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GAD and panic disorder is back, full blown


[Ni...]

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Yes people, 3 years off clonazepam and the monster is back in epic proportions. The reason why i started clonazepam in the first way, to treat severe GAD and panic disorder.

 

This morning spilled the bucket, i was trying to do some work at home until a stressful event happened, i'm now shaking uncontrolably, vomiting, my mind is racing with 10000 thoughts a second, feeling of doom and utter hopelessness. My body is frail because i've been battling some chronic diseases for a long time, any time this happens i will be so sick and unable to do anything work-related for weeks.

 

CBT does not help, i'm resistant to any form of psychotherapy. This also has not much to do with PAWS from the benzo, no, it's the GAD and panic disorder causing me to completely lose it.

 

I am to start a SSRI soon but i fear that it will not be enough. I've been dysfunctional now for so many years, i think i really need to be on some psych meds, hopefully i respond well to some of the benzo alternatives. Enough is enough. I'm tired, so tired, this is no life, i need to be functional.

I'm planning to be on psych meds to save my life, at least until i've solved all of my problems which are finance and health related and then slowly taper off whatever i'm taking.

 

I just want a simple, no worry life. I will never ask for anything again.

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi Nick,

 

I've been reading your posts because we both have the same diagnosis and take/took the same drug. I'm just starting my taper again but before I even started the klonopin stopped working. I'm now dealing with 24/7 extreme anxiety. Well I actually get a bit of a break right before I go to bed, sometimes.

 

I initially just took klonopin for occasional panic attacks which Prozac completely cured. I will say that the start up was extremely difficult. Over the years I have taken various SSRI's and they all end up pooping out on me, unfortunately. However Prozac lasted about 5 years. I'm now on Lexapro which worked for about a year. I'm just afraid to stop taking it because I can't afford for things to possibly get worse.

 

Anyway, once you get through the start up effects, the SSRI could very well give you some much needed relief. Even when I got off the Prozac like 20 years ago, my panic attacks were cured. I relapsed when I got Lyme disease which often presents with panic attacks that are different than most in that they don't just last 20 minutes or so.

 

So now I'm rambling. I hope we both can heal and find some peace.

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You poor chap.

Ditto with household and Apple products going belly up this week.

So agree very tense and nausea, avoided head down loo so far.

Worse if I don’t eat——can you manage a piece of toast. ?

I am so screwed today about to have a magnesium bath and have taken teatime Diaz early -

 

Best wishes

Dick

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Hi Nick,

 

I've been reading your posts because we both have the same diagnosis and take/took the same drug. I'm just starting my taper again but before I even started the klonopin stopped working. I'm now dealing with 24/7 extreme anxiety. Well I actually get a bit of a break right before I go to bed, sometimes.

 

I initially just took klonopin for occasional panic attacks which Prozac completely cured. I will say that the start up was extremely difficult. Over the years I have taken various SSRI's and they all end up pooping out on me, unfortunately. However Prozac lasted about 5 years. I'm now on Lexapro which worked for about a year. I'm just afraid to stop taking it because I can't afford for things to possibly get worse.

 

Anyway, once you get through the start up effects, the SSRI could very well give you some much needed relief. Even when I got off the Prozac like 20 years ago, my panic attacks were cured. I relapsed when I got Lyme disease which often presents with panic attacks that are different than most in that they don't just last 20 minutes or so.

 

So now I'm rambling. I hope we both can heal and find some peace.

 

Thanks for reaching out to me.

Hearing that SSRI's cured you of panic and anxiety gives me hope, i really need that in my life right now.

Too bad most SSRI's have pooped out on you. Can't you rotate SSRI's? For example after lexapro and zoloft have pooped out, to go back on prozac?

 

The reason i went off klonopin was because i grew tolerance to it and the interdose withdrawals were pure mental torture.

How high of a dose are you currently taking?

 

I too have been diagnosed with lyme disease. Had years of treatment with many antibiotics but it has not helped me, all the treatments made my panic and anxiety even worse. It's known that many antibiotics cause anxiety and depression, but so can the inflammation from lyme disease.

Are you undergoing lyme treatment? If i knew back then what i know now, i would never have started treatment for lyme. Longterm antibiotic treatment does not cure chronic lyme and only causes damage to the body and brain.

