Took my first dose of Buspar this AM. Today I’m in the same situations as yesterday (work, etc) as well as some extra ones: need to do some Christmas and grocery shopping after I get off work, and of course the stores are nuts. An old friend may stop by for supper today. She’s never met my wife or kids, and we’ve only re-kindled our friendship via FB. Almost surreal.
And I feel… nada. No anxiety other than a slight bit of annoyance at myself for procrastinating. Yesterday I’d be curled under this desk in a little ball begging for mommy at the thought of dealing with all that today. Today I don’t feel anything.
I have mild… I dunno. Like I feel like I just woke up and need a cup of coffee. Not dizziness, not exactly scatterbrianed, but like my brain isn’t firing on all 8 cylinders. I feel awake though. I do have a mild pain in my chest, but that feels muscular and it is distinctly on the right side. I’ll call the on-call doc if that persists.
So. So far so good. I’m well aware that this may be a placebo effect, but fuck it – I’ll take it!
I take Buspar daily, for years. Still here. Plus it doesn’t make you fat. Plus, it supposedly helps you quit smoking. I smoke anyway, just to spite it.
People who experience this invariably describe it as “electric shocks behind the eyeballs” and yes, it does freak them out.
I’ve taken Paxil since 1997, and whenever I’ve tried going off it, all that happens is that my OCD, that I didn’t know I had until I started taking it, returns. I was put on it after a job experience that left me with PTSD and I was having daily migraines as a result.
My Pdoc gave me Buspar a few years ago to go with my SSRI. It worked verrrry quietly, then gave me such horrific stomach troubles I had to go off of it.
I have tried Pristiq (which is almost the same chemical makeup of Effexor) and it gave me horrific anxiety and night sweats.
Let’s just say starting a new AD/anti-anxiety medicine is never much fun. If you can tolerate a few weeks of discomfort, you’ll see how the medicine truly affects you.
Don’t freak out about the Benzos either. Many people take them daily - including myself. I’ve never had to up the dosage and never been addicted (maybe physically dependant, but so be it). It has helped my anxiety tremendously and helps me sleep at night.
Everyone is different - that’s the tough part. We all have to play around to find the right cocktail that works. It’s taken me years.
Day 3 of the Buspar. Haven’t had an anxiety attack but the anxiety is still there. Haven’t felt the need for the Xanax yet. Two days of the effexor and all I’m feeling is nausea, which has been keeping me awake these past two nights. I’m curious what the Xanax will do, but I’m glad I haven’t actually felt the need to take them. Just having them on hand helps me feel better.
I take Buspar (15mg 3x per day), Topomax, and Wellbutrin XL…
It’s hard to say if the Buspar has done much for me, as I’ve been taking different amounts and combinations of these pills for some time. My doctor said it takes quite some time to work but it can be quite effective and side effects are pretty mild. Hope everything gets better for you.
I’ve never tried the antidepressants you ask about, but I wanted to nth the warning that Xanax will probably knock you flat on your ass. I have a bottle, and my doctor laughed at the idea that it would be a problem for me, because I go straight from dead panic to near-coma on half of one of the .25mg tablets. I refuse to take it until I’m less useful panicked than I would be unconscious.
Not likely an issue if you’re already on such a low dose of alprazolam, but I was given it specifically because I’m med-sensitive, and 1mg of Ativan (lorazepam, what they normally try first as a stop-gap for panic attacks) was such a hefty dose it made me hurl. ADs can also affect how or how much benzodiazepines knock you off your game, so don’t be afraid to tell your doc if you think they’re making you untenably wacky.
Good luck! These things tend to be quirky and highly personalized, and I hope you find a combination of medications that help.
I was being treated for seizures (Lamictal XR 150mg x 2/day) and showed signs of depression (I was crying at every damn commercial). Neurologist put me on Effexor. I lasted two days. My jaw was clenching, I was tingling all over, muscle twitching…it was hideous. I called and told him I’d rather be depressed.
Moved me to generic Zoloft. Anorgasmia. Nice. Adjusted dose, now I’m on the low side of good. A compromise I’m willing to take.
