Posted by Vincent_QC on July 6, 2009, at 8:44:09
In reply to Re: Imipramine + higher pulse rate, posted by linkadge on July 5, 2009, at 18:56:38
> You might try a low dose of say nortriptyline with an SSRI. This combo may help panic better without the cardiac or apathetic effects of SSRIs or TCA's.
>
> Lexapro + nortriptyline would seem to be a good combo.
>
> You could add some atenolol if needed.
>
> Linkadge
>
>Hi Linkadge!
Thanks for your imput ;-)What I find funny is that the newer SRNI's don't affect my heart, even if they have a minimal NE effect... I don't try the Cymbalta, who have a more strong NE activity than the Effexor... but I try the Effexor-XR at 450 mg... make me really weird... acting strangely and change my personnality... and I try the Pristiq, who was the same thing...with more insomnia, but I never feel an increase of my blood pressure or my pulse rate on them ...Strange no? More strange... I take my blood pressure often on the Pristis and I had a real good STABLE blood pressure and a normal pulse rate!!! I really don't understand why...
I guess the problem with the older AD's is that they hit too many neurons at the same times, the a1, a2 effect is a disaster on me...well with the TCA's at least... but what I find strange is that I try in the past the REMERON, who have a strong action on the a1 and a2 receptors and I never had any heart problems with it!!! Even at 60mg day...
Maybe I need some chemical courses... but I don't understand at all what can be my problem... but one kind of receptor in my brain make my heart race at the speed of light... but I still try to find the one who cause the problem...
Someone who is on good shape , mean no smooking, gym and a normal life with a work and a good and healthy foods diet will have less problem taking an older AD's like the TCA's or the MAOI's...
My Parnate experience traumatized me for the rest of my life... I think it make me realise that it will be possible for me to DIE from a heart attack... i'm 33 yo now, not 20 yo... and having high blood pressure or low blood pressure constantly make me just over paranoi with my heart... since then (last december) I never succeed to get ride off this fear... I try... you can't even know how hard I try to remove this experience from my memory... but it's impossible...
That's why I wanted to start the gym, to get more healthy and in shape... but the gym turning into a terrible experience at fisrt with panic attacks occuring while I was exercise... I continue to go to the gym and the panic attacks stop after 1 month or so... but I'm not able to exercises like I want because I feel tired rapidly and I have a lot of dizness (probably comming from my benzo intakes)...
The Panic attack problem start again, now it's almost everywhere... When I drive the car especially... at the gym also.. and alone in my house... even sometime I wake up at night and do a panic attack... That's a real difficult process to stop... I know some panic attacks are trigger with negatives throughts about having a panic attack while I drive the car for example... but the other panic attacks I have are not trigger by something... they happen suddenly and often...
Now I do around 10-15 panic attacks a day... that's making me very tired, very anxious also becauase I always think I have a problem with my heart, even if I had a EGK in february who show nothing wrong with my heart... and I feel like I loose the control over my anxiety... for the first time of my life...
Anyway, since that Parnate experience, my panic attacks problem never stop... whatever the MG of Rivotril or Valium I take, I do panic attacks... nothing can prevent them to occur... I read again my small book about the fear of having fear, I pratice the abdominal breathing technic... I do to try some relaxation technics as well... but nothing change...
My try on the Imipramine (Tofranil) was probably the worse thing to do for now because i'm in a panic attack mood... and everyone know that all the AD's will increase the anxiety at first, even at a low dose... sometimes just thinking about the fact that you take a med can make you starting a panic attack... you know what I mean??? You take a pill and 10 minute after you begin to feel the anxiety increasing... starting the panic attack mood...
I don't know why I don't go with my number one idea when I meet my Doctor last week... The Sabril (GabaErgic... a real one, not tlike the Neurontin or the Gabapentin)...
So today I will have to call my Doctor cause yesterday was a really bad day for me...
I do a 1:30 hours long panic attack, my parents almost call the 911... I faint for the first time while I was doing a panic attack... had numbess of my legs, my left arm, all around my mouth... was not able to breath at all, my pupils of the eyes was dilated to the maximum... I was not able to stay on my feet... normally while I do a panic attack I can stay on my feet...I just remember that at one point I shout to my dad to call the 911... and I wake up 30 minutes later, I was laying on the kitchen floor with a washcloth of cold water on my face... I take a 3 mg dose of Rivotril and the waves of panic attacks stop 1 hour after... I was so tired that I go in the bed and sleep alomst 2 hours in a row... at night I was just a total mess... just thinking about the panic attack and I wanted to go outside the house, drive the car to go to my friend house and I do another big panic attack while I was driving the car... I had to stop the car at the right of the road, put the 4 lights on, and wait there... 30 minutes... before I was able to continue my road... I do another one while I was driving the car to return at my home at the end of the evening...
Those panic attacks are now out of control... they are the worse thing I live in my life...
Anyway... that's the story... I put so much efforts into CBT therapies and in changing my negatives thoughts into positives thoughts that it make me think that I just loose my time... Reverse this state of mind will be very hard... I clearly need a med to help me, but fear of trying a new one... those panic attacks are frightening !!!
For the Lexapro, I find it's the worse SSRI on the world. That kind of stuff make you depress, it's not even good for anxiety or anything else, you just think about sleeping and eating... I try it with some Ritalin at the time to have more energy and with also some Wellbutrin, both show no improve on me...
The only one SSRI who work on me was the Paxil but it loose it's power after 4 years on it...
I don't try the Luvox... that's the only one I don't try... but I remember that I had a very bad experience with the Prozac, at 30 mg it started on me a panic disorder problem, it was not a pro social drug for me... the Zoloft do nothing, just worsing my weight gain and make me lazy... and the Celexa, who is the same thing than the Lexapro but with a more dirty profile, do nothing on me... The SSRI's tend to make me more depress, more anxious and make me eat like a pig... mean weight gain, mean more body dismorphic problem, mean worse self-esteem, mean worse social phobia, mean more panic disorder with agoraphobia in general... it's all linked to my body image as you can see... and the fear of dying of a heart attack...
Anyway, that's a long answer for nothing...
Will call my Doctor soon and leave a message to him and wait for his phone call...
I need also to change my Benzos... the Valium and Rivotril don't work good on me... Will maybe go with some Ativan, who take a lot of time to start but will be more stable on me... Will avoid the Xanax since I had a hard time last summer to stop it...
Maybe adding a mood stabiliser will help? Some Lamictal or something more old?... don't know... i'm sure the Doctor will say "One step at the time"...
So that's it!
Thanks again ;-)
poster:Vincent_QC
thread:904757
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090630/msgs/905232.html