 Come back to my YouTube channel. This is Daniel Rosal here bringing you another video today from the usual occasion in Jerusalem Now just before I get into this video I want to make a quick disclaimer or note and that's that I have been working hard recently To make this YouTube channel a more focused experience around a couple of specific topics I know I mentioned this before when I started producing these YouTube videos a couple of years back I was really just playing around with different formats and sort of I'm still doing that to a large extent But now that you know a few people have subscribed I realized that people are expecting Videos not about every topic under the Sun. So it's an ongoing process I am trying to split out stuff that isn't about Jerusalem and Israel which I think is fascinating Personally the videos I'm most interested in making are videos about the very interesting going goings on in my locality So that's a work in progress But I'm making an exception for this video because I think that mental health is such a vitally important topic and rather than set Up a channel about just about my mental health journey in which I don't think people would be really that interested in I'm gonna just put this up on my main channel. I'm doing this video not randomly But rather because I received email today from someone called Niko and he wrote me a lovely email and Niko's email Was super timely because just started resuming taking the well butron. This is the Israeli Hebrew while butron. That's the funny writing for those who can't read Hebrew But it's the same while butron as you can find in other countries. It's the 300 milligram Extended release. I want to just read Niko's email because it was really nice Niko says hi Daniel How are you? I saw your video about while butron and your story really touched me since I am in a similar situation I was recently diagnosed with ADHD plus. I have dystemia mild depression dystemia I believe the modern official term is persistent depressive disorder or PDD. I went from Vanillafixine, I'm having trouble pronouncing this, to Remative and I continued only with Remative Lastly, I got on to while butron 150 for now But I started only a few days ago. All these changes were made as my psychiatrist Which is great and what I do as well. I saw that you stopped taking while butron after doing a great video about it Ha ha. Can I ask what happened? I saw many videos of people taking it for a short period and then changing for something else Are you taking now other meds for depression and or ADHD? Thank you very much for sharing the video That was really inspiring. I love these emails These emails make my day and if you want to send me an email in the contact tab or in the about tab of the YouTube Channel is an email address and I don't exaggerate. They truly make my day So Niko's email he asked why I stopped taking while butron So I'm gonna seize on this moment to do a video about it. So the reason I stopped taking while butron I was on 300 milligrams, which is for these days sort of the maximum dose now technically I have read about people being on 450 milligrams a while butron before you go any further with this video and unfortunately, I'm this not doing this disclaimer in chronological order I'm not a doctor. I'm just a person taking these medications like a lot of other folks on YouTube And therefore if you do have concerns about your own medical history or what you should be taking definitely raise those with your Doctor 300 milligrams as I was mentioning is for a lot of people the maximum dose of while butron even though some folks are taking 450 if you put in 450 milligrams while butron to read it or on YouTube here You will see people taking that dose now something I think is interesting is the reason that a lot of doctors and psychiatrists stop at 300 is I've read data That the seizure risk, which is why while butron was pulled from the market in the first place years ago Gets a lot higher after 450 milligrams and above so sir I don't think you'll find anyone these days taking let's say 600 milligrams of while butron. So I basically took while butron for Depression I mentioned I think in my previous video and this is a long time ago I did this video so my memory is a little bit rusty But I believe I was explaining how depression in my understanding can to an extent mimic ADHD particularly if you have the more fatigued type of depression or but you just can't muster up the enthusiasm or conviction to kind of power on through life and like an eco as I mentioned that The the two psychiatrists I've seen in my life have both said that my depression is dysthymia dysthymia is I think it's a misnomer to call it mild depression. I would refer to my depression as mild But very sticky. It's hard to get rid of it. Never gets that bad I can't relate to the experiences of people who've been bedridden with depression or they can't hold down jobs with depression or they Can't get a job because of their depression or they're actively suicidal or they're cutting or whatever. Thank God I've never experienced any of that stuff, but depression I can talk about So that's the reason I started taking well butra now Nico asked me Why did I go office and why did I come back on? So there's been another drug journey in the intervening period the reason I went off it and my this is just my Personal advice on the matter, which is why I made that not a doctor disclaimer So I was taking 300 milligrams worked up from 150 and I was absolutely loving well butrin the way I see and I'm going to write a blog about this topic at one day because I think it's a Interesting thought if I can say so myself. I feel like different. There are different paths out of depression for different people Well butrin to me is the very active path. Well butrin is as far as I know pretty much the only medication of its kind on the market It's a norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitor or an NDR. I it doesn't work on the serotonin system The classic first-line medications most folks with depression take are of course the SSRIs the selective serotonin Reuptake inhibitors and the SNRIs the serotonin and norepinephrine Reuptake inhibitors serotonin to me represents the kind of calming path out of your depression, right when I when I took Lexapro and that's what happened. I went off all butrin I took Lexapro for the best part of a year and I'm currently just finishing my tapering off of Lexapro as I start while butrin SSRIs to me feel like kind of this the soothing pass out of depression It's kind of like a chemical hug saying everything's okay. Everything's going to be okay Relax it calms down your nervous system. And I think that's amazing Well butrin is very is a very different medication and from my perspective Having taken the drug a very different feeling if SSRIs are kind of everything's going to be okay Relax be calm while butrin is like boom if you're lacking energy if there is something you're struggling with that's standing That's causing you to be depressed Here's a bunch of energy that you might be lacking to go and fix those things when I started well Butrin