The Other Me
‘The Fugue’ iv. As I resumed my daily life – and even went out a bit again – I decided to cull the Xanax and cut away the rest of it in the space of a couple of weeks. Going off the Xanax so rapidly, there were withdrawal symptoms – shortness of breath; and, worse, muscle cramps that tore through my body. That was to be expected. Xanax also acted as a muscle relaxant. In its absence, my body probably wondered what the hell was going on. To hell with it, I thought. This might’ve been a situation where, previously, I would’ve panicked. I would’ve obsessed with worry about what…
The Other Me
‘The Fugue’ iii. Over the years, I learned there are different types of antidepressants. There are the Tricyclic antidepressants, like Tofranil and Sinequan. Dr Jarasinghe told me that Tofranil was the ‘grandfather’ of antidepressants, and its use as an antidepressant had been discovered by accident. According to Dr Jarasinghe, it was designed and tried for tuberculosis, but in trials it was discovered that it improved mood. The MAOIs – the Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors – have lots of dietary restrictions and interactions with other medications. Aurorix is a MAOI, although (when I was on it) it was a very new MAOI, and didn’t have the same restrictions. Then there were a…