Shown: posts 1 to 13 of 13. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by PrettyLady on February 26, 2013, at 11:49:58
Ok. As many of you out there, I am having trouble finding meds that work for me. In the past, a mixture of zoloft and seroquel had me in a good place. Recently, Seroquel is causing me some very strange symptoms and I cannot take it anymore. Right now I'm currently taking 50mg Zoloft and about 1 mg or more of Ativan a day with a tiny bit of Remeron as needed to sleep. I'm still having crazy bad anxiety and looking for something to curb it. I have tried Lamictal, but it makes my anxiety worse. Lithium was too much, Zyprexa made me eat everything in the world, and yesterday I started Trileptal and it is making me feel sooooo depressed. I don't know if I'm bipolar, but I definitely have an abnormally acute anxiety disorder with depression.
I just was wondering if anyone could share for me what has worked for them, what cocktails gave them comfort with their disorder. Please share with me your success stories, as they will bring me hope, and may help me find the answer I'm looking for. Thanks.
Posted by Phil on February 26, 2013, at 12:12:55
In reply to What works for severe anxiety and depression?, posted by PrettyLady on February 26, 2013, at 11:49:58
Switch to Clonazepam, longer acting than Lorazepam. Benzo's are different, maybe Clonazepam would be better. That's my laymans first thought.
Posted by CamW on February 26, 2013, at 12:20:02
In reply to What works for severe anxiety and depression?, posted by PrettyLady on February 26, 2013, at 11:49:58
Hi PrettyLady, nice to meet you.
Finding appropriate medication(s) for one's unique situation can, & often does, take a lot of trial & error. One of the most common errors is to not give the medication time to work. An adequate trial is necessary, & the length of the trial depends upon a multitude of factors. It seems that you do give adequate trials for most mess, though.
One of the most important things is to not get too discouraged at the time it takes to find the right medications; "start low & go slow". That is, start at low doses (to minimize start-up side effects), & increase the dose slowly over time. Watch for any sign of improvement over the course of time. For an antidepressant or mood modifier you may not begin to see any real improvement for up to 4 weeks or more.
That said, there are observable signs that a particular medication may work for you. This is where the "art" of prescribing comes into play. For instance, I have found that if one gets severe start-up side effects with a regular starting dose of an SSRI, then there is a good chance that that med will work for you. Just get the doc to lower the dose to a tolerable level, & increase the dose very slowly, over time.
I know that it is VERY frustrating not being able to find the correct combination of medications, but most people usually will eventually find one that will allow them to live a "normal" life within the parameters of their affliction.
Unfortunately, finding the proper combination may take years, but for more than 99% of people, a suitable, effective combination is found.
Don't give up hope & hang in there. I am here (off & on) to help with any specific medication questions, & so are several other knowledgeable posters.
I hope that this is of some help
Posted by gadchik on February 26, 2013, at 12:34:19
In reply to Re: What works for severe anxiety and depression? » PrettyLady, posted by CamW on February 26, 2013, at 12:20:02
"start low & go slow"
I think this advice is so true. I got severe anxiety under control with low doses of klonopin,zoloft, and remeron, all taken at night.I also saw a cognitive behavioral therapist to help me with my thoughts.
Posted by PrettyLady on February 26, 2013, at 12:39:46
In reply to Re: What works for severe anxiety and depression? » PrettyLady, posted by CamW on February 26, 2013, at 12:20:02
Thanks very much, to the both of you, for your responses. I think I may need to increase the Zoloft (on 50mg now), and yes I got startup symptoms on that medication that are starting to subside. But still anxiety is super high all day long. I am looking for something to replace the Ativan for that.
As far as the trileptal, I took 150 last night and was fine, relaxed, fell asleep, but woke through the night over and over with a panicked feeling and depressive feeling, and felt very nauseous and had horrible nightmares. I woke up this morning with anxiety (which I always do) and took 75 mg and began crying within 25 min. Now I just feel kind of stoned, and have diarrhea. Called my psych but he is often out of the office and it takes a long time to get ahold of him.
Ultimately I will go with his advice, but I was wondering what you thought about this? Should I stick with the trileptal? Could increasing the Zoloft help? Zoloft and Seroquel 50mg were my magic combination in the past, don't know if that's any help. Thanks for the help!
Posted by CamW on February 26, 2013, at 13:41:24
In reply to Re: What works for severe anxiety and depression? » CamW, posted by PrettyLady on February 26, 2013, at 12:39:46
PrettyLady
What were the strange symptoms that you experienced with Seroquel (quetiapine)?
As for the Trileptal (oxecarbamazepine, how long have you been taking it? For full effect, it can take up to a month or more for full effect.
An increase of Zoloft (sertraline) probably could help, & may be the way to go.. Paxil (paroxetine) is a better choice of SSRI for anxiety, but the anticholinergic effects, which help with anxiety, does cause carbohydrate cravings, hence weight gain.
