Posted on 12/28/2013 10:33:19 PM PST by Armen Hareyan
Are you having stomach ache, head ache, extreme agaition, confussion even to the point of seeing things, muscle rigidity, nausea, elevated blood pressure and pulse, and involuntary muscle movements? If yes that sounds like Serotonin Syndrome. Or If those symptoms just show up after taking the pill then it could be leading into it see a doctor ASAP.
psychiatrists aren’t quacks.
Fifty years ago, when I started medical school, we had state hospitals full of very mentally ill schizophrenics etc.
Most folks think psychiatry is about quirky folks who are cute and only need love. The movies are the worst ones at pushing this idea (silver lining playbook? One flew over the cukoo nest? As good as it gets? Blecch...)
Until you have seen or worked with those with severe mental illness, you can’t appreciate that it is real. Just because some spoiled yuppies feel sorry for themselves doesn’t mean that depression, post traumatic stress syndrome, or schizoprhrenia are minor problems: And all of them can be treated with medicines: Not a cure, and not everyone, but most of them.
My sister has major mental health issues that's now compounded by Dementia. She also say one of the doctors I had fired. They had to take her there on an emergency basis {she was that doctors regular patient} because her husband had just died. My niece called ahead and explained the situation. They get to the clinic and out walks her nurse asking her "where's that husband of yours at"?
The doctor likely came here on a work Visa had about as much business treating patients as I do flying space shuttles. A Neurologist finally got her meds in check and did the Dementia diagnoses. Out of five shrinks I've dealt with only one seemed to have competent knowledge and he ran a hospitals psych ward as well. But he was also one of the most dysfunctional persons you'd ever want to meet. He about got his license yanked over a lady friend he was prescribing pills for.
As for really learning how to live with a mental issue a LCSW is the one who does the one on one sessions. The one I had got me through PTSD that hit me same time the other issue did. I don't have a high opinion of Shrinks in general based on extensive and near fatal experiences.
I meant this.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSRI_discontinuation_syndrome
Read about the so called “head zaps.”
Thank God they are better right now.
Its been a little over 2 weeks since I took my last half dose.
I cannot afford to take this crap.
My advice to people is to stay away from Anti depressants!
As a chronic pain patient all I can say is I’m getting sick and damned tired of having to jump through more and more hoops thanks to all the idiot dopeheads out there.
I take my meds as prescribed and have since 1989 when a drunk driver very nearly killed me. I’ve never and would never do anything to cause any problems because I know what is SUPPOSSED to happen to those who abuse them.
If I can follow the rules and do it for 23 years straight then so can anyone.
I believe the symtoms were starting in on me and got through it because I keep Zanax on hand.
That is when I started to research how I was feeling.
I had thought it was my new medicine for diabetes that was efffecting me.
But my research found this.
This is just one source but there are others.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSRI_discontinuation_syndrome
She wasn't a bad doctor because she was from India {so is my nieces husband} she was a bad doctor because she didn't have a earthly clue as to why she was there for LOL. Next shrink took me off antidepressant I was taking and fixed my Xanax prescription to one that stays low strength in the bloodstream 24/7. My medical charts now have No antidepressants adverse reaction on them.
It was a couple years after that my wife had Serotonin Syndrome and I realized from symptoms I was having while taking them I was right on the edge of it. Wellburtin for example made flush, nausiated, and a head ache within minutes of taking it.
Paxil locked up my blader and I had to go to the ER for a Cathater. Thanks to my training for my wifes care I understood what was happening to me and got to the ER before I went into shock. I asked the nurse what was wrong with me and he said Paxil caused it. We see a few cases a month of this. I had the folley for two weeks till the Paxil left my bloodstream.
My wife wasn't so lucky. For nearly a week she thought she was Della Reese aka Tess on Touched by an angel. 28 years ago she was being treated for anxiety & placed on Xanax by her cardiologist to control heart spasms that was closing down a valve in her heart. About 13 years later she was taking antidepressants for PTSD and clinical depression when she had the reaction to them.
You sound like you could use some Medical Marijuana.
LOL. Heh.....heh.
This is awful! We need to ramp up the War On Drugs! We need DEA and the professionals of Obamacare to second guess Doctors even more than is already done. Obviously we need more no knock raids and more paperwork for medical professionals. More bureaucratic oversight is always the cure!
Whoa,
You’re experienced.
Evidently some of us get to see the nut from the inside.
I lost my job because of my inability to focus on an important task at an important time.
Why? Because I quit a drug that does worse things to you then for you.
That’s how things went for me. Now I’m over the worst (I hope) and have no choice but to get back up and fight.
The big problem I have now is finding a job and not looking back.
Unfortunately looking back is what prospective employers do.
