Posted by Sad Panda on April 2, 2004, at 8:06:09
In reply to PPL WITH EXPERIENCE PLSE PLSE READ AND HELP!!!, posted by crazychickuk on April 1, 2004, at 8:51:54
Hi CrazyChickUK! :)
You sound alot like my mother in some ways. She has panic attack & depression. For her Prozac & Valium are the bees knees. Without Valium she lives in a permanent sort of hell where she is too fearful to look out the windows. I think it sucks that the docs woun't give you any Benzos as for a lot of people they are the only thing that works. My mum takes just 2mg of Valium & has done so for more than 18 months with no need to increase the dose. It's just a bunch of bollocks that people are suiciding on them, less than 10% of suicide victims that are on Antidepressants use presrcibed drugs to do it. I know that we have probably been through this before, but, what Tricyclics have you tried & have you tried Effexor(I think you told me it pushed your BP up)? SSRI's are all simililar to each other, if they work, it's just a matter of picking the one with the least side effects. Tricyclics are very many & varied & it is worth trying another even if the first is a failure. Beta blockers taken as required is probably as close as you are going to get to Benzos. They lower the heart rate & break the brain - body - brain panic cycle. They are no good full time because they make it hard to exerecise & you will just become breathless. They are normally taken full time by people after they have had a heart attack, so they can preserve the remains of a failing heart.
Does the UK govenment have a website that tells you what drugs you can actually have? It varies in alot in every country, eg, Clomipramine, arguably one of the best AD's ever was first used in France around 1966 I think, but we didn't get it here in Australia until about 1983 I think. I think the FDA in the US totally rejected it too on the grounds that it was a 'me too' drug that was just following Imipramine's lead, yet these very same people allow a zillion SSRI's to hit the market. (Secret answer to this involves $$$ ofcourse)
Anyhow, enough waffling, what other TCA's have you tried? Have you ever had trouble with antihistamines like Phenergan & Polarmine?
Also, you say: "I am very anxious, nervous, timid, some times depressed, bad panick attacks, can get manic eppisodes(not bad just a high feelin, anxious i suppose)"... Does this 'high feeling' & depression alternate on a regular basis?Cheers,
Panda.
poster:Sad Panda
thread:331221
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040402/msgs/331701.html