 

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I'm going to have to go back on Lyme treatment. Chronic Lyme means chronic infection and it only gets worse. It can't technically be "cured" yet but I know many people who have gone into remission and now have their lives back after many years of treatment. Dr. Horowitz in New York has been able to possibly "cure" Lyme in 3 months with a new regimen consisting of several antibiotics. Do you have coinfections? I have Babesia duncani and it causes the worst anxiety ever. In fact it's when I went after the Babesia that my anxiety went through the roof and the klonopin stopped working. I was at my best on IV Rocephin but insurance cut me off. They are trying to pass laws to prevent that from happening. I recommend watching the documentary "Under Our Skin" to learn about the politics of Lyme.

 

The thing right now is that my anxiety is so extreme that there is no way I could handle Lyme treatment without being in some sort of treatment center which does not exist. Ugh but the only way out is through and I know that for me at least, Lyme treatment is a very big factor. It fixed my heart issues, cured my "fibromyalgia" which is really Lyme, but the brain issues are the last to resolve and I quit treatment too soon. Also, you can't get rid of Lyme without first getting at the coinfections. Google panic attacks and Lyme....

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15990495

 

Anyway, once an SSRI poops out it doesn't work again, for me at least.

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Oh sorry, I didn't answer your question about my dose. I'm taking .5/day. Moved up to 1 mg for a couple of days but when it didn't do anything I realized I was in trouble. I think now that the Klonopin is actually making my anxiety worse but then I don't know.
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I was on Doxycycline for presumed Lyme and mycoplasma

Doxycycline made me anxious so if on that allow for mild increase in anxiety symptoms

Best wishes

Dick

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Yes, it always gets worse before getting better; the herxheimer reaction. Zithromax and the Babesia meds caused the worst anxiety for me. Doxy hits Babesia somewhat.

 

New protocols go after the cell walls and the persisters using at least one tuberculosis med which is interesting.

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This is a good resource for working through anxiety/panic. The speaker is Claire Weekes. She was an MD and struggled with anxiety/panic herself.

 

https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/claire-weekes-audio.2569/

 

Also, I was on Paxil for 8 years and it helped my GAD. But when I came off of it I now either have permanent agitated depression or akathisia that can't be helped without a benzodiazepine. That's why I started Ativan in 2011. Please read the following article and do some research on SSRI's. If you take them for longer than 5 years you're asking for problems that may destroy your life. He's written more than one article on the subject at Mad In America so you may want to read them as well.

 

https://www.madinamerica.com/2013/08/ssri-discontinuation-is-even-more-problematic-than-acknowledged/ 

 

Hope that helps.

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Nearby bought new TV, but just read article in Mad in America which says you get corneal Edema on Seroquel!!!

 

Not in the leaflet

Dick

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Yes going on an SSRI is not ideal and Paxil is the worst in my opinion, however, I've never had trouble getting off of any of them. Everyone is just so different. I've heard the worst horror stories in regards to coming off of Paxil and Prozac cured my panic disorder as I mentioned. Well until I got Lyme that is.
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Yes going on an SSRI is not ideal and Paxil is the worst in my opinion, however, I've never had trouble getting off of any of them. Everyone is just so different. I've heard the worst horror stories in regards to coming off of Paxil and Prozac cured my panic disorder as I mentioned. Well until I got Lyme that is.

Your experience with SSRI's are the same as mine butterfly. I have been on and off SSRIs several times and never really had a problem tapering and stopping them unlike benzos. Nothing IMO can be as bad as benzos for many people. Benzos are as bad as it can get.

 

Even if you have never taken a benzo, unrelenting panic and GAD can destroy your life. I just wish we had some better treatment options than what we currently have today. Any type of big life stressor seems to bring these things back to life after a period of remission.

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Yes people, 3 years off clonazepam and the monster is back in epic proportions. The reason why i started clonazepam in the first way, to treat severe GAD and panic disorder.

 

This morning spilled the bucket, i was trying to do some work at home until a stressful event happened, i'm now shaking uncontrolably, vomiting, my mind is racing with 10000 thoughts a second, feeling of doom and utter hopelessness. My body is frail because i've been battling some chronic diseases for a long time, any time this happens i will be so sick and unable to do anything work-related for weeks.

