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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 10 of 10. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by mattye on August 29, 2006, at 12:37:12
Hi- I'm currently being treated for depression (the agitated kind) and anxiety. I started with remeron, which wasn't helping much so another doc added on lexapro. Well, the lexapro initially aggrivated my anxiety, but then I guess it helped a little. Unfortunately, all SSRIs are essentially chemical castration to me, which wouldn't be so bad if I weren't in a loving relationship right now. I went off the lexapro, and the doc put me on wellbutrin, and so far this is day 3 at 150 mg with not much change. So right now I am at 60 mg of remeron and 150 mg wellbutrin.
My depression has subsided, but I find the anxiety difficult to live with. I feel like the volume in my head is just turned up too high and I want to quiet it down a notch. I manage to hide the panic attacks from other people, but inside I am terrified. I am tired of living my life in fear.
I think I would do well on Klonopin, but the problem is that I am a recovering opiate addict. No doc in their right mind would give me a benzo. I used heroin and pain pills to self-medicate my symptoms. Due to a recent binge on percosets, the doc is putting me on naltrexone to control the cravings and to prevent me from getting high. I haven't started taking it yet.
Is there anything I can do? I don't mean to sound whiny or anything, but some days are real rough. My heart races, and my chest gets tight. When I am feeling so anxious, sometimes the only thing I look forward to is taking some pain pills on the weekend. Argggh!
Posted by Meri-Tuuli on August 29, 2006, at 13:19:08
In reply to Help with anxiety, posted by mattye on August 29, 2006, at 12:37:12
Hiya,
I found I got really bad anxiety as a side effect on wellbutrin. Really bad. Just a thought that it could be exacerbating your anxiety....
There's BuSpar (google it!) but I have no experience of this drug. Apparently its marketed as a non-benzo med for anxiety.
Kind regards
Meri
PS welcome to babble!
Posted by Tracer98 on August 29, 2006, at 14:04:27
In reply to Help with anxiety, posted by mattye on August 29, 2006, at 12:37:12
I know how you feel. I am the same way, my panic attacks completely suck. I am sorry you have to go through this without an as needed benzo. I wish I could give you some good advise. sometimes exercise really helps me or a hotbath, OTC sleeping pills and a good nights sleep. Good Luck
Posted by mattye on August 29, 2006, at 14:15:56
In reply to Re: Help with anxiety, posted by Meri-Tuuli on August 29, 2006, at 13:19:08
Thanks for the tip, but buspar did nothing for me. Also, I fogot to mention that I was diagnosed with ADD years ago with the TOVA test. I didn't mention this because my ADD symptoms don't really bother me, its mostly the anxiety.
> Hiya,
>
> I found I got really bad anxiety as a side effect on wellbutrin. Really bad. Just a thought that it could be exacerbating your anxiety....
>
> There's BuSpar (google it!) but I have no experience of this drug. Apparently its marketed as a non-benzo med for anxiety.
>
> Kind regards
>
> Meri
>
> PS welcome to babble!
Posted by Racer on August 29, 2006, at 15:04:08
In reply to Re: Help with anxiety, posted by mattye on August 29, 2006, at 14:15:56
> Thanks for the tip, but buspar did nothing for me. Also, I fogot to mention that I was diagnosed with ADD years ago with the TOVA test. I didn't mention this because my ADD symptoms don't really bother me, its mostly the anxiety.
>Funny you should mention this...
Aside from Buspar, which did help me, I was going to suggest you look into Strattera, which is marketted for ADD, but was developed for depression. I took it for some time, and it didn't exacerbate my anxiety as much as Wellbutrin does. It's not a bad drug, pretty friendly to me, and I think it was probably helping me -- situational factors were involved in me stopping it.
My thinking is that the sort of anxiety you described, "I feel like the volume in my head is just turned up too high and I want to quiet it down a notch," is very much how I would describe what my T swears is the ADHD, more than anxiety per se. She says that's cognitive hyperactivity, and it's absolutely true that Ritalin quietens that for me a lot, which in turn lowers my anxiety.
