Posted by lucy05 on May 13, 2005, at 23:37:57
Hi there. I am stil new to this, I posted about a week ago asking about Effexor. I have been suffering from panic attacks for about a year, they came on a couple of months after withdrawal from alcohol. I was convinced the panic attacks were some sort of physical "imbalance", rather than from not drinking anymore. I had quit drinking two years before this for a year and a half with no attacks, and since they didn't come on right away, I just knew there had to be more to it. I went to nutritionist since I had been dieting excessively for years, well practically not eating at all while I was drinking. She recommended some things, but no help. I then went to a chiropractor who thought my adrenals were stressed, so I started taking enzymes and stuff, which helped a bit but I was still suffering. I had been avoiding a doctor because I didn't want to be slapped on some pysch drug, I wanted an answer to what was actually causing this, not a prescription to mask the symptoms. Finally, out of sheer desparation I did go to the doctor. They did some blood tests and found out that I had hypothyroidism. Once on Levoxyl, I began to feel better, but eventually started to feel worse again. I began having awful headaches, hard to describe - but they caused a stinging sensation in different areas of my head and sometimes just drilled into my head for a few seconds. I was fatigued, yet I had trouble sleeping and was anxious and nervous all the time. I didn't think I was depressed, but I was not enjoying life at all- my mind raced constanatly from the minute I woke up 'til I went to bed, I felt constantly afraid that something bad was going to happen. I went back to the doctor about the anxiety and more specifically at the time about the headaches, and he wanted to put me on meds - when I asked about holistic options he wanted to know why I would go to a traditional medicine doctor if I would not go on the psych drugs. I told him I wanted to know what was wrong with me, I was sure there was something causing this that could be dealt without the drugs. He was no help! A little more time passed, and then things got so bad that I twice had trouble with my vision. The first time I saw wavy lines in front of my eyes and felt like I was going to pass out, this resulted in a panic attack. The next time my vision got blurry and again I felt like I was going to pass out and had a full blown panic attack. Luckily, having dealt with these for some time now, I was able to just talk myself through it and it passed, but not without leaving me a headache and an anxious feeling for the rest of the day. I went back to the doctor's office and this time saw the Nurse Practitioner. She suggested Effexor, and I told her I was not interested, but decided to look into it. I did not like what I learned, which just cemented me deeper in my beliefs. Anyway, during this last visit, she said she wanted me to have my labs drawn again. Two days later (which was actully three days ago) I found out that my thyroid levels were again abnormal. I was put on a higher dose of the Levoxyl - and guess what - my headaches are nearly completely gone, my anxiety is gone, I have energy, things are brighter, better, I can't tell you how much better I feel. My point in posting this is to tell people, especially new people who have not yet decided to go the drug route, is that there could be something physical causing these symptoms - please have your doctor check for whatever possible before resorting to these drugs. Your body may just be trying to tell you something like mine was. Doctors and parmacutical companies work hand in hand to push these drugs, I feel that for alot of docs it's the easy way out, too. They read a brochure on the drug, you tell them your symptoms and magic it's all gone with a little pill. It's not, whatever is going on is still there, it's only hidden beneath these drugs - I guess that's okay if you want to stay on them forever and not address what is really wrong. I'm not saying everyone with anxiety has what I have, but I am saying there may be something else going on that can be fixed without the drugs - be insistent make your doctor work for his money and make him rule out everything before making the decision - it's just too huge not to. Sorry 'bout the rambling, this is just a very passionate topic for me, and I just want to be able to help someone if I can - I know I would want that for myself. Good luck, and good health all.
poster:lucy05
thread:497580
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050510/msgs/497580.html