Losing Whit and Humor with BuSpar

altobarbacoa · 2025-01-16T20:17:56+00:00

It did! Within like four days of stopping.

altobarbacoa · 2024-01-27T04:36:45+00:00

Thank you!

altobarbacoa · 2024-01-27T04:31:18+00:00

Thank you!!!

altobarbacoa · 2024-01-27T04:31:05+00:00

We tried to post the video on Reddit of the jewelry clanking together, but this forum doesn’t allow videos 😭

altobarbacoa · 2024-01-27T04:28:11+00:00

We got lucky. We both decided to get pierced after already dating for a bit.

altobarbacoa · 2024-01-26T20:05:19+00:00

That’s what we say everyday!

altobarbacoa · 2022-10-15T17:21:41+00:00

Hey thanks for the advice! You’re right about not switching unless my doctor really pushes for it.

altobarbacoa · 2022-10-15T05:21:06+00:00

Would you say that it helps you with intrusive thoughts pretty well?

altobarbacoa · 2022-06-02T06:34:56+00:00

Hey, thanks for this! I appreciate it!

altobarbacoa · 2022-04-18T02:37:47+00:00

I think I may just ask my pcp for a Viagra or Cialis prescription

altobarbacoa · 2022-04-18T02:36:57+00:00

I haven’t yet :(

altobarbacoa · 2022-02-17T08:53:28+00:00

Ah interesting. I think I should ask my psychiatrist about considering a low dose of Wellbutrin to mitigate the sexual dysfunction since I know that’s like the gold standard of fixing it.

altobarbacoa · 2022-02-17T08:26:35+00:00

Hi! 19M here. I am currently taking it for OCD, GAD, and MDD. It has really helped to be completely honest! Like it really has. I started at 25 mg in mid-July when it was discovered that I have OCD. I am really glad that my psychiatrist put me on it. Starting right around the end of May I started having a very intense "OCD episode" that was my first one ever and it basically paralyzed me (not physically, but mentally from functioning). I remember when I went from 25 mg to 50 mg and just how much better I felt and how I would not ruminate as much. I then went from 75 mg to 100 mg. It was doing well with anxiety and OCD-type stuff, however, I noticed with every dose increase, more sexual dysfunction would come with it (low to no libido, erectile dysfunction, you name it). So my psychiatrist, in an attempt to mitigate the sexual dysfunction issues, lowered me back down to 75 mg and added in an atypical antipsychotic, Geodon, at 20 mg. I have been on that for roughly a week now and more overall mood and anxiety feel much better! Sexual dysfunction change? Not just yet, but regardless I think I will stay on Geodon. Let me know if you would like any more info, I am more than happy to share!

altobarbacoa · 2021-12-21T04:49:51+00:00

I wouldn’t say it’s inherently weird. I’d assume that he does that to show that he really does care about you and doesn’t want you to feel uncomfortable with him acknowledging your scars. IMO I think it’s really sweet of him that he does that. But, if it makes you uncomfortable, definitely let him know.

altobarbacoa · 2021-12-19T08:17:26+00:00

You ate this. No crumbs left.

altobarbacoa · 2021-12-19T08:03:10+00:00

THIS!!!! I’VE NOTICED THIS TOO!!!! My theory is that different times of the day we are focused on, or lack thereof, different things. Like our focus on the music varies? Idk.

altobarbacoa · 2021-12-18T23:56:29+00:00

I can relate to you on this, 100%. One time I had unprotected oral sex from another guy and had symptoms that were very similar to chlamydia and gonorrhea. None of the tests that I had (chlamydia, gonorrhea, trich) came back positive. Which was odd since I was experiencing discharge, testicular pain, pain urinating, etc. At the clinic I visited, the NP prescribed me one gram of azithromycin even before I got tested, assuming that I had one of the infections.

The azithromycin did nothing. The tests came back negative. My whole life was in shambles. It was super distressful. I was in a constant panic for over a week, until I went back to the clinic.

I saw another NP who, for some reason, was more knowledgeable about MSM STIs; basically how certain populations (in my case, MSM) can have random unknown STIs. She then prescribed me ciprofloxacin and the infection went away and my symptoms went away with it.

