Anxiety attack prior to my GI tests, 5 months out? Recovered people is this W/D

I had such a bad night of anxiety and it lead right into the morning of my tests to have Upper and Lower GI Scopes done.

 

While I was nervous about the whole thought of the tests I didn't think I was going to get such a worked up case of anxiety. I was bad like I don't think I have ever been.

 

I'm wondering now if this was wave  w/d related? I'm 5 months of Klon and was surprised by this degree of anxiety. I managed to gets the tests done and felt so much better after.

 

Yesterday was ok with little symptoms, and today wasn't so good with some worry and a little crying feeling and by 12:00 I was getting some general anxiety that I wouldn't ever recover and that I'm maybe developing a anxiety issue.

 

I just want to return to old self again and it wasn't a person that freaked out and worried about tests and thought for sure that I was going to die or worse suffer for a long time before hand.

 

I want to be better, and will this to pass?

 

Ann

We are so sensitive following this ordeal that sometimes things like those medical tests can set us off.  I don't know that you are back in withdrawal as much as you experienced some heightened anxiety that doesn't disappear as fast as it used to.

 

Good luck

I have had a ton of gastro tests due to tho unexplainable pain I have in my gut and back. And I think many of the gastro tests would make anybody feel crappy. Glad you plunged through despite it

Very normal for some, at only 5 months out!!!

Viking

Thank you all for your replies.

 

Only 5 months out, but it feels like five years. This morning was a hard one with some sadness and anxiety, it lifted around 12:00 but I'm just wondering if maybe I'm just going crazy. I had heart palpitations last night at 3:30 in the morning, not a powerful as they can be but still they scare me. Cardio Dr couldn't find any real problem but will let me wear another event monitor for another month and I'll get that next week.

 

I'm 46 and Heart palpitations are said to happen in perimenapause but I don't know how to tell the symptoms apart. Anxiety and low mood are the same in withdrawal syndrome from Klon as they are in peri menopause. I'm so confused.

 

ANd lastly my weight no matter what I do will not return to my normal weight. I need 5 more pounds and believe me it shows that I don't have these 5 pounds back, I'm too thin and I hate it. I eat and I eat, lots of carbs and try to keep them healthy but to no use  the weight will not come back.

 

so what do I do, yes, I begin to worry, which my BCT says is the true source of my problems. I was never this reactionary to my health before this Klon. crap know all I think about is my health and the wishing of me to return to who I was in weight and in mind.

 

Thanks for reading and sorry if this turned into a little blog I guess I could have opening a post just for this.

*sigh* just want to be healed from all of this.

Ann

Ann don't apologize for a post that is considerably shorter than many I have seen!

I am 51 and still have a "normal" cycle, but having battled against Effexor and then benzodiazepines for a total of 4 years, have NO idea which of which of the dozens of symptoms I have been experiencing, that are common to both peri menopause and withdrawal, are caused by what!! There are many others in this same situation, it is clear.

I was given progesterone supplements which revved up and worsened things, so no go there.

And if withdrawal goes for a long time, I am reconciled that I will possibly never know!

After nearly 2 years of this, with things like sweating at night disappearing, I am inclined to blame withdrawal for almost everything.

Only symptom that I have had for several years that might not be wd is dryness. But who knows, with these wretched drugs?

Your symptoms will lessen with time, and it is hard being patient isn't it, especially with the psychiatric side effects which, in my book, are worse than physical pain!

Take care and whatever the cause, your stuff WILL get better!

Viking xxxxxxxx

 

Thanks Viking,

Most of my problems right now seem to be heart palpitations, low mood, jitteriness, and panic/anxiety periods, and still can't regain my full weight and I'm eating twice as much as I ever have in my life.

 

Last night I woke at 1:30 with my heart palpitations again. They scare me and tend to set my morning off with anxiety.

 

I'm wondering what would Zoloft do? I've read that it helps some peri mena. woman with heart palpitations. But I wonder

How is your blood pressure?  Maybe a beta blocker would help?  During my taper my blood pressure was erratic and my palps were bad.  The atenolol really helped keeping it in check. 

I have to be careful with Beta Blockers. Im on Diovan for a condition that I have. My BP when I'm not in a Panic state normal. I have dropped too low on Beta Blockers and have been advised to only take 11 mg (half of a tablet) if I want to try to slow down my Heart Palps, I tried this but they still happen, and its a guess as to when the Heart palps will happen, this week its been nightly

 

Today I'm a little anxiety ridden and my mind is racing with thoughts and none are too positive. I try to keep telling myself that this is a healing process and to the extend I think this in my head I begin to think I'm just going crazy.

 

Ann

Heart palpitations and flutter seem to be very common in bezo withdrawal and recovery. I've had some palps come and go. I used to think 5 months out would be a major milestone. Now, I'm at 6.5 months out and doing WORSE than I was at 5 months. I seemed to level off from about 4 months to 6 months, a period I said was an "emotional plateau."

 

I complained about not having any feelings, but now I'd give anything to be emotionally flat again -- I've got raging tinnitus/brain buzz and I wake up at 3 a.m. every morning with very intense dreams about long-forgotten parts of my early life. The dreams create INTENSE emotions, which are just overwhelming and leave me shaking. I think it's probably my subconscious dealing with my unhappy childhood and early adult life, which was pretty miserable until I got out of my hometown and out on my own, away from my family, in my late 20s.

 

This wave seems to have been brought on my a simple meeting I had with the local American Legion, which I'd joined for the first time. I had applied to be transferred to a local post from being an at-large national member and had an "interview" at the local post. I was really stressed about it. I made it through the interview OK and just got my local membership card yesterday, but it's been nearly two weeks since that interview and I'm still in a huge wave.