Give even more power to government to tell doctors what to do? As this article seems to suggest.
“How can we as a society make people more aware of this danger.”
Talk about our drug experiences on Freerepublic.com.
Seriously, there was a time when investigative journalist
actually investigated and exposed truth. Truth that mattered.
Now, everything must fit the agenda of Satan which is pretty much void of truth about anything that really matters.
Now it’s the new media. In fact you are at one of the founding websites of the new media.
It does beg for the big solution does it not.
Getting Government involved in health care is like paddling a canoe up Niagra falls.
You can try it but its obviously not going to work very good.
Is the term "abuse" pharmalogical or statutory?
Appreciate very much the sharing of your knowledge and experience! It’s one thing that makes this place such a treasure trove -
So, let me get this straight...Serotonin, when it is left in the neurosynaptic gap (not re-uptaken), leads to ‘feel good’,
however, in some reactions, there’s ‘too much’ serotonin? leading to the syndrome/toxicity?
I HAVE taken Wellbutrin for help with smoking-cessation, BUT, it made my head feel tight, almost like I was having an oncoming migraine, so I quit after a week.
I DO eat turkey several times a week though :)))
Prescription drugs are "Controlled Substances", regulated primarily by the FDA (stating the obvious; work with me).
Prescription drug abuse begins & ends with the doctors prescribing the drugs, not "people". Seriously: A study of people abusing essentially government-dispensed drugs blaming people?
Doctors are also "drug dealers" now, based on my interpretation of the article.
So, if the government can't enforce its own enforcement mechanisms & regulations for Schedule 'x' Controlled Substances, there's little point to continuing enforcement of 'illicit' drugs under the current scheme.
Worse, if you look at the statistics between 1998 & 2008 here, then one stunning explanation stands out:
Economic Anxiety
And the author sees fit to publish only 4 ways to deal with the problem, ALL of them with more regulation by the Government? ROFLMAO if this guy weren't serious, as most progs are about increasing government even further.
Ironically, this study is a stunning indictment of government across the board.
.02
I'll explain why. One of the most common causes of anxiety isn't Phobic/Traumatic event in origin. It's a secondary condition caused by a real primary disorder in their body. Vestibular Disorders are the main culprit in that respect and the most undiagnosed and overlooked. Most Shrinks do not recognize this. Many doctors prescribing antidepressants have not a clue to Serotonin Syndrome. I've seen their puzzled faces when told about it.
Some antidepressants like Trazodone aka Desyrel are used like candy in Geriatric medicine {elderly} and they can't handle the medication. I used to work in a nursing home. Patients who were rational in daytime became very different at night.
I'll post more this evening. I need to take my mother to see my sister at the memory care unit.
I learned what I did from some basic detective work and a book Phobia Free written by a Neurologist back in the late 1970's IIRC and he linked Anxiety Disorders to Inner Ear/Vestibular. Cerebellar disorders or damage. This gave me the info I needed to get on the right track for treatment. I was born with some damage including one eye functional vision and some screwed up responses to auditory and visual stimulation. Sinus allergies all throughout my childhood increased that damaged. So can chronic ear infections.
I had to take Occupational Therapy two years at about age 13 just to be able to walk straight. My feet because of this and Club feet break my shoes over to the side. I can destroy any quality shoe in less than a month without insoles to prevent it. Trying to play baseball I'd swing early, late, or duck away. I was also misdiagnosed as ADD ADHD. I took the therapy which taught me adaption even to the point I passed both my Navy and Army physicals.
At about age 36 I started having severe startle reactions to certain noises. I lost my ability to concentrate on work and things at home. I would go through episodes of what many call a brain fog. Out of the blue you have no idea where you are, why you are there, how you got there, where you are going, etc and it can be in a place you frequent like driving down the road like I was first episode of it. This is a sensory processing system crash and can be mistaken for several things including a nervous breakdown, stroke, etc. That part I learned to head off finally. But I have upper torso spasms triggered by auditory and visual stimulation.
My wifes condition her quadriplegia also helped me put the pieces together. Besides motor function the first thing quads loose is their Inner Ear function which must be regained on what is called a Tilt Table. My wife like myself is a vestibular patient.
My sister {my only sibbling} is a stroke, mental health issues, and Dementia patient. I am the first one one the notification list as the Memory Care unit. Last year in the early spring I sometimes got two calls a day telling me she had fallen. Now I can understand that sometimes happen but I began to notice it was happening especially when a major weather front was coming through. I documented it then talked to my niece and the facility nursing director. The nurse thankfully understood what I was telling her so we took sis to a doctor she had been seeing. Thankfully again he listened especially when I said that Inner Ear issues runs in the family & understood what I was saying and tried her on Valium. Her fall rate went to less than once a month immediately. She was falling because balance was made worse and because of the fact she had less tolerance for being in noise which when she fell she was trying to get away from and go to her room.
