A couple years ago I was having crazy amounts of panic attacks almost every day. I would say I had obsessive thoughts at times but mostly the obsessive thoughts were worries about if I'm going to have more panic attacks or go "crazy' or lose control. It causes me to avoid being around people when it's really bad, which just makes it worse, because the more time I have alone to worry about the panic, the worse it gets. However, I get afraid I'll have one when I'm around people and not be able to leave or I will embarrass myself.
So, my doctor put me on Celexa and it was truly a miracle. Also Klonopin at bedtime. I was only taking 15mg for about two years. I had some panic attacks here and there but I was doing really well over all. One thing was though I found myself being more social which ended up with me drinking more and even starting to smoke. During that time lots of family stressors such as a move and some relationship trouble but I handled it pretty well.
I quit smoking after a year in June and as expected my anxiety increased so that I was having some panic attacks again. I talked to the my new psych (my other one retired ) and he suggested increasing to 20mg. That seemed to help somewhat but after a month I started having a strange side effect involving breast pain. Not thinking about the connection I went to my OB and he decided it was probably the Celexa. He suggested going to 15 and then 20 only the week before my time of the month. I was told that even if this medicine caused me breast tenderness, that was not dangerous to me in any way.
The pdoc decided instead to try me on Lexapro. Tried it for a month and it made me SUPER angry and shouting at my husband and kids all the time. Then when I increased it I started with the breast pain again.
OK so. . . sorry this is long. . .but nurse practitioner then switched me to Luvox which she said is for OCD and social anxiety (still not sure I really have OCD). I thought at first it was going to be good and I noticed that I had more energy which was nice. But that "energy" quickly turned to obsessing over every little thing and an increasing number of extremely severe panic attacks. I really tried to wait this out but after 7 weeks, I called the nurse practitioner yesterday to tell her I really just think I need off this stuff and go back to the Celexa. She offered to increase me to 150mg and that might help with the anxiety. She also said that if I want to, I can go back to the Celexa.
I'm thinking it would probably make the anxiety worse. Any opinions on this?
I am one of those annoying patients that is extremely sensitive to drugs, and take the lowest dose possible. Whenever I try to go up it just makes me feel out of control and panicky.
Thanks for your input.
Luvox increasing anxiety?
Questions and experiences with prescription medications
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