Can I have some advice about my psych med mix?

[colleendawn813]

I have been through every ssri in the past 20 years. I am now on pristiq 75mg and lamictal 300 mg in addition to Ativan as needed. My anxiety is coming back unfortunately. My psychiatrist wants me to take gabapentin. It seems like she is just guessing at this point. Any suggestions? I know we are not doctors but I figure someone may be going through something similar. Thank you.

[courtneyjay]

I do not recommend Gabapentin, i'm currently taking it and trying to get myself off of it and I've been experiencing the worst attacks. My heart rate gets up to 130 beats and i've been on it for a year. I came across an article explaining why it isn't a good drug to take as it has bad effects to your brain. getting off it has been causing me the worst panic attacks of my life.

[Paxiled]

if Pristiq worked and didn't make your more anxious it's possible you're more depressed than anxious -- a lot of anxiety sufferers are primarily depressed.  As for gabapentin, my psychiatrist suggested that for me as well because I have an unusual problem caused by medication and she was out of ideas.  It is commonly used for anxiety, though that's not its approved use.  The only way out of this trap for you is either to find a physiological cause behind all this, such as thyroid problems, etc., or to seek a fix through therapy or other modalities since it appears these meds poop out on you.  But yeah, that's a common adjunct drug for anxiety.

[colleendawn813]

Thank you so much for responding. Physically all is well. My pdoc thinks it’s bipolar 2 but I don’t get manic. I have pretty much all the anxieties(social, health, generalized etc) she doesn’t want to go higher in the pristiq or lamictal just add another drug. Feel like a guinea pig sometimes. And I think you are right about the depression. Thanks again.

[Paxiled]

I wouldn't dwell too much on the bipolar 2 idea, this is a fad with psychiatrists nowadays.  Mine tried to diagnose me with it a few years ago and I showed no signs at all of it.  It's a diagnosis mostly flowing from pharmaceutical companies trying to sell more antipsychotics to go along with antidepressants.  But it does indicate your psychiatrist thinks you have a depression problem.  The reason I mentioned it is that the snri category, which Pristiq is part of, tend to be stimulating drugs because they target norepinephrine receptors as well as serotonin receptors, and the former is basically part of adrenaline.  Depressed people tend to do well on something that gives them some up while anxiety sufferers tend to not do so well on it.  We're all guinea pigs, because these drugs don't treat a cause  -- we don't know the cause -- they only temper the symptoms.  Bipolar 2 doesn't involve manic behavior -- that's true bipolar -- it's more being irritable or angry or aggressive, which my own opinion is that when you have a chronic mental health problem that makes your life go south you pretty much tend to get angry and irritable, right?  This is my opinion, though, and it could be very wrong.  I didn't take the gabapentin, but it might have helped.  But like the other meds you've been on, this one tends to need to be upped every so often and poops out for many people.  It's approved use is for certain types of nerve pain, but as I say, it is commonly used for anxiety.  Lots of people on this forum are on it.  Good luck.