Medication is helping, at least I think it is...

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to let you all know how I have been doing. The doctor put me on Prozac for depression. It seems to be helping in a combined effort with Adderall XR for my ADD instead of the Concerta. I am doing better in school. After last school year, starting off with a clean slate is helping also. Being on the medicine, I can think clearer and pay attention to what has to be done more easily.

One problem that I have noticed with the drugs is that they keep me up at night. Like right now: I am probably DOG TIRED, but I can't sleep. Its just a side effect of one of them, but I drink a lot of caffeine, so the two combined is probably not too good of a thing if I want to sleep. On the other hand, if I stop drinking caffeinated bevrages, I go through withdrawal. That has happend before, and it is not pleasent.

The drugs have also made me have a loss of appetite. I don't eat lunch because I'm not really hungry. At dinner, I pretty much force the last bit of food down. I don't really eat braekfast either.

My dad and I are still having problems, but they aren't as bad as durring the summer (when I see him more). Another reason that arguments aren't popping up so much could be that I am in a programming in BASIC class at school, and he does programming for work.

Thats pretty much all, well, not really. There is a lot at school going on. I got some cool classes. I just wanted to let you all know how I was.

thank you all for being there for me.

Thanks for the update rt

I'm still getting graphics for you if you are still working on your website. I actually dug up a bunch of ones that may fit the bill but I haven't had time to set them up and send them to you yet. Sorry I haven't been timely in that.

Make sure you talk to your doc about the sleep and the eating. Both Prozac and Zoloft effected my appetite, for me it gave me some nausea, sometimes very bad but sometimes only a hint of it. Sometimes the nausea was so low that I hardly noticed it but did notice it impacting on my appetite. With time that did go away though. With Zoloft it took a VERY long time for the nausea to go away but it eventually did and my appetite finally came back.

Taking the meds with some food can help a lot with that regard, so make sure you don't take them on an empty stomach unless the doctor instructs otherwise (I have one RX that I have to take alone, with no food and no other meds for at least 1/2 hour, only water, but the instructions are very clear about that).

Talk about the sleeping too. The Prozac might be doing that. Do you take it in the morning or at night? Ask the doc but maybe switching it or one of the other meds to morning might help. The Wellbutrin I take now really effects my sleep, and I found that even if I take it too late in the morning I can't sleep at night. If I don't take it before 9 or 10 am I am screwed for the night.

I was addicted to caffiene too, for a long time, and it got worse with my depression, partly because the depression gave me fatigue and also because drinking coffee just became a depression habit, sort of like a comfort food I guess. I also use a lot of sugar in my coffee so it really made me jumpy. I am also very sensitive to caffine so I did bother my sleep, making for a vicious cycle.

I finally did cut out the caffiene and dealt with the consequenses. You might also talk to the doctor about the best way to do that. I went cold turkey and it was hard, but I cut all caffiene out of my life, no cofffee, no soda, no iced tea (well, I still eat chocolate though, but that's a separate food group ) and I feel much much much the better for it.

When the depression got really really bad for me it was a tough fight because I was sleeping way too much and the urge to try to start coffee again to stay out of bed was strong, but it wasn't a habit I wanted to reestablish.

Good luck and keep us posted, glad you seem to be enjoying school. I remember when I had basic programming (warning... old man story coming up) it was just a brand new thing and as an experiment they were taking a few people from the honors chemistry class to get weekly instruction in programming. There were no personal computers back then. The "computing room" was just a spare room with one teletype terminal in it, connected to a computer in another city somewhere. We would each get a chance to use the teletype machine, with a cylindrical type head (sort of like the IBM Selectric Ball Typewriters) with a roll of yellow paper feeding through it, we would type in our Basic commands , run, and it would type back the results.

And we had to walk five miles in the snow to get there. And five miles in the snow to get home. Uphill. Both ways.

Thanks for the update, rt. Glad you are seeing the proverbial "light at the end of the tunnel" and the world is looking a bit brighter.

I agree that you should talk to your doc about affects of meds, mixing with caffeine, etc.

Interesting to learn that wellbutrin keeps people up -- it knocked me out so completely, I couldn't stay awake long enough to notice whether I was depressed or better. Had to stop after only a few days, since dose was very low to start.

Hope the school year continues to go well for you, rt

rt:
I'm also on Prozac and it seems to be helping. It keeps me more leveled out. I actually think this is going to be the med for me. My worst side effect is extreme drowsiness. I'm also being treated for extreme anxiety/panic disorder with Xanax. So it seems like EVERYTHING makes me sleepy. My days are all foggy but it's better than what it was before.
I understand these side effects don't last long....

What I really wanted to comment on is the caffeine addiction. I was told by my doc to cut out caffeine. I'm like yeah cut my arm off too while you're at it. I am a fiend. I've been cutting back, but it seems to make me even more drowsy. It stinks but hopefully it will get better. I'm supplementing the few sodas I drink now with juices and (ick!) water. So I can completely relate with the anxiety that comes with stopping drinking it.

Hope things continue to look up for you !

Take Care.

Thanks r and glad something is working out... and that about the programming and having something in common is good too.

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