# What medications or treatments should i talk to my doctor about?



## blah421 (Jul 18, 2009)

I've had depersonalization for around 2 1/2 years, and I've never talked to anyone about it or told my doctor. But recently my cousin died and I have been been feeling so much worse and its just not the time to feel so disconnected. So I am ganna make an appointment and talk to my doctor or a psychiatrist im not sure yet. I figure the condition is so obscure that i should print some stuff out and take it in.

I was wondering what medications I should talk to him about. From what I read maybe an SSRI( I was thinking Zoloft because my relative is on it) and a benzo like Xanax or Lorazepam. Klonopin seemed to be the consensus, but that seems more long term slow acting, which I heard wasnt good to do with benzos, I'm really worried he won't prescribe me the benzos, but i really need fast relief now i cant wait months, and I've been having anxiety attacks. I also heard SSRI's completely kill your sex drive, but I'm not sure I have any other option there. So i was just wondering what meds I should take and how the best way to go about talking to my doctor would be, I'm also not very good at talking to people, i have very bad social anxiety so i'm worried he won't get everything I trying to explain.
thanks for your time.


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## Angel_heaven (Jun 1, 2010)

blah421 said:


> I've had depersonalization for around 2 1/2 years, and I've never talked to anyone about it or told my doctor. But recently my cousin died and I have been been feeling so much worse and its just not the time to feel so disconnected. So I am ganna make an appointment and talk to my doctor or a psychiatrist im not sure yet. I figure the condition is so obscure that i should print some stuff out and take it in.
> 
> I was wondering what medications I should talk to him about. From what I read maybe an SSRI( I was thinking Zoloft because my relative is on it) and a benzo like Xanax or Lorazepam. Klonopin seemed to be the consensus, but that seems more long term slow acting, which I heard wasnt good to do with benzos, I'm really worried he won't prescribe me the benzos, but i really need fast relief now i cant wait months, and I've been having anxiety attacks. I also heard SSRI's completely kill your sex drive, but I'm not sure I have any other option there. So i was just wondering what meds I should take and how the best way to go about talking to my doctor would be, I'm also not very good at talking to people, i have very bad social anxiety so i'm worried he won't get everything I trying to explain.
> thanks for your time.


I think it is a good idea to go see a doctor blah but concerning asking others for which medication to use that is not how is works. Even though we all suffer from dp/dr our bodies are all different. One medication can work well with you and not others. I been on 3 medications and 2 of them which made me worse. Its a trial and Error but should defiantly be under the supervision of a doctor.Try to choose a doctor that is familiar with dp and if he is a good doctor he will talk to you about what caused it and counsel you through it. Don't worry about talking to him he knows what we are going through and like I said if he is familiar with the case he will know exactly what you are saying and more. Try to beat this anxiety and become a new person and dont care what others think because no matter what you do they will think that way anyways. Be yourself!


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## BlueTank (Jun 2, 2010)

Ok, my story is out there. I'll sum it up. All I really have is my own personal story.

I was real bad. To help get out of the pit I did a lot of things including reducing stress. I realize you can't really change your situation too well and i'm sorry. Here is the medication run down.

Klonopin! I went quickly up to 1.5mg a day. .5 in morning and 1 at night. was on this all the time. I'm basically off the drug now. I probably take like .125 mg a day if that. I am practically just licking the pill now. I do not have an addictive personality. I do not want to take pills or get high. So, It went very good for me.

Zoloft. I'm tapering. Tapering fucking sucks. Only take this if you really need it. I dont' know how much it helped me TBH. First 3 or 4 days were hell. I almost admitted myself to a mental hospital. Luckily I couldn't find it







. And eventually I got alot better. But anyways a lot of people use a Benzo and an SSRI type deal. Mine is Zoloft and Klonopin. That is common.

Xanax - Very short acting and therefore more addictive. This just didn't do it for me. I dunno.

Anti-psychotics - Damn doctor talked me into Seroquel. This may have helped me get bakc to sleep. Please only take these if your REALLY bad. I was really really bad. They gave me myoclonic jerks. Its not cool. I got on them and off really fast.

Ambien - If your having sleep issues i'm going to tell you that ambien can be the devil. I guess you could say in some ways I abused it. I was getting zero sleep even with it and at some point Ugh. I would take like.. 1.5 dose and I was on like week 3 or 4 of taking it. Wow. Just.. Warning on that one. Try other stuff first.

