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Art1986
04-30-2014, 11:43 AM
Hello Everyone,

I’m posting this because I really need some feedback from other people to know if anyone has had a similar experience or if I am just completely crazy. I’ll start by saying I have anxiety, I have dealt with it for over a decade and about ten years ago took citalopram (10mg) for about a year. I then got off it, still had anxiety but was able to manage.

Last September I decided to go to the doctor because my anxiety was holding me back from going places by myself. I could go certain places but not others. I also found out my Dad had cancer and it just seemed like my anxiousness was increasing. So the dr. prescribed me Zoloft 50mg. I only took one.

The day I took it I started feeling sleepy (I took it in the morning). I have a young child and when I laid her down for her nap I laid down too. After she woke up I was reading her a story, felt very disoriented and then started to feel almost like I was full of rage. I set her down and I ran out of the house, leaving my daughter inside. Luckily my husband works from home and I went back inside grabbed my kid and walked out screaming for him. I felt like I could hurt someone or myself, I felt like I was having the biggest panic attack known to man, I felt shaky and scared, sweaty and cold. I called my doctor and she said to not take anymore (this was on a Friday) and she would prescribe me something else on Monday. I didn’t feel like myself for almost a week. I did wind up taking one Citaloprame but stopped because I think I was still feeling effects from the Zoloft (and I felt too scared to really continue on anything). After the first day and up to a few days after taking the citaloprame I felt almost numb, not like myself, and like I didn’t care if I was alive or not. I felt and still do feel that dealing with the anxiety I had pre Zoloft was a walk in the park compared to how I felt. I know people will say I didn’t give it a fair shake, that it needs to get into your system but I just couldn’t go through another second of feeling any of that.

I have dealt with my anxiety for a long time but never dealt with issues of feeling like I could hurt someone or myself. It scared the living day lights out of me! I’ve never had a bad reaction to meds before, never really taking much, never did drugs so I don’t know if this has become a big deal to me because I never felt like that before or what. But in the months that followed taking this pill I couldn’t believe that I could possibly ever have a horrible thought like that. I would lie awake at night fearing that I may feel like that again. Wondering if the pill somehow changed me. I became obsessive with my thoughts, fearing the worst possible scenario almost all of the time, and anytime I started to feel happy I would tell myself that I didn’t deserve to be happy because I had such crazy feelings and thoughts.

I love my family more than anything. Would do anything to keep them safe and well so how on earth could I have felt this way. And for the past six months I have battled with this internal worry that someday I could feel like that again. What if, what if, what if.

I guess what I am curious about is could I have ptsd from taking this pill? But bigger yet, am I alone or has someone else felt like this? I have felt like the worst person on the planted because of all of this and I feel like now I am trying to really work through it. Trying to feel better. My husband and Mom are the only ones I talk to about it. I have feared speaking to anyone else about this because I told myself that I am probably the only person in the world that has felt this way. My mom and husband assure me that there is nothing wrong with me and I just need to put it behind me. I feel like somedays I can get past it and then maybe the next I feel panicky and the first thought that runs into my head is “don’t lose your mind!” Its felt like a living hell at points. Sent me into feeling very dark and depressed, and I don’t want to feel this way. I have a beautiful child that I want to be here for, to enjoy life with.

So if anyone has felt like they have had a lasting effect from an experience with a med I would love to hear that I am not alone. I am fully aware that the Zoloft only altered my mind for a few days but I feel like the real damage is the mind game I have played on myself since then. Maybe some insight on how to get fully past this. I feel like I am closer to getting past it then ever before but somedays it still feels like a tough thing to deal with. Thanks for your time.

jessed03
04-30-2014, 12:20 PM
Well, well, well. That's almost my exact same story :)

I've heard many people talk of similar things in here, but even the running outside bit, that was me down to a T.

3 years after that experience, I was still battling hard to get over my anxiety. I'm not sure whether the med caused me to fall so badly, whether it shook my foundations that night, and left me ruined for years. Maybe I would have been a mess anyway as my anxiety was pretty strong at the time. No way to really know, is there.

The best thing I can suggest to you, apart from all of the classic therapies, is treat your mind like a sick child right now, and nourish it with goodness. That's what I didn't do. I panicked, I researched, I worried, I obsessed, I became reclused, and more or less invited every demon to dine with me, and stay rent free in my head.

