Anxiety and Depression Medication

[[Mi...]]

For us struggling with anxiety and or depression is a major problem for us at BenzoBuddies.Doctors or psychiatrist usually almost always resort to using medications eventually.Anyways I have a question more than a statement.Out of all the anxiety or depression medications you where prescribed which ones did you feel helped you out the most?How long did it take before you got side effects and what where those side effects?What are you doing for your anxiety or depression now?

[[Mi...]]

Have any of you had any positive effects in your life from using anxiety or depression medication?If so did the medication "turn" on you and give you side effects?Or is it still helping you today?

[[We...]]

Yes, I've had positive effects from anxiety/depression medication. I'm 32 now, but when I was 18 I began getting very depressed and had many terrible panic attacks and social anxiety events that left me humiliated. I also had OCD where I would count things such as my steps or I had to touch something a certain amount of time or I might break my leg etc. I started getting suicidal thinking because I had no hope left, but I was trudging through every day examining all my past actions and feeling stupid, constantly kicking myself and down on myself.

 

An allergist of all things ask me if I was getting suicidal thoughts and I said yes. He phoned my doctor and I was booked for an appointment with my doctor. SSRI's I guess were relatively new ... this was around 1999 or so. I was prescribed Paxil.

 

My doctor told me it takes a while to build up in the system and may not work right away. I took my first dose ... an hour later, the veil of darkness had lifted. My spirits were higher, I was joking around, the old me was generally back. I went through ups and downs for the first few weeks, but once it stabalized I had self-esteem, I was not having the fight or flight response when seeing old friends and I was focused on school work and became very disciplined in my lifestyle.

 

What use to seem like humiliating events were now water off my back when they happened ... things like ... saying a wrong word or sounding stupid. I found myself and I had everything happening except a sex drive !!! I didn't care, it was worth it.

 

I didn't even drink on my 19th birthday because I was confident at my first nightclub.

 

Eventually I figured I could operate without the Paxil because I was feeling great, so I just stopped taking it. I never had side effects when quitting asides from those weird zaps when I would move my eyes really quick left or right, but that wasn't even really an issue at all. It was a tickle.

 

Whenever I stopped taking Paxil, I always found that I became undisciplined again and would run my body down over a period of 6-months to the point that panic and depression would come back, so I would go back on Paxil.

 

Paxil was fine. Over time I started partying while everyone was going to uni/college. I figured I would go to college in a year or two. That never happened. I starting drinking beers and playing xbox with a different group of friends. I use to smoke pot every couple weeks and laugh a lot. Eventually I was smoking pot every day and my life revolved around friends, xbox, beer, pot and working crappy jobs just for the paycheque. Eventually coffee made itself into the mix.

 

Eventually I went to college, but I dropped out due to the poor decisions of going to one that was an hour and 30 commute and a full time 8am-4pm 5 day a week program ... I have never been a very good planner and always impulsive ... that's the one thing SSRI's really fixed, my poor planning and thinking about my future. I always had this thought that I could always pull it off at the last second like an all-star, because I had done it before.

 

By the time I was 25 I was a drug seeker, I always knew when the beer store was going to close, what the number of my pot dealers were, always had my coffee and cigarettes and always ate unhealthy foods and chased sex.

 

I was feeling a bit off and went to see the doctor. I told the doctor I was drinking quite a bit, and she freaked out and prescribe me valium for 7-days. I was afraid to take it, I read all about it before taking 1. I took 1 and I felt super relaxed and chilled out. Prescription ended and I carried on with my life.

 

Slowly I was getting older, being a drunk idiot, living paycheque to paycheque and living off my parents. SSRI was helping my agoraphobia and I was operating but not thriving.

 

Eventually I had an episode where I felt as though I was weightless and being pulled out of my buddy and it was the scariest thing in the entire world, I felt I had had a stroke or I was dying. I was with my sister and her boyfriend at the time and I was using every ounce of my being not to show the extreme suffering and discomfort I was in. I think they call this derealization, but I'm not sure.

 

Eventually around Christmas I was going through the mall with my sister to get something and everything was too much, vision was off, I was paranoid etc, when we got home I just starting crying my eyes out because I had been scared out of my mind for 2 or 3 weeks and I think of myself as a big tough guy when I'm just a big goofy teddy bear!

 

A few doctor visits and a psychiatrist I believe I was put on a different SSRI and a Benzodiazepine. The SSRI no longer helped as I had remembered and the Benzo wasn't being effective at all like I had taken back a few years back. I had celiac disease that went undiagnosed this entire time and it's my belief that my small intestine and malnutrition mixed with poor sleep caused that one episode and these new drugs weren't working since I had years of damage done to my brain and body. Although they did offer slight relief I was still have akathisia ... an constant need to move due to this internal torture feeling as though I was going to be sucked out of my body at any moment.

