Anxiety Caused By Taking Herbal Ecstasy Please Help

[Dollydaltai]

Hi, I am an axiety sufferer for the past 4 years now and i have really had it with this terrible condition ruining my life. It all started when i had just finished exams with my college mates in my second year of University. We decided that we would go into one of these "Head Shops" and see what we could find that could give us a "buzz" for the night seeing as we had just finished and we needed some course of action to unwind. We were shown numerous types of pills etc at the head shop and decided to try out these herbal ecstasy tablets. We thought nothing of them and never would have believed the effect they would later have on us, my own personal experience standing out from everyone elses. That night we took the pills, two were to be taken one an hour or so after the first. We went to a club and all went on a horrible rollercoster ride of a night. No one enjoyed the experience whatsoever but seemed to recover well in the following days after the event. I Myself was left with this horrible feeling that everything was caving in on me, that i was going to die, lose control, have a panic attack, all the ususal symtoms. That night has left me with those symtoms to this day and they have only barely subsided. I have been taking medication for years now and im currently on a course of 4 different types of meds. I need to find out are there any medications out there i havent yet tried, or anyone have any suggestions at all about how i should tackle my problem.

Hope to here from you, Thanks

Shane

[jimmy2shoes]

Hey,
You need to tackle the anxiety itself. Med's don't really fix the problem, they just mask it making life easier to go on with. I'm on meds (pristiq) and they have just allowed me to address my anxiety without all the irrational crazy stuff.

I think anxiety sufferers are predisposed to the actual intense panic attack and the reoccuring anxiety. What seems to be in common is some level of past emotional 'trauma' i would call it. While typically the word implies intense things like rape or abuse, it can actually come in other subtle forms like bullying or something like parents neglecting their child or.. whatever you can think of. And, later down the track in our adult lives, the phsysiological response re-emerges (adult panic attack) and because we havn't had it for so long we don't know where it could possibly come from.

My first panic attack was from too much cocaine (unfortunately, i couldnt get my hands on herbal cocaine lol what is herbal ecstacy anyway?). And, liek you it seems, my life went on a crazy path from there. I have seen a therapist, am on meds, have browsed this forum and gained perspective on anxiety, and have taken several self-help avenues.

If you want to fix the anxiety, don't really on the meds, look at your life and see what you like and dont like. Word toward what you like, as the things you don't like could be having a larger impact than you think. Look into your past, maybe you have bottled emotional feelings and they need to be resolved. Anxiety comes in many shapes and sizes, and you just need to find what it is that is causing it.
Good luck amigo

[Dollydaltai]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, Herbal ecstasy is just ecstasy from one of those head stores. It has ruined my life for the last 4 years, i know medication doesnt fix the anxiety but i feel that after taking the tablet only once there must be something else going on there. I know it sounds ridiculous but i feel that the pill may have actually damaged something in my brain - I feel a hollowness in my head all the time, i never get panic attacks yet i feel like i could have one at any given time - Is that not weird?? Thats how i feel since ive gone on a series of medications all of which have had little or no effect on my anxiety. Ive tried CBT maybe not enough but ive tried it with medication and after 4 years i still feel like i am getting nowhere! How are you coping with your anxiety now jimmy2shoes?? Does anyone recommend any particular type of CBT out there that may have worked for them?? I need help bad

[_hendrix_]

same thing happend to me dude.
except i took street ecstasy.
i was doing it for 2 years and never had a problem.
well the last time i did it (two years ago) it was really really strong E and had a horrible roller coaster ride like you explained and didn't really feel the same after.
and what i mean by that is i now suffer from depression and social anxiety. i don't think it has to do with damaging your brain. ( although it can do if you do it for many many years or take way to many at once) as it does that you are just traumatized from it like i was. the thing is i beat my anxiety for a full year and felt completely normal like i used to. then it just came back this year because iv been going through some rough times and now i find myself in the same situation i was in before, not feeling like me and full of anxiety. you just have to stand up to it and realize its all mind over matter. i know its easier said then done but you just have too. the stupid thing is i beat my mine before and now i have to do it again, and it feels just as hard to do as it did the last time. but atleast i know that iv done it beat it in the past and that it is possible to feel normal again.
just have to be strong dude. hope things work out for you man.

[Eduardo]

I'd like to add my take.
chemical drugs, especially street drugs can contain all kinds of s**t that are not even related to the drug effect you want.
I remember a time i did a chemical college assignment at a police drug lab and it showed that street drugs can contain stuff like "Paracetamul"
or "Caffeine" just so the hit would look bigger...

anyway...I also have a friend
who did ecstasy, LSD and all sorts and had a mental problem.
he used psycho-cognitive treatment and he actually seems better off today.

If you suffer a panic side-effect because of drug usage I would go this route before going straight into anti-anxiety medication.

[Dollydaltai]

Thanks for your comments guys! Sorry for the late reply but it takes a while to hear a post around here! The thing is i used to have anxiety issues before i took that ecstasy tablet. The first time i can actually remember having an episode was when i was 12 at school reading in front of the class, i got all flushed and had to stand up and was sort of dizzy. From that moment onwards i began to build up a phobia of reading in class and in particular this feeling i would get once i began reading. I have been chatting to a psychiatrist and we both think it may have something to do with my sister fainting at school the year before. I think after that first episode i began to fear fainting. This continued on into secondary school (Ireland) where it got worse for a while, particularly during the first 3 years. Not only did i fear reading in class but the anxiety had began to manipulate itself in many other ways - I became fearful of the tight spaces of classrooms. I always watched the clock to see how many minutes i had left to endure in a classroom before i would move on to the next one. I would feel very fatigued come hometime. However, once i left school and headed home my anxiety would drop to normal levels and i would feel fine. School was the big issue with me but i could also feel like this in churches or any situations that i wasnt in control of. In saying all that i did recover in the latter years of school, the anxiety levels were at an all time minimum. I did my final year exams and progressed into college where i was in a good state of mind. I got through my first year exams next, although i had to repeat several subjects i failed. I can remember feeling a degree of separation anxiety from leaving home during this year and into my second year but probably no more than the average person would feel. My 2nd year exams were coming up and i was stressed out. I would spend all day revising and had to take naps during the day to stay awake. I realise now i was very fatigued at the time and pushing myself to my limits mentally. I took the exams and felt that i had done enough to pass the year so i went out and celebrated. It was on this night (21/05.2007) i took ecstasy from a head store and my life was turned up-side down!

What CBT techniques would u recommend Eduardo? I have bad anxiety with OCD type intrusive thoughts mixed in for good measure!

Thanks again for ur replies!