avanza help

[aacannon]

Hi
I started taking 7.5mg of Avanza 11 days ago. From day 2 I felt wonderful, no more constant nausea and great sleep. I felt normal again. Then day 9 and the depression crept back. I then started taking 15mg and have done so the last 2 nights. No nausea and sleeping okay considering Im woken to breastfeed my little girl numerous times, but still anxious and depressed. Has anyone had this happen?
Also has anyone else taking Avanza and what was the experience like?
Seeing a shrink on Tuesday for the first time.
Also what have other sufferers done to help them, meaning self help?

[psychdoctor]

If you suffer from bipolar disorder, you should not take avanza as the only medication because all anti-depressants can increase your mania symptoms if take without mood stabilizers like Depakote, lithium etc. These days newer anti-psychotics have also been used as mood stabilizers.

[psychdoctor]

Avanza is a wonder drug for major depressive disorder (MDD) esp. for people who have problems with sleeping and appetite loss. Two things to be kept in mind- as you increase the dose, its sedative effect starts decreasing, so if you have not had good sleep at 7.5mg , it is less likely that increasing the dose will help you. Other thing is, it is not the first line drug for MDD. Usually SSRI's are first line drugs. Therefore if depression is not improving start taking an SSRI with it.

[aacannon]

Im still on the Avanza but only 7.5mg. Everytime I give it up completely I get bad nausea and can't sleep. Im tapering very slowly. Im now on Lovan (Prozac) and it has been great. I found my anxiety to be out of control on the Avanza,. I couldn't sit still and realx. I had to constantly be moving and my thoughts would constantly be racing.

[Aravis_]

Hey, I've been taking avanza for a couple of months. I really like it, like you I have no nausea and sleep really well. I'm still having monthly rapid cycling (Im bipolar II) but the downs are no where near as bad. As in, I can get out of bed and function as a human (mostly) ha! I'm finding I'm having trouble with the anxious mania type thing as part of my cycle. I get really really up in the air, like total stress wipe out and run around maniacally whilst not getting anything useful done.. This seems to be getting worse for me while on avanza, something im going to ask my psychiatrist about.

How are you going now? has anyone else experienced worse mania/anxiety while on avanza??

But at least I'm no longer

[aacannon]

Thanks for your advice

Yes my dr knows Im breastfeeding, my little girl is 18 months old and Im trying to wean her. Im now on 15mgs and seeing my doctor on Thursday and the mental health nurse recommends I go to 30mgs, so will probalbly increase on Thursday if Dr says so.
What mood stabilizer are you on?
Anxiety is a big issue for me and I have some suggestions from the mental health nurse such as exercising for 30 mins a say which is meant to help with the relestless feelings in my limbs. Will see how I go.

[capegirlnoshoes]

For self-help the best thing is to find yourself a book about Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) directed toward sufferers of mental illness.  This therapeutic method is the best one out there, it is basically applied commonsense but you'd be surprised how much of it doesn't come naturally, and there are a whole lot of counsellors and books out there that won't help so finding that that specifically mentions CBT is good.  
However, getting a counsellor who is trained it is a much better option.  A shrink who is trained in it is even better.  Remember, the therapy is just as important as the drugs, probably even more so.  
7.5mg of Avanza is a low dose.  I'm on 45mg, the top dose (plus I need a mood-stabiliser).  It's working for me and the only side-effect is extreme drowsiness an hour or so after I take it (which is great, because it means I can sleep), but I've been tried on several other drugs that didn't.  Everyone is different.  Even anti-depressants that are very similar can work differently on the same person.  So please try not to be discouraged.  Two things need to be figured out, the right dosage and the right drug.  Hopefully they can up your dosage and you'll be better, but even if they don't, there are many anti-depressants and chances are one of them will work great for you.  
The initial relief was probably a placebo effect, since anti-depressants don't really kick in until a few weeks.
You should talk to your doctor/shrink about your breastfeeding if you haven't already, because a lot of psychiatric drugs haven't been tested for safety when it comes to breastfeeding.  There could be levels of the drugs in the milk, which could be an issue.