 

I think anticipatory anxiety about ANYTHING (an interview, medical appointment, etc.) can trigger a wave, anxiety attacks, etc. Our brains are still very fragile and any unusual stress just really messes them up!

 

 

For me the Heart Palpitations are the scariest, they are sometimes so strong and fast that I feel like my heart will pound right out of my chest. Last night I woke my husband up during the heart palps and just wanted his company during it. I placed his hand over my heart so he could feel how fast it was going. Its just plain horrible and scares me.

 

Then the weight that I can't regain and the amount I need to eat just to maintain my weight is crazy. I had a A1C that used to be 4.5 and now I'm pushing pre diabetes at 5.9, I blame it on the fact that I have to eat more carbs than the grilled chicken over salad that I used to eat all the time and then just light food all day. Those days are gone as IF I ate like that now I'd weight 90 pounds but I'm not going to try it to see. Now I eat a Special K protein shake for breakfast with a Boost bar and Bananna when I can handle it, lunch is often Turkey on a Bagel and a small piece of cheese, then dinner is often a bowl of Pasta or Chicken and fries(baked) and then a yogurt drink or another Speical K drink and then I try for a Boost or a cereal bar and still can't get to  my normal weight and the times I lighten up I often loose a pound in that day.

 

Mentally my mind is often just worried and or these past few days have had some bad anxiety. I have never been like this before Klon. or the taper where I was SO sick during all of it.

Now I don't see any improvements and I wonder who I'm becoming and if I'll ever get better

Yep, I think it seems normal. I've had about 4 times in this process when I thought the nightmare was simply OVER, only to crash around my ears again. The constant doctor appts. set me off REALLY bad. At this point, my therapist is advising me to just remove myself from the medical sphere entirely, despite needing care, because it is setting off anxiety that is absolutely unreal.

 

I think sometimes that if I could have gone through this entirely without stress or injury I might have been OK, because I'm mainly reacting to pain and the stress of injury. It's not as bad when you can just get up and be carefree, but the physical pain---I'm not even responding normally to that, either! One minor burn on a pot cooking and it sets off a wave of shaking and buzzing that takes an hour to go down! I was NOT like this before! At ALL!!!!!!!!

Ann

Back to Zoloft.

I have been on Zoloft since just before the taper.  I have a strong suspicion that it is the Zoloft that has protected me from depression and anxiety during the whole miserable epic. I will never know for sure though.

Many people in wd are on anti-depressants and enjoy great relief. There are others who are very opposed to the idea of taking another psych med, and after all, there is the spectre of the possibility that when you want to get off them down the track, you might get withdrawal from them as well!

On balance for me, having had a brother who suicided, I would rather get protection now, and make wd less ghastly and especially with the dreaded perimenopause.

I will reduce the dose slowly, later on, but if getting right off is too hard then I will stay on a low dose indefinitely if I can.

Many people get sick and revved up for 2 or 3 weeks while the drug settles in. And if you up or down the dose during wd, you might get it briefly again.

Some people go through all that and discover that the drug does either nothing to help them, or it gives new problems. And get straight off it.

A difficult choice to face, if you have never taken an ad before and can't guess what the effect will be.

 

For me, a total saviour!

Viking

 

 

Antonius7 my BCT has told me the same thing. He said to just stop all my safety checks, no more running to Dr's. The last apt was for my annual check up so I can't call that a safety check, and the GI tests I have put off for many months well, since I began my taper and all hell broke out in my stomach, but sure I guess there have been many other appts that I can think of that are more safety checks "Am I alright?" types of checks and mostly with my heart. But its hard to just think you are ok when your heart wakes you from sleep going SO fast and feels as if its flopping all around. I know what he means and he said to me it all makes my worrying worse. I'm going to try the best I can now to be free of Dr's appts the stress doesn't help me, that is a sure thing.

 

Viking, It is hard for me to know about Zoloft and I just wonder if maybe it would help. I've read that it can help calm heart palps but who knows for sure. I don't want to have such low moods either and some get pretty dark. On the flip side I don't want a bad reaction to it and I don't want another drug down the road that I'm stuck on and have horrible w/d again. I've read some issues can last forever from SSRI's even if they only effect a small percentage of people, I'd rather not be one of those. After all aren't we all here and are a small percentage of people having problems from these Benzo's

It is a hard decision but I think I should wait and see if I can pull through without it. Maybe come my 1 yr off Klon mark and then rethink the Zoloft if things are still bad. I really wish at one year I'll be all recovered but who knows, right?

 

Hard day today in a low mood but still tried to enjoy some family time, they deserve me at my best so I put on a good face for them. It's a struggle day to day with something different and other of the same issues to deal with. The waves are so hard and my windows don't seem to be getting any longer.

 

I'm really just so tired of this all, and I wonder not only if I'll ever get better but what toll this is taking on my overall health. I feel like I've aged this year since my taper about 10 yrs.

 

Never had such problems before this drug....is it all the w/d syndrome? could this be perimenapause as well? I'll never know and that is what is so frustrating about this. There isn't a Dr or anyone who can tell us either way and both can last a very long time. I really never thought of myself as being a woman who would have had such a hard time with peri menopause but maybe combined with w/d its really going to kick me in the ass.

 

I just want this nightmare to come to an end!

Ann

You mention we buddies are in the minority. I have a hard time believing this. We may be worse or are some just looking for support so we end up here. I also believe a great number are not trying to stop. I think this because I look around some other sites like bluelight and most of them will tell you this benzo stuff can suck bad