Posted by bleauberry on November 23, 2011, at 14:48:56
In reply to zyprexa increasing anxiety, posted by g_g_g_unit on November 18, 2011, at 22:40:05
The anti anxiety effect should have been noticed within about an hour or two of dosing. If not then it probably needs a test at a higher dose.
All meds and natural substances have the potential to do the opposite of intended sometimes. It depends on the person's unique chemistry, biology, and underlying cause of the symptoms. Toward the end of my 8 years on zyprexa I developed bad anxiety which was from waking until mid morning which I later found out was adrenal fatigue low cortisol. Zyprexa completely fixed that anxiety in an hour but when I woke it was back twice as bad.
A common function of antipsychotics is to block adrenergic sites which can cause a stronger release of norepinephrine/epinephrine/adrenaline via interruption of the feedback mechanism by the blocking. That can be a cause of anxiety from antipsychotics sometimes with some people.
Hey, sometimes people get jitters and insomnia from a sleep med or from benadryl. Ritalin can calm some kids down. Ya know?
Anyway, I think at least for the near future no matter what you do...stay at the dose give it more time....or increase the dose....or quit altogether.....or whatever.....I think you need some immediate as needed assistance to weather the anxiety. Personally I would begin with a combination of tincture herbs including lemon balm, skullcap, passion flower, valerian..any 2 or 3 of them after sampling each. They helped me a lot through my zyprexa withdrawal anxiety phase and were easy to walk away from when I didn't need them any more. Or get some xanax, but it's harder to get off if you use it regularly for a while. I just think you should not have to suffer any more during the waiting stage of either titration upward or weaning downward. If the med is going to be given some time to work then it makes sense to at least be as comfortable as possible during that waiting period. IMO.
That said, zyprexa usually does the bulk of what it is going to do pretty quick, like within days to weeks. Sometimes within hours of first day. So if things are not looking good in 4 weeks or so, if it were me, I would have another plan in place.
I personally never ventured higher than 5mg the whole 8 years except a short time sampling 7.5mg. But most people seem to do best in the 10mg range from what I've seen.
> I've been on Zyprexa for about 10 days now (one week at 2.5mg, 3 days at 5mg). So far it's increasing my anxiety and OCD. Are the anxiolytic effects usually delayed, or is this a sign I'm on an inadequate dose?
poster:bleauberry
thread:1003037
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20111120/msgs/1003459.html