Buspar Prozac panic attacks and life changes

Yes, it does sound like you are going through it.

It may be that you are just not on the right medicines, and before you reach that there can be that time when everything is out of sorts.

From what you are saying, you’ve been taking 60 mg of Prozac (for panic disorders net says) for years.

When your situation got worse, you asked for a refill of a med that had worked for you years ago, Klonopin.

Your psy. instead added, to the Prozac, Buspar, which net says is for general anxiety and can be used as needed.

But you’re still having problems, saying, “I decided to suck it up and start the buspar. Bc of my fears, I only took 1/4 of a tablet. Didn't sleep any better. Had anxiety. Got up with panic attack. Crying sobbing couldn't breath. Couldn't even do to work. I can't have this affecting my ability to work.”

I think one of the problems is you're going in circles.

Hey, I've done the same thing, and I didn't have any net to help me out, and I just got worse because my negative thinking was adding to my emotional problems.

He gave you more medicine, but you don’t want to take it. I think you’re going to have to overcome yourself here, which is good, for we can control ourselves.

One of your problems is your fear of medicine, which is what you need, medicine.

They have a medicine for anxiety, Buspar, but you won’t take it. So the problem is not the medicine or the doctor it’s you. Which is good, for we can control ourselves. We can take our medicine. Exactly.

So why don’t you be a good girl and take your new medicine?

Why don’t you give that a try and see what happens?

In addition to my medicine, Mirtazapine for depression and Lithium for mania, I take Melatonin health food from the health food store. Or maybe the drug store or grocery store has it in the health food section. Or over the net.

You can take it an hour or two or three before bedtime.

ihave many years experience with buspar. first -its not even close to the strength of klonopin(which i also have tons of experience with), i have used Buspar prn for ever and its works well for me this way but isnt strong enough to stop a panic attack. your dr if first i ever heard prescribe it prn and bid. i think its a wise move and more should do it. i use a 1/3 pill for mild episodes and 1/2 for worse attacks of anxiety. buspar is a mild and very safe drug and mixes well with every ssri i know of so i dont think that your issue. but prozac is much stronger ssri than i like to take . i did take it for a few months and its very effective for depression. drs are reluctant now to prscribe many benzos now and they can be a nightnare or blessing depending on how you use them, i say use your old pills for rescue and your and your dr work out a solution for a replacement. a large percentage report buspar as ineffective but for me it works very well. i only use it prn and see no need to have it constantly in my system but see what work for you. my ssri works so well -i seldon need help from another med

question for super20dan---so would you say buspar works for an 'as needed' basis?

I would love that if it did. I don't want a drug in my system every day for years and years.

welcme -good luck

hi tim tam -hope you are well

Minipuff:

Where are you? You sounded like you were in a very difficult situation.

I've been like that and I wasn't thinking very clearly.

Are you seeing your doctor? Is it a psychiatrist?

Are you taking any medicine for this?

Again, I've been like that and medicine helped me tremendously.

My grandmother lived in an era when they had no medicine. She was begging in the 1930s for what you have.

Can you give us an update? You did very well at expressing yourself.

Minipuff:

It’s like getting a Christmas present hearing from you.

You present the most gosh awful of situations, people try to help you, then you give a short reply, then we don’t hear from you. It’s like the parent worried about the child for leaving them in the lurch about how they are doing.

You don’t know how excruciating that is. It’s like bad news is better than no news.

I’ve been in situations like that. Does your ego strength get very low when times are tough? And you can’t reach out or respond? That’s what happens to me when I’m low.

I use to have anxiety attacks, from Dr. Foulup. I came in as depressed, and instead of wondering if I had mania, also, as in bipolar, which I do, he simply diagnosed me as depressed and gave me an anti-depressant.

Without a stabilizer like Lithium, which I’m now on to slow down the anti-depressant Mirtazapine, I started having panic attacks.


So I’m wondering when did your panic attacks start? Did they start with a medicine, but then I shouldn’t ask you that? Did they start with a lot of anxiety?

Web.md said, before you start taking Prozac, tell your doctor if you have a personal or family history of bipolar.

Do you have bipolar? Symptoms are racing mind, coming up with more ideas than you have the energy or time to carry out, staying up late.

Net says Prozac also treats depression in addition to anxiety.

You need to check everything with your psychiatrist.

Are you generally positive that you can get through this, for I found out that my thinking can influence the outcome? I was very negative and a lot of things did turn out that way.

As for sleep, I take Melatonin, along with my regular meds.

Minipuff:

You said for years you have been on 60 mg of Prozac, which treats depression as well as anxiety. But you are still having anxiety and anxiety attacks.

He might not be willing to take you off that because you might not go on a new medicine.

