ANXIETY ALL THE TIME

im a 50yr old male. i had a panic attack about 20 yrs ago. it was bad, very  depressed for ahwile.  it was brought on by worrying all the time.  for the last year ive been worrying all the time again. when my kids (in 20's) go out i over worry, cant sleep, everytime phone rings i JUST KNOW something bad happenend. i stay up all night till they come home.  i just started taking suboxone for a 3 year hydrocodone addiction. started the sub 7 days ago. i suppose to go get complete blood work done since starting the sub.
i am SCARED to go cuz i know something will be wrong with me. and waiting for the results will be torture.. lately in the evening, i get flush face, startled real easy by ordinary sounds. sour taste in mouth, nervous. flu like symptoms (which is one side effect of the subs, according to packet).  im on the net all the time checking EVERY symptom i feel.  can anyone relate to this

[J T Junig, MD PhD]

It is not uncommon for anxiety to worsen, temporarily, when people start Suboxone.  It seems that as they lose their obsession for opioids, the mind is freed up to worry about other things.  Over time, if the person works a recovery program-- i.e. finds appropriate self-help literature or finds a good recovery group-- the worry improves.  

With the severity of anxiety that you describe, though, I would want you on appropriate medication-- an SSRI or SNRI, at a relatively high dose.  Serotonin meds work well for generalize anxiety and panic attacks, but they take time to work, and they generally need to be in the upper dose range-- 60 or 80 mg for Prozac, for example.

Finally, a good therapist would be helpful.  I do psychodynamic psychotherapy in my practice;  the goal would be to identify the nature of your fears-- assuming that you are repressing the true object of your fear, and displacing the fear onto other, day to day things.  

Self help books have the problem that they tend to 'ring true' for a few days, without leading to any true change... but you clearly are searching for validation of your feelings, and they can be helpful for that.

Finally, stop by my forum-- suboxforum.com-- to talk about your concerns about buprenorphine.  It's free, and there are good people there.