Increasing med dose?

How do you know when you should consider increasing your medication dosage?

I have been on Paxil 20mg for about 5 or 6 weeks and have been doing really well, exercising a lot and generally feeling really good.

The last week or so however, the anxiety is back, nowhere near the levels I was at before but enough to be irritating.

Has anyone experienced the same thing and increased their medication dosage?

Hi

Glad to hear that you have been doing well but sorry to hear that your anxiety has increased I would continue with your exercise as that will definitely help and would suggest that you go and speak with your doctor as an increase in medication may be an option for you? You could also speak with them about getting a referral for some talking therapy.

I hope you start to feel better soon.

Hibee

As it happens, I have been on 20mg. of Paxil for about 3 months. Seemed to kick in after about 6 weeks, along with starting on a new sleep med. Felt great for 3 or 4 weeks. Then seemed to drift back into anxiety again. Like you, not as bad as before. I think one issue is just the fear of relapsing anytime you feel anxiety creeping in, and that feeds on itself. Could be that you need to bump up your Paxil. Your doctor should help you with that decision. I see my pdoc on Monday and will be discussing this with him, too. Even though I've taken a step back over the last 6 weeks, I'm not sure I want to increase the Paxil yet. I see a CBT once a week now. It's not easy to change my thought patterns. BTW, exercise is a big plus, IMO. I am an avid cyclist looking forward to spring. It does help.

Breakthrough anxiety refers to anxiety that happens in spite of ongoing treatment methods such as medication and /or therapy.

Seeking new coping skills to help when these periods come about is a good plan of action.

S.C.

A psychologist friend of mine told me that your threshold for anxiety is much lower if you are sleep deprived. So sleep is important. My CBT said that what we perceive as a downturn may just be the effects of meds leveling off. We felt the improvement and that helped to stem the anxiety. So maybe you're at an 8 on an anxiety scale of 1 to 10, and the meds bring it down to 2 or 3. You feel a lot better and optimistic, but not all the way there yet, so anxiety still can creep back in and push you back up to 4 or 5. If you're not getting CBT, you should consider it. I'll keep you posted on my situation.

It is best to have symptoms in complete remission and during winter months many people need to go up in dose. I am on Zoloft and still working on getting back to normal after stopping. Wolverine let me know how the Seroquel works for you. I am trying Trazodone tonight for the first time but am still using klonopin. Sleep has been not that great still!

Wolverine, I had a horrible night last night in terms of sleep. It was improving, but always early morning wakings. Last night total insomnia no sleep. Finally got a psychiatrist after waiting forever. I didn't sleep because I have been so upset about early morning wakings. Got a script for trazodone last week and filled it. Never took it. My psychiatrist thinks I'm med sensitive so she is starting me on 12.5 mg of traz. I am trying to wean off klonopin so not sure if this has caused some anxiety. Michigan is right below Ontario where I am so yes the winter has been super harsh. Sorry Aus dad did not mean to hijack your post. I have been in touch with Wolverine for a while on this forum. My psychiatrist also suggested Celexa in case Zoloft doesn't work out and switching also scares me. If you were restless how did you sleep? Isn't trazodone supposed to relax you? I will try it tonight. I will be taking it with my klonopin though as I am weaning off it. Im scared to stop things cold turkey.

Good luck with the seroquel as well! Thx