Let me start with I'm currently 23 years old. At age 12 I was diagnosed with depression and put on Lexapro. The medicine did nothing for me and I actually stopped taking it myself. When I became suicidal again, my parents found me a better doctor and he prescribed me Effexor. I was 14 when I started and stopped at 16. It definitely helped my depression as in making me no longer feel suicidial or cut myself.
Fast foward to today. About 2 months ago I started experiencing anxiety. As it got worse my GP gave me Xanax. I didn't want to become dependent on a benzo so I found a psychiatrist. She first put me on Prozac and kept me on the Xanax. Prozac was horrible for me. The side effects were unbearable and made me even worse. She stopped it immediately and put me on Zoloft. I am now on Zoloft and again, the side effects are horrible. Not as bad as Prozac but I'm honestly not sure how much longer I can cope. So my thinking is maybe SSRIs do not work well for me and SNRIs do since it helped with my depression after being on an SSRI that did not work.
I'm curious to know if anyone had any success with Effexor for anxiety and panic attacks? I'm at the point where I can't leave my house. It would be great to get my life back.
So am I to understand correctly that you went off Effexor at 16 and were not on any meds when your GP recently prescribed Xanax? How long were you off?
Yes. Was on anti depressants from 12-16. 14-16 was on Effexor. Did not have any issues with depression once off meds. However, I developed anxiety and panic very recently and was prescribed the Xanax for it. I was not on a long term med (ssri/snri) at this point.
So for seven years you have been med-free? I'd agree that your system has been sensitized to SSRIs from your previous years. Effexor works as an SSRI at the lower doses and it isn't until 150 mg that the norepinephrine receptors start to become occupied. I fear that you may have the same trouble with Effexor.
What non-drug techniques have you tried for dealing with anxiety and panic? Prior to these issues becoming a problem, how were you doing? Have you been in therapy, done CBT? There are self-help ways of working on these issues, and I'd be happy to send you links by PM.
Yes. Was med free for years. I've been in therapy for other issues so when the anxiety started I did talk to my therapist and we have worked on methods to cope and have done cbt. However, nothing seemed to work and she suggested it was time to look into meds because I was/still am at the point where I can no longer leave my house.
I'll send you a couple of links that might be helpful