Dazed

[frati]

Hello all, I hope I can get some support thru this forum. Here's my story. I've always suffered from anxiety from time to time growing up. Had my first encounter with anxiety when I was 18 and I'm now 29. I've tken antidepressants a couple of times during this time period. About early december 2009, I decided to try Pristiq for my anxiety since I had already taken effexor for 2 years few years ago and it supposed to be very similar. I took pristiq for almost 3 weeks and quicly stopped it due to a major panic episode one night where all of a sudden i had extreme anxiety and racing thoughts. Due to this episode my doctor told me that it didn;t feel that I was a right candidate for this medicine anyways and gave me xanaz for whenever needed. My problem started after i stopped the pristiq. Two days after I completely stopped i started to experience minor withdrawal symptoms, from nausea to lightheadness. Eventually things got worse to the point that I was experiencing major anxiety, fear, feeling hopeless etc.During this time I went on a trip as well to Europe which was pre arranged and it was horrible. Maybe due to the jetlag and change of environment. Ever since I came back and restarted working out and eating healty I do feel better with my anxiety but the main problem that I'm still experiencing is the dazed out of it feeling that has never gone away. You know the feeling when you wake up in the morning and then it goes away? Well, for me it doesn't really go away. Sometimes I have headached with it and a sense of foggyness that doesn;t allow me to concentrate, It has been almost 10 weeks now and I'm tired of this feeeling. The doc prescribed me effexor 4 weeks ago which I still haven't started because of my fear of unwanted side effects. I explained to him my symptoms and he wasn't able to pin point the cause and figures it's associated to anxiety with a little depression. I understand the whole concept of a tired mind due to excess worrying which i have done prior to starting the pristiq but I've only started to experience the daze and out of it after I quit taking it. I know I got extremely scared due to the episode i had with it which caused me to stop it, but was that really enough for me to feel this way, still?
Any support would be appreciated.
Thanks.

[frati]

Hello Rick and thanks for your input. Based on your experience and studies what would you say happened? Bad reaction to a medication that triggered something in my brain? Or maybe the fear of the side effects created me to go into a phase of being out of it, dazed? I wasn't depressed before nor do i feel it now. My issue has always been general anxiety and prior to taking the medication that's all i was going thru. Your opinion is appreciated. Thanks

[aikidokan]

I have experienced these symptoms as well from my anxiety. It is unlikely that after 10 weeks your body is still under the effects of medications that you are no longer taking.

All medications have a specific half life. This is the amount of time it takes for the dose you took to break down in your body and no longer effect your brain or whatever it was targeting. Some meds have a really short half life - meaning if you miss even one dose, you'll have bad withdrawal symptoms. A good example of this is some powerful illicit drugs. Others have longer longer half lives and thus it takes longer for your body to "flush" them out so to speak.

Either way, there is no medication I can think of that has a 10 week half life. I nearly have my Master's degree as a therapist, and know a fair amount about psychopharmacology.

Hope this helps!

Rick

[MrGreen]

It can wear you down a lot. Bring on things like derealization. Were things can become a blur. Like on the verge of passing out, were things start to go distant, but you never pass out. You just stay in that state. That can zap the energy out of you big time. But over time auch things do pass. I think the more you understand anxiety the less you think about it. It just stops. Symptoms come and go. They change all the time. Lord only know how many various symptoms I have had over the years. It is like one takes over from the other. Something new comes along and it is bigger than what I had been suffering from and knocks the other one away. Thus if you read a lot of posts here on the forum you will see the same posters posting with new symptoms every so often.

[frati]

Thanks for the reply MrGreen. I totally understand and agree with what you are saying and the logic behind your explanation. My concern is that, could it be possible that taking such medication has made things worse for me? I'm not depressed nor have any feelings of depression. The only thing that keeps bothering me is the daze and feeling out of it especially when tired or anxious. I just wish I never took the pristiq.
Thanks.

[MrGreen]

My own theory of situations like this concerns two types of medication and what exactly the person is suffering from. I will use me as an example. I was asked to take an anti-depressant and I did. It sent me through the roof. Why? Because I don't suffer from depression. I suffer from anxiety. Anxiety medication is to relax you. Anti-depressants are to make you feel higher in mood. Now if you are anxious you are already up and need to be brought down. An anti-depressant is bringing you up. But you are already up with the anxiety. If you mix two wrong forms of medication they can bounce off each other. Increasing the side effects of one of them. I took one xanax after taken only anti-depressant ( the first time I ever took one of these ever ) and it was like rocket fuel. What it didn't do to me I would be quicker writing. It made my anxiety problems a lot worse. It stopped the xanax I had been on from working. I had reached tolerance levels because my anxiety was so high after the episode. The xanax just done nothing at all for me any more. It was time for all new medication. But I made sure it was known I was an anxiety sufferer only. Not a depressant. I just think some medications can work against you. Though I know some help some people. Just a case of getting it right. Trial and error I suppose. But you will know what is right for your body when you take it.