My opinion about anxiety meds

[Soonerdean]

Over the last 2 years I have tried Zoloft, Buspar and recently Cymbalta all with HORRIBEL effects on me....increased anxiety, confusion, no sex drive (my wife is HOT), chest pains and a list of others .  Not only did they not work but ALL actually made my anxiety worse.  Each time I would call the doc to explain what I was experiencing he would argue with me and say "that med does not cause that."  

The first 1 1/2 years I believed him and would continue to take the drug all the while wondering what else was wrong with me which in turn made my anxiety worse and worse.  I finally had enough and decided to quit taking Cymbalta.  It has been 1 week and I already can feel the difference...I was taking 30mgs a day.

I realize that these meds do help some people but I believe MOST regular docs don't have a clue as to the actual effects these SSRI's have on most people.  I am also convinced that the female drug reps, that we all see in out doc's office, with the little black skirt slit up the side is the real PUSHER here.  

I have suffered with this problem for over 2 years and am convinced that my doc is the most incompetent person practicing medicine.  I also find it very hard to believe that I am the only person that has told him of these adverse effects..yet he continued to argue with me.  

Sorry for the long rant...I just wanted to express my opinion about these drugs and say to all of you.....NEVER QUIT TRYING TO HELP YOURSELF!  Please research these drugs before you let your doc prescribe them to you.

[Tms8]

I suffer from anxiety and panic disorder and I agree about the antidepressants. I have every horrible side effect from those and will never take them again. I recently decided to stop Buspar because not only do I feel it's doing nothing for me but it makes my skin super dry and itchy -- particularly on my face. The dizzy, nauseated feeling also has not gone away after two months and I feel like my anxiety has recently gotten worse. I guess I just don't like my head being messed with. So I will try this on my own. I should have trusted my instincts and never started any type of medication. Maybe I could have worked through all this much sooner if I did things the natural way. Oh well...lesson learned.

[Raine9]

I don't know too much about meds. I'm an organic, nature freak.  I don't even take Tylenol. But I have been suffering from anxiety for almost a year now and was given a presription of Xanax a couple of weeks ago.  I took it about 3 times and it does make me feel better and my symptoms improve significantly.  I now understand the term "chill pill" :o)  However, I read up on the addictive effects and decided not to take it unless my symptoms are really bad.  They haven't been bad for almost two weeks now. YIPPIE!  It's interesting to note that when my doc gave me the presription, HE DID NOT IMPRESS ON ME THE SERIOUS ADDICTIVE NATURE OF THE DRUG. If I had just blindly taken everyday, I would've been a junkie by the end of the month!

Doctors do get perks for pushing certain drugs.  They go on conventions to nice tropical resorts all funded by pharmaceutical companies!

Docs don't always know what they are talking about.  About a year ago, I took my daughter to see the doc about a rash on her legs and coughing, she said that it was an allergic reaction to some sort of grass.  She gave her some steroid for that rash and another symptom.  Steroids, I found out are bad stuff.  Anyways, the rash was not a rash after all, it was just severely dry skin!  All I needed to do was rub an ointment on her legs everyday!

About 3 or 4 years ago, I was given a prescription for Celexa, the dumbass psych who gave it to me "forgot" to warn me about the "adjustment" period.  I had insomnia for the first week I took it.  It was horrible, my mind was racing and I was going nuts for lack of sleep.  When I told her about it, she goes "oh, sorry I forgot to tell you" . I didn't like the idea of putting a drug in my body and it didn't seem to really make me feel any different so I stopped taking the drug after a little more than a month and needless to say, I stopped seeing that useless, so-called psychiatrist.

If drugs do not help you, try meditation.  Sounds corny but I read a book called "Full Catastrophe Living"  By Jon Kabat-Zinn. This guy used to run stress reduction clinics on the east coast.  In his book, he describes a lady that had bad panic attacks.  Her doc had prescribed tranqulizers but it didn't help her.  She went to his clinic and started meditating and got much, much better w/o the use of drugs.

Sorry for your experience and good luck!  

[tanns]

I have found that anytime I need info on a drug, I contact my pharmacist.  I have a great one and he is also a neighbor and family friend although I try not to approach him outside the pharmacy about meds.   He was my lifesaver when I started Lexapro and didn't know what the heck was happening to me.  I called my doc and he said (after explaining my symptoms) "I don't know what to tell you".  That was it for me, I changed doctors soon after and called my pharmacist...again.  The pharmacists hear alot more from patients than the docs do, at least about reactions.