Other than Strattera -- which I think would be a better first choice for you than a stimulant, because of your history of abuse -- my only other suggestion is a very low dose of something like propranalol.
Or maybe trying Effexor? It's a good drug, and lowers anxiety for a lot of people. It's also not an SSRI, although it does have sexual side effects for some people. (Periactin helped me with that, by the way. Doesn't help everyone, but totally countered the SSRI sexual dysfunction for me.)
Good luck. I hope that helped.
Posted by Tracer98 on August 29, 2006, at 15:23:28
In reply to Re: Help with anxiety » mattye, posted by Racer on August 29, 2006, at 15:04:08
Another FYI, I take effexor for anxiety, a high dose 300mg, it really works for my panic disorder. also, I tried buspar first, and it really put my panic attacks into high gear. Much like you I was DX with ADHD and was on Concerta. I quit that drug because it amped me up and the attacks became uncontrollable. I believe it is a fine line b/w panic disorder and ADHD. Just be careful with ADHD meds. Good Luck again
Posted by mattye on August 30, 2006, at 11:09:48
In reply to Re: Help with anxiety » mattye, posted by Racer on August 29, 2006, at 15:04:08
That makes a lot of sense. Exactly where I fall diagnostically in the DSM is irrelevant. The diagnoses are simply clusters of symptoms that appear to be related. Whether I have ADD and/or GAD and/or Depression is not really the issue. The issue is finding the best way to treat the symptoms.
Overall, I would say that I am VERY distractable. It is a running joke between my friends . . . "there goes Matt's ADD again." THey all decided I had ADD even though I never mentioned it to them. In college, one of my professors went to disability services for advise on how to deal with me b/c she thought I had ADD or a learning disorder. I didn't find out until after college when I pulled my records.
Again, whether I have ADD or Anxiety doesn't matter. They are just labels. What I believe distracts me much of the time is the constant background noise of disorganized thoughts zipping around my head. They are not stupid thoughts, because I am very smart. They are just thoughts unrelated to my situation. A lot of the time these thoughts are worrisome.
I remember when I was on Adderall in high school, I felt like I could think more clearly. But recently, I tried one of my friend's Klonopins (2 actually, I have a naturally high tolerance) and I actually felt NORMAL. I was driving by myself at night, listening to the radio and I was just calm. For the first time in a long time I felt like I wasn't worried/ruminating about something. It was like the volume in my brain was turned down. I realized that this is how normal people go through life, not worrying all the time. Small things don't bother them so much.
> Funny you should mention this...
>
> Aside from Buspar, which did help me, I was going to suggest you look into Strattera, which is marketted for ADD, but was developed for depression. I took it for some time, and it didn't exacerbate my anxiety as much as Wellbutrin does. It's not a bad drug, pretty friendly to me, and I think it was probably helping me -- situational factors were involved in me stopping it.
>
> My thinking is that the sort of anxiety you described, "I feel like the volume in my head is just turned up too high and I want to quiet it down a notch," is very much how I would describe what my T swears is the ADHD, more than anxiety per se. She says that's cognitive hyperactivity, and it's absolutely true that Ritalin quietens that for me a lot, which in turn lowers my anxiety.
>
> Other than Strattera -- which I think would be a better first choice for you than a stimulant, because of your history of abuse -- my only other suggestion is a very low dose of something like propranalol.
>
> Or maybe trying Effexor? It's a good drug, and lowers anxiety for a lot of people. It's also not an SSRI, although it does have sexual side effects for some people. (Periactin helped me with that, by the way. Doesn't help everyone, but totally countered the SSRI sexual dysfunction for me.)
>
> Good luck. I hope that helped.
Posted by mattye on August 30, 2006, at 11:20:51
In reply to Re: Help with anxiety, posted by mattye on August 30, 2006, at 11:09:48
Oh yeah ... about the Strattera. I don't think it would make sense for me to take that since Remeron is already a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor.