 

I was given a myriad and cocktail of things to try. I knew that schizophrenia happends to people at 25yrs to 30yrs old ... but I didn't have symptoms of seeing or hearing things that weren't there and the TV didn't 'talk' to me ... but I do have sever paranoia so maybe it is a version of schiz ...

 

I was prescribed Zopiclone for sleep and the first pill I took knocked me out in about 2 or 3 seconds. Slept great. Over a few weeks it was ineffective and I was at 2 pills and eventually 3 pills which is the max dosage. I was splitting the pills throughout the day because it relived the terrible feeling of restlessness. In my opinion this is much more addictive than a benzo in the aspect that I actually felt 'drugged' up when taking it, just like when you have a beer. Valium never gave me that sensation. Eventually I stopped it since I couldn't sleep and 1-week of feeling depersonalized and getting phantom smells I was back to normal.

 

Anyway ... I drowned myself in alcohol since that is the only thing that could keep the heebeejeebees away. I wasn't drinking for fun, I was drinking to stop this horrific feeling of constantly having to move.

 

I tried Olanzipine for 3 or 4 days (apparently lowers dopamine), but it floored me and made me feel so heavy. I tried Trazadone 1 night for a sleep aid but it caused my sinus' to stuff up. A doctor put me on divalproex, but nothing happened so I didn't take after 2 or 3 days. My mom gave me a doxepin (tricyclic) to sleep, but it gave me this 'grainy' feeling in my brain.

 

Long story short ...

 

Paxil at 18 was great. No withdrawal symptoms during times I wanted to try to med free. No sex drive was the symptom on it.

Valium at 25 for alcohol stoppage for 1-week. Worked great and I didn't know much about the drug at the time, but I just carried on with my life.

 

Trazadone for sleep 1 or 2 nights, couldn't breathe out of nose so that didn't work.

Olanzopine for anxiety/paranoia, it floored me and made it feel more trapped in my body so I quit after a few day.

Divalproex, didn't know much about it and gave it a couple days. ]

Doxepin, my mom gave me one but it didn't help.

Zopiclone for sleep. About a year, 7.5mg - 22.5mg. Quit cold turkey, no withdrawal effect except that slight 'floating' feeling and phantom smells for 1-week.

Ton of liquor. I never had the shakes, but I did feel generally unwell for a week whenever I stopped. I was never a 24/7 drinker, more of a 6pm - midnight drinker.

 

After tons of blood panels and 24 hr fasting tests and holter monitors, a CT scan and nothing aside from slightly low iron and a little high blood sugar I'm pretty sure all the trauma to my brain is the issue. One can only be in a constant state of anxiety and depression before there's that last straw and it breaks. The brain is an organ after all, just like a heart or a kidney, so after mistreating it so long, here we are!

 

Now I'm eating gluten free, exercising, being cognitive of my goals and tapering off of Chlordiazepoxide to finally get this brain functioning properly since I'm pretty sure I've been tolerant too it since the first month I was prescribed it.

[[Ne...]]

Hi, good question.  I was put on Cymbalta, Effexor, Pristiq, Lexapro and Celexa.  The SNRIs caused a lot of anxiety and I needed frequent .25 Xanax to calm me down.  Celexa was the best but triggered severe back pain...so did Lexapro which also worked well.  So, yes, they turned on me.

 

My advice is to get genetic testing for Antidepressant response, even if you have to pay out pocket.  This will tell your Dr how you metabolize all the meds and will identify which are most likely to work and which to steer clear of.  Why go through painful trials of things that make you sick if it can be avoided.

 

My Pdoc believes in the old TCAs and swears that they are no less effective than the newer meds.

[[ma...]]

Antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication all typically increase feelings of anxiety and depression the first week or so of taking them. Everyone is different though. This was the major hurdle for me. My depression and anxiety are already quite severe. Waiting several weeks for increased anxiety/depression from new medication to subside was impossible. I'm also only 20 years old, and people under 25 are at great risk of suicidal ideation when taking most antidepressants, which was another problem for me as i started taking ADs in my early teens.

 

The longest I was on an antidepressant was wellbutrin. It stopped working for me at nearly a year on it. I went off, and i can't remember if i had any major withdrawal side effects. Nothing as bad as my benzo withdrawal. But I do know it gave me brain zaps for months and I've had tinnitus ever since (I must have been 16 when I went off it and I'm 20 now.)