Apparently the paxil is not helping me much anymore and i need to find a new med. Compulsive behaviors are more frequent and harder to fight. I feel like a mess
[QUOTE=Teddy;6502862]
Apparently the paxil is not helping me much anymore and i need to find a new med. Compulsive behaviors are more frequent and harder to fight. I feel like a mess[/QUOTE]
Hopefully you can find new med or combo to work for you. Please talk to your docs & just hang in there. It sounds flippant & cliche, but can you remember a time when you were bad off & got better? It will happen again.
I took paxil for anxiety issues and it helped for awhile and then everything became far, far worse. Tried other SSRIs with the same sort of outcome.
What did help, long term, was Seroquel. It’s been very effective for about six years now. Changed my life.
Talk to your doctor about options. It will get better, I promise.
[QUOTE=Simkie;6502872]
I took paxil for anxiety issues and it helped for awhile and then everything became far, far worse. Tried other SSRIs with the same sort of outcome.
What did help, long term, was Seroquel. It’s been very effective for about six years now. Changed my life.
Talk to your doctor about options. It will get better, I promise.[/QUOTE]
Thanks, i cant stand feeling this way and with uni starting soon you can imagine.
That and working has become very hard physically then trying to get disability
Yep. And Risperadal (spelling?). There are plenty of other drugs to try which will be more effective than Paxil.
Teddy, you need to be treated by a psychiatrist. Regular family docs and even counselors really don’t know much about putting together a medical treatment program for your issues. Go to a “specialist”. Might take a month or two to get everything tweaked, but you must.
Teddy
Another vote for working with a psychiatrist if you aren’t already. My daughter has adhd, depression, and anxiety issues (the last two go with the first). Had adhd controlled but just couldn’t get a handle on the anxiety. Neuro sent her to psych, and he took her off straight anti depressant and first put her on a combination of prozac and zyprexa (brand name Symbiax I think). She felt good on this but gained ten pounds in two weeks (thanks zyprexa!) so he changed the zyprexa to Seroquel (see Simkie’s comment) and that has worked well for her. She felt a little better immediately, but has continued to improve over the course of 6 weeks on it.
There are many combinations they can use to combat the anxiety, you just have to work with the Dr to find what works with your body chemistry. Really I suggest you go in and try to get on a new regime before school starts to give yourself a good running start before the course load hits.
good luck
arabsrock
You must perservere and find a psychiatrist who will help you find the right meds. I went years taking the wrong meds for bipolar, then found a wonderful psychiatrist who got me on the right combination, and identified ADD as a comorbidity (a commonplace occurence). I’ve now switched to a new dr. as the other one moved far away. She is even better and we have tweaked things a bit. But no big changes as I am stable, calm, focused and happy.
Stick with it.
[QUOTE=Kyzteke;6502965]
Teddy, you need to be treated by a psychiatrist. Regular family docs and even counselors really don’t know much about putting together a medical treatment program for your issues. Go to a “specialist”. Might take a month or two to get everything tweaked, but you must.[/QUOTE]
I hope you guys don’t mind me stepping in and commenting… I’ve only just joined the forum after all… but I must agree with the above poster.
When I was in college I alternated between bouts of depression along with “high” periods and also had trouble with obsessive/compulsive behaviors and ADD type stuff. I was treated by the school therapist and prescribed Paxil. Worked for awhile… then stopped working and actually started making things worse. I tried withing meds for awhile, then couldn’t take it any longer and went to see another psychologist and was prescribed a different med (can’t remember the name). This med actually made me feel like a zombie… it was terrible!
I decided to swear off therapists and medication and managed (not very well) for a few years. Then, at my breaking point, I went to a highly recommended counseling facility. It was there that I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and given the CORRECT treatment. So many doctors prescribe a random medication (whichever ones give them the free pens/calendars/etc. in their office) and leave it at that. Corresponding therapy is VERY important!