Which brings us back to: Buspar, anti-anxiety.

Try the Buspar and if after a time if it doesn’t work, give him a chance to increase it. From the things you listed in your last post which upset you, you should get down on your knees and thank the heavens above that anti-anxiety medicine even exists.

Try the Buspar and then at increased dosages, and if doesn't work maybe ask him about new medicine.

Also, you said in your latest post, “If things don't move at my pace, and my pace is very fast, then I get agitated.” So panic attacks is not the only issue. Looking at some of the experiences you’ve had, you need more anxiety medicine.

I think your doctor is maxing out on the Prozac and you’re still having anxiety issues, so he’s giving you a second anxiety medicine. You are really, out the widow.

I remember when I first took Lithium stabilizer for biopolar, with the 1st pill, I felt like a 100 pound weight had been lifted off of my shoulders, the release of tension was so great.

I didn’t know I had been walking around acting like an idiot, snapping off at a lot of people. I thought the other people were in the wrong to cause me to be angry.

But you won’t take the next anxiety medicine because of your medicine phobia.

Still, the ball is in your court. A possible solution is laid out in front of you, but you won’t take the medicine. And you're looking around for solutions and who's causing the problem.

You said you have an appt. with your psy. tomorrow Wed. and noted, “So I will talk to him then about my fears.” That would be good.

Mayoclinic.org said about phobias, they can be helped by:

1.Psychotherapy, which you’ll be doing tomorrow.

2. Exposure therapy, which, “if you're afraid of elevators, your therapy may progress from simply thinking about getting into an elevator, to looking at pictures of elevators, to going near an elevator, to stepping into an elevator. Next, you may take a one-floor ride, then ride several floors, and then ride in a crowded elevator.”

How about as a baby step to taking your medicine, you take a vitamin pill?

3. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

What helped me with a lot of my problems was positive thinking, in that a column I read said that before going into a problem believe that you can solve it.

Again, before even thinking about the problem, I first had to believe that I could solve it, which flipped my unconscious to positive and looking for solutions.

If my unconscious is on negative (and my conscious is set on positive), I look for defeat, or half win, half loss. So, rather than open the door (which my uncon. says might be locked), I dive out of a plate glass window to get out of a burning building, which is half win, half loss, to satisfy both parts of my brain. I then check the door, and it was open the entire time.

So, now I say, “Think positive, think positive, think positive” before I even think about the problem, so my uncon. will be looking for solutions.

As for sleep, Melatonin from health food store. Ask your doctor about that.

Minipuff:

You say, “do you think my agitation and excessive outbursts are anxiety related? I've always thought it was just bc I didn't work harder to control my emotions.”

You know, I don’t really know, but in going through all of this stuff, as you say multitask, trying to take into consideration what you said in your first post, then your second, then your third, etc., and then what the net says Prozac is (anti-anxiety), what the maximum dosage is for that, 40 mg and you’re taking 60, what patients have said about how they deal with their panic attacks, since you’re reaching out for those who have it, how to deal with medicine phobia, CBT (positive thinking since it’s helped me so much, from reading a column in the newspaper by this woman who explained positive thinking in 10 paragraphs, mainly think positive before you go into a problem that you can solve it, which gets your unconscious onto positive, while it may be negative since you can’t see it, it helped me a lot and I try to tell as many people as I can), and I’m copying all of that, and trying to put it together.

So I guess that’s one form of multitasking.

But I can’t concentrate on what I’m reading or watching on TV and keep up with what somebody else is saying. Your mind may not be as sharp as it was. Mine is not.

But, again, you say, “do you think my agitation and excessive outbursts are anxiety related? I've always thought it was just bc I didn't work harder to control my emotions.”

I may have lost track of your mention of anger, etc., that, what with all the other. But what I attributed the anger to was, like I mentioned my bipolar, I had a lot of anger. When I went on Lithium for bipolar, it reduced by 90 percent, my anger, and my anxiety. I think “agitation and excessive outbursts and anxiety” are all part of one illness.

Just as with bipolar, I have basically all of that, and Lithium dealt with all of that.

When I used to drive, I would be on the lookout for other drivers who did not behave the way I thought they should, and would become very angry. When I was a passenger, I would notice the driver in my car, and wonder how they were so calm and did not notice things like that. It was because they didn’t have bipolar.

So I’m thinking your outbursts could be basically the same thing. Your illness notices and intensifies, we’ll call them minor transgressions, by others. Like myself, if you could get on the right medicines, I think you would notice a world of difference.

It would lessen your anxiety, anger and intensity. You don’t know it now, because you’ve never been on the right medicines. You might be there, or almost there with an increase, if you take your new anxiety medicine, Buspar.

