![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 10 of 10. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Vincent_QC on February 18, 2010, at 8:31:56
I wanted to know if someone else have difficulty to start a SSRI because of an akathesia side-effect?
Before, I had no problems starting new meds and always start the SSRI at high dose... I was on the Paxil 60mg, 30 mg of Lexapro, 200 mg of Zoloft, not all at the same time of course.
The only one SSRI that I never was able to tolerate was the Prozac at more than 20mg day because of a worsering of my social anxiety and a returning of panic disorder.
I'm having a terrible time now with GAD, excessive worries about many things (work, school, debts, family, friends, health) as well as a lot of symptoms comming from the GAD like racing minds, dizziness, jaw pain, feel like all my teeths will fall, stomach and intestine pain, insomnia, visual hallucinations (seing small black circles or white circles), rapid heart beat and high blood pressure and sometimes very slow pulse rate, syncope and faint and strong migraine when i'm exposed to stressfull situation like going out of my house, excessive worriee about addiction to the Rivotril, fear of dying and fear of doing a seizure, having a panic or a syncope when I drive my car...
The Rivotril it not working anymore but I have to take it because if I miss a dose, the anxiety return in force. I take 6 mg day of it, and I have to take 1 mg pill every 2-3 hours... I know when it's time to take another pill because my hands and feet became all covers with water... I sweat a lot from my hands and feet... really strange... I also have developp a strange side-effect from the Rivotril, I feel like I will faint often because of it... like an hangover felling but not an funny one... The Rivotril increase my anxiety when it's time to get out of my house because I have to drive my car and I know that I don't have all my cognitives abilities to drive and lack of reflex and attention...
I suspect that I have GAD because I have a lot of repetitives thoughts and worries about things related to my life and things that I have to do but I can't do them because i'm too anxious like (stop smooking cigarettes, change my food habits, return to the gym, return to school, will have to refund my student loans soon, have no job and can't work because of the extreme anxiety and poor cognitive abilities ( Thanks to the Rivotril).
Did the worry about my heart and my health in general can be something else than GAD??? If yes, can it be treat with something else than Benzo meds or AD's???
The only one meds I never try is the Lamictal, the lithium and others olders anticonvulsives meds like valporic acid.
My PDoc RX again the paxil back in december but I was not able to take the whole 10 mg pill, so I cut it in 4 pieces of 2,5 mg and had terrilbe side-effects... Stay on 2,5 mg for 1 week but the side-effects never fade away... I had always headache with weird blood pressure reading as well as an unstable heart pulse rate. My anxiety was increasing my 10 fold minimum.
I had some Lexapro pills left off and wanted to start it, because I never had a problem with increase anxiety with the Lexapro, in fact for me it was the most sedating SSRI I try... but I had the same reaction than the one I had on the Paxil but worse...at only 2,5 mg... Had to cut the 10 mg pill into 4 little pieces... Was not able to stay on it more than 1 day.
I see again my PDoc in January and he RX the Zoloft 25 mg to start, since I wanted to avoid the same akathesia and increase anxiety effect than on the Paxil or the Lexapro, I open the capsule and take only 1/3 of the powder, mean around 9mg of Zoloft and I ending with strong akathesia and anxiety effect as well as heart problems (palpitations, fast pulse rate, low pulse rate, high pressure, tinitus ( earing sounds)... was not able to stay sit, intense migraine. Note that in the Canada, the Zoloft is not a pill, it's in capsule, so that's why I mention that I open the capsule.
What do you think of all of this?
Did I become crazy? I can't even take an Advil without having 1000 side-effects.
I never had problems with meds before my Parnate experience and the severals hypertensive crisis I had on it, now I always fear of dying from a heart attack... that's crazy...
I wonder if another med, who is not an AD, will help me?
I have to mention that each week, I have new symptom who appear. For example, if I experience something negative when i'm out of the house, like having a strong migraine when I get out of the house, I will have a migraine each time I get out of the house for one week after and then I will have a new symptom like jaw pain or syncope and will experience that new symptom for 1 week... that's really weird... I don't know what happen to me...
Is it GAD, is it panic disorder (I dont fear having another panic, i'm used to them and I know I will not die from a panic attack), is it OCD???
Well, any help about meds or others things will be appreciate...
Thanks!