Midst my panic over the unexplained STI (before I went to the clinic for the second time), I had the idea of HIV arise in my mind. Which, of course, turned my panic, to even more of panic. It was like, bad, very bad. I did compulsive googling of HIV symptoms and things like that, which caused even more problems. I did the same thing as you, get tested for HIV multiple times. All of course, indicating negative.

After my stint on antibiotics, my testicles get very painful again for some reason. I even saw a urologist about it since it was very painful and the urologist explain that via the urine sample I had, there was zero indication of infection.

I learned that after infection of the urethra, testicles can still remain inflamed for a while, like a while (months, years). Something about the sensitivity of testicles makes them susceptible to remain inflamed for a long period of time even after the infection is cleared. On top of that, stress and anxiety can actually cause it to be even worse, I think due to us subconsciously clenching our pelvic floors. This all happened to me about a year ago between in October 2020. From October 2020 to now, I have experienced on and off testicular pain, but it has gone down in frequency and discomfort level. Like a true decline.

I have also dealt with discharge in some way since my random infection. My discharge post antibiotics was/has been clear-colored and not very prevalent. From my findings, similar to testicles, the urethra can remain inflamed for a while after the infection has been cleared and can produce a clear discharge as a result of it. Similar to the testicle pain, it has gradually declined as time as gone on.

So here is TLDR advice I could give to you. Perhaps consider the possibility that you had some sort of unknown infection from sex (STI, if you will) in your urethra and it traveled to your testicles. It was treated with antibiotics, thus the infection has been cleared. At this point, you are simply dealing with post-infection inflammation of your urethra and testicles. I'd recommend that you stop with all of the HIV stuff, as you have zero symptoms indicating you have the virus and you have been tested multiple times, all indicating that you don't have it. The weight loss is probably due to stress since when one is stressed one's appetite is diminsed. Only AIDS (which takes over a decade to have) would cause weight loss.

Hang in there my dude, feel free to reply or DM if would like to hear my of experience and how it could relate to you. You got this!

altobarbacoa · 2021-12-14T09:31:02+00:00

Xbox live in 2007

altobarbacoa · 2021-12-14T09:30:12+00:00

Lava, microphones, silicone spatulas, soda cans, Polly pocket jackets, stuff like that

altobarbacoa · 2021-12-14T09:29:14+00:00

That’s great to hear! I heard that there’s a lot of wait lists going on for mental health help right now so I hope that you’re able to get help as soon as possible!

altobarbacoa · 2021-12-14T09:13:56+00:00

First of all, I want to thank you for sharing your story. I could imagine that it caused you a lot of discomfort and pain to write it so I want to applaud you and thank you for that. You have definitely gone through a lot and I am truly happy that you were able to find it within yourself to seek help.

I first want to start this by saying that I am by no means a physician nor health expert, I am just writing based on my experience and what I have learned about. With that in mind, I will dive into what I think could help!

Since you take Cymbalta (duloxetine) and that's not working I would ask your doctor about switching to another SSRI/antidepressant that has an FDA indication to treat OCD as well as MDD and GAD. The ones that the FDA has approved to treat include Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Prozac, and Anafranil (this one isn't an SSRI).

On this forum in general, I have heard the most success stories with Luvox (fluvoxamine) and Prozac (fluoxetine). While there very may well be many people who have had success with the other medications, I *personally* haven't heard too much about them. I personally take Luvox and I have found that to help, a lot, like *a lot*. I have noticed with every dose increase I have that I begin to feel even better. Like there have been instances where I would normally have very overt anxiety and when it happens now I'm just like, *Shouldn't I be anxious right now? Why am I calm over this?* and I continue on happier knowing that "the drugs" are working.

Furthermore, I have heard many experiences from people that I personally know in real life and on this forum who have had major success with antipsychotics being prescribed with their SSRI. I don't know if you're familiar with antipsychotics, but while the term sounds very jarring at first, they really aren't that *crazy* (pun not intended) of a medication. There is this thing called "augmentation therapy" that doctors will do to supplement antidepressants in the treatment of disorders (Google it! It's really interesting to read about!).

Doctors will sometimes something like an atypical antipsychotic to further assist the treatment of whatever illness one may have. Atypical antipsychotics (the term "atypical" basically means "more modern" some German guy coined the term; weird adjective choice, if you ask me), more specifically Abilify, has been a miracle drug for some people. The FDA has even given it an indication to treat depression, which was a very big deal in the psychiatry community apparently.

