Posted by Vincent_QC on February 19, 2010, at 8:59:54
In reply to Re: GAD + PD( Can't start SSRI because of akathesia) » Vincent_QC, posted by herpills on February 18, 2010, at 18:09:47
> I also get really bad akathesia from SSRI. I'm sorry to hear you are not feeling so well right now! You might want to consider trying Lamictal...maybe you won't have a bad reaction to it, even though it seems you are sensitive to meds, maybe this will be different?? I take it for bipolar depression, but my experience is that it helped with my anxiety a lot. You didn't mention depression in your post. Is that also a symptom? How is your mood when you experience anxiety?
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> It also sounds like there are a lot of other physical health problems going on. You might want to work on treatments for those things, as I believe if you are physically healthier, you will feel healthier mentally.
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> I know I have been guilty in the past for chalking up any physical discomfort to my depression/anxiety. If I have aches and pains, headaches, etc. I would always think "oh it's my depression, I need to treat that" but then I have to ask myself am I eating healthy? Am I getting enough physical activity? Am I dehydrated? Am I drinking too much liquor and smoking too much??
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> herpills
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>Hi Herpills,
The Lamictal attracted me a lot, my older PDoc wanted me on it 3 years ago but said it take a while before working for anxiety, so I say no to him because I wanted to improve more quickly... what a mistake...No, i'm not depress and not suicidal, who is maybe a miracle, since living in such a high state of anxiety with freaking symptoms who increase each week can destroy a life for sure.
My mood seem to be stable, emotionnal mood at least, but with the anxiety it's hard to tell. Like I wrote in another post, when I wake up in the morning, I have one hour where I feel ok... anxiety is high, but not to the point that I start having symptoms. The anxiety increase more in the morning, become very high in the afternoon and in the evening I feel completly paralysed by fears and too many symptoms that I can't all describe... (Headache, goose bumps, pain at the tips of the nails of toes and fingers, dizziness, palpitations, rapid pulse and sometimes very slow, sweating, difficulty to speak and articulate the words, especially to peoples I don't know, tremor, eyes pain or burning eyes, dilated pupils, stomach pain, intestine pain, frequent urination and the list goes on...).
I know exactly what you mean by being healthy...
No, I don't eat healthy, mostly bread, cheese and sugar. I stop drinking coffee more than 6 months ago because I know it was bad for my anxiety, I smooke and want to stop... In fact, I know that I have a lot of things to change to have a healthy life style, but you have to agree with me that it's not easy to stop smooking when you are in a super high anxiety state and changing food habit is not easy also since when I eat, it's perhaps the only time when I stop being anxious and feel good... but too bad, it's never last for a long time...
You know, I had a by-pass surgery to loose weight in the past and I was on diets for my whole life until that surgery. I had morbid obesity (450 pounds) and go down to 190 pounds with that surgery, so i'm a lot concern about foods and weight and it's a big part of my anxiety because since I start again using AD and others meds, I start gaining weight again...
Last summer, I had a hard time to start the Paxil, had to increase slowly over 1 month period, from 2,5 mg to 10 mg... reach the 15 mg after 2 months but also gain 30 pounds!!! I stop it because of the weight gain, but also because I stop having panic attack... I was ok... anxiety was high... but I was able to drive my car, going where I want and do things without having panic attacks...
The weight gain was not welcome for me, since I have a lot of problems with my self-esteem and my body image... so I just stop the Paxil and told myself that I will start it again if panic return... and i'm not very lucky because I wanted to start it again in december and I can't now... Too bad I stop it, because when I think about the weight gain, I was not very active on the Paxil and I was eating a lot of junk food... no wonder why I gain weight... BUT the Paxil make me fat, even if I go on a diet... I think that water can make me gain weight!!!
Always thinking about changing my food habits, stop smooking or exercises more, all of this is a part of my GAD problem... each day I woke up and told myself that "today I stop smooking" or today "I start a diet " and after 1 hour I can't resist and light up a cigarette and eat sugar food... All of this make me feel guilty.
I felt guilty for a good part of my life anyway and always blame myself for things that I was not always responsible, since when I had morbid obesity, I didn't just eat junk food to reach the 450 pounds... I was most of the time on strict diet, protein diet... I do severals time that very strict diet, and I can't count the pounds I loose in my life and the ones that I gain also!!!
I thikn the best way to think for me will be to go step by step... not wanting to change everything in my life at the same time...
I also start the gym last year in April... strangely, the gym start the panic disorder again on me. Probably because I was focus on my heart and the fear of dying of a heart attack...
I stop going to the gym after 2 months because I had no choice, I had severe anemia and low hemoglobin level related to bleeding hemmoroids... I had a surgery for that in november and since then, I feel just worse and worse. The surgery start again the panic attacks on me...because of the constant pain I had from that surgery and the fact that I was not able to take the opiates meds for the pain... I had extreme pain, who trigger panic on me, each time I had to poo (very painfull surgery trust me!!!). The pain higher my pulse rate, making it not stable and start panic...it was simple like that...
For now, I had a MRI exam done for my constant headpain and migraine. Everything seem to be ok in my head.
I will have a treadmill and an ultrasound heart exam in 1 month, to see if i'm having something wrong with my heart. Since it's not normal that exercises trigger panic on me. Each time I go to the gym, it's like i'm having a bad reaction to a too high adrenaline level, adrenaline who is release while I exercises... I try a med to block the adrenaline (Clonidine) and it change nothing, I had panic attack and too much adrenaline from the exercises following by an extreme tiredness state after the gym session... extreme fatigue to the point that I was feeling like my heart will stop beating and that I will die or at least faint...
I also had an endoscopy exam for my stomach, since I complaints a lot about heartburns and intestine pain... The Doctor who perform the exam don't see anything wrong in my stomach and the first part of my intestine... who make me think that the adrenaline play a key role in my symptoms... it can be linked to my eyes pains, dilated pupils, sensibility to lights, poor vision at night (I'm taking a lot of vitamins A each day, so I don'T lack any of the essentials vitamins who can make my vision worse at night), stomach and intestine pain, headache as well as the not stable pulse rate and high blood pressure... this can be all linked to higher level of adrenaline... or noradrenaline... or cortisol??? Who know...
For the Lamictal, did you find it difficult to start or it's more easy than the SSRI's??? I heard about the rash... but is it increasing the anxiety at fisrt like the AD's do???
Thanks for your answer ;-)
Have anice day!
Vincent ;-)
poster:Vincent_QC
thread:937296
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100216/msgs/937372.html