Posted by Racer on June 24, 2008, at 18:24:13
In reply to Can High SSRI doses cause Long Term Anxiety ?, posted by Mike_Cohen_2 on June 24, 2008, at 16:56:03
First of all, not all SSRIs were created equal. Zoloft and Prozac are known as the more activating SSRIs, so you may have better results from one of the others -- Paxil and Lexapro are often considered more anxiolytic. You may find that Celexa is more helpful for you than Lexapro was.
Also, very often the anxiety is a transient response to an anti-depressant. It might be that waiting it out is worth it -- and I do mean waiting it out at a full therapeutic dose. I know it's hard, especially since what you've described here -- both in this post and in others -- sounds rather obsessive/compulsive, which makes it harder to judge effectiveness.
For instance, taking your pulse frequently is probably counter productive. The more you can find ways NOT to think about every somatic effect you have in the first two months or so, the better able you'll be to find an effective medication for you.
I don't think you've ever answered the questions about grief counseling -- it's far more difficult than medications, but I think you might have more lasting benefit from it.
As far as medications go, it is probably worth trying BuSpar, Seroquel, Lamictal, Cymbalta, or Remeron. The BuSpar worked best for me, but a lot of people say it hasn't had any effect on them. Personally, I wonder if they're looking for an immediate, noticeable effect, such as you get from benzos. BuSpar certainly didn't offer that for me -- I just found that, after a couple of weeks, I was feeling much calmer and stronger.
Good luck.
poster:Racer
thread:836254
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080617/msgs/836273.html