Many yrs ago i suffered with depressiona nd anxiety. managed to come off meds ( was venlafaxine ) then last yr had quite a traumatic time and i started to get the old symptoms bk. finally caved in and see GP. Was put on Sertraline , had no effect so they added mirtazipine aswell. However being as one of my anxieties is weight gain this was not good. so the Mirt was stopped and Sert doubled . After a few months still no massive improvement in the fact that i was getting more panic/ anxiety attacks than previous. Then my relationship of 8yrs ended out of the blue . Again mood suffered , resulted in time off work etc. Gp then put me back on Venlafaxine slowly increased to 225mg . however the progress was incredibly slow so i was then changed to Citalopram 40mg. At first this was like a miracle - felt happier, got out more etc. 2 weeks ago on a routine check up i mentioned that im still suffering with insomnia aswell . my mood was becoming very up and down and the anxiety was increasing , yet i cant put my finger on it as to why ? So he stopped the Citalopram and put me on Trazodone 100mg and Fluepentixol 1mg 2x a day.
So heres where the nigthmare began. took the fluepentixol during day . then the Trazodone in the eve. Slept much better . The fri the same , however felt quite giddy and heart beating extremely fast. By the Saturday i was a mess , felt zoned out , heart rate of 130+ constantly . went home to bed , woke up still the same. phoned out of hrs for advice , was told to go straight to hospital . ecg etc done , altho heart rate high there was no abnormalities . they said that the Citalopram shouldnt of been suddenly stopped but they couldnt 100% say that was causing me to feel like it ( withdrawls ) or whether its side effects of new meds. and told to see gp.
see the gp on monday ( not my reg one) and he pretty much looked down on me as if wasting time. yet i was advised to go - he said Stop all meds untiil routine apt ont he thurs , which obvs i wasnt happy about . so he said stop the Fluepentixol and just continue with the Trazodone. which i did, and he signed me off. Saw my norm gp the thurs and again he said its likely the withdrawls causing it rather than side effects but to be sure , keep clear of the fluepentixol until my body settles. and he also doubled the trazodone. Well went bk this week and he said i can causiouly but as you can imagine im terrified incase that was the cause of the a&e trip.
I just dont know what to do , ive said id return to work in a couple of days and im paranoid my colleauges will; think its convienient that its the school holidays and thats why im off , but its not. Im getting really worked up about returning to work and have had re occuring thoughts of harming myself , which ive managed to avoid ( used to harm yrs ago )
So my q is , how to people find this drug or this drug combination. Ive read theyre for bi polar but i dont have this so im worried why ive been out on it. Im awaiting a counsellingplacement but its taking forever.
Oh Sarah, I actually just went through THE SAME THING as you did! Just with a bit different meds. Ugh.
First of all: returning to work in your situation is not a great idea in my opinion. You need to get this meds sorted out first. especially if you are having thoughts of self harming - you dont want to add pressure with going back to work while you are not well. If you had a broken back you wouldnt run around and go back to school either, would you?
Second: most GP's have not the slightest effing clue about discontinuation syndrome, so it is best to go straight to the ER where they have psychiatrists who are trained in psych meds (at least that's my experience).
Now, the advice you got is exactly the same I received when I had discontinuation syndrome (withdrawal) from trintellix (vortioxetine) which my pdoc took me off waaaaay too fast from. Then I got serotonine syndrome from being on Wellbutrin and Moclobemide and at last I was told to stop everything other than Clonazepam and Zolpidem for a total washout and slowly start Moclobemide again without the other two meds (trintellix or wellbutrin).
So.... your story sounds very familiar. What they are trying to rule out is that you are reacting to the new medication, so they have you stop everything and then slowly reintroduce one at a time.
Trazodone is great for sleep and if that helps you: stay on it.
Often Trazodone is used off label for sleep, even if you dont have bi polar. The same applies to many many other medications. They may have been developed and approved for a specific condition, but research shows that many meds actually help with a variety of illnesses. So dont let the label scare you off.
I was very nervous about restarting Moclobemide, as I was sick like a dog on it with all the other meds. I've been restarting it last Tuesday and I am fine! No issues. No side effects. All good. it was the combination of all the others (and the withdrawal) that made me feel so sick that I thought I wouldnt make it to the next day.
Now, maybe your GP can also give you something for anxiety? Because anxiety and depression often goes together... it has helped me a ton to be on something to take off that edge of nervousness, irritability and noise/light sensitivity.
me again - I just googled the flupentixol drug description. In lower doses it is used as an antidepressant (tricyclic), in higher doses it is used for Schizophrenia. That does not mean that your doctor thinks you have Schizophrenia. Promise!! It really just has different uses for different illnesses.
I have been also on Trazodone for sleep - even though I have nothing else but a simple boring major depression.
So dont drive yourself mad with worrying about potential different diagnosises.
Thank you for your reply. He said to take the Fluepentixol for when most anxious and the trazodone is for anx/ depresstion but also helps with sleep.
on fri night i worked myself into a bit of a state as to whether to go bk or not and had 0 sleep even with the trazodone. i was awake for 38 hrs in total - its certainly caught up on me now lol
Well i did go back to work and it wasnt as bad as i thought . I stayed out of customer focus , i did have the odd moment when i went from being ok to thinking omg what am i doing here. but luckily we had a good team of ppl in and it helped me focus.and i did take 2x flupentixol. i had a small meeting with my manager and shes referrring me to Occupational Health and im going to have a more in depth meeting about eveything in a few weeks. I said i felt that people would judge me for being off in the school holidays , but she said no one does and she knows im genuine ( unfortunalty we have another staff member who fakes anxiety which is why i didnt want people to think that of me but she told me im being daft :P rToday was similar but possibly a little easier . as it wasnt busy and was a little more relaxing.
I dont have a pdoc , just my gp however i have sent some emails about counselling etc with diff places.