Lacking concentration and focus to tasks

Sirs,

I am concerned at an emerging problem; a decreasing lack of concentration.

I am a 40-year-old male and have been on anti-depressants since I was traumatised by the collapse of my marriage 6 years ago.  In the past 6 months I have tried to gradually reduce the dosage of the prescribed anti-depressant Prothiaden so as to eliminate them completely from my system. I am tired of these pills. From the prescribed 525mg per week dose I am now down to 150mg per week.

However there are an interesting number of side effects that I have now observed.  Firstly, I am sleeping much less.  I could now easily work 12-15 hour day if I wanted to and I need little sleep but with a new family I need to balance activities.  Secondly, I feel much more elevated, alive and vibrant; in fact the world seems too slow at times!  Thirdly, I am quicker to be irritated and lastly, this is what I have really noticed, my levels of concentration are slipping drastically.

I have observed that I can now only concentrate either reading or following a particular avenue of study for approximately 3 to 5 minute periods then my mind wanders to another subject or I do something completely different.  When I am into the new activity I am then aware of what I was doing in the previous activity.  At the moment, I am desperately trying to find ways to continue getting tasks done.

I also recall as a child that I had the same difficulty in concentrating and would often just get up and walk around a classroom, stare out a window or daydream while a teacher was teaching.  At school I was ridiculed and constantly got poor grades and no help at all with schooling.

The anti-depressant stabilised, assisted and calmed me.  So much so I was able to better focus, realign and take charge of my life. I was able to attend University and completed my MBA and am now completing a research degree.

It has been suggested that I have a "serotonin deficiency" but I am more concerned and want to know how I can improve my levels of concentration and what is the possible cause-remedy of this affliction I seem to have.

Thank you.

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

You can think about this along three pathways. First, you may be describing attention deficit issues, and there are medications for that to discuss with your doctor. Secondly, you may have a serotonin deficiency after that much medication for that long and think about a low dose of another ssri on a tempoary basis, and wean slowly. That will tell you something. The third possibiltiy to consider has to do with your readiness to get going in life...your motor is running and you might have some big decisions to make and that is why your mind is being distracted...not quite facing up to what is going on in a fully conscious analytic mode. If that is the case, talk therapy is what you need...brief therapy dealing with life course/career decisions.