I hope this helps. In short.. Klonopin, and don't abuse it, and do it right. Slowish ramp up... Ramp it down. That way it stay seffective. I'm off it now and happy that in like 8 months of something big happens to me, it will be effective again, and i dont have to take like 3mg a day just to sleep. hehe. Your doctor may or may not be strong on Benzos. My primary wouldn't deal with it. He gave me very low powered Xanax. he said for heavier Benzo I needed to go to a specialist. I did. I have a psychologist. I dont really need him to much right now. We visit like once every 5 weeks or so now. If your in dire needs and talk to somebody other than a pediatrician, hehe, you'll see more options. But these are all optoins you want to do as a last resort!!!!

About talking to your doctor.
Talking about very high Anxiety is pretty acceptable. You get responses of Anxiety Disorder and sort of compulsive/OCD stuff. And they will talk about Serotonin stuff and Benzo stuff. Cognitive Behavior shtuff....
Talkign about Panic Disorder can put some odd looks on peoples face. "no you have anxiety blah blah". I never hear Panic Disorder. There is a place in my area I have not been to that specialized in Panic Disorders. I called them and they were very open to DP/DR. They said they work with that a lot.
Thats brings me to DP/DR. Feel thigns out if you have not talked about it yet.. You may as well tell them you were abducted by fucking aliens. I'm not kidding. I was told this would happen and it did. Bringing it up causes silence. One lady telling me "no.. you have an anxiety disorder" and all that. She doesn't fucking get it. I would ease into that sort of thing. Be smarter than I was. I was so bad that eventually I was like "I have fucking DP/DR and I need to know the best thigns to do"... Doctors don't give a fuuuuck. It can cause more frustration in your life when they wont work with you.


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## kate_edwin (Aug 9, 2009)

i'd and a therapist, especially if a death triggered a good deal of the problems, a grief counselor might be a good idea. no one's come across meds that have been ...uhm, consistently helpful for dissociation yet, although i may, possibly, i'm hoping this one i just started may actually be working......


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## blah421 (Jul 18, 2009)

Thanks for the input guys. An update, I went and talked to him about anxiety , I didn't tell him about depersonalization. He prescribed me 50mg of Zoloft and a small dose Xanax whenever I need it. I've been on Zoloft for about 3 weeks, I started on a half a pill and worked my way up. At first I felt worse, but now I seem to feel a bit better in someways, but I have a lot of brain fog and points were i just blank out. I still have bouts of anxiety worrying about loved ones dying or feel like life makes no sense and everyone is going to die. I'll give it some more time and see how I feel. I do feel like I have an easier time talking to people and feel a little more outgoing, I worry less about saying dumb things. I also completely cut caffeine and have small bouts of time were everything seems to make sense again, but it's only for a few seconds. I have a followup appointment in about a month.

My depersonalization has been going on for around 2 or 3 years, it started after a week of heavy marijuana use (I haven't smoked since), and was not related to the death of a loved one, but the recent loss of my cousin has really exacerbated my feelings of detachment, he was such a nice and fun guy, and only 30 years old.


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## kate_edwin (Aug 9, 2009)

they cant help you with the dp if they dont know you have it.....

some medications have dp/dissociation as a side effect, it would be wise to tell him you already have that so he can avoid those medications


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## karonc (Sep 30, 2011)

I did about 3 years with Paxil CR to combat my depression/social anxiety with Xanax when needed. The Paxil helped with the depression, but I stopped taking it because the side effects were outweighing the help it was doing. I'm still on the Xanax; when I'm having an 'attack' it helps a lot. Usually if I can curb my anxiety with the Xanax it will bring me back to reality; it has seemed to add to my short-term memory loss though.
Another thing that helped EXPONENTIALLY was cognitive behavioral therapy, my therapist did guided meditations with me and that helped more than anything. I would really recommend finding a therapist who specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy. I was to the point where I was dissociating on a regular basis for long periods of time and I literally thought I was going crazy, but after I started the meditations I was able to have days without any episodes.


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## Absentis (Jul 10, 2007)

Ask for lamotrigine. It's the only medication that has double blind support for its effectiveness. It also isn't addictive, has minimal side effects, and your doctor shouldn't have any problem prescribing it to you. It can also help with depression and anxiety so I'd say this is the one you should go for first. If you walk into a doctor's office and ask for a benzo (like Klonopin) by name he'll think you're just trying to get high and that's no way to start a solid doctor-patient relationship.

This is the study I'm talking about - Aliyev NA, Aliyev ZN (2011). "Lamotrigine in the immediate treatment of outpatients with depersonalization disorder without psychiatric comorbidity: randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study". _Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology_ *31* (1): 61-65. PMID 21192145

If anybody can get a .pdf of it and e-mail it to me I'd appreciate it. This is my throwaway email [email protected]


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