Anxiety/Panic Disorder (LONG) - Effexor XR

[trentztrik]

Hi! I'm a 30 year old male who is extremely healthy, very athletic (work out daily), and fairly out going/sociable. Since I was about 18 years old I've smoked marijuana on a daily basis to help chill out at the end of the day. In my younger years, I've also experiemented with different types of drugs, but never had an addiction and stopped the hard partying by my mid twenties. Two years ago, I was in Amserdam over the holidays and ate a pot muffin from a local bakery. What ever was in it made my hallucinate for days. In the past when I would wake up from a bad trip and I was sober and good to go. Not this time! I got back to the US a few days later still feeling very trippy and out of it. A week later, I had my first major panick attack that landed me in the ER. After having a battery of blood work, EKG's, and basic neurological exams, they found nothing wrong. The trippy feeling eventually subsided and I moved on with my life. From that time on, every so often I would have feelings of dissociation that would trigger panic attacks. The spells would be brief and then would end. The last few weeks I have been under some stress do to my job ending, etc. I have started to feel socially anxious (have no idea where this is coming from - I love being out with friends) and am starting to feel that spacey/trippy feeling I felt a few years ago (this time with no drugs which makes it very scary). I decided to quit smoking herb last week as it was something I had been planning to do anyway and I was hoping I would lose the spaciness I have been recently feeling. Since that time I have felt VERY out of it and the panic attacks have become debilitating. Going to the dry cleaner almost made me have a meltdown. Again this coming from a very social, outgoing person who works with the public for a living! I saw the MD Monday and he feels that now that I may have a chemical imbalance. He prescribed me Effexor XR and I have been on it for 3 days. I feel like I am coked out of my mind. I have no appetite, super energized - I can't even drink coffee and I am known for my Starbucks quad shot latte in the morning. On top of that, I have a wonderful love/sex life and I can barely come when having sex! I feel as spacey as ever - WTF is wrong with me? How have I slipped from being a confident, cool, successful, happy dude to a lunatic that doesn't want to leave the house in the span of 10 days? I am a naturally very high energy person - is Effexor the right drug for me? When I was thinking anti-anxiey I pictured that nice warm calming effect of xanax or something. That is more what I am looking for. I don't know that I want to be on anti-depressents. I don't suffer from depression!!! HELP!!! Does anyone else have the spacey/trippy feeling? No one I know understands what I am talking about!

[beesmom]

going off of anything- smoking for YEARS- new meds, etc is enough to make your body spin and feel muttled. First thing I would make sure youre correctly diagnosed. A 'chemical imbalance' is a term I am weary of. Unfortunately it gets generalized while the real problem/diagnosis  gets ignored or misinterpreted. So seriously get a second opinion, especially if all of these issues are new, you dont want to be a pill guinea pig or mess around on the first diagnosis. Im only saying this because I was misdiagnosed and ended up having an entire summer with withdrawls from one thing, an allergic reaction to another- which the symptoms wernt in their books so they blew it off- anway 4 trips to the er, a spinal tap.... and I decided to stop that med and go back to original and within a few days I was fine.
I wish you good luck and i know it sounds lame but remember to breath. this stuff takes time:)

[beesmom]

going off of anything- smoking for YEARS- new meds, etc is enough to make your body spin and feel muttled. First thing I would make sure youre correctly diagnosed. A 'chemical imbalance' is a term I am weary of. Unfortunately it gets generalized while the real problem/diagnosis  gets ignored or misinterpreted. So seriously get a second opinion, especially if all of these issues are new, you dont want to be a pill guinea pig or mess around on the first diagnosis. Im only saying this because I was misdiagnosed and ended up having an entire summer with withdrawls from one thing, an allergic reaction to another- which the symptoms wernt in their books so they blew it off- anway 4 trips to the er, a spinal tap.... and I decided to stop that med and go back to original and within a few days I was fine.
I wish you good luck and i know it sounds lame but remember to breath. this stuff takes time:)

[beesmom]

going off of anything- smoking for YEARS- new meds, etc is enough to make your body spin and feel muttled. First thing I would make sure youre correctly diagnosed. A 'chemical imbalance' is a term I am weary of. Unfortunately it gets generalized while the real problem/diagnosis  gets ignored or misinterpreted. So seriously get a second opinion, especially if all of these issues are new, you dont want to be a pill guinea pig or mess around on the first diagnosis. Im only saying this because I was misdiagnosed and ended up having an entire summer with withdrawls from one thing, an allergic reaction to another- which the symptoms wernt in their books so they blew it off- anway 4 trips to the er, a spinal tap.... and I decided to stop that med and go back to original and within a few days I was fine.
I wish you good luck and i know it sounds lame but remember to breath. this stuff takes time:)

[beesmom]

going off of anything- smoking for YEARS- new meds, etc is enough to make your body spin and feel muttled. First thing I would make sure youre correctly diagnosed. A 'chemical imbalance' is a term I am weary of. Unfortunately it gets generalized while the real problem/diagnosis  gets ignored or misinterpreted. So seriously get a second opinion, especially if all of these issues are new, you dont want to be a pill guinea pig or mess around on the first diagnosis. Im only saying this because I was misdiagnosed and ended up having an entire summer with withdrawls from one thing, an allergic reaction to another- which the symptoms wernt in their books so they blew it off- anway 4 trips to the er, a spinal tap.... and I decided to stop that med and go back to original and within a few days I was fine.
I wish you good luck and i know it sounds lame but remember to breath. this stuff takes time:)

[beesmom]

going off of anything- smoking for YEARS- new meds, etc is enough to make your body spin and feel muttled. First thing I would make sure youre correctly diagnosed. A 'chemical imbalance' is a term I am weary of. Unfortunately it gets generalized while the real problem/diagnosis  gets ignored or misinterpreted. So seriously get a second opinion, especially if all of these issues are new, you dont want to be a pill guinea pig or mess around on the first diagnosis. Im only saying this because I was misdiagnosed and ended up having an entire summer with withdrawls from one thing, an allergic reaction to another- which the symptoms wernt in their books so they blew it off- anway 4 trips to the er, a spinal tap.... and I decided to stop that med and go back to original and within a few days I was fine.
I wish you good luck and i know it sounds lame but remember to breath. this stuff takes time:)

[remar]

going off of either med, an antidepressant or an antianxiety med can be very hard. you have gotten some good advice. the med your on now was the hardest for me to quit. i hope everything works out for you. take care .Remar