Posted by Phillipa on February 18, 2010, at 10:54:44
In reply to GAD + PD( Can't start SSRI because of akathesia), posted by Vincent_QC on February 18, 2010, at 8:31:56
I'm hoping you get lots of responses. It does now sound like OCD is compounding the Anxiety. No rituals? Just the fears of the meds? And social situations? Did you ever try luvox? Love Phllipa
Posted by Bob on February 18, 2010, at 17:11:19
In reply to GAD + PD( Can't start SSRI because of akathesia), posted by Vincent_QC on February 18, 2010, at 8:31:56
> I wanted to know if someone else have difficulty to start a SSRI because of an akathesia side-effect?
>
> Before, I had no problems starting new meds and always start the SSRI at high dose... I was on the Paxil 60mg, 30 mg of Lexapro, 200 mg of Zoloft, not all at the same time of course.
>
> The only one SSRI that I never was able to tolerate was the Prozac at more than 20mg day because of a worsering of my social anxiety and a returning of panic disorder.
>
> I'm having a terrible time now with GAD, excessive worries about many things (work, school, debts, family, friends, health) as well as a lot of symptoms comming from the GAD like racing minds, dizziness, jaw pain, feel like all my teeths will fall, stomach and intestine pain, insomnia, visual hallucinations (seing small black circles or white circles), rapid heart beat and high blood pressure and sometimes very slow pulse rate, syncope and faint and strong migraine when i'm exposed to stressfull situation like going out of my house, excessive worriee about addiction to the Rivotril, fear of dying and fear of doing a seizure, having a panic or a syncope when I drive my car...
>
> The Rivotril it not working anymore but I have to take it because if I miss a dose, the anxiety return in force. I take 6 mg day of it, and I have to take 1 mg pill every 2-3 hours... I know when it's time to take another pill because my hands and feet became all covers with water... I sweat a lot from my hands and feet... really strange... I also have developp a strange side-effect from the Rivotril, I feel like I will faint often because of it... like an hangover felling but not an funny one... The Rivotril increase my anxiety when it's time to get out of my house because I have to drive my car and I know that I don't have all my cognitives abilities to drive and lack of reflex and attention...
>
> I suspect that I have GAD because I have a lot of repetitives thoughts and worries about things related to my life and things that I have to do but I can't do them because i'm too anxious like (stop smooking cigarettes, change my food habits, return to the gym, return to school, will have to refund my student loans soon, have no job and can't work because of the extreme anxiety and poor cognitive abilities ( Thanks to the Rivotril).
>
> Did the worry about my heart and my health in general can be something else than GAD??? If yes, can it be treat with something else than Benzo meds or AD's???
>
> The only one meds I never try is the Lamictal, the lithium and others olders anticonvulsives meds like valporic acid.
>
> My PDoc RX again the paxil back in december but I was not able to take the whole 10 mg pill, so I cut it in 4 pieces of 2,5 mg and had terrilbe side-effects... Stay on 2,5 mg for 1 week but the side-effects never fade away... I had always headache with weird blood pressure reading as well as an unstable heart pulse rate. My anxiety was increasing my 10 fold minimum.
>
> I had some Lexapro pills left off and wanted to start it, because I never had a problem with increase anxiety with the Lexapro, in fact for me it was the most sedating SSRI I try... but I had the same reaction than the one I had on the Paxil but worse...at only 2,5 mg... Had to cut the 10 mg pill into 4 little pieces... Was not able to stay on it more than 1 day.
>
> I see again my PDoc in January and he RX the Zoloft 25 mg to start, since I wanted to avoid the same akathesia and increase anxiety effect than on the Paxil or the Lexapro, I open the capsule and take only 1/3 of the powder, mean around 9mg of Zoloft and I ending with strong akathesia and anxiety effect as well as heart problems (palpitations, fast pulse rate, low pulse rate, high pressure, tinitus ( earing sounds)... was not able to stay sit, intense migraine. Note that in the Canada, the Zoloft is not a pill, it's in capsule, so that's why I mention that I open the capsule.
>
> What do you think of all of this?
>
> Did I become crazy? I can't even take an Advil without having 1000 side-effects.
>
> I never had problems with meds before my Parnate experience and the severals hypertensive crisis I had on it, now I always fear of dying from a heart attack... that's crazy...
>
> I wonder if another med, who is not an AD, will help me?
>
> I have to mention that each week, I have new symptom who appear. For example, if I experience something negative when i'm out of the house, like having a strong migraine when I get out of the house, I will have a migraine each time I get out of the house for one week after and then I will have a new symptom like jaw pain or syncope and will experience that new symptom for 1 week... that's really weird... I don't know what happen to me...
>
> Is it GAD, is it panic disorder (I dont fear having another panic, i'm used to them and I know I will not die from a panic attack), is it OCD???
