Worried about my cocktail!

[daisy]

I'm worried that I'm on too many meds. I know the number of meds are not as many as some people have to take, but it is the most I've ever been on at one time. Perhaps it's nothing, and I'm just not used to taking this much all at once, but I wanted to get some opinions of other people who have been on med cocktails.

Right now, my pdoc has me on

Day - 100 mg. Pristiq, 300 mg. Wellbutrin XL, 70 mg. Vyvanse, 0.5-1 mg Xanax (only as needed, and I use it only once every few days), 20 mg Adderall (only used when I need extra concentration in the day, or when I wake up late and do not want the extended Vyvanse in my system. Use maybe once every 2 weeks.)

Night - 15 mg. Restoril, 0.5 Xanax

They have all been working VERY well for me... I'm beginning to feel the best I have in a long time. My ADHD, Insomnia, and Anxiety are finally (mostly) under control for the first time in my life, and my depression is getting there. I don't have any side effects.

However, according to all of the Interaction checkers, there seems to be a lot of Major drug interactions, particularly in my daytime meds. Like I said, I don't feel any side effects - I actually feel like a normal person - but I'm just concerned something will happen.

Should I get a second opinion? I hate to go off anything, because I am finally getting my issues under control. Does anybody else have experience with a med cocktail like this, particularly with Pristiq, Wellbutrin, and/or Vyvanse?

[meg]

sorry this is gonna be short (gotta work-- eep.)

bring up the interaction thing with your pharmacist sometime when the pharmacy isn't too busy (ie: don't attempt this on weekends, lunch break or rush hour) and just ask them to double check that all of your meds are safe to take together-- that's their job to know that stuff. you have all of your Rxs at the same pharmacy, right? that's important because then the pharmacist has a much better chance of catching interactions on their own.

once that's settled then do your best to focus on how you feel and how well the treatment is working-- not the number of pills it takes. I feel like this takes a long time to get used to for most of us but a lot of us have been there and worried about being so 'medicated'...but to me, as long as the side-effects are tolerable and I have my LIFE back? no arbitrary number that's 'too many' is going to make me throw this precious stability away.

I'm still making peace with taking so many meds at 21,

but one of the reasons that I made it to 21 is that I'm taking so many meds.

cost/benefit.

goodluck figuring this out for yourself, but if there aren't any serious interactions and you're feeling good (!) then please, don't rock the boat to feel better about the size of your pill case-- trust me on that, k?

m

edited to add: I'm taking a fairly similar amount of meds to you (check out my signature) and take wellbutrin xl and adderall which we have in common. There's a thread around here somewhere about cocktails that WORK for people..and if you look at the lists of meds it sometimes takes and read what the person has to say about finally being stable I think you might see that for most of us, the number of meds is not nearly as important as everything that comes with a good cocktail. I'll try to find the link for you, it's a pretty recent post (started by scatty IIRC?)

am baaaack it's the post right below yours:

http://www.crazyboards.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=28478

[sorrel]

sorry this is gonna be short

Apparently 'short' is a relative term.

[meg]

sorry this is gonna be short

Apparently 'short' is a relative term.

haha, I know, I know...

(and do ya see that I'm not working still?)

this is why I have the disclaimer/warning in my signature -- I mean, it *was* gonna be short..

oy.

m