Posted by babak on February 28, 2003, at 5:05:03
There is a nasty symptom to my illness that I would like to know if anyone else has.
Let me first tell you that I am currently on maximum doses of Effexor and Mirtazapine. My symptoms have got worse since I’ve had ECT. The doctors say that it can’t be ECT but it could be the anaesthetic. I don’t really care which one and anyway I have been like this practically since my depression started in 1986.
I have a lot of muscular tension, especially at the back of my. It creeks every time I move it side to side. However when I do relax, be it by going to sauna or taking a muscle relaxant or Valium, after a couple of hours I get anxiety attacks and consequently the tension returns. To me it feels like as if my body is not allowed to relax, which is a terrible thing.
All the anti-anxiety drugs make feel tired and sleepy and when I wake up my body is tense again. I don’t want to feel tired and sleepy I want to be awake and relaxed but my body seems not to be able to handle this.
Anti-depressants like Effexor stop the anxiety but don’t help with the tension. In fact if anything they seem to increases it, well at least in my case. It appears as if one of the effect/side effects of the ECT and/or the anaesthetic has been to reduce my body’s capacity to maintain the tension which used to keep anxiety at bay. And off course the older I get this capacity is reduced anyway.
I suppose I have had to accept tension as a norm so that I won’t feel anxious. This is exactly what my body was doing before I had a break down triggering my depression. I think my body just couldn’t keep it up.
I have noticed this in others. I have a friend which always seems tense, but he wasn’t aware of it until it got so bad that he was having spasms in bed just before falling asleep. His doctor gave him a low dose of Amitriptyline. He thought it was great and said that he hadn’t felt so relaxed in years. But when the Amitriptyline course was finished he started feeling really anxious. He thought that he was hooked on Amitriptyline. I tried to convince him other wise but he wouldn’t have it and has subscribed to the idea that all medications to do with the nervous system are “unnatural” and people shouldn’t take them. He has since gradually regained his “normal” state of tension.
It seems to me that anti-depressants like Effexor block the receptors which react to whatever chemical is causing the anxiety in the brain. Surely it would be better if there was a drug which stopped the production of this chemical in the first place, so the body wouldn’t have to maintain a state of tension.
poster:babak
thread:204584
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030224/msgs/204584.html