Definitely ask your doctor about any changes, he knows you far better than I do. The natural ebbs & tides of anxiety could be what is happening with you. Some days you will have more or less anxiety. If this is the case, a couple more days will let you know.
Stick with the Trileptal for now. Taking extra in the short term won't do much, as it does take quite a while until extra effect occurs. All that you will feel is it's side effects, like the diarrhea & stoned feeling.
I hope this is of some help - Cam
Posted by bleauberry on February 26, 2013, at 15:20:19
In reply to What works for severe anxiety and depression?, posted by PrettyLady on February 26, 2013, at 11:49:58
For immediate as-needed relief, get to a natural store and buy the tincture version of Lemon Balm. Try a half dropper to start with, mixed in a little water. Increase to a full dropper if that doesn't work, and go from there. Long term daily regular usage can lower thyroid, so we don't want that. But for emergency relief, it works. Then you can buy some time to think clearly and calmly what to do longer term.
This might sound bizarre, but what about adding Nortriptyline? The two meds go excellent together.
How do you know it isn't the zoloft causing the anxiety? Was that kind of anxiety there before you started zoloft?
Savella. I don't think you could add a large dose of this to Zoloft without serotonin syndrome risk, but smaller doses I bet would be fine. In Japan they combine it with Paxil and seems to be safe. Anyway, it has a strong norepinephrine component that, through feedback loops, can calm down the entire adrenal/adrenaline/stimulation/anxiety side of things. With 50mg zoloft, and you seem somewhat sensitive to meds, I would think something in the 12mg to 25mg range would be worth considering.
Have you ever tried the herb Rhodiola Rosea? If no, you really should. It is a decent antidepressant all by itself, excellent for anxiety despite it is basically a stimulant for energy, and combines well with psych meds. I would recommend the brand Thorne 100mg caps. I've tried most brands. Their doses are too high. The best quality I experienced was with Thorne or Jarrow. And it's cheap. It works.
Outside of direct approaches to immediate symptoms, I always believe other health strategies are extremely important for a couple reasons....reduce the body's load of other stressors because in doing so it often removes the roadblocks that are causing the meds to be so difficult. We're talking anti inflammation, anti toxin, and anti microbial. There are quite a few things that can cause your symptoms, so you don't want to just mask them with psych drugs, you want to eliminate them. We don't know what they are and never will, so we use the shotgun approach and do them all, since they are all healthy non toxic things to do anyway. Basically, any herbal strategy that works against lyme disease is going to have a likelihood of helping a depression patient get better, and even get a healthy person feeling better. That strategy is anti inflammation, anti toxin, and anti microbial. Depression and anxiety is, in my opinion, very likely coming from one of those sources, not from low serotonin or chemical imbalance or whatever.
Posted by SLS on February 26, 2013, at 15:36:42
In reply to Re: What works for severe anxiety and depression? » CamW, posted by PrettyLady on February 26, 2013, at 12:39:46
> Zoloft and Seroquel 50mg were my magic combination in the past, don't know if that's any help.
It might be.
A metabolite of Seroquel is a NE reuptake inhibitor - similar to nortriptyline. Perhaps combining Zoloft + nortriptyline would be worth trying. It is a favorite combination of a few people here. It is a reasonable strategy.
- Scott
Posted by Phillipa on February 26, 2013, at 15:51:28
In reply to Re: What works for severe anxiety and depression?, posted by gadchik on February 26, 2013, at 12:34:19
Agree with Gadchik Phillipa
Posted by jono_in_adelaide on February 26, 2013, at 18:55:50
In reply to What works for severe anxiety and depression?, posted by PrettyLady on February 26, 2013, at 11:49:58
Zoloft + norteriptyline + Buspar or a benzo
Posted by phidippus on March 2, 2013, at 2:45:41
In reply to What works for severe anxiety and depression?, posted by PrettyLady on February 26, 2013, at 11:49:58
50 mg of Zoloft is a small dose. I think you should increase it.
Eric
Posted by PrettyLady on March 2, 2013, at 16:25:58
In reply to Re: What works for severe anxiety and depression? » PrettyLady, posted by SLS on February 26, 2013, at 15:36:42
I just added 5 mg of Zyprexa to the mix because my anxiety is so dang high. I skipped my yesterday's dose of Zoloft (was so jittery) and feel a bit better today. So will resume the zoloft today and probably increase it. Hoping that works.
I'm also having trouble with brain fog, and feeling it hard to stay in the moment. Maybe it's add, or another function of the anxiety. I'll update on how things go in the next couple days.
Posted by phidippus on March 2, 2013, at 18:11:39
In reply to Re: What works for severe anxiety and depression?, posted by PrettyLady on March 2, 2013, at 16:25:58
Try Keppra
Eric
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