For Ne - clear out your private messages!!!

[Alky]

Hey Ne - tried to reply to your PM, but I can't. So here is my reply:

Hey Ne - nice hearing from you. I'm working 50-60 hour weeks, so I don't get much of a chance to come around here anymore. To answer your questions:

1. Gabapentin - I've had to "tweak" my dosing schedule around my daytime activities. Rather than spacing doses out throughout the day, I take 600mg at night, and 300 sometime during the day and never early-mid morning when I need my mental acuity to be sharpest. The 600 at night has been wonderful. It puts me out and does not give me the wicked hangovers I used to get from trazodone.

2. Clonidine - I wear a transdermal patch which is a bit of a pain in the ass. I work out a lot and consequently shower up to twice a day, so I'm always worried about it falling off. But doc says BP will be affected too dramatically by a daily tablet, since it's so fast acting, so he says stick with the patch which deals slow, steady doses. It's a bit sedating on the first day I have it on, but I don't notice it after that.

3. Bac - don't even notice it anymore! :congratulatory: Plus, he dialed it back to 80mg (20mg 4 x daily)

4. Hydroxyzine - 50mg puts me back to baseline when I have an acute panic attack during the day, without drowsiness. I've taken it with the gabapentin at night and it gives me a trazodone-like hangover, so I avoid it at night unless I'm having serious problems falling asleep.

5. Naltrexone - don't take it unless I'm really having a compulsion to drink. Doesn't really do anything to me. Doc wanted me to get the Vivitrol shot, but I don't want to risk experiencing anhedonia from my own endorphins not being allowed to bind to the opiate receptors.

6. Ativan - not ever fucking going there again. I'd drink sooner than take it.

Anyway, I've tried to be as detailed as possible. Hope it helps. It's nice to have an out-of-the-box thinking psychiatrist who's not afraid of thinking outside the box. Take care.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Thanks, Alky!

Don't know why my PM box says it's full. Perhaps my subscription status hasn't transferred over here. No way I'm going to have time to clean out another couple hundred PMs any time soon. (I get very attached to them, and even have the first one I ever received, from Lo0p! Gawd that was a looong time ago. Anyway!)

While I try to collect information about medications that seem to be working or are particularly "out of the box", I am also asking for personal reasons. If I don't get my ADD symptoms under control, rigorous academic life is going to be particularly difficult. Maybe even too difficult to manage. Since my goals include another 7 years of school, I'm a bit worried.

How does the clonidine effect your life? And does it work for ADD symptoms like concentration and focus? (I'm not hyper. Ha. Just the opposite.)

Thanks again for the reply, and sorry about the PM situation. Great to hear you're doing so well. Congratulations!

PS: As an aside, did you know that there was a study done with baclofen and addiction in Florida some years ago? The pdocs in that sunny state seem to be much more open to, and flexible with, baclofen than anywhere else I've read about. I can't help but think the two things are related. Fascinating.

[Alky]

Hi Ne, again, I feel a little sedated the second day I have the clonidine patch on, but other than that, it's been fine. I can't say for sure what drug is doing what, but a lot of my job entails reading a lot of college-level writing, some of it not very good, and I've never been able to focus for hours at a stretch like I'm able to now. My life has a lot more structure as well. I'm usually at the gym working out long before the sun comes up and I would have never been able to maintain that level of commitment to anything before. I'm sure being hungover didn't help.

Like you, I'm not ADHD, but I have definitely struggled with maintaining focus most of my life as far back as I can remember. In fact, clonidine for ADD is not off-label use Down Unda', so it is an accepted medication for that purpose already in some parts of the world.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Thanks, Alky. I really appreciate the responses.

Not being drunk and hungover is the single most amazing thing that has ever happened in my life. Everything is improved. I mention that because it's easy to lose sight of the big picture when I focus on the other things I want to change or improve.

But just because the other stuff I struggle with is secondary, it doesn't mean it isn't frustrating! I know you know.

Thanks again and keep in touch.

[spiritwolf333]

Hi Alky -thanks for this detailed information. I too take Clonidine for blood pressure at night (2-.5mg) and it helps with my ADHD. For me, Clonidine does have a small calming effect -and I have never experienced any drowsiness effect from it. Clonidine was a remarkable medication for me when I first tried to quit drinking without any other medications (other than Adderall xr).

Alky, this is really good information for many to see -especially for those who Baclofen did not work for -100%.

Thanks for posting


[QUOTE=Alky;1570313]Hey Ne - tried to reply to your PM, but I can't. So here is my reply:

Hey Ne - nice hearing from you. I'm working 50-60 hour weeks, so I don't get much of a chance to come around here anymore. To answer your questions:

1. Gabapentin - I've had to "tweak" my dosing schedule around my daytime activities. Rather than spacing doses out throughout the day, I take 600mg at night, and 300 sometime during the day and never early-mid morning when I need my mental acuity to be sharpest. The 600 at night has been wonderful. It puts me out and does not give me the wicked hangovers I used to get from trazodone.

2. Clonidine - I wear a transdermal patch which is a bit of a pain in the ass. I work out a lot and consequently shower up to twice a day, so I'm always worried about it falling off. But doc says BP will be affected too dramatically by a daily tablet, since it's so fast acting, so he says stick with the patch which deals slow, steady doses. It's a bit sedating on the first day I have it on, but I don't notice it after that.

3. Bac - don't even notice it anymore! :congratulatory: Plus, he dialed it back to 80mg (20mg 4 x daily)

4. Hydroxyzine - 50mg puts me back to baseline when I have an acute panic attack during the day, without drowsiness. I've taken it with the gabapentin at night and it gives me a trazodone-like hangover, so I avoid it at night unless I'm having serious problems falling asleep.

5. Naltrexone - don't take it unless I'm really having a compulsion to drink. Doesn't really do anything to me. Doc wanted me to get the Vivitrol shot, but I don't want to risk experiencing anhedonia from my own endorphins not being allowed to bind to the opiate receptors.
QUOTE]

Hi Alky -thanks for this detailed information. I too take Clonidine for blood pressure at night (2-.5mg) and it helps with my ADHD. For me, Clonidine does have a small calming effect -and I have never experienced any drowsiness effect from it. Clonidine was a remarkable medication for me when I first tried to quit drinking without any other medications (other than Adderall xr).

Alky, this is really good information for many to see -especially for those who Baclofen did not work for -100%.

Thanks for posting.