I was put on a combination of Seroquel (for sleep/mood stabilization, Wellbutrin (for depression) and Carbamazepine (for mood stabilization). This “medication cocktail” had to be tweaked until the right dosages of each were discovered. In order to discover the right dosage, I had to meet regularly with my therapist and the doctor who prescribed my meds to figure that out. Had my doctor simply given me a prescription and sent me on my merry way, things may not have turned out so well.
Now, with regular therapy, I have been medication free for a year. I have learned how to cope with my illness and therapy was what got me there. Without the proper diagnosis and medication, however, I may not have made it this far.
This is a very timely thread. I’m currently in the process of setting up appointments with a neuro cognitive psychologist, psychiatrist and my neurologist so that we can get my depression, anixety and medication side effects under control. It’s great to hear from people that it DOES work, because it can seem impossible to get it all started.
OP, good luck finding something that will work for you, and know that youre NOT alone in this.
I sympathise, Teddy. Sometimes it does feel like “Wheel O Pills.”
My problem is that I’m very sensitive to medication. Wellbutrin and Paxil made me hallucinate (heck, a cough drop will make me hallucinate, if I haven’t eaten). Celexa was awesome, but I completely lost my balance. I fell off my front lawn a few times. 
Then it stopped working altogether.
It is frustrating. It’s so, so, so frustrating. I agree with the poster who said to remember a time when it was bad and got better. For myself, I try to find as much joy as I can and “distract” so to speak from my anxiety- it’s a trick a counselor taught me a long time ago. Like last night, I was headed towards a panic attack. The blanket I was sitting on was soft and cottony. That reminded me of a blanket my grandparents had- I started getting sad that they are deceased, but then I re-routed- remember doing this and that with them? Remember sitting on the front porch? Let’s try to remember what the front porch smelled like, and what the trees looked like, and what it sounded like… deep slow breaths, etc.
I’m not saying that will work for you, but that’s the sort of thing a GOOD counselor/psychiatrist will teach you. I have been through many, many not-so-good docs who thought they were doing something good, but weren’t really listening to me. Finding someone who helps you find exercises that help you is a GOOD thing. It just really sucks for those of us with anxiety, because the rational side says, “Oh, well, I guess that’s not the psych for me,” while the anxiety side says, “OMG NO ONE CAN HELP ME EVER.”
The only comfort I’ve ever taken in having anxiety is knowing that I’m not the only one. Keep talking to us, Teddy.
Thanks everyone, it makes me feel better im not alone. Part of my issue is i literally physically cannot calm down without a med. My dr is away for a week so i may have to go to tye psych er for a refferal( there is a benefit to having a mental hospital close by, now if they stopped giving in patients dAy passes willy nilly)
Totally agree on seeing a “specialist”. And if you don’t like that psychiatrist or don’t feel like they are the best fit/style/whatever, go find another one! You have to be comfortable with your doctor’s style as well as the meds they’ll try to have the best chance possible.
Also, don’t let your doctor make you feel like side effects aren’t as big a deal as you think they are. That doctor isn’t having to put up with that side effect! I will not tolerate bad side effects. I’ll deal with my body adjusting to a med (it takes me a week before I feel OK on a new dose of Lexapro) but will not tolerate daily headaches, for example. And the same drug will work totally differently for different people. Just because someone loves Seroquel doesn’t mean I’ll love it (I hate it!).
I went through a TON of meds before I found my combination and what worked one year didn’t work the next. Take heart! I am on 5 right now with minor side effects and very pleased.
Good luck and keep your forward momentum! Don’t settle!
Exercise
I found that swimming is the best therapy for me when my anxiety & stress level go up. I swim laps for an hour without stopping after work 5 days a work. I do the spinning for an hour on the weekends. In my case, doing exercises helped me more than taking drugs. It keeps me from acting like a zombie! I love to do my exercising alone and in silence in order to unwind my nerves plus I try to stay out of social life as much as I can. I just cannot handle any fast paced life these days. Not like the old days before fast paced technologies took over. Everyone is different so one has to explore an unique way to walk away and do something that is more relaxing rather than dealing with stressful events. Just a thought for you all to think about.