You never did answer my question about possible negativity. Was the household you were raised in, negative or positive? Mine was negative. You may have learned that growing up and you don’t know it.

OK, that sounds good about the appointment and the Buspar situation.

I had a rough childhood also. A lot of times in those situations, we were given our self-confidence by those who didn’t have any.

We were given our self-concept, and our sense of positive or negative outlook on problems, by people who were negative. And at an impressionable age when we believed what our parent figures said. We adopted that, copied that without thinking, and then when we grew up we maintained that negative believe about our ability to solve problems, without there being an ounce of truth to it.

We also hand our beliefs to our children, so we would want very much to teach our children to be positive about their ability to solve problems; about being positive in their approach to problems and in their lives.

In our cases, a negative concept about our ability to solve problems can be turned off very quickly, if we simply come across the right information.

Meanwhile, I’ve been looking up the symptoms of anxiety disorder. From healthline.com, it says:

11 Signs and Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders

1. Excessive Worrying; 2. Feeling Agitated; 3. Restlessness; 4. Fatigue;
5. Difficulty Concentrating; 6. Irritability 7. Tense Muscles; 8. Trouble Falling or Staying Asleep;
9. Panic Attacks; 10. Avoiding Social Situations; 11. Irrational Fears

Under 6. Irritability, it said, “Most people with anxiety disorders also experience excessive irritability.

“According to one recent study including over 6,000 adults, more than 90% of those with generalized anxiety disorder reported feeling highly irritable during periods when their anxiety disorder was at its worst.

“Compared to self-reported worriers, young and middle-aged adults with generalized anxiety disorder reported more than twice as much irritability in their day-to-day lives.

“Given that anxiety is associated with high arousal and excessive worrying, it is not surprising that irritability is a common symptom.”

So, you had asked, “do you think my agitation and excessive outbursts are anxiety related?”

It, again, says above, “According to one recent study including over 6,000 adults, more than 90% of those with generalized anxiety disorder reported feeling highly irritable during periods when their anxiety disorder was at its worst.”

So that seems to answer your question, that anxiety and irritability are connected. You said you thought that connection between "my agitation and excessive outbursts" "was just bc I didn't work harder to control my emotions. I've been told I'm a little high strung at times….”

Under 2. Feeling Agitated, It says,
“When someone is feeling anxious, part of their sympathetic nervous system goes into overdrive. This kicks off a cascade of effects throughout the body, such as a racing pulse, sweaty palms, shaky hands and dry mouth.

"These symptoms occur because your brain believes you have sensed danger, and it is preparing your body to react to the threat. Your body shunts blood away from your digestive system and toward your muscles in case you need to run or fight. It also increases your heart rate and heightens your senses."

"While these effects would be helpful in the case of a true threat, they can be debilitating if the fear is all in your head.

"Some research even suggests that people with anxiety disorders are not able to reduce their arousal as quickly as people without anxiety disorders, which means they may feel the effects of anxiety for a longer period of time."

Yes, it is a comfort to know what we are. We first have to get our diagnosis correct before we can get medicated correctly.

I remember when I first found out what I was. I was talking to a lay counselor on the phone. I was probably telling him I had been diagnosed as depressed, and probably telling him about the anxiety attacks, which I think I was having at the time.

So I was all over the place. And he said, "I knew your uncle. And he was a manic-depressive, and you probably are, too." I was very pleased to hear a correct diagnose of me.

Again, what was happening was, I went in as depressed to the psychiatrist, he dx'd me as depressed, and gave me an anti-depressant. This sent my depression into mania/panic attacks. Again, wrong dx, wrong medicine, you're not getting any help.

The psy. could have asked me, since I was depressed, do you ever have racing thoughts, to see if I was manic-depressed. He didn't ask anything. Because, what I needed as manic-depressed, was a cap (Lithium) put on the anti-depressant, so I wouldn't go manic from the anti-depressant.

There probably isn't anything more unbalanced in your brain, as you say, and that must be very calming. You are not all over the place, you have a mental condition called anxiety disorder. It is not your fault. There is hope. You live in an era when there is medicine. My grandmother did not. You are very lucky. You can have a better situation. You are a good person.

It is going to be interesting to see how this goes. Your life could be improving.

There is a saying:

"I would not have you descend into your own dream. I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world."
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

You never descended into a dream. You always fought.

please try the buspar. yes indeed anxiety leads to anger issues. buspar is a VERY mild drug. its so mild it dosnt work for some people. i am fortunate it works for me. could be after many years your prozac has stopped working? this is common with ssri drugs. i was on zoloft for 6 years and it stopped working . this is another thing to discuss with your dr.