>
> Well, any help about meds or others things will be appreciate...
>
> Thanks!
Vincent,Unfortunately for both you and I, we share some similarities with our disease. I have many, many side effects to all meds and in recent years it has become quite serious in some of the ways you describe such as the mysterious somatic side-effects/complaints as well as the vision problems etc. I too have trouble even taking something as simple as a pain reliever any longer.
After a disastrous trial of ECT I was left ULTRA sensitive to psych meds while at the same time being at the sickest point of my life both emotionally and physically. I too was chopping little bits of SSRIs in a struggle to get back on one (in my case it was Celexa). I barely got back on and to this day am quite sensitive.
I think that if depression goes far enough the body starts to experience a systemic autonomic type dysfunction and that is some of what is being experienced here. The control for many of our automatic physical systems are controlled autonomically from our brain through the nervous system. Unfortunately the limbic system, besides being the seat of emotions, is inextricably linked to the the autonomic systems. For example, when you're embarrased your face can flush and feel warm, or when we are nervous we can sweat. Take this system and throw it way out of whack, and suddenly just about anything can happen.
I would say that you might need to do exactly what you're doing and get on the drug of your choice by shaving little bits and slowly increasing. Eventually your body will most likely acclimate again, but it will take awhile and the road might be rocky. Hang in there and take your time.
Posted by herpills on February 18, 2010, at 18:09:47
In reply to GAD + PD( Can't start SSRI because of akathesia), posted by Vincent_QC on February 18, 2010, at 8:31:56
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?
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.
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??
herpills
Posted by Vincent_QC on February 19, 2010, at 7:35:19
In reply to Re: GAD + PD( Can't start SSRI because of akathesia) » Vincent_QC, posted by Bob on February 18, 2010, at 17:11:19
> Unfortunately for both you and I, we share some similarities with our disease. I have many, many side effects to all meds and in recent years it has become quite serious in some of the ways you describe such as the mysterious somatic side-effects/complaints as well as the vision problems etc. I too have trouble even taking something as simple as a pain reliever any longer.
>
> After a disastrous trial of ECT I was left ULTRA sensitive to psych meds while at the same time being at the sickest point of my life both emotionally and physically. I too was chopping little bits of SSRIs in a struggle to get back on one (in my case it was Celexa). I barely got back on and to this day am quite sensitive.
>
> I think that if depression goes far enough the body starts to experience a systemic autonomic type dysfunction and that is some of what is being experienced here. The control for many of our automatic physical systems are controlled autonomically from our brain through the nervous system. Unfortunately the limbic system, besides being the seat of emotions, is inextricably linked to the the autonomic systems. For example, when you're embarrased your face can flush and feel warm, or when we are nervous we can sweat. Take this system and throw it way out of whack, and suddenly just about anything can happen.
>
> I would say that you might need to do exactly what you're doing and get on the drug of your choice by shaving little bits and slowly increasing. Eventually your body will most likely acclimate again, but it will take awhile and the road might be rocky. Hang in there and take your time.
>I think you're right... and I understand for the systemic autonomic type dysfunction, it was the words I wanted to write, but since my english is bad I didn't know how to say that!!! lol
Yeah, bad experiences and too much of meds and ( for you ETC) can leave us in a kind of "sensitive" to meds state and i'm sure the meds in long term can cause bad dammages into the brains...
Somatic side-effects/complaints appear for me after the Parnate experience, who almost kill me. Personnaly, I don't know how the peoples on babble can stand the Parnate, but that med almost kill me and start phobias about my heart...and I suspect that the Parnate start again the panic disorder in my case.
Before that bad experience, I was able to take 4 meds at the same time to treat my simple social anxiety... I remember the time when I was on 30mg of Lexapro + 300 mg of Wellbutrin for a boost of energy + 15 mg of Ritalin for the energy also + 20 mg of Valium day , and I never complaint at the time about side-effects or heart effect...but it was not working for social anxiety.
Sometimes I regret all the meds I take and all the trial I done to improve my social anxiety. I think social anxiety can't be treat and when it can be treat, the meds who work the best are addictive and always stop working after a while.
Now, I see social phobia more like a personality trait and not a mental disease and CBT can work more well to improve the social anxiety and diminish the shyness and make it easy to enter into a group and make friends in life...
Anyway.. I'm interrested to try the Lamictal... since it's seem to make the mood more stable, maybe my anxiety level will be stable also. I always wake up in the morning and feel more good and start feeling worse before noon, feel more bad in the afternoon and in the evening I feel really bad. It's seem that my mood decrease during the day and anxiety build up...
