Can't leave my place sometimes.

[TI.]

Hi everyone. I'm glad to be here. Okay, I'm 23 and male, In great physical shape. After years of alcohol and drug abuse I decided to go to rehab... there I learned but I kinda knew already that I was using opiates and alcohol to self medicate for severe anxiety and mild depression. I didn't go because I was forced, I just knew alcohol and drugs was taking a toll on me mentally and physically. There I met an addiction psychiatrist who prescribed Remeron 30mg, and ativan. The remeron works great for sleep and I don't fell depressed but my anxiety is still there. So i went back to this addiction doc and he gave me a script for effexor to take in the morning, 37.5 mg xr. After two day I was feeling great and continued to take the remeron and effexor combo for 3 weeks (aka California rocket fuel). After realizing I lost my sex drive and couldn't perform sexually I stopped taking the effexor. My sex drive is back to normal but this anxiety and panic came back also. How do I keep the sex drive and stop the anxiety??? That's the million dollar question.
Just not sure what to do anymore. Also, the ativan seems to not work anymore, go figure that. Any tips or thought?

[missmello]

I've never been on any of those meds, except for ativan, so im not sure of the side effects. Maybe you just need to try a dif med. Every medication effects people differently, so make sure to tell your doctor about the aide effects you experience and he can switch you to something else. As for the ativan not working anymore, you probably built up a tolerance. I was on xanax and it was working fine, until one day I took it and had a panic attack 30 min later. After that, I had a panic attack every single time I took it. I don't know why, but it too had stopped working for me. I was switched to klonopin and haven't had a problem with it at all. I think it has a longer half life too, so that probably helps. Maybe you just need to switch up the meds.

[Lin]

I age with MIsmello it sounds like you need to revisit your doctor and discuss the side effects and loss of effectiveness and give him the opportunity to prescribe other meds which might help you again but without the side effects. There are so many meds you can take that you do not need to struggle with ones no longer working or ones with side effects for you. Good luck and I hope you soon find the right meds to be feeling better again.

[Judie]

Hi everyone. I'm glad to be here. Okay, I'm 23 and male, In great physical shape. After years of alcohol and drug abuse I decided to go to rehab... there I learned but I kinda knew already that I was using opiates and alcohol to self medicate for severe anxiety and mild depression. I didn't go because I was forced, I just knew alcohol and drugs was taking a toll on me mentally and physically. There I met an addiction psychiatrist who prescribed Remeron 30mg, and ativan. The remeron works great for sleep and I don't fell depressed but my anxiety is still there. So i went back to this addiction doc and he gave me a script for effexor to take in the morning, 37.5 mg xr. After two day I was feeling great and continued to take the remeron and effexor combo for 3 weeks (aka California rocket fuel). After realizing I lost my sex drive and couldn't perform sexually I stopped taking the effexor. My sex drive is back to normal but this anxiety and panic came back also. How do I keep the sex drive and stop the anxiety??? That's the million dollar question.
Just not sure what to do anymore. Also, the ativan seems to not work anymore, go figure that. Any tips or thought?
Hi TI, yes most alcoholics/ addicts are self medicating. I know that my husband was ( he is in recovery and has 20 years sobriety, doing great ! ) My mom was an alcoholic who died of Liver Cancer at 58, my stepson and brother are addicts/alcoholics ( estranged from both because of addiction) I am very familiar with the disease and is most probably one of the root causes of my anxiety. But enough about hat. Most antidepressants are accompanied by a decrease in sex drive, for every good thing a med does, it does something bad.They also increase your desire for sweets as does quitting drinking ( your body is no longer getting its carbs from the sugar in alcohol ( keep an eye on that but you will need some sugar to replace that) Most in recovery turn to ice cream candy etc...hey far better then drugs and booze right ? Alcoholics/ Addicts self medicate as you mentioned but what happens in those years of active behavior you were " masking" feelings, and in turn repressing them. It's good at the time but as you probably have realized by now it only "temporarily buried "those emotions. When you enter recovery you are " flooded" with lots of those emotions you didn't address at the time. You will get through all of this and one by one sort through some feelings and I am quite confident your anxiety will improve with time. Address issues that you think you should ( make amends etc..) but shut the door on negative things that are in the past and can't be changed. Think about the things you can change and accept the things you can't. Eventually you will be able to maintain with a low dose of an antidepressant and better sex drive, and be careful with the Ativan etc as you are an addictive personality and may inadvertently head down that path again. I think for your sobriety and anxiety you should be doing some relaxation. You could try Relax and Rest Iphone APP- it's free most are, there may be Sobriety Apps as well. It's hard to have a Panic Attack when there's someone in your ear. Be Well and