I shudder when I hear the word Tequila…and now Effexor.
A neurologist treating me for TBI gave me Effexor to settle down my brain chemistry. I took it a couple days, dubbed it “Side-Effexor” and threw it in the trash.
Primary Care Physicians treating someone like you typically have no idea what they’re doing, they just shotgun you with drugs salesmen are pushing at them and hope it helps. You badly need to go to the trouble and expense of finding a specialist competent at treating your symptoms. The DR. who RXed that bunch of crap for you ought to be put away where, first of all, he or she can do no harm.
Buspar/buspirone is really gentle. I’ve taken it as needed for anxiety, and I usually don’t bother with it unless I’m having a bad week and my regular brain meds aren’t keeping up, then I’ll take it for a few days. I find if I take it regularly that it calms me down a bit too much, and I start getting really apathetic and don’t feel like doing anything at all, so I dial it back and I’m fine in a day or so. I also keep some handy for flying, as I find my claustrophobia has gotten really bad the last few years, and a long plane flight is a trip into hell for me, but buspirone makes it pretty tolerable; my head doctor is the one that suggested this, and it works well.
My only problem that was definitely because of the Effexor was that it raised my blood pressure. It also gave me a headache, but I didn’t care, since I felt better. It takes a while to work. I don’t remember Buspar ever doing much of anything for me.
As for the Xanax, don’t stay on it long. It is, unfortunately, the most addictive of the benzos due to its short action. I’m honestly not sure why it’s prescribed so often. Sure, maybe a single dose during a panic attack, since it’s fast acting. But, after that, I’d expect another benzo.
Also, definitely go for therapy. Therapy is far better for long term relief. Done properly, CBT has a 90% recovery rate. Medications only work at best as long as you take them, and can actually get worse over time.
And, until you can find therapy, try looking up mindfulness meditation. Oddly enough, the way to best deal with anxiety is to accept it. It’s confusing, but basically you can have the anxiety but not be disturbed by it. And, that actually lessens the subjective feeling of anxiety.
The doc who gave it to me reasoned that since I have episodic panic attacks rather than chronic high-level anxiety, and I hatehatehate feeling drugged all the time, I would probably cope better with near-instant relief and a very short coma than I would with something that took longer to stop the panic response and longer to wear off. It is definitely a drug for someone who has short, sharp spikes in anxiety and can forget about it the rest of the time, rather than someone who’s wound up constantly. My “30-day supply” typically lasts me several months,
Sounds like you are handling it well, then. I’m just opposed to Xanax on even a slightly prolonged basis.
I do think you’d do well to try therapy, though. You might be able to not have to use even the little Xanax you need right now.if you can learn how to deal with the initial symptoms of the panic attack without going full blown into it. And you’d gain the confidence to be able to stop panic attack. Because, really, what keeps a panic attack going is the fear of the panic attack. It gets you locked in a cycle. You are afraid of being afraid. If you feel you can deal with it, even partially, that can short circuit the whole thing.
It’s not the easiest thing in the world, by a long shot, but you sound like someone who doesn’t like feeling drugged, so I thought you might want to give it a shot.
[hijack]Tried it. Not a help. There comes a point where the panic attack becomes more of a feedback problem than anything else: I’m unable to calm down and come out of it because absolutely everything, even ordinary things like doors closing or someone speaking to me, prompts a startle reaction that I cannot intervene fast enough to stop. I’ve had them go on for days, plural, until I finally cracked and went for medical intervention. I know the panic attack itself isn’t dangerous, but I don’t eat or sleep when I’m like that, which is not really good for me. After years of trying everything but drugs, the ER doctors and my physician came to the agreement that it’s a physiological and/or brain thing, and that since the Xanax is the only thing that stops it, Xanax it shall be.[/hijack]
I’m a bit over a week into the regimen. Haven’t had a panic attack, and my anxiety feels more… muted, if that makes sense. It’s still there but in the background. Haven’t taken a Xanax yet, haven’t felt the need to do so. Also, I haven’t experienced any side effects to speak of, so knock on wood, so far so good.