I guess this is one of the top ten dumbest things I have done in a long while. I accidentally took some anti-depressant with cough syrup (I wasn’t thinking! Honest…) and got a sudden rush of the serotonin syndrome. So right now I am FINE - freaked out, insecure, neurotic and emotional.
Everything is coming unglued. All those ‘self help techniques’ I have learned doesn’t seem to apply anymore. I saw the doc, and I was advised to wait for it to ‘wear off’.
Will it wear off? How long would it take? What am I supposed to do in the meanwhile (I still have to work). I did quite a lot to put my anxiety issues behind - would I have to ‘re-educate’ my brain again or something?
I’m sorry you’re having a rough time. I’m confused by your description. It would help if you could say what kind of antidepressant (an SSRI? an MAOI?) and what kind of cough syrup (with opiates/opioids?).
I’m not sure that I’m understanding what’s happening for you. “Serotonin syndrome” has a rapid onset and a pretty distinct symptom profile that is mostly physical. The mental component usually involves hallucinations, confusion, and agitation/mania. It often resolves quickly if the offending medications/substances are discontinued (as in, a day).
“Freaked out, insecure, neurotic and emotional” doesn’t sound like serotonin syndrome to me, but you’re there with your doctor and I’m not, so you need to prioritize what your doctor tells you. Or maybe you’re saying that this description is in response to your worry. If you’re having severe physical symptoms (severe hypertension, racing heart, fever), you probably should get off the internet and into an ER.
Sorry not to be able to help better, but I’m really not sure what you’re describing.
I’m guessing the DXM in the cough syrup is the culprit depending on how much you consumed. Not a doctor but do you have anything on your stomach, I wonder if eating something might help at all?
It’s the dextromethorphan in the cough syrup reacting with the Xanx pills which I am taking. So my anxiety level just shot up high. I stupidly went on consuming the cough syrup for 2 days (I had a really bad cough) before realising that something was wrong - I was feeling tense, panicky and had a couple of panic attacks over simple things like checking email and doing simple stuff.
Okay, so Xanax isn’t serotoninergic. It acts on the neurotransmitter GABA, not serotonin. It’s not an antidepressant but an anti-anxiety medication. (I’m pretty sure this class of drugs sometimes is given to help relieve serotonin syndrome.) My guess is that the dextromethorphan in and of itself is the culprit, since as far as I know (and I am not a medical doctor, I stress), it wouldn’t interact with Xanax. It could keep your Xanax from being as effective as it normally is, and it causes anxiety for some people.
This is pretty standard “self-help for anxiety” stuff that you can find in the Self-Help section of the bookstore:
It might help to keep reminding yourself, “This is a physical side effect. It doesn’t mean anything. I notice that my body is agitated but I am not going to get tricked into getting my mind agitated, too. I can go about my business because this is not real information but garbage.” If you start having a panic attack, you can remind yourself, “Yup, that’s a physical effect of the cough syrup. It has nothing to do with me and my life.” Panic will try to trick you into thinking that it is meaningful and important. As you know it is not. You may want to reply to this trickery that panic is boring and stupid and you are not going to get sucked into believing its lies.
Meanwhile, how about doing your self-care even if it doesn’t seem to be having a big effect right now, and talking to your doctor again if the anxiety is not decreasing?
My future sister-in-law just went through this. What caused it and what ended up happening is much, much worse than what you experienced (you seem to have “caught” it quickly and “corrected” it quickly - by not continuing with the cough syrup).
She did end up taking 3 weeks off work but the third week had already been planned - seems like she would have been fine going in to work after about a week. No wait…she had a little relapse about a week after getting out of the hospital, so maybe 2 weeks would have been most sufficient for her.
Problem is, her psychiatrist is a numbskull and didn’t even see her until 2 weeks after she got out of the hospital (not psych hospital). So it is quite possible she would have felt better sooner if someone would have paid better attention to her.
I reckon part of the anxiety is the anxiousness that you could go through the experience again. You will have to work on that angle to help yourself get over that. Hell, it didn’t happen to me and I get anxious thinking that it might happen to her again.