Whats falling from your tree ??

Just want to know how many people have parents etc who have or had anxiety or depression issues etc and are on meds or were on meds...  So basically what have you possibly inherited   Personally my Mom is a Rx drug addict...several benzos and pain meds....We dont speak...She wont get help....She is extremely bad off....    I also have her 2 brothers one had  anxiety and the other is bipolar.....My oldest is on xanax for anxiety and my middle son is showing anxiety signs....  I personally never had a day of anxiety until being on xanax same dose for 3 years.........BUT.....  Who knows      

Hi Meljo:

 

My whole family is pretty much crazy.  Makes more sense since they sorted out the hereditary defect in the gene that codes for methyl folate reductase.  

 

ntw

 

Modified to fix a grammar mistake

Meljo, my mother has been on psych drugs since the 60s.  Now, at 94, she takes Tranxene, Buspar and Remeron.  My sister takes Celexa and Klon and still can't sleep, so she also takes Ambien and Tylenol PM, too.  (Yeah, tell me her Klon is still working!)  My brother tales Anafranil and Ativan.  I'd only taken SSRIs in the past, for no more than a year at a time, and benzos prn, until 2004 when my doc prescribed Klon on an everyday basis.  I trusted him.  The rest is history.  My family thinks I'm crazy for putting myself through this torture to get off Klon.  What part of "It's not working for me anymore" do they not understand?  Best to you.  Interesting thread.  L., ~~mbr  P.S.  My daughter has panic attacks, but won't take anything for them.  Smart girl.  She sees what's happened to me.

Hi Meljo.  Great question...I've actually asked myself the same thing a few times.  My mom was on librium then valium from the 60's til she died in 02.  In fact, I've oftened wondered if she took it while she was pregnant with me and my older sister. Mom also suffered from depression. My sister took Xanax for a long time and died at the age of 44 from alcoholism. I was on Prozac for many years before I was ever given Xanax, which was, ironically, after my sister died in 06. I am also a recovering alcoholic who did not drink until I turned 30 and had been on Prozac for 5 years. I quit taking AD's in 01 and no matter how bad my depression gets while tapering from valium, I am not going to add another drug to the mix. I've often wondered if my mom would have been more "normal" had she not been on valium all those years. As for my sister, well that's just a long heartbreaking story of alcoholism and doctors who gave her benzos thinking they would replace the alcohol. I should also say that both my sister and I had panic attacks that started around age 21 for both of us, but my sister went down the alcohol/drug road while I just rode them out and they went away soon after. Again, makes me wonder if my mom was taking drugs while she was pregnant with us.

Hi Mel.  My mother had panic attacks, agoraphobia, depression... medicated for the last 20 years of her life on benzos and a variety of antidepressants, died of a fatal stroke in her early sixties.  Brother is whacko but will not get help.  Based on people's informal comments, my brother has some form of OCD and paranoid narcissism.  Of course, I'm completely normal .  Seriously though, genes matter!

 

Cheers,

Vertigo (no more)

Hi Mel,

 

Great question. Yeah, the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree. Yeah my whole family was whacked too.

 

My folks are both deceased. But my Mom had some depression and I'm sure she had some GAD too, but they didn't call it anything but "on the verge of a nervous breakdown" back then. She took Valium in the 1960s. And then antidepressants and probably some benzos too in the 90's and 00's.

 

My Dad never took any Rxs but martinis were his medication of choice. And he suffered the maladies of ulcers, diverticulitis and heart disease.

 

My only sibling is a sister who's on more benzos than I care to think about. She has M.S. so the doctors are pretty loose and free with her Rxs. I believe she takes one benzo on a regular basis, another for acute anxiety attacks and yet another for sleep. Plus she drinks and takes an SSRI. Maybe pain pills too.

 

So chalk another one up for heredity.

 

Mucho congrats on being benzo-free,

 

Albie

I cant quit thinking about how maybe I am just messed up...likie my Mom...and may never be normal again..   I was fine at the same dose of xanax for 5 years....  .25 2xday.....thats when my problems set in....and always at my monthly time....  i was thinking about this b/c I have been talking to my Mom and she is on 2 benzos and Ristoril for sleep...and she is a NUT !!  Serious...I had to just hang up on her yesterday..she is so cruel to me and I am her only child....always comdemming me....for everything.... any how...  My son who I feel shows anxiety said today he has been counting syllables when people talk.... Ok...I have to confess i have always counted,,,,likie strokes in writing....    OMG I think I am just going nuts too...just at a later age !! Now i am scared for my son.....  So I worry myself senseless of am I doing the right thing ??  I want to be better and not like my Mom... :'(

Hi Mel,

My Mother was on Valium for years just because the doctor rx'd it for her.  She went to another doctor and he took her off cold turkey.  She had absolutely no problem coming off that drug.  My half sister is on either Klonopin or Valium or xanax, (whatever suits her for the day) also she is on Neurontin, Celexa, Lithium and a couple more I can't think of.  She is in her sixties.  I am also a recovering alcoholic, but have never taken anything other than a benzo.  About your son, this is just a suggestion.  Have you ever looked into attend or extress from Vaxa.com?  If you haven't you might want to look it up.  It just might help him.  My Dad is 93 and there is nothing wrong with him health wise, and my brothers are crazy nuts, but they don't have anxiety issues. 

So wow so many of us have the  gene

My Grandfather recently came off Valium, No w/d but RLS and Insomnia he claims, he was on them for years, what else he takes I don't know.

My Grandmother is Schizophrenic and takes several meds, I know one is Trazodone.. all I know about that.

I have an Aunt with Schizophrenia, she takes Effexor, Zyprexa and Xanax

My entire Father's side has Schizophrenia, and so do I.

My Father is on Haldol and other things, last I knew.

My mother is Bipolar and does not take anything, though she c/t Ativan, no problem, also Ambien.. I know she takes a sleeping med, which one, she won't tell me.

My brother has Schizophrenia as well, and is on no medication. (One of my brothers as I know of).

There's others, but my family and I don't really get along and are not close, only a few of us.

 

Keryn.