Posted by featherchickie on August 3, 2003, at 14:41:30
I've been prescribed Effexor XR, Revia and Gabitril, and, until now, have not questioned why it was prescribed to me. Now that I have talked to a friend who is currently in nursing school, she said it seemed like an odd combination. I was first put on eff for an anti-depressant and anti-anxiety. I'm currently on 225mg of eff. While I was starting the eff, I told my dr that I was cutting myself (which I hadn't done in two years). He then prescribed Revia for me so that I wouldn't have thoughts of hurting myself. Shortly after this, I started getting panic attacks due to a high increase of anxiety. Then I was also prescribed Gabitril. I am currently taking 50mg Revia once daily and 8mg Gabitril twice daily (16mg/day).
Now that I've researched a bit online about Revia and Gabitril, I'm worried that maybe my dr prescribed something to me that I shouldn't have been prescribed. Revia, as I found out, is generally used for addictions of alcohol or drugs. Well, I have never had an addiction to either of those, and, as I said, I was prescribed the Revia to prevent me from cutting myself (which I suppose that could be some sort of "addiction" but it still doesn't quite make sense to me). Gabitril, as I have learned, is generally used to treat seizures for people who have epilepsy. I was prescribed the Gabitril so I wouldn't have panic attacks. Now, I wouldn't call my panic attacks seizures by any means... unless I just don't know what "minor" seizures are. When I would have these panic attacks, it was as if I couldn't breathe. I would take a deep breath, but struggle to retain any oxygen, so then I would almost start gasping for any air that I could. Sometimes certain parts of my body would twitch... i.e. my legs, my hands, my lips. Mostly my legs, though. So I suppose that taking the Gabitril makes some sense but I still don't understand why I was prescribed the Revia to stop me from cutting myself. I don't, however, have any thoughts of cutting myself while on the Revia. I noticed when I was off the Revia, that I would eventually have urges to cut myself, and sometimes act upon those urges. Another friend of mine, who has a PhD in something medical, told me that Revia is a general mood lifter...
Anyone know more about this sort of stuff? Any advice or feedback would be much appreciated. Thanks.
poster:featherchickie
thread:247779
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030802/msgs/247779.html