Remeron and zoloft for anxiety/depression works?

[tara1028]

I am 24 year old girl,I have severe anxiety and depression. It began when I was 16. I started therapy and started zoloft. It helped for like 6 years and then zoloft was losing its effectiveness a little so i switched to celexa and was on that for a year maybe and felt so good that I got off meds completely seven months ago.
Two months ago it came back even worse. I had terrible anxiety, panic attacks, crying, isolating, no appetite. I went back on celexa for a  few weeks and still didn't see results after a few weeks. After goign to emergency room, then told me to go to IOP program. I began an intensive outpatient program in a high focus center. been there a little over a month. they put me on remeron being that I had gi issues from celexa previously.  I am on remeron for over a month 30 mg. I started to feel low a little again last week so she added zoloft. I started 12.5 every morning, which she said is like nothing, but I am very sensitive to side effects and nervous about getting them!! I felt it made me tired and out of it. And a little nausea. She told me to increase to 25mg in night. So yesterday after taking the 12.5 for five mornings, I took 12.5 last night as well. and plan to take 25 mg tonight. Am so scared because when I started the zoloft in high school I was so nauseas at night and morning but cant remember how long it lasted. But I know I eventually had relief from it.
Do you think I need the remeron too once I get adjusted to the zoloft? Are they known to be good together? Im just a nervous wreck and worry about EVERYTHING! I have only a few weeks left in the program and am nervous about that as well. I am frustrated because I just want to feel better completely and am losing patience.
BTW I am taking Klonopin twice a day .25 mg. But ive been taking for over a month so dont know how well its working but Im supposed to take it until I feel better from the other meds.

[Paxiled]

Does this program involve CBT?  You don't otherwise mention any therapy program that might tackle the root cause of your problem -- the way we think.  As for the meds, they all have side effects -- some have an easier time than others, but they are drugs and drugs have side effects.  As for being on remeron and zoloft, I'd talk to the psychiatrist about that -- I think they both work on serotonin, so you don't want to do too much of that, but the psychiatrist is hopefully aware of this and monitoring you closely.  As to whether you can stop one because of taking the other, it depends on what the psychiatrist is trying to do -- he or she might be trying augmentation, which is adding drugs to get a better effect when the first one is working but not well enough.  If the first one isn't working, you don't add to it, you try another, but augmentation studies show better results with more than one med.  The problem is, as you're describing, it also increases side effects.  Important to make sure your psychiatrist knows how to carefully taper you off any med you stop taking -- stopping them abruptly can lead to withdrawal problems, and some psychiatrists and doctors will misinterpret this as new disease problems, so you have to be aware of this problem and make sure your docs know how to deal with it and take it seriously.  Stopping the klonopin at the dose you're taking it should be done very carefully and as slowly as you need to.  Other than these general rules and the need to try therapy if you ever want to get off the drug merry-go-round, drugs affect people very differently, and if you have a really good careful psychiatrist they will monitor you but you have to be proactive and make sure they're paying attention to what you're feeling -- they have a lot of patients but you only have you.

[Paxiled]

By the way, given this started when you were very young and you were put on drugs at a very young age, which isn't really encouraged but is sometimes necessary, did anyone ever give you an extremely thorough physical evaluation to see if you had problems that might have led to this, such as nutritional deficiencies, thyroid problems, blood sugar problems, etc.?  

[tara1028]

Yes, I had thorough exams, I have polycystic ovaries, and enlarged thyroid but other than that Im ok. The groups involve cbt and dbt. Today I saw the psychiatrist and they said if the zoloft is causing me much anxiety then I should stop taking it. She said I was on such a low dose that I can just stop it. I took 5 days of 12.5 and then 6th day of 12.5 twice and then the next day 25 mg. (today) I am nervous of course about just stopping it like that as well. dont want to have any withdrawal effects but it was a real low dose.
I think I was doing ok on the remeron by itself so will try that.

[Paxiled]

If you just took it for 7 days then it hasn't even started working yet.  It should be easy to stop taking it.  On Remeron, watch out for weight gain -- if you start gaining quickly, tell your doc right away.