 

CBT does not help, i'm resistant to any form of psychotherapy. This also has not much to do with PAWS from the benzo, no, it's the GAD and panic disorder causing me to completely lose it.

 

I am to start a SSRI soon but i fear that it will not be enough. I've been dysfunctional now for so many years, i think i really need to be on some psych meds, hopefully i respond well to some of the benzo alternatives. Enough is enough. I'm tired, so tired, this is no life, i need to be functional.

I'm planning to be on psych meds to save my life, at least until i've solved all of my problems which are finance and health related and then slowly taper off whatever i'm taking.

 

I just want a simple, no worry life. I will never ask for anything again.

Wow Nick,  I can relate to your post so much. I went back and read the Ashton manual on what professor Ashton had to say about SSRI's. I restarted lexapro in hopes that it can help block some of the panic and depression and quiet the GAD a little to enable me to get off the valium. Then after awhile, I will slowly taper the lexapro to zero but I am not certain that the lexapro will be enough. I am still struggling terribly with a lot of painful bizarre physical and psychological SX's that make life seem like it is not worth living.

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Gad is foul I agree. Especially with ptsd.

But there are therapies that work.  I did well on CBT, deep relaxation and so on. Not schema therapy for me though.

Read The body keeps the score” by van de kalk or y tube him.

Our brains are plastic and can recover from child abuse etc.

My failure to win was blamed by my therapist on benzos as they reduce relearning pathways, after 8000 quid of sessions.

Good luck

Dick

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Thanks for the resources posted here. I am browsing through them and love them. I have heard from various people that CBT didn't work for them in acute; but certainly doesn't hurt to learn about and use those skills when we get those anxiety feelings that come out of the blue.

 

Nick I hope you are doing better. What I have learned so far is that acceptance is a key factor in dealing with our insomnia. Also having high expectations of wanting to have a ' simple, no worry life' is kind of unrealistic. Well, simple is doable, and actually, is something we all need to strive for; however worrying in in our DNA. I believe learning how to change thought patterns can help with the 'worries'.

 

Best wishes,

 

Solyluna

 

 

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Solyluna i'm not doing much better so that's why i have decided to go ahead with the SSRI, i just took my first dose of 25mg sertraline.  :idiot:

Let's hope for the best.

 

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I believe i tried it before yes. Also tried ecitalopram and paroxetine. Never continued because it caused severe anxiety.

 

I'm now on my third day of 25mg sertraline, i'm feeling like a zombie, very lethargic and i can't  concentrate and have no motivation.

The anxiety has lessened and the depression has been replaced by a blah feeling, a bit emotionless.

 

Psych wanted to prescribe venlafaxine first, a SNRI but i don't want that because i already feel like i'm loaded with adrenaline so she prescribed me zoloft.

 

 

 

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I can’t advise you but can only relate my experiences with sertraline which seems a gentle drug with less adrenaline surges. Early days but you did not need a benzo. Hurrah
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I can’t advise you but can only relate my experiences with sertraline which seems a gentle drug with less adrenaline surges. Early days but you did not need a benzo. Hurrah

 

Thank you. No benzo (yet) but i have taken additional doses of propranolol for the adrenalin surges and baclofen for sleep.

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Mate sorry to hear you’re having such a rough time... sounds awful.

 

Strange how many of us on here have Lyme.

I always had anxiety but it went next level and got put on meds, now the meds like you guys make things worse and since then dx with Lyme.. which makes things so complicated.

Hard to treat while in benzos.. but when I come off it’s horrific.

 

My psych who’s into integrative medicine (not the one who prescribed all the crap) has a philosophy that many who suffer severe side effects / WDs have underlying immune dis function which may account for why many of us with Lyme have major issues with benzos, or any psych med.

 

You’re right about the panic attack thing, not like a 20 minute and ivervthing, it can go for days.

I’m hoping to get off the meds ASAP and start homeopathic Lyme treatment as abx all have horrific effects on me. Again if ur immune systems low, if there’s a side effect, you’ll likely get it.

 

What treatments anyone tried aside from doxy etc??

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