at a hundred and fifty milligrams. I was Like flabbergasted it. I think the first day that I took it. I signed up for the gym I I went through like a month of my to-do-let It was possibly the most productive day of my life and then was 300 the same thing and then the nice thing is that after a week that kind of unsustainable high mellows down and you get to a more sort of sustainable Level of energy that you might have been lacking due to your depression I made this video not to talk just about well butrin but to talk about my experience of adding caffeine on top of well butrin Which was the dumbest thing possible and why I had a medicine that was working very well for me And I still managed to screw it up because you know, what can I say? Sometimes people do stupid things, right? So I was taking my 300 milligrams of well butrin before doing that when I was back in the self-medicating phase of depression I was a huge caffeine consumer and at some point I swapped over to caffeine pills, right? The most embarrassing ridiculous vice out there possibly when I got to my 300 milligrams of well butrin I was so happy at my level of Functionality and productivity and I just felt like I could sort of not in like a manic way But I was kind of like wow. This is amazing. Let's like take this as far as it can go You can probably see how the story ends I reintroduced my caffeine pills on top of the well butrin and then stuff went to shit These are medications. These are things that I would not advise Mixing now the official medical advice if you go to your psychiatrist At least what mine told me is that you can have caffeine in moderation, right? That's what your doctor will probably tell you but I found it just way way too much stimulation the point at which I decided to Ask my psychiatrist about coming off of butrin I remember the day very distinctly my wife and I were invited to a friend's Thanksgiving party and She has a dog and I'm scared of dogs since I was a kid. I had some experience. It's in my subliminal memory I really wish it was in the case, but that's how it is. I made my inquiries I'm like what kind of dog do you have blah blah blah when we got to the place and I saw the dog I was so paralyzed by fear. Now my fear dogs isn't so extreme that I generally avoid going to people's houses If they have dogs, I would say I'm just uncomfortable around dogs But at this point in time my anxiety because of the well butrin plus the caffeine was so Predigiously high that I was just like stuck in the car I was literally sitting in my car outside of this person's house looking at the dog way too petrified to go in and also Incredibly embarrassed because my wife was inside and everyone is like why isn't Daniel coming to the Thanksgiving party? So that was the point where I was like this anxiety is out of control and let's try an SSRI And then my psychiatrist took me off of butrin and put me on to lexapro and eight months later I'm gone off a lexapro and I'm going back on to well butrin I feel like as this is you know a mental health video may as well If you want to know the whole story lexapro, I found good But it was like the opposite of well butrin I was get energy from coffee again So ironically I sort of ended up back where I was in the first place What I'm trying on my second go at well butrin is a zero caffeine policy I'm not consuming any caffeine Now there's a couple of reasons firstly my experience and this is why I'm making this video I cautioned while butrin people against caffeine what I find was that the effect was really was really magnified I wasn't like popping you know ten caffeine pills a day I was I think taking the equivalent of two cups of coffee But that on top of the well butrin just like set my nervous system on fire in a really bad way And just caused my anxiety to be completely out of control The second thing I would say about caffeine and why so that's reason one why I'm not Why I'm completely avoiding caffeine and by completely avoiding I mean everywhere caffeine is Which includes of course caffeine pills but also coffee tea green tea matcha energy drinks You'll see caffeine thrown into even some painkiller medications So I'm going zero no caffeine the second reason that I think is really important is And this is just sort of my opinion about the matter It's very hard to know what's working when you're combining prescription medications for depression slash energy with self medication like caffeine right And that was sort of I would I reached the point that my 300 milligrams Evidently I found that it wasn't working quite well enough It was great but I needed I wanted that extra energy motivation focus Whether that was sensible or not is a separate question But in any event I would rather at this point go back to my doctor Where I was at that point in time and say look 300 is great But you know I can I feel I'm not quite there Now I have a friend who is taking well buterin 300 milligrams plus vivants plus prozac If Kim ever watches this she knows who I'm talking about So those kind of combinations are things that doctors will do Obviously depends on your prescriber whether it's a generic family doctor Or a psychiatrist and their level of comfort But I'm just saying that rather than try to if you find that you're well buterin At 300 milligrams it's just not quite working well enough And you feel like it's working well but not quite well enough That's a great moment after giving it a month whatever to see how it really works But that's a great opportunity to discuss with your provider What the other options might be whether it's adding stuff on top of the well buterin Trying a different medication etc and I really regret Instead of simply going to my doctor at that point being like well You know what caffeine pills are the answer I'm just gonna like throw caffeine pills on top of my well buterin A man that was where it all went at all went south So that's my developmental health video for the day Thanks for the email Niko it really really encouraged me And it couldn't have come at a better time I'm literally on two weeks of well buterin And I'm almost off lexapro I've been tapering five milligrams a week And I'm down to I think my last oh my last lexapro pill is actually gonna be tomorrow I'm excited to be trying this again I really really liked well buterin The the moral of the story the point I'm trying to get across here is I screwed up by adding over-the-counter stimulants in the form of caffeine pills On top of my well buterin and I recommend not doing that firstly And but if you are in my situation where you found the well buterin working 80% Well rather than try to do something stupid like what I did With the caffeine go back to your doctor and have a conversation And they might have ideas as I said for alternative medications or supplementary drugs Hope that was useful Thank you for watching and as I mentioned at the start do feel free to Reach out to me using the contact tab And uh wishing everyone working on their mental health going through The long and sometimes tedious process of figuring out what medication Or medications work best for you wishing you success