Good luck and I hope you find some answers soon.

[fyulaba]

Hi! I suffer from Generalized Anxiety Disorder. In my opinion, your doctor shouldn't be prescribing those meds to you anyway. Zoloft is an anti-depressant, and almost all anti-depressant medication can trigger anxiety. Personally, I have tried prozac, zoloft, and well-butrin (buproprion). Well-Butrin worked best for me as an anti-depressant and did help with the frequency of my anxiety attacks, but the others did nothing but either A) Make me more anxious, or B) Make me feel like a zombie.

Here are a few tips: When you BEGIN to feel anxious, try taking a deep breath and holding it for 20 seconds, then very slowly exhaling. 9 times out of 10, this has worked for me whenever I would sense an anxiety attack comming on. Otherwise, I think Ativan (lorazepam) or Kolonipin (clonazepam) may be your best bet for anxiety. The good news about these 2 medications is that they work to alleiviate anxiety quickly, the bad news is that they do not actually do anything to "cure" anxiety. If it is a cure that you're looking for, I would recommend Well-Butrin.

Thanks,
Jason  

[DragonTU84]

Sorry, but I want to respond a little bit more since I was restricted to how much I could type and submit from my cell.

Anyways, as I was saying, people like you and I began popping up with having adverse reactions to these drugs the doctors thought was a "Cure-All" for all mental related problems. However, since the numbers of patients with both depression and anxiety alike tended to lean more towards benefiting from the drug, they continue to blindly use it as a cure-all for panic disorders and anxiety disorders.

Unfortunately, they will continue to do so until they truly realize that these anti-depressants aren't the "cure-all" they initially thought.

Now, I want to relate to you my experience with doctors and SSRI's:

I was at first given Zoloft, since I was complaining of having heart palps and racing heart beats and of course, Panic Attacks. My GP promptly wrote me a script for Zoloft at 25 MG, and told me, "take this, you will be fine and it will do you wonders!"

So I left, of course stupididly believing every word she said. I went and filled the prescription, and the next day popped my first pill...

About a few hours into taking it, I had the WORST feeling in my life (well, it only got WORSE from there). I felt severely woozy and lightheaded, and had to sit down to balance and keep myself together. It felt like the entire room was spinning, and my head just felt BLAH all together, like I was getting a head illness or something. I was in a store that day, since I assumed everything with the med. would be fine, and was getting ready to check out when it just HIT me like a ton of bricks. Now, I have had lightheaded spells TONS of times in the past as well as Panic Attacks and Chest Pains, and it was NOTHING like those I had experienced before!!

After that ONE day of taking the pill, I deviated away from taking it again! My symptoms improved, and I no longer had any more of those light headed spells after that one day..

However, as I was STILL suffering from the severe heart palps and anxiety/panic attacks, my mother convinced me to give the med. another try, since my "sis was on another SSRI for her GAD and it was working her WONDERS." Still skeptical about taking the med., but DESPERATE to get rid of my other symptoms, I again popped the med...

Now, the first day I was fine, and this was on a Friday. I was back in the apartment with my fiancee, and it was late one Saturday night, and I was just lying in bed waiting for my man to finish getting ready for bed so I could follow up as well. I then all of a sudden felt this ELECTRICAL SURGE seem to vibrate throughout my head/brain, along with a ten-fold pins-and-needles feeling that surged through my head. I then felt the electrical surge feeling continue to surge through me, even going up and down my spinal cord. I PANICKED, of course, not knowing WHAT was happening to me. I started seeing blotches, and I PANICKED that I was going to pass out, have a seizure or SOMETHING!! I ran around the apartment, the feeling still going on through my head. I then tried sitting on the bed to calm myself down and regain myself, and it seemed like it started to pass. Then, I felt ANOTHER attack, worse than the first, which truly caused me to have blotchy vision and just go into utter chaos.

My fiancee drove me to the hospital in case by the time we got there my symptoms worsened or progressed. Eventually, the off-and-on symptoms DID pass, after about 45 min. to an hour of pure hell.

We just went back to the apartment, and I went to bed that night.

The next morning, I woke up, and probably a mix between me having the attack that night and due to the fact I didn't get much sleep, I felt completely SLOW and BLAH the entire day. I could barely bring myself to speak, I dragged myself slowly across the room, and I just overall felt like a complete pile of ****!!

