nevergiveup
01-20-2008, 12:39 AM
Hello all,
This is my first post here so please forgive me if it's a bit lengthy...
I'm in my mid thirties and i've been battling anxiety for a long time before getting on formal medication. My informal medication was alcohol and I started zoloft in the year 2000. Besides some of the standard, milder side effects, zoloft worked wonderfully for me. It changed my life. Unfortunately, its effectiveness wore off after 6.5 years or about a year and a half ago. My doctor and I decided to try Cymbalta and I was on that longer than I should have been. It seemed to put me in a fog and I had some severe anxiety episodes. At the time I was busy with work and missed regular med checks. After a particular bad episode and running out of my prescription, I decided to stop taking the medication. This was the Spring of 07. The withdrawal was brutal. I will definitely be tapering off the next time. I was feeling better though and my summer was fairly good without medication. This was good to see what life was like again without it. Everything was great but the stress in my life kicked up significantly and my anxiety came back with a vengeance. I decided to go back to medication again in November, 2007 and my primary care dr. prescribed 20mg of Celexa (actually lexapro, but the insurer wants to try celexa first). It was great the first two weeks and then I had a severe anxiety attack, the worst i've ever experienced. I think it was the medication, but the dr. did not. I dropped the dosage from 20 mg to 10 mg with the intent of getting on a different medicine. My attacks went away for a few weeks but they seem to be coming back again. I reupped my dosage to 20 mg today, which was a rough day and plan to get to a Psych this week (not my primary care dr. ) to get a new plan in place.
I'd be interested to hear if anyone thinks I should stick with Celexa or should change to a new med.
May God bless you all
This is my first post here so please forgive me if it's a bit lengthy...
I'm in my mid thirties and i've been battling anxiety for a long time before getting on formal medication. My informal medication was alcohol and I started zoloft in the year 2000. Besides some of the standard, milder side effects, zoloft worked wonderfully for me. It changed my life. Unfortunately, its effectiveness wore off after 6.5 years or about a year and a half ago. My doctor and I decided to try Cymbalta and I was on that longer than I should have been. It seemed to put me in a fog and I had some severe anxiety episodes. At the time I was busy with work and missed regular med checks. After a particular bad episode and running out of my prescription, I decided to stop taking the medication. This was the Spring of 07. The withdrawal was brutal. I will definitely be tapering off the next time. I was feeling better though and my summer was fairly good without medication. This was good to see what life was like again without it. Everything was great but the stress in my life kicked up significantly and my anxiety came back with a vengeance. I decided to go back to medication again in November, 2007 and my primary care dr. prescribed 20mg of Celexa (actually lexapro, but the insurer wants to try celexa first). It was great the first two weeks and then I had a severe anxiety attack, the worst i've ever experienced. I think it was the medication, but the dr. did not. I dropped the dosage from 20 mg to 10 mg with the intent of getting on a different medicine. My attacks went away for a few weeks but they seem to be coming back again. I reupped my dosage to 20 mg today, which was a rough day and plan to get to a Psych this week (not my primary care dr. ) to get a new plan in place.
I'd be interested to hear if anyone thinks I should stick with Celexa or should change to a new med.
May God bless you all