Severe anxiety w/ depression - please help!

Hello all. Thanks for taking the time to read my post. Any support / insight you an offer would be greatly appreciated. Long story short.. after a nervous breakdown, I've been diagnosed with PTSD, Major Depression, and Panic Disorder. I was on Lexapro for a year or so, and prozac for 2-3 years before that. I've was off of antidepressants for about 6 months now, but continued with .5mg on xanax 3 times a day. On Saturday I collapsed back into a breakdown. I haven't eaten or slept for the last 4 days, and i keep pacing back and forth and have waves of constant anxiety. I can't sit still, and my heart keeps racing. I started back on the Lexapro 4 days ago.. but I know this will take a while to have any effect. My psychiatrist is on vacation, but her replacement simply told me to take another xanax if needed. Things seem totally hopeless - especially that the xanax is not working! Has anyone ever experienced this? Will it ever end? The xanax used to control my anxiety / panic very well before this breakdown. How much longer will I have to live with this torture? I don't know how much longer I can stand this. When should I consider hospitalization? Thanks so much for any insight you can provide!!

[LeftCoastChick]

Go to your local ER, there is no shame in that, you will be seen quickly.

[Hensley258]

Xanax while very good at offering temporary relief from anxiety has a fairly short half life. Not to mention that if you have been taking 1/2Mg of Xanax for some time then your body has probably built up a resistance to this low dosage.

It now takes me 2Mgs of Xanax to get any anti-anxiety relief from the drug. This is good and very bad also. Because Xanax is a benzodiazaphine our bodys have the ability to develope a resistance to it very fast.

You may want to call your doctor and ask him if it's ok if you take 1Mg of xanax at one time.

Just be careful as time progresses, because it doesn't take long for 1, 2 and even 4Mgs of Xanax to become useless in helping with the anxiety and panic attacks. Not to mention once you reach the 2Mg a day mark your body will have developed an actual physical dependency for the drug. At that dosage when you need to eventually taper off Xanax it is not fun because the withdrawl (withdrawal) is horrible.

Keep in mind that Xanax is both a saving grace for panic dissorder, but also can eventually result in addiction at higher dosages.

I am at a level now with Xanax that I could take 4Mgs at one time and still fuction perfectly normal, where if a person not taking Xanax were to take 4Mgs they would pass out and sleep for two days.

That is how fast you can build resistance to the drug.

When this Lexapro kicks in then it should help a little with the anxiety and allow you to then go to a lower dosage of Xanax.

[dave09]

Thanks a lot for your comments. I considered going to the ER because the anxiety was so out of control. But it has come down quite a bit in the last two days (maybe the Lexapro is kicking in after a week?), and the .5mg of xanax now helps take the edge off... but is still not as effective as it once was. My psychiatrist is on vacation until next week, so I had to speak with her replacement - who basically told me to just take another xanax (not very helpful at the time). Once I get this panic under control, the depression is going to hit me! I don't which is worse.

Thanks again for the help! I am going to speak to my shrink about upping my dose or switching to a longer lasting benzo until the Lexapro takes full effect.

[whodunnit]

Hey Dave is here!

Sorry you are going through that stuff, bad news isn't it?

I just posted on this forum about Effexor to another person and I was prescribed it for a stage when I was suicidal and thought of nothing else 24/7. Didn't eat, just forgot it, anxiety? Through the roof.

Xanax or valium do work for most of us for probably 2 or 3 days consecutively but from there they either do nothing or we have to take more and more, which obviously has an end point and is irrational and dengerous.

Short term relief is essential but if we try and use it all the time it is useless.

Long term relief is provided by dealing with the depression usually so the anti d's art the most likely to help as most attack anxiety symptoms as well, part and parcel really.

But I have no doubt Effexor is the most effective for the state you describe based purely on my own experience and nothing helping until Effexor did.

I was even given an anti psychotic or two and they made me worse so I stopped them.

The downside is Effexor often takes longer to start working for many than most other meds. It took 6 weeks for me to go from suicidal to able to crack a smile.

The key to drugs like Xanax or valium is to not use them except as an emergency. They are not long term treatments and not designed for such.

[Hensley258]

Listen to dave09. I also (at one point in my life) used to take Effexor and at that time it honestly saved my life. It is a damn good antidepressant.

Just be careful with that Xanax. You don't want to become like me. I am addicted to 3Mgs a day and am having serious trouble tapering off the drug.