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Originally Posted by jo_thorne
May I ask what diagnosis you were given when you were taking meds? If it's plain vanilla depression, you might try Wellbutrin alone to see if that helps. It won't disturb your sex life, but it may make you jittery and give you insomnia.
I think it's great that Sam-E works for you. I have taken it before and liked the way it made me feel, but at the time, there seemed to be quality control issues or something, because one bottle would work great then then next one (same brand) didn't seem to do anything.
May I ask what brand you like? Does it still have to be taken in the morning before you've eaten anything? (It's been years since I took it, and at that time, the formulation was still kind of "delicate".)
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The diagnosis was dysthymia and social anxiety disorder. I've never really understood the dysthymia diagnosis because all the definitions I've seen use the phrase, "mild depression" when describing dysthymia, but I wouldn't say there's anything terribly mild about it. When I'm feeling "good" and I take the depression quiz here, I'm on the low side of the "severe depression" category, if I'm feeling bad like I have been recently, I'm about 20 points further into the severe depression category. I wound up in the "moderate depression" category one time in the last three years that I've been taking the quiz.
I've had plenty of trouble with insomnia in the past, so Wellbutrin alone may be a bad idea.
The only Sam-e brands I've tried have been Nature Made and the CVS store brand, both seem fine to me. I take it in the morning because it gives me a mild energy boost...enough to cause insomnia if I take it at night. You are supposed to take it on an empty stomach. I take it as soon as I wake up, then wait 30 minutes before I eat anything. A lot of people have reported stomach upset, but the only time I've had trouble was at 2,000 mg/day (which is higher than the maximum range Nature Made lists...I believe their max is 1,600mg). Anything less than 1,200mg has no noticeable effect on me at all (I'm male, 5'8", 160lbs). I really need 1,600-2,000mg daily which is quite expensive.