And yes, you're right, taking small bit of SSRI and increase slowly will be the best solution. I think the only one liquid SSRI avaible in the Canada is the Prozac, I hate it but it can be a good solution to start on it, like 1 mg day in liquid form... and increase by 1 mg each week... and switch to another SSRI when my body and brains will be less sensitive to SSRI...
What do you think of that (Lamictal + low dose of liquid prozac)???
Do you think the anxiety and somatic side-effects/complaints will decrease or I will have to live like that for another 4 months???
You know, i'm not depress...I don't meet all the criterias for the depression and i'm not suicidal also... but living in that high state of fears and panic with new somatic side-effects each week is just too hard for me... and it will be possible to start being depress if I continue to decrease like that...
I can't even drive for more than 5 minutes without doing a panic attack or feeling really bad, to the point that I will be sick... and that headache will kill me... I hate that... I lost all my freedom...
Before, even with the social phobia, I was able to goint out of the house and drink a beer with friends... now I can't go anywhere without always thinking about dying... that's ridiculous...
Anyway, thanks for your support!!!
Bye!
Vincent
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?
>
> 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.
>
> 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??
>
> herpills
>
>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 ;-)
Posted by Phillipa on February 19, 2010, at 19:56:17
In reply to Re: GAD + PD( Can't start SSRI because of akathesia) » herpills, posted by Vincent_QC on February 19, 2010, at 8:59:54
Vincent lamictal got to 50mg didn't increase my anxiety? I think the prozac sounds like a good idea. Love Phillipa
Posted by Vincent_QC on February 19, 2010, at 21:31:31
In reply to Re: GAD + PD( Can't start SSRI because of akathesia) » Vincent_QC, posted by Phillipa on February 19, 2010, at 19:56:17
> Vincent lamictal got to 50mg didn't increase my anxiety? I think the prozac sounds like a good idea. Love Phillipa
Yeah, maybe a low dose of Remeron at bedtime + the liquid Prozac, increase by 1 mg each week, will help me to being able to start an antidepressant again??? The remeron is good to reduce the initial anxiety caused by all the SSRI's in general, on me at least... but also cause major weight gain... Anyway, for now I think that I prefer to have 30 pounds more on me than living in that high state of anxiety!!!
If I start again the Prozac, I will increase it very slowly... and when I will feel more comfortable with the serotonin reputake effect, will try to switch to the only one SSRI who always work on me to block the panic attack, I mean the Paxil... and will do the best to change my food habit while I will be on that med and exercise more to prevent the weight gain.
For the Lamictal... I don't know if it will be good for my anxiety. Maybe it will make my mood more stable, I mean will get up in the morning and stay always with the same level of anxiety for the whole day... For now, I wake up in the morning with high anxiety but no symptoms... but anxiety start increasing more and more with time and in the evening I have 1000 symptoms... Maybe the Lamictal will make all of this more stable? Who know... if I don't try I will never know...
Posted by lesnsmn on February 23, 2010, at 9:38:56
In reply to Re: GAD + PD( Can't start SSRI because of akathesia) » Vincent_QC, posted by Bob on February 18, 2010, at 17:11:19
I've been dealing with a very similar situation. I had taken zoloft and lexapro at different times for depression and had no problems when starting to take them. About 6 months ago, I developed some anxiety problems and tried to get back on lexapro. It caused panic attacks and increased anxiety. Same thing with zoloft (and celexa and Pristiq).
Finally, my primary care physician consulted with a psychiatrist who said that I should be starting with much lower doses and very gradually increase the doses. So I started with 1/4 of a 25mg pill of zoloft. I did that for about 10 days, bumped up to 1/2 a pill. I stayed on that for 2 weeks and then tried the whole 25mg. Turns out that was probably too much of a jump because the increased anxiety got out control again. Backed off to 1/2 pill and am now at 3/4, and hopefully will be able to increase to the full 25mg(which is still a pretty small dose).
I did have increased anxiety even changing by these little amount and there were some very uncomfortable times, but it was manageable and it leveled off eventually. I'm finally starting to feel the benefits of the drug. I'm anticipating some more bumps in the road, but at least the good days are starting to outnumber the bad.
Posted by Vincent_QC on February 24, 2010, at 8:44:06
In reply to Re: GAD + PD( Can't start SSRI because of akathesia), posted by lesnsmn on February 23, 2010, at 9:38:56
> I've been dealing with a very similar situation. I had taken zoloft and lexapro at different times for depression and had no problems when starting to take them. About 6 months ago, I developed some anxiety problems and tried to get back on lexapro. It caused panic attacks and increased anxiety. Same thing with zoloft (and celexa and Pristiq).
