This is sort of an update to I Think My Depression is Winning. I just haven’t been feeling any better, so a couple of doctor visits later, my psychiatrist decides to add a low dose of Abilify to my daily routine.
I’ve been on Abilify before. It helped my motivation at first, but then it just made me nervous, so I was taken off. This will be a lower dose though. I’m not optimistic, but I’ll try anything at this point.
The good news is that this doctor has agreed to give me a supply of Trazadone, which is a light sedative to help with my chronic insomnia. It’s also an antidepressant. I’ve never had a doctor agree to give me a sleep aid before, although I did get a couple of doses of Ambien when I was in the hospital for an asthma exacerbated chest cold. That was weird. I thought I could see the inside of my brain.
Anyway, that’s how it’s been going lately.
If you anticipate trying new medications until you find one that works, I would suggest being genetically tested. Many people have a genetic makeup that prevents them from metabolizing certain medications, or they metabolize them very fast. Either way can result in less than optimal outcomes. As someone who has tried dozens of antidepressants over the past 35 years, my eyes were opened when I was finally tested. You could save yourself years of fruitless medication trials.
Abilify worked reasonably well for me, but made my hands shake terribly. I switched to Vraylar- which worked much better and no tremors but I could not sleep. So, they added Mirtazipine. Now, things are much better.
A bit more info on that test:
OP: Whatever the eventual recipe, I hope they get you there, and quickly.
All the best.
I endorse this suggestion. It can save fruitless medication trials or identify important precursors that you need to utilize meds successfully.
When I got my results it explained a lot of frustrating experiences with meds that were supposed to help, but didn’t.
I started seeing a psychiatrist last year when hypomanic tendencies started coming out, and I had to go through a few changes of medication before I found something that seems to have stabilized me. Also, a stint in rehab stopping drinking helped heaps. I started with an anti-depressant, as my PCP originally thought that was the issue, and my psychiatrist tweaked the idea until I had some unusually hypomanic episodes, and that was stopped in favor of lamotragine (which I did not like) and then just the classic lithium carbonate, which worked a treat for me. The sleep aid in my case was Seroquel/quentiapine, but now I only take it on an as-needed basis, as it can give me a bit of a “hangover” sometimes, but it does seem to do well in also “detangling” my brain (as a sleep aid, it is an off-label use; it is an anti-psychotic drug that is also used in bipolar disorder.) It took a few goes, but a balance has been reached. I also had to take gabapentin for awhile, but that’s been discontinued, as I receive no benefit from it that I can tell.
From my understanding, there is a good bit of trial-and-error to this. I was not aware of genetic testing as an option – if I had known, I might have suggested that to my psychiatrist, but after several rounds of tinkering, something was found that has worked for almost all of 2021 (I had a minor hypomanic relapse at the end of the year that sorted itself out by slightly increasing my lithium dosage.)
This is to say, hang in there, give it some time and if things aren’t working, keep your doctor abreast and try something different. If Trazadone doesn’t work, ask your psych if Seroquel could be beneficial (it may very well not be in unipolar depression; I’m not sure.) I’m pulling for you and hope you can find peace.