Hello All

[writerman1]

Hello folks,

I've been dealing with depression and anxiety for several years now with various levels of success. For about 5 or more years I had taken Paxil, and for most of that time it worked quite well; it was only recently in the last six months to a year that I realized that depression was slowly gaining a greater foothold and so I talked to my doctor about switching. He switched me to Cymbalta(this was about six weeks ago), and I experienced a highly welcomed mood shift; I felt like myself again, I had more energy, and just felt more capable of dealing with things in life than I had previously. However, for quite some time now(roughly coinciding with Paxil's decrease in effectiveness), I've been experiencing a low level anxiety for which there was no apparent cause or source, I just felt like there was something I should be worried about, I just didn't know what that was.

It's gotten a bit worse in last several weeks, I've found myself having high levels of anxiety, though not quite to the point of a panic attack it's pretty damn close. All the classic symptoms of anxiety, and despite all that I've read and learned over the years in an attempt to help myself, I don't feel that I'm coping very well sometimes. None of my friends really have any of these problems, and I don't feel that talking to them would be as helpful as talking with people who truly understand such things, which is why I decided to find a community like this online.

I apologize for the length of my first post, but I just wanted to let someone know something of my history. I've already read through many of the posts here and like many of you I feel like I'm going crazy, though I know that to be untrue. I hope that maybe by just talking with some of you, and realizing that I'm not the only one going through these things that it will help, and that in the process others will be aided as well.

writerboy1

[Passionista]

I know all too well how you feel. I just joined for the same reasons you listed. It's as if I am the only one experiencing crippling anxiety in my day to day life and I just needed to reach out to people who understand!

I am very interested in how Cymbalta works for you. I am considering taking it but I have a medication phobia. :oops:

[writerman1]

Well, to be honest I'm not really sure how I feel about Cymbalta, and as a matter of fact I'm thinking of going back to my doctor. It's just not helping me at all with anxiety, depression yes, but anxiety no, and of course the anxiety can feed into depression. I'm not sure it's the drug for me. Side effects weren't really a problem though, a little nausea but nothing major, no sleep disruptions, no change in appetite.

Today hasn't been too bad, but I'm still sort of struggling. It's as though I'm experiencing an extended low level panic attack; instead of a half an hour or so of sheer hell, it's more elusive and lasts the entire afternoon and disipates in the evening.

How are you doing?

writerman1

[Passionista]

See, what you described about the low-level hell? That is how it goes for me. I may have a shorter, more intense episode, but there's usually a build-up and the after effects linger until the next day. :(

Today, I am doing pretty well. I woke up at 3am, still anxious, but then I went to yoga (it left me feeling VERY relaxed and experiencing less body pain) and later to the dentist to have a cleaning and be sure a tooth didn't need to be pulled. Much to my relief, I am OK!!!

On the down side, I bit my tongue and it has a large knot in it...It's worse than when I had my tongue pierced! I just keep telling myself that I am fine though.

I hope you feel better soon. Send me a message any time!

[ligeia]

Hi guys,

Writerman1 I'm so glad that at least Cymbalta helped with your depressed mood. I've tried Cymbalta before; my doc was just having a really difficult time finding the right anti-depressant for me so we decided to give Cymbalta a try. One of the most worrisome side effects is an allergic rash, and though in my case I didn't seem to have a lot of problems with that, I did notice a little bit of questionable skin changes and so I stopped taking it cold turkey as advised by my doctor, since if I actually was allergic it could be deadly. Anyways, the withdrawal from that was RIDICULOUSLY painful, it was really unpleasant! I had electric lights flashing in my vision, super sensitivity to touch, super sensitivity to sound and I was very nauseous. But that was my first time experiencing withdrawal from all the meds I tried, so maybe it's just my perspective.

So then my doc finally put me on Paxil, which seemed to work really well for me. I kept taking it for about 2.5 years over which I increased from 30mg to 40mg to 60mg to 80. I've been on 80 for quite a while now, probably six months, and I'm still quite depressed but not as bad as before. The anxiety is still very very apparent but not quite as debilitating as it was pre-Paxil. I've been struggling with a lot of depressed mood and a lot of anxiety as of the past couple weeks and I saw my psychiatrist again just this morning with my parents and it seemed like the very root of my anxiety is something that started a long time ago, that my low mood and self-esteem are part of a destructive self image and expectation I have in regards to myself. So he actually wants to start pulling back on the Paxil and I am being encouraged to dig deep and figure out the bud of the problem with less medication.

*Sigh*

[writerman1]

Hello,

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I started a new shift at work and it's been kind of rough. Basically not a very good week.

ligeia, hello to you. I took Paxil for a little over six years, and it really helped me. I guess it just kind of stopped working as well for me in the last six months or so, which is why my doctor switched me to Cymbalta. I can feel an improvement, it's been about a week since my doc increased my dosage so I'm hoping to continue to see improvements. I hope things are going well for you, send me a message anytime friend.

writerman1