I called the doctor-on-call (since it was a weekend) and told him about my horrific experience. You know what he did?? He "Poo-Pooed" me away and told me "Oh, it's not the medicine, just you. It was probably just a bad Panic Attack." I was SO mad....he also told me to "continue on the med." >:(

I continued taking the med., and that following week, on a Wednesday, I had ANOTHER milder, but more PROLONGED attack that lasted off-and-on for about 2 HOURS!! :( :( It kept me up until like 1:30 a.m., so needless to say I slept in late the next day...

The problems FINALLY seemed to dissipate, for about 2 weeks. However, after those 2 weeks were up (and I was still on the med.), I AGAIN began getting the weird head attacks!! Most were not as severe as the first, but they were still attacks nonetheless. Now, I have had Panic Attack, and know what those were like, and sure these caused me to have Panic Attacks also, but moreso since I didn't know WHAT THE HELL was going on!!! :(

I was then getting head-related zings/buzzings/electrical sensation attacks EVERY DAY, sometimes mild and bearable and other times not.

I eventually STOPPED the med. after having it in my system for a month, but my stupid GP (she is a good doctor, but not for things like this) told me to QUIT IT COLD TURKEY. She said I should not experience too much side effects, if any.

Well, needless to say it made my head attacks TEN FOLD!! Sometimes they were mild and bearable, like before. And there were days I went without attacks. But when the bad ones struck, they left me PARALYZED in certain limbs, my head felt like it was going to go into convulsions or something, and it was just like PURE HELL!! I was completely conscious during these attacks, so you can imagine the FEAR I was under during this time.

After about a month 1/2 or so, and after starting on a mult-vitamin since I thought maybe I had some vitamin deficiencies that were attributing to my problems, my problems not only began to dissipate, but the head zings almost vanished COMPLETELY!! I still get the dizziness/lightheadedness and my head will feel quooky/odd still at times during some of my Panic Attacks, yet NOTHING like I had to endure before!! And sure, I still get heart palps and anxiety, but NOTHING like the torment and torture I had to go through getting ON and then OFF the Zoloft!!!

I am now seeing a Psychiatrist, who prescribed me with Lorazepam and also prescribed me with Lexapro, even though I TOLD him about my reaction to Zoloft. He was STILL convinced, however, that it was just Zoloft and that another SSRI should do the trick. Well guess what happened???

I took it on a Saturday, and for most of the day I was fine (aside from feeling a little tired). I thought maybe I was HOME-FREE and found a med. that would work GREAT!! I took it at NOON along with the Lorazepam, which I take 2-3 times daily. After 6 HOURS of the med. being in my system (Lexapro), I got ANOTHER head-related attack of the electrical vibrations, ten-fold pins and needles feeling, and getting sweaty and clammy, then cold. I immediately called my doctor, and STOPPED taking the med from there on out.

My doctor called me back ASAP on Monday, and just agreed with me to STOP the med. He told me to continue the Lorazepam and see how that works, as so far there has been no adverse effects, aside from a full-blown attack when first popping the med. one day, but I think that was because I hadn't had the drug in my system all night long, and thus was just prone to a panic attack.

So I can understand what you went through. These drugs aren't the "cure-all" that they claim it to be. What they NEED to do is develop and FIND a med that specifically targets anxiety and panic disorders, aside from the benzo's that are already out there. Will they ever??? Only once they realize that SSRI's aren't all they make it out to be...

~Crystal

[suzi-q]

I totally respect your opinion on medication and that it is to easily prescribed these days....however, as a woman, I take offense to your comment about the female "drug pushers".  They are professionals who are trained for their jobs just like any man.....I find that comment to be unnecessary.

[DragonTU84]

I apologize if my words are a little scrambled as I am typing from my cell phone, but I couldn't help but bring myself to respond to your post.   I can relate to exactly what you had to go through.  Unfortunately, doctors continue to prescribe SSRI's thinking they are a cure-all for many problems, whereas in reality they were only specific for depression and nothing else. However, as the SSRIs were being tested and distributed, they began to see it also working for certain individuals with anxiety and panic disorders, and in great numbers at that. So doctors then began prescribing this med. now not only to patients with depression, but also to individuals complaining of panic attacks and anxiety problems since the majority seemed to benefit off of it so they based their findings on that. Unfortunately, however, not according to their initial thought, people suffering from anxiety (like you and I) began having adverse reactions to these supposedly "Cure-All" meds that the doctors became convinced worked 4 all.