to person what works best. ( one meds could be working good on one person, but on another person it´s opposite reactions)
But, I would anyway like to hear from you people, your own experiences with medications.

I´ve tried a lot of SSRI:s like: escitalopram, fluoxetin(fontex), sertralin, seroxat.
SNRI: Efexor
Tetracyclic: Mirtazapin(Remeron)
And now i´ve been on for a year,Lyrica (pregabalin) an anti-epileptic med.
None of these meds have giving me any good effect.

I have never tried any of the old MAOI ex.Parnate, Nardil nor any of the Tri-cyclic ex.Klomipramin, Anafranil
I´ve never tried this quite new? med. Voxra(Bupropion)(Wellbutrin)
I´ve heard that some of those (above) medications have helped people that have had no effect of the SSRI:s.
I´ve even heard that some people with AvPD have been on Ritalin (Concerta) with very good effect.

What are your reactions of medicating this disorder?

I'm curious too. I've never taken medication for this sort of thing, but I just met with a psychiatrist yesterday and he mentioned Prozac, Klonopin, and Wellbutrin. I have no idea what to try, and he seemed pretty clueless too.

I actually almost passed out while he was describing different medications, and their effects + side effects. My body apparently hates the idea of being medicated. The same thing happens when I get blood drawn, or when the eye doctor puts those pupil-dilating drops in my eyes.

I take effexor, guess it helped in the beginning because i continued to take it. Its the longest iv stayed with any meds and its been about 2 years. Only reason i still take it is because in the past when i stopped i would feel very sick and get these annoying brain "zaps", thats the best way i can describe it. Really weird feeling.

To me taking antidepressants is kinda like putting a bandaid on a gunshot wound...kinda pointless.

Hi Pain!
I also felt really sick when I stopped taking my Efexor. Almost like a high fever, so I had to step down really slowly! But for me it was better without it. It didn't do any good for me, just made my head feeling like cotton!

I personally refuse to take any SNRI or anti-depressants because I view them as poisonous. SSRI's feel like a pillow is being pushed against my brain. I always freeze up and my brain turns off when i'm in social situations, but when I am physically incapable of producing a stream of thought (as opposed to just my personal insufficiency) I go into a frenzy. SNRI's, Strattera in particular, flood me with norepinephrine and I feel straight up like dying.

Even though I am resigned to the knowledge that nothing will change for me, and that I can't ever have a relationship because i'm only attracted to really really messed up girls (Read: Girls with borderline PD. I'm sure one of them will eventually kill me) I still lament about the most basic problem: my complete inability to think quickly and have a good conversation.

Therefore, I always concluded that stimulants were the way to go. They give me hope, if nothing else, that positive things can happen for me in this life. In reality, they give me a boost but when it comes down to the nitty-gritty i'm the same. On the upper hand, though, when i'm tweaked I don't have the ability to PAY ATTENTION to my surroundings. I'm only focused on me, and what's good for me, and most importantly, I don't get upset me when I fail. After all, it's not really failing if you never try, right?.....

Anyways, I've abused coke, focalin, ritalin, all the names of all the stimulants in the pharmacy, but I finally found one that works. It's called PROVIGIL (modafinil), and it's a fat-soluble narcolepsy drug that pretty much lasts all day. Get a good solid dose (I am only prescribed 300 but I need closer to 600. It's very hard to get enough of this prescribed by a doctor to use as a mood stabilizing/life bettering drug). None of the bad side-effects, like grinding teeth or sweating. Seriously, it's a godsent. Anyone else have experience with this?

Smacster,
I've read about
Modiodal/Modafinil. And that it's kind of a softer version of Ritalin prescribed for a: people with Narcolepsi and b: for people with ADHD and Asbergers. But never before heard of any with AvPD how got it prescribed.

Schleep, i'm prescribed 2mg Klonopin a night for sleep, plus it lasts into the days cause i've been on it for 3 years, so initially I got it prescribed when I had a 8-6 job. Then I realized my entire life completely changed for the better, people started calling me out of the blue, I don't get stuck in thought processes that spiral downwards and leave me in an emotional pit of hell because I am positively emotionally distant, and most importantly I can speak to people without stuttering because I get nervous. Words flow so much easier. I can concentrate on books for school and process them in my head before interpreting, evaluating and concluding. It's a life saver man.

PS - I agree with your ritalin comparison, but by soft I mean it affects you naturally, rather than chemically, as it takes 3 1/2-5 hours to peak in blood and is so gradual. Lots of stuff are unknown about it but i'm sure we'll know soon enough. As to whether shrinks actually LISTEN to us and adapt their thinking, I don't know if that's possible.

I've been on Effexor for 2 weeks and so far all I've noticed is that I'm more alert (no more late afternoon naps at my desk) and it's very difficult to have an orgasm. I haven't been with anyone since starting Effexor but tried some alone time twice and my heart was about jumping out of my chest from the strained effort. But I hear Effexor takes about a month to kick in, so we'll see. Oh, also I'm not freezing all the time anymore.

blameaux wrote:I've been on Effexor for 2 weeks and so far all I've noticed is that I'm more alert (no more late afternoon naps at my desk)and it's very difficult to have an orgasm.

Same here with effexor.