Hello, all. New to this site, but thought it would be a good place to come looking for help and opinions. For reference, I have pretty bad generalized anxiety disorder, and "atypical" depression. I'm 25, female, somewhat obese. Have had GI problems previously, as well.
I've been on Lexapro (40mg) since I can remember, however, it stopped working for me rather suddenly around August. (I have been on Clonazepan(1mg) since 2008, as well.) I tapered off per instruction, and was given Prozac (20mg). Since starting Prozac I have had crippling nausea and headaches (and acne?). I take TUMS/Pepto and ibuprofen/Aleve often. After three weeks I was taken off of all SSRI's due to the side effects and left with just the Clonazepan.
At the same time, I was supposed to stay off SSRI's for a while, so I could have a sleep study done. I have hypersomnia, but it has been worse as of late. As extremely anxious as that made me, I thought I'd try. They wanted to study me with no SSRI's in my system, but that wasn't going to work. After half a week I was having SEVERE SSRI discontinuation syndrome. I couldn't walk, I was having emotional outbursts- sobbing one moment, then extremely aggressive. So my therapist put me back on half the dose of Prozac, 10 mg a day, then, after a week, one pill every other day. After that, they said we would try Wellbutrin. I left the office sobbing that I was going to have to deal with this for longer.
I couldn't handle it, I called after the week and asked if I could start Wellbutrin. I got the pills that day (Monday) and took my first dose of it, and stopped taking the Prozac. I was given 150mg XL, but I cannot swallow pills, even pills as small as the XL is. So I cut it in half and took it-- then of course read that that could cause seizures more easily among other things, and was up all night with an anxiety attack. Called the next day and got 75mg tablets that I can take twice a day, for now. My first dose of the 75mg, I do not know if it was a fluke and a panic attack, but I had to sit with a bag and my boyfriend petting my back to keep me from going out of my mind. I thought I was going to die, or needed to go to the ER. I do not ever vomit, I have a fear of it-- but I felt like I might, so I was of course adding to the panic that way. After about
40 minutes it calmed down enough that I could lay down and relax a bit, but since then I have not felt well, again.
It's only been two days, and I understand this can take a while, but it had been technically four weeks of nonstop, agonizing nausea and headaches. I cannot leave the house, I cannot celebrate Halloween this year, and I have missed many events and activities due to this. Even getting in the car makes me so severely more ill than usual with carsickness, that I have not gone out in over a week (for a doc appt). I am unsure what to do at this point. Do I just keep suffering and hope it all works out?
Thanks for any help.
Post Edited (Jupi) : 10/31/2013 12:11:36 AM (GMT-6)