[DuhPressed]

Hello I'm new here. I don't know where to begin but I'm going to have to keep it short because my mind is really slow and stupid. I am seriously depressed at this point and the primary reason I am this depressed is the massive memory loss and cognitive malfunction I've been experiencing. It is so bad that I am only 35 and I'm scaed to death that I have dementia. It's like a cross between dementia, amnesia, and brain damage and everything is in slow motion. I want to get something straight though. It's NOT depression or anxiety that's causing the memory/cognitive loss it's the other way around. It's the memory/cognitive loss that came first and is what is making me depressed. I didn't start feeling like I had dementia/amnesia until I was on just xanax for 8 months in 2011. My mind has been rapidly deteriorating ever since. Since then I have been on prozac again and then wellbutrin and then cymbalta. I was on cymbalta for about 9 months. But nothing helps with the depression because nothing will bring my mind out of whatever the xanx did to me. I seriously think that a low does of adderall over the course of several months is what would help. I'm sure they won't prescribe this to me just because of the memory issues but do you think they would prescribe it for treatment resistant depression? I feel adderall would reverse the dementia like issues the xanax caused, I feel it would reverse the anhedonia the xanax caused and the depression. But adderall isn't prescribed for any of that. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions?

[Rohag]

Hello & Welcome, DuhPressed.

Originally Posted by DuhPressed

It's NOT depression or anxiety that's causing the memory/cognitive loss it's the other way around.

Is a neurologist involved in your treatment? It is my unfortunate experience that once you've got a depression diagnosis doctors tend to read all your symptoms as manifestations of the depression, and thus they don't consider screening for anything else. Depression can hide other problems.

[GreyThinker]

Unfortunately I don't have many suggestions at the moment, but I wanted to say that I hope you soon find something that helps you. It sounds like you have been on quite a cocktail of medications. Do you also try to keep to a good diet (vegetables, fruit and protein are good brain foods) and get regular exercise, even if it is only walking? I find a good walk in fresh air often clears my mind and calms me. Sleeping is the other helpful thing, but if you are stressed that is easier said than done.

I also find that trying to force my memory to remember things just makes me more upset and confused but if I leave my sub-conscious alone to work on it for a while, the missing name/thought/occasion usually pops into my mind eventually. I have a couple of visualisations - one is an old-fashioned file system that my subconscious has to work through bit by bit, and sometimes the bits of paper I need are at the bottom, especially if it is not something I have had to access for a while... the other is the concept of a slow burner on a stove, and I leave the question simmering in a pan at the back for a while.

[montanan4ever]

My suggestion is to get a complete neuropsych evaluation. You would start with a neurologist for that. There's no sense in just tossing another medication into the mix without a very thorough evaluation of how your brain is working.

[avlady]

i've been on every drug available since 1985 hospital stays every year, but it wasn't until i was put on clanazapam that I started to both sleep better and not feel like i've got dementia. I was in accidents and sustained head injuries that is why i think I have dementia. if so or not that drug helped tremendously, i go to bed early and wake up earlier, as before that I slept all day and all night. I was a vegetable, as i was also told by my brothers and sisters years an years ago. i would be taken by ambulance to the hospital alot back in the late1980's, but no one seemed to quite understand. Nowadays there are many more different diagnoses and drugs that can be used, i know you'll probably don't want to be a guinea pig, I used to go around the ward going"oink". Well i guess i was sicker than i thought, as now i feel somewhat "Normal" but it took many, many drug trials and i do like what I'm on now. I'm also on 8 different other meds, one for hypothroidism- synthroid,and who knows you may have something more serious or even less serious than dementia.Well i hope you get the meds you need or just even a better diagnosis.avlady

[frownupsidedown]

I also have treatment resistant depression and am constantly changing medication combinations. Basically every 6 months I have to have a new combo and this has been going on for 15 years. I have a lot of memory loss issues and find it extremely difficult to recall information especially when my depression is severe. When I'm at my worst, my therapist and family can tell because I can't think very fast and respond slower and I can't concentrate or do anything that requires complicated thinking. So you are not alone, hang in there...