New Member here.. Anti-SSRI guy.

Hello all. -- I apologize in advance for my rather lengthy introduction...

Only recently did I realize that obsessive racing thoughts 24/7 coupled with moderate panic attacks were abnormal. Really. I honestly thought everyone had them and that some people were just better at dealing with them than others. During the day, I'll have as many as 5-7 different mental threads running on "autopilot" throughout the day.. Wondering "what if this.. what if that.. How can I fix this or that computer issue?!" (I'm an IT professional.) At night those 5-7 threads become 10-15.. all racing through my mind at supersonic speeds; spiraling out of control -- right at bedtime. I'll lie awake in bed for 2-3 hours before finally falling asleep. So you can all easily guess this greatly affects my quality of sleep on a very regular basis. This lack of sleep translates into a terrible work day filled with even more stress due to my weakened stress tolerance from the night before. Lovely.

I've tried Prozac, Zoloft, Effexor, Lexapro and Buspar. ALL of them wreaked havoc on my equilibrium (completely intolerable for a troubleshooting occupation such as mine) ... causing moderate to severe nausea, dizziness. I already have a terrible equilibrium, so these side effects were a game-ender for me. None of them helped the nervousness and panic attacks that I've apparently been experiencing since I was a young teen one bit. In fact, due to the side effects they caused, the meds only served to worsen my tensions.

It has been clearly evidenced that SSRIs are more trouble than they are worth at least for me. Unfortunately, our family doctor is one of the many pharma companies' brainwashed benzophobes.. and refuses to prescribe them.

I am scheduled for an appointment with an actual psychiatrist in a week.. I plan on clearly communicating up front that I will not take any SSRI or Beta blocking medications. I am however open to trying benzo-based medications. Many people on the net have been "crying foul" that they are highly addictive and have horrendous withdrawal effects. I've noticed one important common factor, though. Each report of problems with said benzos have involved the person taking more medication than directed. This is about the biggest NO-BRAINER there could be. Of COURSE you're going to have issues when abusing a medication!! I on the other hand will NOT be misusing my meds.

If prescribed a benzo, I'm going to ask for a medication that can be taken "as needed" for when I'm actually experiencing an anxiety attack. I am completely against medicating myself on a daily basis. I refuse to take an SSRI which will only serve to sicken me "just in case" a panic attack should potentially happen. For me, the best option is a medication I can take only when I'm experiencing an attack. I've been told that Xanax is just that sort of drug. I am not afraid of taking it, as I will be following the directions precisely, as to avoid dependency / addiction.

In the meantime I've been taking a few supplements which have helped to take some of the edge off my anxiety issues, including:

- Valerian Root -- Provides mild relief and helps a bit with falling asleep.
- 5-HTP -- Same effects as Valerian, but acts on serotonin levels rather than Gaba receptors..
- Phenibut -- Provides the most relief of social anxiety / agoraphobia issues. I only take it for 2 days at a time 750 mg - 1.5 g.. followed by a 2-day "wash out" period as directed.

I of course don't stack them together all at once. Rather, I rotate them. These 3 supplements have been helping a bit, but I am still experiencing racing thoughts at night as well as mild to moderate panic / anxiety attacks usually triggered by overly-crowded large areas such as shopping malls, busy traffic with bad drivers, any even slightly invasive medical procedure -- especially needles, etc. (The latter is my biggest trigger for panic attacks by FAR)

When I'm experiencing these attacks, my stress levels go from 0 to 100 in a matter of seconds, causing physical symptoms such as trembling, shortness of breath, my heart "jumping / skipping beats" in my chest, severe IBS (very painful intestinal cramping along with terrible diarreah) nausea, feelings of "fight or flight" (the latter usually winning out).