Matt
Posted by Oppycat on September 2, 2006, at 15:05:57
In reply to Help with anxiety, posted by mattye on August 29, 2006, at 12:37:12
> Hi- I'm currently being treated for depression (the agitated kind) and anxiety. I started with remeron, which wasn't helping much so another doc added on lexapro. Well, the lexapro initially aggrivated my anxiety, but then I guess it helped a little. Unfortunately, all SSRIs are essentially chemical castration to me, which wouldn't be so bad if I weren't in a loving relationship right now. I went off the lexapro, and the doc put me on wellbutrin, and so far this is day 3 at 150 mg with not much change. So right now I am at 60 mg of remeron and 150 mg wellbutrin.
>
> My depression has subsided, but I find the anxiety difficult to live with. I feel like the volume in my head is just turned up too high and I want to quiet it down a notch. I manage to hide the panic attacks from other people, but inside I am terrified. I am tired of living my life in fear.
>
> I think I would do well on Klonopin, but the problem is that I am a recovering opiate addict. No doc in their right mind would give me a benzo. I used heroin and pain pills to self-medicate my symptoms. Due to a recent binge on percosets, the doc is putting me on naltrexone to control the cravings and to prevent me from getting high. I haven't started taking it yet.
>
> Is there anything I can do? I don't mean to sound whiny or anything, but some days are real rough. My heart races, and my chest gets tight. When I am feeling so anxious, sometimes the only thing I look forward to is taking some pain pills on the weekend. Argggh!
Although I'm not bipolar (that I'm aware of), virtually all antidepressants cause me extreme anxiety. I recently noticed that Trileptal helped me a great deal when I took either Remeron, Wellbutrin, or Lexapro.You may want to give this a shot, although I believe that some other mood stabilizers might have helped as well or better. You may want to give this a shot if you haven't tried it. Without it, I can't handle even the smallest dose of any SSRI or Wellbutrin.
Michael
Posted by Shell on September 2, 2006, at 23:40:07
In reply to Help with anxiety, posted by mattye on August 29, 2006, at 12:37:12
> Hi- I'm currently being treated for depression (the agitated kind) and anxiety. I started with remeron, which wasn't helping much so another doc added on lexapro. Well, the lexapro initially aggrivated my anxiety, but then I guess it helped a little. Unfortunately, all SSRIs are essentially chemical castration to me, which wouldn't be so bad if I weren't in a loving relationship right now. I went off the lexapro, and the doc put me on wellbutrin, and so far this is day 3 at 150 mg with not much change. So right now I am at 60 mg of remeron and 150 mg wellbutrin.
>
> My depression has subsided, but I find the anxiety difficult to live with. I feel like the volume in my head is just turned up too high and I want to quiet it down a notch. I manage to hide the panic attacks from other people, but inside I am terrified. I am tired of living my life in fear.
>
> I think I would do well on Klonopin, but the problem is that I am a recovering opiate addict. No doc in their right mind would give me a benzo. I used heroin and pain pills to self-medicate my symptoms. Due to a recent binge on percosets, the doc is putting me on naltrexone to control the cravings and to prevent me from getting high. I haven't started taking it yet.
>
> Is there anything I can do? I don't mean to sound whiny or anything, but some days are real rough. My heart races, and my chest gets tight. When I am feeling so anxious, sometimes the only thing I look forward to is taking some pain pills on the weekend. Argggh!I have both GAD and ADHD and I find that there are only two kinds of medicines that do anything for the anxiety: benzodiazepines and Concerta or Ritalin. I have always found it odd that the Concerta (for me at least) is as calming as taking daily Klonopin. It seems to tune out all the background noise that most people ignore -- and noise drives me insane!
Unfortunately, many doctors are as skittish about prescribing Ritalin and Concerta as they are benzos. My doctor gives me Klonopin, but won't give me Concerta -- go figure. He thinks my anxiety is the larger issue, though I disagree with him. I'm sure I could drop the Klonopin if I got the ADHD under control.
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