Any Medication that helps you gain interest in things more?

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Im taking anxiety/depression meds and it helps me from getting anxious but i still feel as if im not as interested in things as I should be. Any suggestions?????????

There's no way I could suggest medication to you, because everyone is different. With depression, often times it is unfortunately a matter of trial-and-error; and even then, you can't expect miracles. Most people with depression will feel better on antidepressants; but it's only seldom that someone experiences a complete remission soon after starting them.

Depression is, however, episodic, and tends to go away on its own after a while. (Sometimes it is recurrent, and comes back repeatedly throughout a person's life.) Antidepressants are mostly useful to keep you functional in the meantime.

You can, of course attack it from the other angle--the cognitive side--and this is highly recommended: Depression is a sort of cycle, with your brain filtering things so as to see them in the worst light, and messing up your motivation and energy; your brain chemicals start getting into the depressed pattern, which starts more depressive thought patterns, which puts the neurotransmitters even more off balance. Break the cycle from either side--or, for that matter, from both sides at once--and you start recovering. Like I said, sometimes it just takes time to fully recover; but treatment can really shorten that time, and can make depression survivable even when it doesn't.

Bottom line--
1. You probably can't get medication recommendations from other people because you'll react in a unique way to medication.
2. You should probably try working with the cognitive/learning angle, and find ways to deal with it from that end of things. But if the therapist doesn't treat you with respect or accomplish much progress, you can feel free to drop them, no guilt involved.

There are medications that can increase your motivation when you have a lg due to depression or anxiety. I know I have issues sometimes with motivation. Ask you psychiatrist about that. Mine prescribed Wellbutrin in a small dose. Callista is correct, though, that everyone is different and responds to medication differently. I just wanted to let you know my experience and tell you to ask your doctor what options are available for you.

I have a appointment with my doctor on the 5th i'll be sure to ask him what would be the best thing for me to do.

Stimulants (ie Adderal) seemed to help some with that for me. Got tired of the side-effects, though, and stopped taking them eventually.

isnt that what ritalin does?

I would think that stimulants would cause jitters. I know for folks with ADD or ADHD it does the oposite (correct me if that is not true). In someone without that chemical imbalance it could mean troubles with the heart and blood pressure.

I take prozac at a dosage for anxiety. I don't think it makes me depressed, I might say a little apathetic. I've been thinking of lowering the dose or getting off of it but I can't decide I've been prescribed ritalin also. It doesn't make me jittery, but it does make me feel restless. I guess some people use those terms interchangeably, though. It was prescribed to me for fatigue (I have some medical problems). It makes me feel like I don't want to stop doing stuff (I clean a lot when I take it) and keeps me awake.

It can cause those even with ADHD. You can get a rapid heartbeat, or if you get panic attacks it can trigger them. Of course the BP has to be monitored on any stimulant. But that's why Ritalin and such are used for ADHD--they're stimulants that tend to work more specifically on the brain rather than on the rest of the body too. To drink enough coffee to give you the same effect as a dose of ADHD meds, you'd have to give yourself serious jitters. (Which I've done, before I started Concerta, out of desperation.)

And yes, stimulants can turn folks with ADHD into zombies. This is the effect I got from Ritalin. I basically just sat there like a lump with mental tunnel-vision... Turns out the dose was too high (I'm sensitive to it, apparently) and I needed extended release.

Have you lost interest in something because of depression?
Because there is probably no Rx for boredom.
Loss of interest in things you like may be caused by depression, maybe fatigue?
Are things just not fun anymore, or are you too tired to do fun things?
Some antidepressants cause losing interest in private "things".

Ask a doctor why and how you aren't interested in things. Its a relevant symptom.

Exercising with music may make exercise more enjoyable and release endorphins...
but eat all kinds of healthy food too. Look at the WP forum on health/exercise.
At least go for walks if you can.

SMALL AMOUNTS of marijuana. It really works for me. See http://safeaccessnow.org/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=1345

If you're depressed then some kind of antidepressant may help as the above posters have mentioned. You might want to investigate 5-HTP, the chemical precursor of serotonin and melatonin, and tyrosine, the precursor of dopamine, adrenaline and noradrenaline. Chronic stress and depression deplete these substances from the brain and nervous system. Helping the body increase levels can help a lot. Many people find the herbs St Johns wort and Rhodiola rosea effective alternatives to prescription antidepressants, and they have fewer side effects. Be careful if you are taking multiple medications, some drugs may interact badly with St Johns wort and interactions with Rhodiola are poorly studied. It's also important to get a good quality standardised preperations so you're sure you're getting a known quantity of the most medicinally active fraction of the herbs.

I take the nootropics piracetam and centrophenoxine. Piracetam improves blood flow to the brain and neural activity, but increases the brains demand for acetylcholine. Some don't respond without some extra choline, and I certainly seem to be in that category. Centrophenoxine provides a source of choline that can get across the blood brain barrier quickly. Together I find these drugs increase my ability to concentrate, order and express my thoughts and access memories. There is some clinical evidence supporting piracetam but the results are mixed. Most studies are conducted without choline supplementation however. Both drugs have very low toxicities.

I haven't lost interest I just feel I don't have enough. Im currently taking lexapro. I do all of the things you listed such as exercising regularly and listening to music. But i just don't feel that tingly feeling floating around my body and that tightness feel around my eyes that I felt when I first started taking it. I really want to "focus" more and I think that will help me gain more interest in things. I kinda feels as if my body is used to the medication or i may need something stronger.

Well, it's a known phenomenon that for some people and some antidepressants, the effect wears off after a while. Some doctors will just increase the dose, but I personally think that's a kneejerk reaction that doesn't usually solve the problem (except in cases where the wearing off happened soon after you started it, as your body adjusted to the medication). Using a different SSRI, a different type of antidepressant, or adding some other drug seems to be a better strategy; but then, I'm not a psychiatrist and you shouldn't trust my opinions.

I think you should ask whoever prescribed the Lexapro, "Hey, this stuff isn't working as well as it used to. What now?" (And seek a second opinion if their response is to repeatedly raise the dose--SSRIs aren't the sort of medication where "more drug means more response" in any reliable way, so any doc who just keeps upping the dose after it doesn't work the first time it's tried hasn't really studied them.)

Yeha, I got use to my meds pretty quick, and i ended up on large doses of Effexor only to lose my insurance and go cold turkey. That experience has made me very leery of psychotropic meds. Effexor is the worst for discontinuation symptoms, too. So be careful with these medicines if you find you are having to go higher and higher on doses.

My SSRI's made me less obsessive. It sucked but I'm getting back into my special interests now.