[QUOTE=Teddy;6504304]
Part of my issue is i literally physically cannot calm down without a med. [/QUOTE]
Part of that is psychological, i.e. needing to put something in your mouth to make things all better. I’ve seen doctors prescribe ridiculously low doses of prn meds for anxiety, and because the patient thinks it’ll work (and of course I talk up the med to enhance the positive thinking), it does work. Coping skills, my friend- like the soft blanket in a previous post. I’m not suggesting that you don’t need meds, but working with a good therapist might alleviate the need for some medication. I work in psych (inpatient), and it’s amazing what a good psychiatrist and therapist can do in just a couple of weeks. I do think part of our success is due to the fact that many of our patients have been relying on the family doctor for mental health issues, and the family doc ain’t getting it right. BTW, I would suggest staying away from the benzodiazepines such as Xanax,Klonopin,Valium,Restoril, librium. “They say” the risk of addiction is low but I see otherwise in my patients, and benzo withdrawal isn’t pretty.
And the mental and physical permanent damage is heartbreaking to see in those who take benzos chronicly.
Its true you have to find your own way out of your anxiety. Meds are important, they can take the edge off enough for you to get a handle on it yourself, but you have to come to terms with your anxiety and develop strategies for coping. No med will ever do that for you. Anxiety is one psychiatric issue which actually CAN be overcome with good therapy. Many depression issues are very difficult to overcome, but much of anxiety and worries and preseverating are something you can retrain your brain and body responses over. If your therapist currently isn’t moving you in that direction, find a new one. The right medication is important, but it is usually adjunctive to the right therapy, so if you aren’t addressing the anxiety etc., I would think you really need to do so before toying with more medication.
Sending you a hug. I had a bad reaction to Wellbutrin once and oh my god. if i hadn’t known it was the meds, i don’t know how i would have made it through that day.
I hope you get some good help.
Keep fighting, it will get better, even if it does not seem like it now.
Get to a good psychiatrist and a good psychologist. It takes a team to fix this stuff. You may have to try more then one of each to find one with whom you can work well.
I crashed last spring while off my meds. Being off worked for a while, but could not be sustained. I got back w/my Psychiatrist & asked him for a referral to a good therapist. She has helped me a lot. One thing to come out of this crash was that even on my meds I still had the anxiety, panic, obsessive/compulsive personality traits & moderate depression, just at a lower level then off the meds. It is a process with no quick fixes. It took me 61 years to get this way and it is not going to be fixed instantly!–even though I would very much like that to be true.
Get the right help. It truly makes a difference.
I don’t know if I’m glad I found this thread or not. I do know I am glad (well, that sounds selfish; I mean relieved, maybe) to find other people “like me” talking publicly about their issues that are so much like issues I have dealt with all my life but have not always known why, or what exactly they were. Then there came a time when I learned they had names, and could be treated.
I also know that I am sad because, like some other people, I do not do well on meds and sometimes either overreact to them or react in way opposite from how you’re “supposed” (expected) to react.
I also know that I am sad because I am not able these days to see doctors of any specialization, because I have no health insurance, because I have not able to get a job in so long, because of some of the issues I have to live with. It amazes me to hear people talking about seeing doctors, specialists, and being able to try meds. I have always felt “odd” or “different” because at some times I have not known there were other people out there who manage with similar things to what I have, and then at other times like now I have not been able to see a doctor to get treated. That really makes me feel different!
But just to read about other people having these same, or similar, conditions, is educational.
I have OCD, cyclical depression, anxiety attacks, and possible bipolar. I take lexapro (for depression and OCD), trazdone (for sleeping plus added anti-depressant), and abilify (for possible bipolar)
This “cocktail” worked wonders for me. You very well may react different, but def. some meds to consider.
The thing i have to worry about with these meds is my kidney disease and weght gain because i am already on meds that have that side effect.
I feel bad for those in the usa with no insurance, here its easy and free to access health care.
Rpm, maybe contact for gov asssistant? If you can get a dr they could give you sample.packs and most pharmacutical companies are willing to help with meds.
