Posted by Marvin on October 15, 2000, at 12:16:43
New to this board, but hopeful for some experienced advice. I have suffered from situational bouts of anxiety (mostly depersonalization & derealization) after events which occured at ages 15, 18, 21, and now 29 yrs old in my life. After the 21 yr old incident, the anxiety was so bad and would not subside with pyschotherapy that I became majorly depressed. At that point, my PDoc started me on Prozac. The Prozac (at 40mgs) lifted the depression caused by my anxiety. At 22, I moved out-of-town and have had another PDoc monitoring my Prozac and another therapist helping me sort out my issues. Since then, I have been able to handle my anxiety and depression in therapy until a recent event in my life caused a relapse. The panic attacks went beyond the DP & DR in the other attacks to include chills, sweats, nausea, etc.. Given the debilitating nature and the fact that I was due to start a new job (not the cause of the anxiety) this PDoc increased my dosage of Prozac to 60mgs and put me on Klonopin. I was very hesitant to take a benzo, but knew I needed to function at my new job. The Klonopin worked and I now am in a tapering off mode after 6 weeks of use. The highest dosage of Klonopin I was on was 0.75mg daily. I am now currently on 0.50mg and looking to taper more soon. I am very adverse to being on benzos and am concerned that while Prozac has been very helpful for depression, it may not be the right line of attack for an anxiety disorder "which only causes depression if untreated". Hence, I think my problem is anxiety, not depression, but if I can't get out of my anxious states, I do get depressed. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has had any success or could talk towards switching from Prozac to Paxil, especially given the fact that I do not want to take a benzo (Klonopin)? I have a close friend who has had a history of anxiety problems and just started Paxil and loves it (she had previously used Xanax, Prozac, etc.). I have the ususal side effects from SSRIs with Prozac (mostly libido), but am pretty tolerant to medications. If I switched SSRIs, would I need a "washout period" or will I likely taper Prozac while adding Paxil (in addition to tapering Klonopin)? Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, regarding treating my situational anxiety would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance for your help!
poster:Marvin
thread:46411
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20001012/msgs/46411.html