Posted by bleauberry on September 29, 2013, at 17:47:30
In reply to Are anxiety and panic always linked to serotonin?, posted by Guy on September 23, 2013, at 19:53:58
I've had severe anxiety with panic before. Some of the common meds were sort of ok as bandaids, but I mean they did nothing to improve my future outlook.
SSRIs can be a bad choice sometimes because they flood the receptor with serotonin, it can get too excited, that's the anxiety stuff, and it takes maybe 2 months or so to start to tame down and adjust, and then fully adjusted in 4-6 months, but which time you are comfortably numb....no anxiety, no nothing else either, just blahness.
The concept that a deficiency of serotonin causes anxiety and panic is in my thinking false. It could be one of the causes, but is not universally the cause.
For example, I was able to eventually nail my down....it was worst in morning, especially when waking, another strong wave in late afternoon, and then somewhat peace in late evening. When my low and out-of-curve cortisol levels got improved (months of certain herbs) the anxiety panic stuff was completely magically gone. No meds needed anymore.
In my opinion anxiety/panic is more related to the adrenaline/epinephrine/norepinephrine circuitry. That's because at both ends of the balance....too low, or too high...anxiety and panic result.
Serotonin and GABA calm things down. So if there is a deficiency of one of those, then the adranline stuff could be too much, and thus anxiety. Xanax and klonopin can work in minutes through the gaba network.
Best bets, from my vantage point:
No ssri's.
Rhodioloa Rosea and/or
Eleuthero or
AshwaghandaAll of these are called adaptogen herbs and have hundreds of scientific studies behind them. Which one is best for you is not predictable. Most people will find one or the other too stimulating or too calming or something, but one will be good. These work over a period of months to gently bring things back into sync, mainly in the adrenalin/cortisol/serotonin/dopamine circuits, but many other mechanisms as well.
I'm pretty sure if you were on one of those, Rhodiola is my best bet, for three months, the stuff you are dealing with would be gone, and probably before then.
Another reason for my anxiety and overall jitteriness was the toxins of infection, in my case Lyme disease. And that was also the primary cause of my 15 year treatment resistant major depression. 90% if all that crap is magically gone, with most of the credit going to the antibiotics that targeted Bartonella (Bart and psychiatric are close friends). Bart is a lyme co-infection and can also come from cats.
The point I am trying to make is....anxiety and panic are caused by a wide variety of reasons, with low serotonin being only one of multiple possibilities. Everything from low adrenalin and high adrenalin, low cortisol and high cortisol, low serotonin, low gaba, epinephrine/norepinephrine too much, foreign substances such as poisons, pesticides...or normal excretions of unsuspected bacteria, of which are neurotoxic and neuroreceptors and thus are know for causing every psychiatric symptom in the book.
> If anxiety and panic are caused by a deficiency in serotonin, why do anti-depressants not help me? I was on a high dose of doxepin for several months and the increased anxiety just about killed me. Also bad experiences with Zoloft and Buspar. I can tolerate Remeron but it does not stop panic or do much for anxiety. I don't get it! I'm trying to decide if I should try another SSRI such as Celexa, or an MAOI such as Nardil. However, what's the point if low serotonin is not my problem?
poster:bleauberry
thread:1051212
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20130828/msgs/1051432.html