New med /Paxil and Wellbutrin??? Questions

Hello again everyone, i've been absent for awhile. Many of you remember my story..I have OCD and bad anxiety. In the fall i was a frequent poster here due to panic attacks that I was facing.

I am glad to say that I have been free of panic attacks since November 1, 2006 (OVER TWO MONTHS!). However, the anxiety is still there and I always have the predisposition of thinking daily that one will hit at any time and they will come back. They never seem to.

What used to cause my panic attacks was over-thinking everything I did...I would think to myself "is how i am feeling right now normal?" or "am i percieving the world in the way im supposed to?" And sometimes those thoughts would translate into me thinking that my thought process wasn't normal and I was going crazy etc..then I would get the tingly body, utter terror, and numbness in hands, and breathing problems. I still have these weird thoughts but they haven't been translating into panic attacks.

I think the Xanax that the doc prescribed me gave me confidence when I started using it because it calmed me down a lot. And in the back of my mind i always know that there is a way out if i started freaking...it is a good security blanket.

HOWEVER, these thoughts still plague my daily life..I do many more activities much easier now but the anxiety is always there and it is burdening my way of life.

My RX is: 60mg paxil daily (been on this for OCD for a LOOONG time..years). And .25mg xanax as needed daily.

Today when I saw my doctor, he was telling me that since the anxiety is persistent and daily bothering me that he would try to "Adjunct" my paxil with something else (I think thats the word he used). So he RX'd me Wellbutrin to take daily along with my paxil. Has anyone ever used this med with paxil before? And if so, how did they feel?

Sorry for the long post..I appreciate anyone adding feedback to this post!

P.S. Does anyone ELSE get a lot of anxiety from "over-thinking" and thoughts like "i'm not percieving reality correctly?"

Post Edited By Moderator (Howlyncat) : 1/11/2007 3:56:07 AM (GMT-7)

I too am happy you are doing loads better
You sound it
I remember your story very well
Sorry though I am not abe to help you with the meds thing but I believe there are a couple on here with same meds
I am sure they will chime in .........
Keep being strong and
keep posting letting us know how you are
Lyn

*I added a bit to title so hopefully those on these meds will answer okay *

I took Wellbutrin and paxil together for a couple years, but the WB was prescribed to alleviate the side effects of the paxil. It was a low dose and worked great for that.

You may want to try therapy and CBT to help with those thought patterns. I dont think meds alone are the answer. Therapy helped me tremendously.

Good luck,
Karen

PS - glad you are doing so much better overall!!

Tyler... glad to hear you have started therapy. It takes a little while, so be sure to give it some time.

When my anxiety starts (the racing thoughts, tenseness, etc.) I remind myself that the anxiety is kicking in and I need to short circuit it. I'll do deep breathing, distraction (consiously try to switch my thought pattern by focusing on something else like reading, tv, chores, etc) and as soon as I can I'll do the relaxation exersizes I learned at therapy. When you're on the go, the distraction is the easiest to employ.

As far as the meds, I think you combo of paxil (ssri) and xanax (benzo) is good. Maybe your doc can adjust your dose or take another dose of xanax later in the day if needed.

Karen

Thanks for all the input. It helps me a lot. Sometimes im not really anxious, im just scared all day? Does anyone have that? I guess being scared is kind of like anxiety?

Klonopin is notorious for causing depression or depressive feelings over time. My psydoc refuses to prescribe it for me. He will only use Xanax for his panic patients and only short-term, as needed. The SSRIs all helped me with both anxiety and depression after 4-6 weeks.

I've had the feeling of being scared all day. Sometimes the anxiety and depression comes out in different ways. What I do when that happens is get busy, even if I don't feel like it. My favorite method is to start cleaning the apartment. It sounds silly, but when I do things like cleaning or doing laundry, it helps keep the negative thoughts away.

Taking a nice long walk helps too!