Prolactinoma Support Group
A prolactinoma is a benign tumor of the pituitary gland that produces a hormone called prolactin. It is the most common type of pituitary tumor. Symptoms of prolactinoma are caused by too much prolactin in the blood or by pressure of the tumor on surrounding tissues. Prolactin stimulates the breast to produce milk during pregnancy. After delivery of the baby, a mother's...
I have been diagnosed with prolactinemia, but not I have not had an MRI so I don't know if there is a tumor. I suffer from anxiety and OCD as well. I'm curious about some symptoms that I have. Pretty much anything that happens to me, I blame my anxiety.
Anyway, for the last six months or so, I've been having incredibly vivid, often violent dreams. I used to get these maybe once or twice a year and then they just started happening more frequently. At this point, it's every day. I started Prozac 20 mgs in February and in April increased to 40 mgs to help with OCD. Could Prozac cause these dreams?
Also, I've been getting these waves of exhaustion. It just hits me and I'm so incredibly tired. It's actually pretty frightening and of course that makes my anxiety hit the roof.
Just wondering if any of you have experienced anything like these.
Anyway, for the last six months or so, I've been having incredibly vivid, often violent dreams. I used to get these maybe once or twice a year and then they just started happening more frequently. At this point, it's every day. I started Prozac 20 mgs in February and in April increased to 40 mgs to help with OCD. Could Prozac cause these dreams?
Also, I've been getting these waves of exhaustion. It just hits me and I'm so incredibly tired. It's actually pretty frightening and of course that makes my anxiety hit the roof.
Just wondering if any of you have experienced anything like these.
I think these happen when the tumor is really active.
I don't know if there is a chemical association between prozac or prolactin and vivid dreams but I also have very vivid dreams or have no memory of my dreams. It is one or the other. When I was diagnosed my prolactin was 6300 (normal under 20 from the lab I used) and is now about 1250.
I have a lot of anxiety which is common with prolactin.
Both of my siblings have OCD which they have treated through medication (sorry, I don't know which) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Because of my family history it was thought that I might have OCD but now that I know I have a large prolactinomia we know that my OCD like symptoms are probably just the complete upset of the endocrine system.
My siblings experience has informed me of a few things that help the anxiety. I use these techniques to some success (and they do to great success).
1) anxiety is like spam. It will keep coming at you and you just have to ignore / delete it.
2) my sisters uses mantras and I have relied upon them in the past. Her's are "Breath" and "leap fearlessly." I find phrases work better for me such as "This anxiety is not me."
3) Every time I feel anxiety I remind myself that it is caused by a medical condition and it is not caused by actual danger or anything wrong.
Anxiety is definitely part of this. I continue to struggle with it (I just spent the last hour playing soduko because I can only solve the puzzle by focusing and calming myself) but if you find a technique that works for you go with it! CBT is awesome.
As my prolactin has gone down so too has my anxiety!