I tried Prozac but it didn’t help a lot and I found my gf so I didn’t want the sexual side effects, then after a lot of anxiety tried Lyrica and it worked decently for a bit less than a year but I think that now it doesn’t help that much (either because my circumstances are more anxiety inducing in general or because of tolerance).
There aren’t that many CBT therapists in my country either let alone ERP specialists (most are talk therapists or psychoanalysts). I’m not sure how much it would help anyways because I mainly have mental obsessions which might are more difficult to prevent.
What did you do in a similar position? Did you manage to find some semblance of inner peace? Thanks for your time
I haven’t tried memantine before but it’s very similar to amantadine, which I do take.
I’ve heard one anecdotal report that memantine’s effect is stronger than amantadine but idk the truth of that.
Amantadine is an anticholinergic but it’s very mild in this respect compared to the anticholinergic effects that you get from antipsychotics.
I take amantadine to hit a few different birds with one stone: I have ADHD and I’m really sensitive to the side effects of norepinephrinergic meds (think Adderall, Vyvanse) and amantadine increases dopamine release and blocks reuptake so it works well as an adjunct ADHD med for me. I suffer from pretty crippling depression and the NMDA antagonist effect is definitely welcome. Last of all there’s the obvious anxiety that goes along with the depression and the sensitivity to norepinephrinergic meds and amantadine works well to mitigate these two related factors.
It’s a little bit hard to determine what memantine would feel like for a non-ADHDer but I would say that it’s anxiolytic effects would still be the major effect, so if it works it should feel reduce your anxiety noticeably.
(I’ve only ever had temazepam during serious mental health crises so I can’t really compare the effect to benzodiazepines anecdotally, unfortunately.)