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| *Health issues>>>Mental Health issues |
Antidepressants make me anxious (manic) - should I keep trying others? |
Issue Here's my situation. 3 months ago my wife got pregnant (planned), I quit drinking (excessive drinking) and I started getting insomnia and feeling stress. Doctor prescribed me Ambien to sleep which I must use now or else will not sleep at all. I have also been prescribed 3 different antidepressants supposedly to help my anxiety, yet I had to quit them all within 10 days of use because they INCREASED my anxiety to the point of mania. I think I have a phobia of taking these kinds of mind-affecting pills. Should they be prescribing me antidepressants for anxiety in the first place? Pyschiatrist says I have depression. I've tried Zoloft (severe anxiety - quit after 3 days), Remeron (zombie - anxious - quit after 1 day), and Welbutrin XL (lasted 10 days then became anxious when it was increased from 150mg to 300mg.) I switched to 150 SR version of generic Welbutrin but quit after one day because of anxiety left over from previous attempt. Should I give up on them or try more? Best Tip First of all, sleeping pills usually make insomnia worse in the long run, not better. You become physically dependent on them, and then when you don't take them, you can't sleep at all. If you keep taking them, you get resistant to them and you're back to square one and need something stronger. The best treatment for insomnia is behavioral. I'm sure you can find some advice about that if you search the web. Secondly, yes, depression can cause anxiety, but if all the antidepressants you have tried have had the opposite of the intended effect, then obviously they're not working for you and you need to try something else. If you want to try an anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) drugy, you need to be careful about which one you take. The conventional ones cause physical dependence and tolerance - it works kind of the same way sleeping pills do. Personally, I would recommend Buspar (buspirone). It is a non-conventional anxiolytic, meaning it works on a different neurotransmitter system than the conventional ones. I won't get into the pharmacological details, but basically it works on the same system (serotonin) as SSRI antidepressants, but works differently than they do, decreasing anxiety and sometimes boosting the performance of antidepressants. Your stress and anxiety might be due to one of two things (or both): your wife getting pregnant, or your quitting drinking. I would recommend seeing a psychologist/counselor in addition to the psychiatrist. Drug treatment combined with counseling treatment has a better effect than either alone. The source of your problem might be purely psychological, therefore you may not need the drugs if you can work through this issue. But if the problem is due to withdrawel from alcohol, the drugs might be the most useful thing. Troyboy, you are making a lot of assumptions about the source of the problem. You can't definitively say that the problem is a control issue when you know barely anything about the situation. "Why don't you just let your doctor do his job." The doctor needs feedback from the patient to know if the treatment is working properly. These are complicated things, and a lot of factors go into them. And while a person might not be as knowledgeable as their doctor, they do have a responsibility to learn about the treatment they are receiving and to ask their doctor questions and even suggest things that they feel might work better for them personally, because a doctor does not really know you very well as an individual. This is not "control[ing] your medication"; it is being an aware, intelligent, thinking human being. And while exercising and eating well will certainly help a person in many areas, it will by no means even come close to solving a problem like this. Source(s): Degree in psychology; classes in neuroscience and psychopharmacology. Others You need to exercise and eat well. Also, you are a big baby. "Welbutrin XL lasted 10 days then became anxious when it was increased from 150mg to 300mg" Became anxious? Why don't you just let your doctor do his job. The problem is that you are a control freak. Your life feels like you can't FULLY control it any more, and now you are trying to control your medication (you are not a doctor obviously) Are you argumentative with your wife? you should get therapy with a good psychologist about why you have to be so controlling. Hmmm.... sounds quite familiar. You may never get your sleep back completely. Read my story and check the links below it for more info: http://www.geocities.com/seabulls69/anti... email me if you have questions or want more info. BTDT... from the University of Hard Knocks. Absolutely you should try other antidepressants, until you find the one that works for you. Depression and anxiety go hand in hand, that's why they treat them both with antidepressants. You do sound phobic, but these aren't mind altering drugs that you should fear. I've tried them all but one, and I'm back on the first SSRI I ever tried, Prozac, cause I have no side effects with it. Maybe you should try it. Stay away from Paxil, though. My Psychiatrist says it is a 'dirty' drug, and it's the only one I've never tried. And I tried Ambien, and it did nothing. Now I take Xanax to sleep. u know if nothing is working screw it. go alternative. go to ayurvediccure.com and holisticonline.com. actually i used to take these things. they actually make you worse. try st. john' wart. also vitamin c and e help with depression. cleaning out your liver can help. try milk thistle a natural stuff from the natural drug store. try using herbal laxatives which cleans thoroughly. the choice is yours. |
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