Ckraft42
10-19-2015, 10:16 AM
I've been suffering with GAD for the past 18 years. It first began with the deaths in three consecutive years of my grandfather, father, and grandmother. After 5 months of trying to fight it on my own,I was taken to my pcp who started me on Zoloft and after a few months of altering dosages I arrived at a stable place where I was able to function again. Over the years I've had "blips" or setbacks, but always bounced back. Fast forward to 2014, and things began falling apart rapidly. I started having hormone problems, mood swings, bleeding uncontrollably for weeks at a time, and became extremely depressed (which was weird because my main problem had always been anxiety). I started seeing a psychiatrist who switched me to brintellix, a new drug that has seen success with GAD. At the same time my gallbladder went south. I ended up having a uterine ablation followed by a gallbladder removal. My gyno had placed me on hrt birth control which seemed to make the depression worse. A few months ago I stopped the bcp's because I suspected they were making me worse and I felt great for like 2 weeks. That's when the bottom fell out and I began experiencing the severe anxiety and panic attacks with a vengeance, and I began breaking out with cystic acne like a teenager. The panic attacks always seem to come at night when I'm trying to sleep and can last all night. I went back to my psych dr who raised me to the highest dose of the brintellix and gave me alprazolam ER to take twice a day until the brintellix could take full effect. I was doing better until last night when the panic attacks came back and I didn't fall asleep until 5am. I suspect that I am going through the CHANGE, and hormone fluctuations are the culprit in making me miserable. I'm now at the three week mark since upping the brintellix dosage and was coasting along pretty well with the help of the daily alprazolam. Yesterday was an awesome day, and I felt no anxiety and didn't take the alprazolam (the psych dr said this would be okay if I felt I was getting better. ). And then last night hit. Has anyone out there experienced setbacks when going through peri menopause? I'm at a loss and need encouragement so badly.