Here is another interesting event that helped me understand it better later on. My last night at work I got a trouble call to a residents apartment in the retirement home. I was a maintenance mechanic. I went to the apartment and the woman was in the hallway crying. I knew her and knew this wasn't her usual self. I asked her what was wrong? She said Oh the noise please make it stop. I could not hear any unusual noise so i said OK take me to the noise. She took me to her A/C unit at the wall. I turned it off and she was fine. Was she nuts? No! I told the nurse and she said yea she came home from the hospital like that.
I left and returned to the main building to my shop to eat supper. I was sitting down propped up in a chair when someone behind the double door yelled at somebody down the hall. I was like the cartoon cat that the dog sneaks up behind and barks. Then it started. The crash. I called a relief in because by law due to boilers we had to have someone there. I called my wife and by that time I could barely speak. I was aware very aware of what was around me. and what was otherwise going on. She called my dad to come and get me. That was my last night at work ever.
I had MRI, CAT Scans, and EEG of my brainwaves done all negative. That is common in Vestibular disorders for those test to be normal. At that point the doctor said OK it's Shrink time. What did this have to do with that laddie I mentioned? Everything. She likely had a basic good old fashioned Inner Ear infection and noises were driving her nuts.
I have a cousin with this as well but not to the extent of seizures. He spent tens of thousands on trying to get help. I told him have the doctor look into your Ear Infections as a kid. Finally a semi retired GP asked all the right questions. He asked him I see you were in Nam did you wear hearing protection? Did you have ear infections as a kid? He had tubes in his ears. he asked a few more questions and said you have Vestibular Damage and it is triggering anxiety. Here take this medication and it was a Benzo.
In the case of my wife her Shrink saw her about an hour before I took her too the ER and said up the Zoloft and see you in three months. The hospital had a Shrink come in whole had never seen her. In less than 5 minutes he also said up the Zoloft. When he saw her she was back to normal because they had discontinued the Trazodone and Zoloft for almost 72 hours and was treating her with Ativan which was the only thing they did right. Next day at noon in walks nurse with Zoloft. In one hours time she was out of it thrashing and hallucinating, That was when I went home and got on line and searched Trazodone +Zoloft +adverse reactions. I credit GOD for fast answers. I found an article written by a University of Tennessee Pharmacology professor warning about Serotonin Syndrome. The hospital was associated with that same university.
None of what I posted is fabricated. It is true life experiences. Worst part of it was in the ER because she was not mentally competent to sign for treatment I could not sign for her. Strangers did and this was about 13 yearss ago. This involved two ER's. The first one we left after I found her unconscious in her wheelchair and curtains drawn closed so no one could see her. I found her and said she needs help Stat. The ER doctor came in and looked and shrugged. I said you Stupid {word I never use} do something. We took her out and to another ER. At first they helped till I was honest and said we had left a previous ER. They made a call and lost interest fast calling in Mobile crisis instead. In that time no testing was done.
When her primary care doctor finally saw her after the hospital release she was shocked and said Oh My God because she had thrashed herself against the bed and was black and blue. Antidepressants are a medication not to be taken likely by doctor or patient nor is Benzos. A doctor should not be in fear of prescribing either one if it is what the patient needs.
Both doctor and patient need to be educated as to all possible side effects and possible adverse reactions. Antidepressants are acceptable by society, media, and politicians, because everyone knows someone taking them. But Woe unto Patient Jones taking a needed Benzo and the prescribing phyisican.
Post 38 Ping. Honestly this is not directed at either of you. But this is something you might need to read just in case you ever see it happen.
The use of anxiolytics is VERY complex, as is the use of pain medicine (opiates).
In my experience, Xanax is not a great medicine for a couple of reasons.
First, it gets into the system fast, which is good, when you have a patient with say anxiety over flying in an airplane.
The big problem is it hits the same brain receptors as alcohol does, so you can figure that a person can easily get "hooked".
Its half-life is 3-5 hours, so once the effect has worn off, you're back to square one. An anxious patient who now has to deal with "rebound anxiety".
It ends up becoming a self-feeding addiction.
A patient is literally dependent on it. I rarely use it for this reason.
For truly anxious patients I go for something that lasts longer, like valium.
Low dose, and slow.
But it stays in the system longer.
For a person with generalized anxiety disorder, this is the way to go.
Not so many addiction problems.
The gold standard is some kind of anti-depressant with rare use of benzodiazepines.
Emphasis on rare.
All benzos are addictive. So use with great caution.
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