>
> Finally, my primary care physician consulted with a psychiatrist who said that I should be starting with much lower doses and very gradually increase the doses. So I started with 1/4 of a 25mg pill of zoloft. I did that for about 10 days, bumped up to 1/2 a pill. I stayed on that for 2 weeks and then tried the whole 25mg. Turns out that was probably too much of a jump because the increased anxiety got out control again. Backed off to 1/2 pill and am now at 3/4, and hopefully will be able to increase to the full 25mg(which is still a pretty small dose).
>
> I did have increased anxiety even changing by these little amount and there were some very uncomfortable times, but it was manageable and it leveled off eventually. I'm finally starting to feel the benefits of the drug. I'm anticipating some more bumps in the road, but at least the good days are starting to outnumber the bad.Thanks for your answer ;-)
I'm living the worst time of my life now for sure.
I will have to do the same process than you I think and start with very low dose... but I don't know which SSRI to try next...
It's seem that the more I wait before starting my meds and the worse it will be, probably because I have many apprehensives thoughts about the meds and my heart phobia as well as my new symptoms of anxiety that appear every 1 or 2 weeks...
I see my PDoc next monday and will have a long talk with him.
What I find strange is that even with 6 to 8 mg of Rivotril a day, I still have panic, excessive worries about my heart (blood pressure, low pulse rate), many anxiety related symptoms like constant head pain, tickling at severals extremities of my body who increase my anxiety and trigger panic, eyes pain, jaw pain, extreme fatigue, insomnia, chest pain, legs pain, extreme sweating from hands and feets, tremor, difficulty to speak (articulates the words), dizziness ( faint sometimes).
Now I can't go outside my house without thinking that I will die. Driving my car is really hard also and with the poor concentration and cognitives abilities I have, I can't do anything special to change my minds... so i'm sit on the couch at daytime and watch TV and think about my problems... and return in my bed at daytime to try to sleep...
It's seem that each time I have a new symptom that appear, I focus on that symptom and have it for 1-2 weeks... after I return to older symptoms that I had before... it's like a recurrent circle.
I really don't know what to do and witch SSRI will be the best for me now.
The Paxil was ok for the panic and the GAD type of anxiety but never work for the agoraphobia and the social phobia I have. It caused too much weight gain and side-effects (extreme fatigue and sweating) who was worse than the primar anxiety problems that I had before being on that med... I can't exercise on that med and just want to sleep. I Was put on the Paxil several times in my life, each time, it's helping me with the panic and the recurrent thoughts and worries but in a long term view, it was a disaster because the weight gain and the lack of emotion or motivation to do something in my life was killing me. Not really good for the self-esteem.
The Cipralex do nothing for the anxiety, just gain weight on it and make me more depress and tired, to the point that I had to use it with stimulants meds (Ritalin and Wellbutrin) who worse the anxiety... it was not logical to use stimulants to encounter the side-effects of the Lexapro, especially when the primary problem is an anxiety disorder!!!
The Celexa don't do a single thing on me, just the weight gain again...lakc of energy also.
The Zoloft do nothing for the anxiety disorders and tend to increase the anxiety when the dosage is above 100mg day. More neutral for the weight.
The Prozac is not more helpfull for the anxiety and have the same effect than the Zoloft as he increase the anxiety at 20 mg dose and more. Neutral for the weight.
The Remeron is ok when you lack of sleep but is not good for the anxiety. It's also usefull for the relieve some side-effects caused by the SSRI at the begining of a new treatment. It's especially good for the nausea, the intestine problems caused by the anxiety. Probably because of the 5HTP3 antagonist activity.
The Nardil or the Parnate are not effective for anxiety disorders, well on me. The hypotension is a way too much for me. The Parnate almost kill me because of the hypertensive crisis that I had on it.
The Parnate destroy my life in fact. It's why i'm having a lot of anxiety now. I always fear of dying from a heart disease, even if I know that I have nothing wrong with my heart.
So that's hard to know witch meds to try next. The off-label meds are not working on me also (Beta-blocker, Clonidine, Mirapex, Neurontin, Lyrica, Sabril, name them... I try everything except the Lamictal, the lithium and the others old anticonvulsives meds or mood stabiliser...).
I feel stuck in a situation that I will never be able to escape...
This is the end of the thread.
Psycho-Babble Medication | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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