I've experienced these symptoms since I was probably 12 or 13 years of age in varying degrees of severity. As I previously stated, I just thought they were normal feelings that everyone experienced, so I didn't bother to discuss my issues with anyone. Recently, I talked about it with my wife, who is an RN. She had noticed my issues in the past, and had me try different SSRIs with no relief.. only terrible side effects. -- She suffers from depression / mild bipolarism, so she had all these different meds at different times. She suggested that I find a doctor who would prescribe me something to actually help.

I have been prescribed benzos in the past by dentists to help with anxiety during office visits. Each time, they helped me TREMENDOUSLY. Unfortunately, as I've said, my current GP family doc is of the brainwashed benzophobe flavor. heh.

Here's hoping this new psychiatrist will not be afraid to prescribe me a benzo-type medication. I am so DONE with SSRIs. I'll hopefully post updates next week on my situation. I apologize if I rambled at all.. racing thoughts and all that. ;)

most psychiatrist's will prescribe ativan and kolopin both are very good in helping with anxiety symptoms only ativan only lasts for up to an hour kolopin (clonazepam) lasts for 12hrs helping get through the day anxiety free most people 0.5mg does the trick, Althoug if you do get a dick of a DR he may say i am not helping you if you don't take an SSRI if so i would take the script for SSRI and act like you are taking them but would need the kolopin to help with the side effects/ anxiety until the meds start working. I to had a hard time falling asleep at nights with racing thoughts i went and bought some lavender essential oil (lavandula officinalis) put a few drops on your pillow and breathe it in it will help a little with the racing thoughts and the trouble falling asleep. also a nice bath with epsom salts before bed might help aswell epsom salts draws out the toxins in your body. try to keep a comfortable temp in your room as well Good luck!

Hi there.

Thanks for your comments. In response to your question, forwells..

My plan is to only take medication when I truly need it, rather than "pre-medicating" daily with SSRIs and walking around in a constant dizzying fog. Each of the mentioned meds I tried did the same thing to me in varying degrees. With my very sensitive equilibrium, the dizziness and nausea was just too strong for me to justify taking them. Buspar, btw, was probably the worst of all as far as the nausea, mental fog and dizziness.

As far as the source of my anxiety issues, I have absolutely no clue. I've just simply never dealt well with being in large areas packed with lots of people... driving on overly busy roads.. or with any medical procedure type setting. All of these things have always initiated the "fight or flight" response. The "medical procedures-phobia" has always been by far the most powerful of my panic triggers -- even at times like at the eye doctor; when I'm not even consciously aware of being nervous in any way, I've actually passed out a couple times from the panic attacks. Just last week, I experienced a rather scary attack. Again, I wasn't consciously aware of being stressed out in any way. All of the sudden it hit me.. my heart jumping around in my chest, feeling like what I would've imagined a heart attack to feel like.. shortness of breath, lightheadedness, nausea, etc.
I seriously considered going to the hospital when it happened.

Anyways, to answer your other question about "addressing my fears / triggers for anxiety", My known triggers are situations which I simply can't avoid, really.. (being in public places packed with people, driving in very busy areas, medical procedures) -- Since I know what my main triggers are, my plan is to only take meds when I know I'm going to be faced with said situations (not while driving of course).

On the SSRIs not working and having almost an opposite affect on me: I hypothesize that perhaps my chemical imbalance is not with my serotonin levels.. rather, with my gaba receptors. That would make total sense, given my terrible results with SSRIs.. and my great experiences with valium.

I'm just going to be very honest with the psychiatrist next week, and hope that he truly listens to what I have to tell him.

Where did you get Phenibut? Just be careful with the benzo's I have never abused them and am having really bad issues getting off them, I think if you take them and get therepy for the underlying issues and be sure you don't EVER just stop cold turkey, Klonopin has worked best for me because it is longer acting, so is valium. Xanax seemed to only last a couple hours.

Hey there.

I ordered the Phenibut from ebay. Brand new sealed bottle. There are a lot of supplement suppliers on there. Phenibut is extremely difficult to find in stores.

