Posted by sundown73 on July 5, 2008, at 21:25:33
Since the beginning of May, I've been having severe anxiety issues. The onset was sudden after I had returned from a diving drip (so sudden actually, that i thought I had bent myself during the trip or something). Over a couple weeks some of the symptoms (blurry vision and tremors) started to get better, but then after a pretty bad relationship failure (got dumped), my hands started shaking again and I found myself to be constantly on the edge of a total breakdown and angry and hurt thinking the world would be better without me and all sorts of negative feelings... I finally went to my GP and he put me on Zoloft, Xanax, and Doxepin (to sleep). After a few weeks, there was no improvement at all (though I enjoyed the xanax), he switched me from zoloft to paxil. After three more weeks of no improvement, I went to a psychiatrist and he switched me from all of that to Effexor XR, Adavan, and Trazodone. I'm not even sure what all of this stuff is or what to expect. I've only been on the new cocktail for two days and all I feel that's different is that I'm out of it most of the time and fairly depressed instead of anxious...
7 different drugs in two months and I still feel off.
If nothing else, I am glad to be off of the Paxil as that is something I took several years ago for depression and I had a horrible time getting off of it. I actually quit cold-turkey when I had a few days off and those were possibly the worst days of my life. Couldn't sleep. Night seats. Crawly skin / itching. Auditory hallucinations. All sorts of badness. Of course, from when I read here already, I can see that the effexor may also cause issues when I try to stop taking it... Good times.
Anyway! I wanted to post here because this is a seriously rough time for me and I don't think my friends understand what's going on. I keep getting reactions out of them that are closer to "shake it off and go to the gym if you want to feel better" or "quit obsessing on the woman that screw you over"... Basicall like they think I can just get over everything by hearing them say I should get over it. I know they mean well, but it's pretty frustrating and shows that they have no idea what's going on with me. Of course, I don't have any idea what's going on with me either...
It's nice, but sad, to know that others are in the same boat.
Can anyone here tell me what I should expect over the next few days/weeks while I take the current drug cocktail I'm on? How about some advice for dealing with the friends that don't seem to get it?
Thanks!
poster:sundown73
thread:838296
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080626/msgs/838296.html