Depression and Anxiety Meds - HELP

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I guess I better start at the beginning; I have suffered with anxiety and depression in various forms since childhood.

6 weeks ago I was sent home from work, after a few weeks of feeling low, having burst into tears at work. I went to see my GP who prescribed Mirtazapine. However after 4 days of sleeping 20 hours a day, I went back to see my GP and asked for something that would make me less sleepy.

I was given Prozac and by day 7 my anxiety levels had risen so high that I ended up in hospital. I was given 15mg of valium immediately and prescribed 2mg x twice a day and 4mg at bedtime. The doc was reluctant, so was I to prescribe any other antidepressants because of my severe reaction to the Prozac.

Initially the valium did help and but the depression was still there and after weeks it got to the stage where I was having very distressing suicidal thoughts (I have no intention of carrying them out).

I returned to my GP once more and have been put on 35.7mg of Venlafaxine twice a day, 4mg of Valium 3 times a day and 7.5mg of zoplicone at night.

The first few days I felt very sick and drowsy but after about 8 days I did start to feel a little better. My GP has advised me to cut down on the valium so yesterday I only took 2mg at lunch time inside of 4mg. I went to bed with a slight headache and a pain in my chest.

This morning I feel sick, quite depressed again, anxious and my suicidal thoughts have returned (although again I have no intention of doing anything about them).

I have an appointment for CBT and counselling etc. but that isn’t until the end of the month.

I feel so messed up. Is it all the drugs I've been on that is making me feel this way? Is it valium withdrawal or am I just having a bad day?

Any help, support or advice would be appreciated, especially if you have experience of being on one or all of the above

I do not have experience, I am not a doctor in any way shape or form.

But as I understand it, human biochem is a very subtle, very tricky, very complicated thing. It sounds like your doctor is doing the right thing in tinkering with the medication. That is the responsible way to practice medicine in this case.

Just offhand, maybe it's the most recent change of the decline in valium from 4mg to 2mg?

Keep talking with your doctor. Keep tinkering. And don't worry about being a high-maintenance patient. That's why he or she went to medical school, at least it is on his or her better days.

Good luck. And keep talking with us here.

Okay, the sleeping 20 hours a day at first and then the hospitalization, may have disrupted the normal flow of your life and you're not getting positive activities, not the same number, and that's a contributing factor.

I know with myself, getting out of the house early helps (the paradox of course being that any 'positive' activity takes enormous energy and feels completely pointless). My Mom once speculated out loud that this may be a gender thing since I'm a guy and I'm motivated to do this and my sister is not. Or it's just a highly individual thing in any regard, similar to one medication not working and another does, and the tinkering again.

It occurs to me that you could get a headstart on the cognitive behavioral therapy with skimming books and light-touching it. This should not be an obligation and a ‘should’ (and yes, I know that’s ironic ) merely as an open possibility. And please very much trust your gut feelings regarding this.

Here is wishing you all the best.

Thanks but I am hardly eating and dont have the engery to do much.

Feel worse than ever today and not sure I can cope much longer

Please. Tell that to the doctor. And if he or she is not listening, you have every right as a human being to see another doctor.

And I think of England as a civilized place with reasonably progressive health care (I live in the United States, proud of my country in many ways but we do not have good health care).

And if you need to be hospitalized a second time, nothing wrong with that. Might get some of your strength back, just by using an IV I guess.

Positive thoughts Positive thoughts Positive thoughts

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Don't know if this pertains, but I had emergency surgery for appendecitis in June 2008. There was a certain "high" out of surviving surgery and then a let-down afterwards. I was age 45 (now age 48, birthday in Jan). I was living in Las Vegas and basically all alone. I felt I made a good decision going down to the emergency room because my general abdomen pain had localized on the right side. And the emergency room doctor said I needed an operation. I said, "Okay, let me ask you this. What if we just wait a couple of days and see how it goes?" And he said, "No, No, No, . . . " Okay, let's do the operation. In fact, I felt that was one of my best poker hands! I made enough of a "bet" to get a read, and I went with it. But afterwards, the other doctor, the surgeon wasn't a great listener when he or another doctor in his practice came by every morning. And I still didn't feel great, or even good. And the day to day care in the hospital, I guess okay, at times marginal. So, this high of really handling a situation well and surviving, to this kind of so-so and other people not really being there, not emotionally present, and not really sure what's going on.