As far as being careful.. "my middle name is careful". I'm very paranoid of being addicted to anything, so I will only take my meds as directed. I've done plenty of research on the proper meds and supplements to be taking given my symptoms. I of course will be willing to listen to the psychiatrist, but at the same time, I'll expect him to listen to my findings as well. I just know that SSRIs are not for me, as evidenced from my adverse side effects I experienced with them. -- which also suggests that my issue isn't with serotonin levels. rather, it's with my gaba receptors.. and that's what causes me to conclude that benzos would be a better route for me.

Yes it is about Gaba for me as well. Try Lyrica or gabapentin, it has not been approved for anxiety use in US but some psych. will prescribe it, the stuff works on Gaba and it is amazing! But hard for me to get because doctors have not studied it enough, but it help social anxiety so much!!! Most of these psych's give out the meds from there drug co. friends the SSRI's they are safe and effective, my a**!!

yeah.. no kidding! It frustrates me to no end how the doctors just "fall over" for the drug reps' brainwashing and bribes. Like I said, I'm really hoping that my psychiatrist will not be one of the "brainwashed flock", and will be willing to prescribe me the right meds for me.. and not more of the useless SSRIs.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rhetoric

Hello all. -- I apologize in advance for my rather lengthy introduction...

Only recently did I realize that obsessive racing thoughts 24/7 coupled with moderate panic attacks were abnormal. Really. I honestly thought everyone had them and that some people were just better at dealing with them than others. During the day, I'll have as many as 5-7 different mental threads running on "autopilot" throughout the day.. Wondering "what if this.. what if that.. How can I fix this or that computer issue?!" (I'm an IT professional.)

---

Obsessive racing thoughts on multiple tracks at once are also a classic sign of autism spectrum disorder, with which anxiety is closely linked. This may have absolutely no correlation to you and your symptoms whatsoever, but just on the rare off chance it does, it might be worth looking into some of the information related to ASD. In no way am I saying you are autistic, but an awful lot of people share one or two characteristics with people on that spectrum, and that being the case, some of the advice out there about helping autism by improving diet and other therapies like CBT might be of benefit to you in your current situation as well. Your being an IT pro suggests you're someone highly intelligent and focused and capable of strategising on a high level, but doing all that thinking also overworks your brain and makes you more prone to the stress you're experiencing.

It can't hurt to look into other strategies to fight this thing, even if not all of the advice applied in those quarters applies to you, right?

Totally with you on the anti-medication thing, tho mine goes a little further than yours. I will not ever judge anyone who takes meds, especially if they benefit from it, but I personally feel that you can only beat a demon like this with your own strength and medication only lasts for so long before it creates problems (not to mention the side effects that can occur). If you can tackle anxiety with CBT or other forms of therapy, then I think that's generally better, especially for your body in the long run.

On the autism thing.. I've explored that possibility as well. Taken a few online analysis tests on it. When I took an Asperger's test, it said I "scored" in the 97% percentile in likelihood of having it. My wife who is an RN says that doctors HATE it when patients "self-diagnose". heh. I do indeed show the signs of it. Trouble maintaining eye contact with people I'm speaking with. Stuttering / stammering when trying to convey an idea to someone when speaking aloud.. the best way I can describe it is my mind is running so quickly, my mouth simply can't "keep up" to speak the ideas I'm trying to communicate to my intended recipient. When listening to a person explain something to me, it often becomes very difficult to pay undivided attention to the person due to the multiple threads of thoughts going on simultaneously in my mind.

As a child, I was diagnosed with ADD (not ADHD). I was put on rytalin (spelling?), which helped me quite a bit til I reached my early teens.. then it just made me irritable and jumpy, so I stopped taking it. I've also been a rather "nervous worrier" / obsessive thinking type person since I was a child. Like I said, I simply assumed it was normal and that some people hide it better than others. heh heh. I'm glad I've finally discovered that it isn't the case, and that there is potentially some relief for me.