Gabapentin, Abilify & Prozac, with side of Methocarbamol. Thoughts Welcome.
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Hello and Thank You for reading.
Went to see new GP today for Treatment Resistant Depression. This started with a car crash, other driver ticketed. Have standing Post Concussion Syndrome/Brain Damage. Then people I loved, died. Grief gripped me till grief let go. Didn't handle these events very well, I was unpleasant to be around for several years. There is a smidge of residual trauma and spinal torque pain and I still sleep with my neck weird, also permanent. These are my new meds. Googled Gabapentin & Abilify and all I've found were contra indications. Not very encouraging. It's been a few hours, this is a very low dose of Abilify @ 2mg, Methocarbamol @ 750mg, Gabapentin @ 300 mg X 3 per day, 20mg Prozac. Feel calm and centered and a bit tired, but the panic/anxiety is 100% gone. My family can tell when I'm on meds that work, because it's easier to be around me.
In this last year have noticed that I react to Prozac right off, instead of it taking weeks to activate. Hate that spaced out Serotonin zone, that's when I have to stop taking it. By that time I'm out of bed but still pretty unorganized and low functioning, but now too zippy, this is brain damage world. The Gabapentin helps tons in so many ways, it changed my life, it was a gigantic quality of life improvement. It helps with sleep regulation, mood stabilization, spine and neck pain, basically in ways that help me interact with the rest of the world.
Today the MD/GP educated me that Benzodiazepam's will destroy me, literally a shorter life span. That's when Abilify entered the conversation and if this MD/GP is willing to deal with my ugly complicated mess. Then I'm willing to try a new med. Also have Hydroxyzine as an option and it works fine for occasional anxiety and insomnia.
Oh and lots of counseling, meds and counseling side by side. Have wellness plan, depression management plan, crisis/safety plan all in writing. Took a few years to polish.
It was worth it.
Happy I saw new GP today, stayed open to new ideas. Happy to have these new tools to help me better manage because I wasn't managing very well before. Wish I didn't need to be on them. GP said that because I broke due to trauma, everything is going to be harder to sustain wellness and that my odds of relapse are 99.9%. It was a pretty serious break with serious suicidal ideations and requiring hospitalization for access to a decent shrink who wrote the initial prescriptions that were so awesome and successful during that episode. This is just a minor tweak I hope a good one, from Benzo's to the Abilify.
Takes hard work keeping the depression under control. A great support system, community, etc. Years to understand the disease to be able to craft the wellness plan, to know myself, not to mention finding a qualified mental health provider to work with.
Ok, I'm done chattering. It seems like a lot of meds, but actually, at the end of the day, I feel a lot better.
Has anyone else had any success with this combo? Would love to hear about journey.
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babs99203 hashteroid83882
Posted
I'm sorry you've had such a lot of difficult things in your life recently. I can't begin to give advice on this, All I can say is that gab has some of the same problems as benzoids, which include severe depression and suicidal ideation. I have no idea if there's a connection or you are dealing with other underlying causes. Gab did give me the depression and suicidal thoughts. I'm glad it's working for you, but be aware of this possibility. I'm also sorry that a doctor would say that there's a 99.9% chance that you'll have a relapse, that doesn't sound very helpful to me. Let's hope you can show that person wrong!