I have depression, anxiety, social anxiety, OCD. I have tried many medicines the doctors have given me. One day my doctor gave me a box of EMSAM patches, 9 mg each. I tried them for a couple months, one a day, and I felt nothing. No improvement was evident, I felt just as tired and anxious as always. So I decided to put 4 on each day for 3 days, amounting to 12 total patches.
EMSAM is a selective MAO-B inhibitor at doses below 10 mg/a day. I wanted to achieve MAO-A inhibition as well.....because theoretically, MAO-A inhibition would raise serotonin levels, which should help with my anxiety and OCD.
I washed my arms with rubbing alcohol, then put on the patches, consecutively, one next to the other on my arm. So now (presently) there are 4 patches on my arm.
-00 put on patches
--5 minutes : slight stimulation, faster heartbeat, slightly increased motivation.
I felt less anxious throughout the day, and less depressed. I had slightly more mental energy, and a brighter outlook on life. Music sounded somewhat better.
-8 hours
I started getting dizzy and lightheaded, very tired. I decided to go to bed. I lay in bed half sleeping for a couple hours, then got up. I looked in the mirror, my eyes were extremely bloodshot, my brother asked me if I had smoked weed. I walked around in a daze, I was super tired, every time I stood up I almost fainted. I believe this low blood pressure is due to the Nitric Oxide vasodilation increasing effects of EMSAM.
I felt as if I was extremely dehydrated. I was a little agitated. The whole night, I laid in bed trying to sleep because my body was so tired, but I couldn't get to sleep.
This ironic insomnia was accompanied by extreme low blood pressure and drowsiness, hazy thinking, and mildly improved mood. It could be described as a 'mixture of a booze hangover, a stonedness, and extreme exhaustion from working outside all day.'
I havent slept in 3 nights now, it is 7 o clock in the morning, and I am taking off all the patches. I realized I was kind of stupid.....I even ate tons of food with tyramine. I just slept all day, and twitched all night.
