Posted by ed_uk on January 10, 2006, at 15:16:03
In reply to BAD NEWS!, posted by pseudoname on January 9, 2006, at 17:19:19
Hi PN :)
>Last night, I had trouble breathing when I lay down to go to bed. It was as if I couldn't get enough oxygen through my nose, but there was no pain. So I breathed through my mouth. No better!
Sounds like panic-anxiety.
>Then it started happening whenever I THOUGHT about the subject of breathing
This is practically diagnostic of anxiety. If you were suffering from acute asthma you would be continually breathless, it wouldn't disappear on distraction.
>respiratory depression
It wasn't respiratory depression. No doubt about it. Your symptoms don't even vaguely resemble respiratory depression!
>It's probably due to the BUPRENORPHINE!
If bupe was gonna cause panic-like symptoms it would probably have occured before now. Perhaps the dose reduction from 5mg to 3mg triggered anxiety? Your docs will inevitably be ultra-cautious because using bupe to treat depression is so unusual.
>If you got too much opioids, you'd need to be on a ventilator till they were out of your system. I'm pretty sure there's no antidote.
There is an antidote. It's called naloxone (Narcan). You won't need it though :)
>I can't lose it now. I *can't*.
You could try a sedative antihistamine to help you sleep. Atarax (max 100mg per dose) might help, you could take it as a single dose in the evening. You need to focus on the fact that however much is feels like you can't breathe, you CAN breathe. In fact, you were probably hyperventilating! Anxiety will never stop you from breathing, despite how awful it feels. Keep this in mind. It will reduce your anxiety and hence your breathlessness.
Love
Ed
poster:ed_uk
thread:579345
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060108/msgs/597619.html