My brain has completely stopped working and I don't know what to do.

I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety a long time ago, but it's never been so bad that it's taken over my life. In the beginning of March, though, I started to experience quite extreme anxiety- anxiety that led my mom to take me to a mental health clinic where I was prescribed a medication called Cipralex to help make it more manageable. A significant amount of time passed and my anxiety persisted at the same intensity as it had before I had started taking the medication, so eventually my dosage was upped from the measly 2.5 milligrams I was started on to 5 milligrams, 7.5 milligrams, and then to 10. Throughout this time, I still felt that the drug wasn't doing anything to help with my anxiety. Then came the last couple weeks of school. It was also around the time I had my dosage bumped up to 10 mg. Anyways, I was so nervous about the finals that were coming up that they literally became the only thing I could think about. I couldn't even go into the English classroom without my heart pounding and feeling like I was going to throw up, and English was my best subject. I just couldn't help feeling like I was going to bomb the final and so every time I even had to think about writing, I felt sick to my stomach. I had terrible diarrhea and would throw up on a regular basis. At this time, I talked to my doctor, who opted to raise my dosage of Cipralex to 15 mg to help me cope with the anxiety I was feeling over the end of the school year. It seemed logical enough to me. Then came June 10th. I was sitting on my computer, talking to my sister, when bam. Something just hit me. I spent about an hour lying on my floor, gasping for air, shaking uncontrollably, and bawling my eyes out. When I stopped and opened my eyes, my vision was incredibly weird. Everything was out of focus and streaked with black light. I felt really disoriented and had a hard time forming sentences. My feet felt incredibly light and when I stood up, I worried that I was going to fall over. This scared me so I went straight to bed, hoping that these were just some lingering effects of what appeared to have been a panic attack and that I would feel better in the morning. This, however, was not the case. It's been two months since that day and I still have yet to feel normal again. My head is constantly throbbing (it also clicks when I move it. I don't know how else to describe it, but it is vey painful) and there is a constant pressure in my ears. It's like there's excess fluid or something and that fluid extends down into my throat and makes me feel like I'm constantly going to throw up. My vision is a complete mess. Everything is blurry, out of focus, and streaked in black light. It is the worst when I am trying to read. Right now, just looking up at what I've already written, all the letters are blurred together with the dark light and I have to concentrate really hard to make out what the words say. The worst of all the symptoms I am experiencing, though, is the brain fog. It's like my brain literally shut down. I can't do simple math problems. I used to have an incredible memory, and now I can barely remember what I did today. People will try to have conversations with me and everything that I say in response just sounds incoherent, nonsensical and entirely opposite from what I want to say. Even when I am thinking about things, my internal monologue will be searching for certain words to describe things, and time and time again, will go completely blank. I am usually very articulate and have a really vast vocabulary and now I have a hard time finishing sentences because I will a) forget what my intention of the sentence was and b)forget the words I wanted to use to say it. It's a nightmare. I've been to the emergency twice- had my eyes checked out (20/20 vision), had my thyroid checked (completely normal), had my blood taken (no vitamin deficiencies)- I even had a CT scan of my brain and absolutely nothing showed up. During my desperate research for a cause of these problems I've been experiencing and a way to make them go away, I discovered that some of my symptoms align with some of the rarer side effects of Cipralex, so I have been off Cipralex for 3 weeks now. I know it's not advisable to just go off an SSRI cold turkey, but I was desperate. Since I've stopped taking the Cipralex, the symptoms I'm experiencing haven't gotten any better or any worse, which is leaving me feeling slightly discouraged because maybe all of this isn't a result of the Cipralex and I haven't found the culprit I've been searching for so desperately all summer. There was a little hope when I went to the pharmacist the other day, though. He said that a 15 mg dose of Cipralex for someone my size (I'm very thin) was way too much, especially when at 10 mg I was beginning to suffer from some negative side effects. He didn't talk to me very long but he said that the Cipralex should be out of my system within a couple weeks and I will be start to feel better. It's just very frustrating because it's already been 3 weeks and I still feel exactly the same?!! Then there's the other theory that was proposed by the staff at the clinic (the same one that prescribed me the Cipralex... yeah, they're not in my good books right now), who seem to think that all of my symptoms are psychosomatic and will go away as soon as I learn how to manage my stress. But the thing about that that doesn't make any sense to me is that I am not stressed out about anything right now besides the symptoms that I'm experiencing. Yes, I get a little worried when I step out of my room and only see a whole bunch of black around me or when I'm in a space of people and they all feel really far away even though they're right beside me. But I think anyone would be worried about that. So anyways, I don't know if this has made any sense, because my ability to form my thoughts into a cohesive arrangement of words has been completely obliterated. I guess I was just wondering if anyone else has ever experienced similar symptoms from either Cipralex or being highly stressed and what they did about it? Just because it's gotten so bad that I literally can't function- all day, I can think about is how awful that I feel.... I just want my brain to work again so badly...I am beyond desperate.

Sounds like you are sensitive to the medication and especially the constant dose changes. I would get on something else, proxac is good for anxiety. You will have side effects as your body adjusts to the med, but once your body is adjusted you should be fine. When I had a very bad anxiety episode about 10 yrs ago the doctor started me off on a huge dose and I thought I was going to die, the side effects were horrible at such a huge dose.

Hey Zombiegrrl

I wanted to share some advice with you because I feel like we are in the same boat to a extent. I have been diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder too. It took me over a year to find out the medication that I needed to be on. I was on buspar then celexa to venlafaxine and then now to lexapro 20mg and clonzepam 1 mg as needed. I was so hesitant because I had went on google and would read how bad the medicine was. After looking at all the reviews and knowing I needed some extra help I finally took it. I have taken it and haven't needed my clonazepam for a week .

My Point to this is I personally think a lot of the symptoms we give ourselves are psychological. Same concept as a female making themselves so sick because they fool their brains into thinking that they are pregnant.

I would convince myself that all the symptoms were a side effect of the medicine. I would research every symptom and every problem I had. Then I would give myself a bigger headache then I already had. Just about EVERY symptom can be related back to anxiety in my opinion.

Although just from reading your post it does sound like you have anxiety issues like I do and possibly you would benefit from taking a medication.

My best advice is to get on some good multivitamins , stay hydrated, and start to exercise because all of these help . See how you feel and then talk to your doctor about the next step.