What you're suffering from now is a minor type of intrusion. Some people can get instructive thoughts, such as thoughts of them doing bad stuff, or of being a bad person. I don't know if you get those. If not, that's good.

Long story short, when you are anxious, the anxiety will find your button. And push it. Numerous times. What you've described is simply your button. Simply something close to your heart, and is being twisted by a mental condition. But by a mental condition which is treatable.

Know what you're up against.The anxiety itself, WILL make you feel damaged. It WILL make you feel like you will lose control. And it WILL sometimes make you feel dangerous.

But you are none of those things, and you never will be. I can barely even be bothered to type something about those feelings, as they are that irrelevant (having lived through them too.) They are just nothing more than fear. Just don't even pay attention to them, care about them, bother with them. If you feel crazy for a bit, then fuck it, you feel crazy. It's all worthless anyway. You just go through a bit of a dance with it.

I'm serious, pay no attention to these thoughts and feelings. And when I mean no attention, I don't mean leave them unchallenged, or try and act like they're fine, and make them go away. I mean just recognize what a worthless, waste of time it all is. And let it ride out. Know it's ok to coexist with this thing for a bit.

Do this enough times, and it will ride out.

Just get on with life, as normal. Make no changes because of how you feel. Don't give it that much respect. It doesn't deserve it. Just go about your life, in your uncomfortable, awkward feeling way, for now.

Feed your mind with the good stuff. Whatever that is for you right now. Keep busy, stay productive.

Whenever you go through a dodgy period, be aware of that. Be aware it's that good ol' anxiety acting up again. And try and do something constructive with your time.

What more can I say about the biggest waste of time I've ever experienced. And that's all these thoughts and feelings are. Meaningless stimulation from an unhealthy mind. Baseless, useless, pointless, yet disturbing. Stop feeding things, get comfortable with the disturbing side of it, realize it's as fake as Hollywood blood, and you'll be fine.

But give it time.

Art1986
05-02-2014, 07:45 PM
I guess I am curious what you mean by intrusion. I have had instructive thoughts that scare the hell out of me and I really think it is because I have spent so much time worrying that I am going to loose my mind (feel like the zoloft made me feel) or worse. Its such a hard this to understand unless you have been there so I hope you get it. It's like your worst nightmare and it won't leave your head. I have basically done everything that you said you did, panicked, worried, obsessed and really I just want my brain to turn that off.
I know every fear I have is compleltley irrational yet somehow I can't seem to get away from them. It's like as soon as I tell myself that I have nothing to worry about my brain says oh yes you do, here feel like a piece of shit and fear that your worst nightmare could happen.
I want to know that there is relief, that I will get through this, that I'm not crazy and that I am not going to hell for going through this issue. I want peace. Peace with myself and to know that I haven't done anything wrong. I do know that but at the same time I somehow look at myself like I'm terrible for dealing with this in the first place.
So you said many people have talked about this in here. Is that just the effects of the zoloft going south or the issues afterwards.
I really feel like what you said here
"I'm not sure whether the med caused me to fall so badly, whether it shook my foundations that night, and left me ruined for years. Maybe I would have been a mess anyway as my anxiety was pretty strong at the time. No way to really know, is there."

I too feel like I have let every demon stay rent free in my head. Its a terrible terrible feeling to feel question your mental stability when I have always been a very stable person. I just feel like this whole thing has shaken me to my core and I am struggling to recover.

I truly want to be better and rid of this and I ask you if you are from your experience? I think I am looking for some magic way to make it go away over night, that would be such a blessing but unfortunatley I think I know that it will take time but how long do I have to go through this until I feel like I am completley done with it? I felt amazing yesterday. So positive and kept telling myself, I can do this, I can get through anything. And then today, not so much. Felt like I was batteling it throughout the day and it seemed everytime I tried to tell myself that I can get through this I had self doubt creep up on me enough to make me feel week and failing. I'm sorry to dump this out there. I guess I just feel ready to face this but week at the same time...

Anne1221
05-02-2014, 10:26 PM
I don't think I could make it without my therapist. Do you have one?