But actually, it sounds like you may have had a pretty good back and forth with your doctor, him or her saying didn't want to try any other antidepressant because of your bad reaction to the first, and you saying no, let's try another one or a smaller dose. Am I understanding this part correctly?

Now, treating depression and anxiety at the same time is going to be tricky, doesn't mean it can't be done, just means it will probably take longer. Or you might get lucky.

As a fallback, could you have a friend or family member take you to the emergency room? Or, maybe give the doctor two or three hours to call back with a medication adjustment that seems promising, and if he or she doesn't, then go down to the emergency room?

Here's wishing you more positive thoughts!

Thanks for all your support, feeling the way I do it really does mean a lot to mean.

After the Prozac 'freak out' I had to get it completly out of my system before I could try another AD. Unfortunaly as it has such a long half life (which is one of the reasons its so popular as you don't get withdrawal when you stop taking it), I had to wait 3 weeks just on valium before I could start something else. This did ease my anxiety but did nothing for my depression.

My doctor has acutally been very good and done her best but I guess I need to give this AD a good go, after all it is only day 11. Besides she is away this week and I have an appointment to see her on Wednesday so will try and stick it out til then.

Unfortunatly going to ER (or casualty as we called it here) is of little help. Unless your suicidal, a threat to others or so anxious your sitting there rocking and crying (which I was after the prozac), they don't want to know. Besides I would hate to end up in a physo ward, am a very sensitive person and have been told they are very frightening places (and that was by a doctor!)

Have taken your advice re the CBT and have downloaded 'CBT for Dummies' audio book on to my I pod.

Guess its just a case of 'hanging in there' for the time being but it sure is distressing and exhusting.

Have read that it generally takes 4 fours to tell whether an antidepressant is going to work or not (unacceptable side effects sooner of course). Had thought of that mainly in terms of low-grade depression, but if someone is experiencing more than low-grade, wow, that can be a long four weeks. And then it might work and it might not. That's just where the science is at this time.

I'm glad your doctor is good. That makes a big difference. Now, odds are, if she's good, her associates in her immediate practice are also good. And I'm sure she has back-up for when she's unavailable, if you need it.

and the friendly fish wishes you good fortune

yeah, any kind of in-care psychiatric place really scares me, too. Really any kind of insitution. I remember when my Dad suggested the military when I was age 18, almost an instinctual fear. I'm not going to fit in, a lot of bullying, the 'authorities' are going to pretend they don't see, etc.

I'm just thinking, if need be, like a one-day admission to the regular hospital to get a nutrient IV, something like that. Or maybe the doctor could prescribe or recommend something like a nutrient shake that you could take in the mornings. Not as great as getting your appetite back, but better than nothing.

Last edited by AardvarkGoodSwimmer on 07 Apr 2011, 12:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Thanks, I'll try and keep fighting.

You are very welcome.

Jacs, I'm sorry you haven't gotten more responses and I know you wanted someone with personal experiences with some of these medications. People just aren't great responders here at WP. A couple of weeks ago I made a post about bullying behavior at work. http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt155745.html
I got two minimal responses, which actually, yes, was a disappointment. But okay (zen breath) that's where people currently are, that's the time people currently have.

Your situation is of course more serious. And I think it would be entirely appropriate for you to make another post, perhaps mentioning one of the medications like Venlafaxine or zoplicone in the title? And I do think the main board of the new current posts is where most of the 'action' is.

Well, I kind of like doing Internet research, see what I can do. no guarantees of course. But sometimes I'm good at it.

Thanks, have made a few updates and repotsed it in the main forum.

Hasn't helped, only one reply.

Still, thanks for the advice and support.