Doing the psych med dance again...

[lightningandsnow]

Good news: 150 mg of Effexor took care of my anxiety amazingly.

Bad news: it also made me hypomanic as shit. Which was good in the sense that I've been super productive, energetic, creative, and friendly....bad in the sense that I spent a lot more money than I should have and have been speaking before I think. And bouncing around in my room until at least midnight most nights.

So, now, I'm on the weird in-between dose of 112.5 mg to see if my mood stabilizes. If it doesn't....both me and my doctor suspect I might have cyclothymia - a mild form of bipolar.

Makes sense, actually. Even when I wasn't on meds, when I'm feeling good, I'm a ball of fire - and also impulsive and don't think things through. I commit to a bunch of things I can't follow through on when I'm feeling bad again.

Sigh. Why can't I be like most teenagers on anxiety meds and react fabulously to the first thing I'm put on? (I was on lexapro before....it made me super agitated, and my anxiety shot through the roof.)

[Bertha Venation]

1. No words of comfort, unfortunately.

Unless it's comforting to know that you're not the first nor will you be the last.

I'm sorry you're having such a hard time. :hug:

[EvolveOrConvolve]

2. I've got anxiety too, so I know what you're going through

I have chronic panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. It got so bad that I couldn't leave my bed, and the meds probably saved my life.

Prozac worked the best for me, but I couldn't sleep on it, so the doc put me on Effexor. I didn't see any effect from it until I got to the maximum dosage: 225 mg. That has worked fantastically. One thing I found that curbed a lot of the anxiety for me was cutting out all the caffeine in my diet. I drink hot cocoa in the mornings now instead of coffee, and I only have cola on occasion. Also, getting a lot of exercise tires me out and slows down my brain and that helps with the anxiety quite a bit. I do about an hour of cardio every day and lift weights 4-5 times a week. That helps me sleep better at night in addition to being of great benefit to my health.

Everyone deals with it differently, so try to make changes that might have an effect on the disease. I quit smoking, removed the caffeine, and started exercising a lot. That helped a lot, and with the mood stabilized with the Effexor I'm in a good place right now.

Good luck to yourself! :hug:

[old mark]

3. You know all about tailoring the meds and dose to the individual,

and doing adolescence at the same time. Look on the bright side - when you get through this, you will be able to handle anything - at least is sounds like you have a good doc.

All the best,:hi:

mark

[Odin2005]

4. My Cyclothyma was discovered after increasing my Paxil to 30mg made me hypomanic.

They dropped it back to 20mg and put me on Lamictal.

Hope you get your meds figured out. :hug:

[Maraya1969]

5. If I don't take a mood stabilizer with an antidepressant I shoot to the moon.

But I am Bipolar 1 so I guess I shoot faster. Either way for me not to sleep is a dangerous thing.


Good luck with your meds. I was always told that there is a whole pharmacy out there to help me so not to worry.

:grouphug: :hug:

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. I hope this i shte one! *hugs*

[applegrove]

7. Hope it works for you. Good luck.