Hi remar! So nice to see you back. My son has had a terrible time with anxiety (has a full load of issues, from general anxiety, social anxiety to ocd, panic and tourettes) and depression (got suicidal, sad to report). Things have really changed medication wise over the years. They add things to ssri's often. Atypical anti psychotics like seroquel or abilify (others too) enhance what the ssri does, stabilizes mood. My son isn't taking one any longer but was for a bit. However, he has been prescribed hydroxyzene which is pretty awesome, I must say. It's prn but non addictive. It holds his anxiety at a manageable spot (he's still trying to get his prozac to the right dose). I really can't say enough good things about hydroxyzene which is funny as when my son was hospitalized, they talked about putting him on it and I said no. I can't take benedryl and this is similar (but formulated JUST for anxiety and sleep) so didn't want my kids to take it per their pediatrician who said they may have the same activating reaction I do. But our psychiatrist who is stellar, love the guy, suggested it. We had the script for a whole month before trying it and it has been truly impactful for my son. Anyway, again, so glad to see you
This is common if you read up on these meds. They often don't work again after you stop taking them. Some have more of this problem than others. I think Paxil and Effexor are the worst, because those are the worst drugs in terms of something unknown that makes them stronger on our systems and therefore the hardest for the most people to successfully stop taking in the first place. By the way, are you using a psychiatrist or a regular doc? I ask because her Lexapro protocol was backwards, and I'm not sure I'd continue using her. You're supposed to start any med with a small dose and work your way up to the point where it works without bad side effects, not start at the highest dose and work down. Tapering off is necessary but tapering up allows the body to slowly get used to the new med. At any rate, in your case, you might have tapped out on anything that affects serotonin. It happens. If you don't mind gaining 70 pounds, which is life threatening, you might try Remeron. Maybe it'll work for you. Isn't used often because almost everyone gains a ton of weight on it, but you don't seem to mind that. One thing you don't say is if in all that time you were dealing with this you tried therapy. When that works, you're cured, and drugs never do that as we haven't discovered any drugs that do that. But I'm guessing you've had your share. I also don't understand why some docs are anti certain benzos. They all have the same problems, and can be handled if you just only take them when you really need them, not all the time. As for the Effexor, you were probably having a reaction to its effect on norepinephrine, which is a stimulant. A lot of people with anxiety do poorly on SNRIs for this reason, as well as wellbutrin. As for medical pot, they claim to have developed through breeding strains that don't trigger anxiety. My anxiety attacks started while I was stoned, but I never believed pot caused them, just that it triggered them, so I get that, I don't use it either. You might try CBD oil, which doesn't get you stoned, but don't know a dosage and it might not be strong enough. You can also try natural medicine, which goes at the same neurotransmitters from a different angle, but it's not as strong and requires a professional to guide you. You'd use a combination of things to see if any combination helped, but it would include lifestyle changes, therapy, dietary changes, etc. I learned about your problem when stopping Paxil killed me, and I never recovered. Nothing works the way it used to, and so I had to do a lot of research to find out what happened, as docs dissemble when the drugs they use harm you. That's when I learned that it's common for a drug you stopped not to work again if you try it again later. Peace.