Anxiety Support Group
Anxiety is a physical condition marked by intense and persistent feelings of distress, fear, angst or dread. General anxiety caused by routine day-to-day stresses usually passes quickly and is experienced by almost everyone at one time or another. However, such feelings that linger over time and are very difficult to cope with, and which lack a clear cause, may indicate...
I've suffered with anxiety and occasional panic since taking antimalarials 35 years ago at the age of 20. For the first few years nobody really knew what had happened to me and I took benzos to help - my anxiety is free floating - I don't have anxious thoughts just symptoms. I did get better until I took antimalarials again a few years later (it was only then I realised they had caused the problem) I have never recovered since then but a few years after this I started an SSRI - fluvoxamine and it was like a miracle cure. I stayed on it for decades and for most of the time was fine. I made one dose increase during that time which worked fine. However in the past few years the medication just stopped working. Since then I've tried a variety of other SSRIs but nothing seems to have worked well. The other thing I have noticed is that when I start one the anxiety gets worse to the point of being unbearable. I'm currently trying Vortioxetine started at 5mg for 9 days with terrible anxiety and now up to 10mg for 5 days and still terrible anxiety. My question is how long should I keep going in the hope of some improvement ? The only way I have managed to keep going is by taking some diazepam which I am always loathed to do.
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My day...today...misplaced my debit card...didn't realize it until I got to the register after shopping to a full cart. Used a different debit card and pulled apart everything looking for missing debit card before I left parking lot. Got home, dropped keys. So now I have a missing debit card, missing keys. A full cartload to unload and put away. I got everything put away.Dumped purse for a...
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Ever since I stopped doing therapy because of insurance, I've been feeling that old tense and irritable sense of anxiety and stress. I hate that. I was making so many strides and changes during therapy, my therapist would acknowledge all of my progress and accomplishments, and I miss that reassurance. Today I thought about it, and I made those changes! She would always tell me that I chose to...
Glad you are here posting. You are certainly not alone. I have also had to experiment with different SSRI's, hoping to find the right one. It's hard when there is no one SSRI that helps every person. I know how difficult it is to keep trying. Good for you for trying, and for posting on here for support.
I had to Google some of the names of drugs in your post, as I had not heard of most of them. The antimalarial says it's to treat malaria.... and so it sounds like you obviously know now that isn't what you need to be taking for anxiety.
Vortioxetine is Trintellix.... relatively new drug, kind of more used for depression. But I read this about it -
"Although Trintellix is not approved for anxiety, it has been used off-label to treat generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). It appears to work best in those with severe GAD"
Generally speaking, most SSRI's take about a month to 6 weeks or even 8 weeks to get the full benefit. You've been on this one for 14 days and if your anxiety is getting worse, I would suggest talking to your prescriber.
Please see a psychiatrist for medication. They are MD's (medical doctors) who all they do is prescribe medication for mental health issues. They might do a little talk-therapy, but mostly they dispense the drug that will work best for you. Taking diazepam with it, may or may not be the best thing, which is why I suggest you ask a psychiatrist what you should do.
Speaking of, have you looked into therapy? It can really help a lot with getting anxiety under control. For me, I take daily anxiety medication, and speak with a therapist by phone once a week. It helps to talk to someone who I can tell anything and everything to.
Don't give up. You will feel better soon. I know trying all these different drugs is not easy, but hang in there! Please see a psychiatrist to see which drug they think you should be taking. And maybe look into therapy. Keep posting and good luck with all of this.
I have had anxiety my whole life so I don’t think antimalarial drugs caused mine but the time I did take them in college I got really sick and lost a bunch of weight. I thought I had a parasite from being in a foreign country but after a bunch of negative tests and taking meds to treat parasites the GI specialist basically said I was crazy by prescribing Wellbutrin but not telling me what it was for. Pissed my off. I was like if you think I’m crazy then send me to the psychiatrist don’t try to trick me into meds. Well I was like maybe I am and just focused on my anxiety I was getting ready to start the second part of my schooling and my relationship sucked so I’ll never know what it was. I finally started to get better but maybe the antimalarials messed me up. I will say I didn’t know I had generalized anxiety my whole life until after I started my career like at 26 years old.
Meds did not help me. I finally gave into trying meds in 2021. I spoke to a different psychiatrists after the 2 I saw when trying meds and she had a new scoop of thought that I’m a trauma survivor and my anxiety is a protective mechanism and if I try to suppress anxiety it will be worse.
Sometimes I think about trialing meds again when I feel panic but I just take only to help with sleep once in awhile.
I was on Pristiq for 9 years worked great but then started getting panic attacks so have switched and tried a few different ones
How are you going are you still taking it ?
Watching this video helped me a bit
https://youtu.be/q_vsBZbnuGM?si=dh_AIRlcvCrvgcRT