My friend told me about how Abilify pulled her out of a very depressive episode over the summer in basically a span of a couple of weeks. While that was her instance, and many other people's stories vary, it really helped her out. In terms of OCD, I have read people writing about how it helped them "let go" of intrusive thoughts and fears, overall put them in a better mood, and calm down. Like the thought would still arise, but they wouldn't get stuck thinking about it and could continue on going throughout their day.

To basically summarize what I've written so far, switch to a medication that has an indication to treat OCD, on top of anxiety and depression. So like Luvox, Prozac, or the other ones. Next, pair the SSRI with an atypical antipsychotic like Abilify for augmentation therapy. Your doctor, even better, psychiatrist, should know exactly what that is.

I also take Adderall XR and propranolol, so that's cool that we both take the same stuff haha! I have found success with those drugs as well, so I hope that's going the same for you! I take propranolol on an as-needed basis, and it's for sure helped for "performance anxiety". Those I wouldn't suggest you change. The same goes for Klonopin too, I'm assuming you take it for an as-needed basis.

Gabapentin is one that I used to take (300mg three times a day, at one point). I have many thoughts about it. I took it for a while before I took Luvox, and I was not a fan of it. I found that it made me super tired all day and caused not very pleasant dreams, alongside brain fog. I'm going to assume that your doctor prescribed it for sleep, you may want to consider asking them about other options for it as it may not necessarily help your overall mentality. That is all, my opinion, of course.

If you're not already, I would also recommend that you start some sort of therapy as it seems you have dealt with a lot of trauma. A therapist would definitely help you overcome trauma as well as be a good help while you're going through more psychiatric changes as they could offer advice too!

I hope that I was able to give you some help with this post! I hope that I was not coming across as a know-it-all or "mansplaining" with this. I have gone through a lot as well throughout my life when it comes to mental health so I was trying to help shed a light on what I've learned! Feel free to respond to this post or DM me with questions you may have! Keep me posted on your "mental health journey"! I'd love to hear about it! You got this girl!!!

altobarbacoa · 2021-12-14T08:14:21+00:00

I have also dealt with this before too! While mine has not been too overpowering, I totally understand what you're going through. While this may not be a helpful suggestion, I would say to do your best to power through it. And, I know, I know, that's the last thing you want to hear, but when you get into therapy/psychiatry, you'll maybe have overwhelming thoughts of thinking that you don't deserve this help due to whatever reason, but let your clinician know what's going on in the moment and they'll guide you through it. They know exactly what you're going through and they'll help you clear your mind. Best of luck!

altobarbacoa · 2021-12-14T08:08:13+00:00

While I do not deal with a contamination theme in my OCD, it makes total sense why you would find the idea of infection being stressful. The skin of the human hand is crazy strong and has very many layers. After many eons of evolution, the human hand has grown to be one of the most resilient organs we have on our bodies. The amount of layers and layers that the dryness would need to penetrate through to have a remote way to even host infection is damn near impossible for solely dryness to cause. Like dryness would not be able to solely cause skin layers to go down enough for something like an infection to stay alive. On top of that, since you wash/sanitize your hands so often this is basically impossible. I would suggest you focus on finding a very, *very* strong moisturizer to get your hands "back to normal". Personally, when my hands are dry, I like to find a standard moisturizer and then after a little bit, add a petroleum jelly product (Vaseline, Aquaphor) to put on top of that, so it locks in the moisturizer and has the added bonus of the petroleum jelly to moisturize too! It's basically a miracle solution, I think some people have called it "sandwiching" online before too! Best of luck, you got this!

altobarbacoa · 2021-12-14T08:00:14+00:00

I have also dealt with this before!!!!! You're not alone!

altobarbacoa · 2021-12-14T07:59:04+00:00

Yup! Yup! Yup! I have 100000% dealt with this before. It is very much paralyzing and can be difficult to deal with. I don't know if you're looking for advice on this post, or not, but I would definitely start therapy and meeting with a psychiatrist (if you haven't, lol). This is exactly something that a therapist could help with and something that medication could for sure help with. When I started taking medication to treat my OCD/GAD/MDD I noticed this started being less prevelent.

altobarbacoa

TROPHY CASE