Anxiety Meds

[jknnej]

Well, I have been feeling significantly better so far, I am happy to say.

I think the Effexor has started to work. I just have 2 side effects that are troubling: I'm having a hard time sleeping, and my sexual drive is about zero. Kind of sucks!

But, I feel better in terms of my depression/anxiety. I haven't had a bad day in 4 days, a record lately.

[Emme999]

  jknnej said:

Well, I have been feeling significantly better so far, I am happy to say.

I think the Effexor has started to work. I just have 2 side effects that are troubling: I'm having a hard time sleeping, and my sexual drive is about zero. Kind of sucks!

But, I feel better in terms of my depression/anxiety. I haven't had a bad day in 4 days, a record lately.

Congratulations on the good stuff

The sleeping thing will change - most definitely. When I took it I couldn't get *enough* sleep. So just hang tight. You'll normalize As for the sex drive... hmm.. that's a tough one. Mine was helped by Wellbutrin - which is actually a drug they give to help people who are "frigid" - my boyfriend at the time really loved that part of it!

Hopefully that side effect will go away for you too though You never know! Every body is different!

I'm so glad you are feeling better!! Yay!

- Michelle

[jknnej]

Bumping this thread and adding that the side effects have gone away and I am feeling great! The only side effect I get now is sweating at night sometimes. It is a small price to pay for the piece of mind!

[Ann1231]

I'm glad you're feeling better! I'm getting into this thread late but wanted to say that I've been taking zoloft since early summer and I'm feeling great with it. The only side effect I had was serious constipation so I cut the dose in half (w/dr's ok). Other than that, there have been only good effects.

Yoga helps and so does walking/exercise once I got out of my depression and anxiety enough to do them!

Ann

[eleep]

Just a note to people wondering about taking "anti-depressants" for anxiety -- most of the serotonin-influencing antidepressant pharmaceuticals and supplements (the SSRI's and the 5-htp, etc...) are used to treat anxiety because there's _some_ connection between serotonin, a few other neurotransmitters and the cortisol/adrenaline systems (these are the ones at play in anxiety). So SSRI's are now one of the most-indicated prescriptions for anxiety-related disorders.

A chapter of my dissertation is on biological psychiatry -- I'm a cultural studies scholar, not in a medical field, but I have done a lot of research on the biochemistry so I can translate between the two a little bit. Essentially, ongoing anxiety problems have to do with one's cortisol production getting out of whack -- which can be caused by a high-anxiety childhood, a long period of unrelieved issues with anxiety, etc... -- basically what happens is that the triggers get set to low-tolerance levels so that it's much more likely that high anxiety will flare up in the future -- even in situations where anxiety levels would otherwise be pretty low. It's unclear whether this is a permanent neurochemical change (although I know a few psychiatrists who treat it as such). There's also a strong relationship between cortisol production and low serotonin levels. However, all of this is really new research (relatively speaking), so no one has hard answers.

Personally, I prefer to manage anxiety through yoga, diet, jogging and meditation, but that doesn't always work (or isn't always possible), so I have a lot of respect for the power of the psychotropics to pull people out of really difficult situations where they just need a leg up. I took an SSRI for a while after the death of a parent. What I think is most important -- regardless of how you choose to handle anxiety -- is to be aware of it when it's going on and to find some way of managing it -- because the long-term effects can get worse and worse.

That's not a particularly un-stressful way of looking at it now that I read what I've written, but I really take a very positive perspective on this -- meditation helps a _whole lot_ here for me!

[gointribal]

Jen- I was on Effexor for about two years, Lexapro for the other two and Prozac for another year. I feel like I’ve been around the block with all the drugs, but each person reacts differently. I just weaned myself off of Effexor it took about two months. I was only on 75mg at the time which was a lot to jump off of. I found this medication to be very helpful. As I said before, it really depends on the person as to which drug will work best. I put on little weigh with Effexor but it wasn't bad, as long as you stay in shape you'll be fine Out of those three drugs Effexor worked the best for me, just keep talking to your doctor and as a plus side I am pretty sure Effexor is gluten-free Good luck!