Q. I am a 22yr old girl who has been on various anti depressants (unsuccessfully) since 18, has had individual psychologist sessions, group therapy full time (4 days a wk for 3 months, but was discharged due to inability to fulfill attendance contract due to symptoms of my illness), I self-harm (by cutting), have an alcohol problem, binge eating, one (almost successful) suicide attempt earlier this year, and extreme aggressive mood swings towards my boyfriend (who is my one friend), including hitting him and pushing him into attacking me back. sometimes I get totally hyper and giggly, other times I just want to sleep. I don't understand my boyfriend when he talks to me and I always think he's insulting me, I can't understand how other people act. I mostly hate other people.
My doctor and psychiatrist don't listen to me when I say my medication
(150mg Effexor XR daily) doesn't work, and I do nothing but sit in bed
all day as I have no friends except my partner with whom I live since I
dropped out of university just before my final term because I wasn't
coping. I am afraid to go out alone in case anyone calls me names, so
my partner does the shopping for me. what can I do? I think I have BPD
although only one previous psychiatrist has ever mentioned personality
disorder when she said I wasn't suffering from depression, but she
wouldn't tell me anything else - just that I had a personality disorder.
Do I need different/more medication?
A. I cannot tell what you need for sure. If you have BPD, and if you have carbohydrate craving/sweet tooth, your Effexor XR dosage is increased until your sweet tooth goes away. This is usually between 300 and 450 mg/day. It may not be the right medication, and you may not have BPD. Go over it with your doctor, and ask them to increase the medication. If they do not and you take all your medication without asking, it will likely cause your doctor to be upset. Check out the other Effexor XR, Serzone, and Zoloft letters on this site for more data, and refer your doctor to this site. All the Effexor, Serzone, Zoloft, and Prozac data have been published.
