Anxiety problems and Wellbutrin SR questions

[imanursenscared1]

Hi all. Thanks for any advice or suggestions, really appreciated, I think this website is wonderful.
I was on Celexa 20 mg for a year, and quit it cold turkey in December. Had some dizziness from doing that, but felt okay otherwise. Until a few weeks later...which my doctor said wasn't withdrawl because it would be out of my system, but just how I feel being off an antidepressant period. Anyways, I started having bad anxiety. I believe I have always had a degree of anxiety, but able to cope with it, this past month and a half has been awful with my anxiety. I am a 27 y/o female. I started having left shoulder blade pain, which my DR said was muscle tension from being so anxious. Then I left for vacation, went on a cruise, and on the cruise started having fleeting random pains in my left elbow, wrist, and a couple of the fingers. So I got VERY anxious and scared, thinking it was my heart, went to the medical center, got an EKG, it was normal. They gave me a few Flexeril for muscle spasms, and sent me on my way to enjoy rest of vacation. The random pains still lingered, but not as frequent or as bad..and the shoulder blade pain seemed to have went away. When I got back, the shoulder blade pain came back and the arm pains still lingered. Follw up with my DR he said I have trigger points in my back which send pain to random places throughout the body depending on nerve pathways. Also got seen at an URGI CARE because I think I had an anxiety attack-rapid heartbeat, scared feeling, breathing rapidly not short of breath though, a little pressure lower left chest but very mild. They did another EKG, was normal again, said anxiety and sent me on my way. Followed up yet again with my doctor, he definetly says this is all related to depression and anxiety and put me on Wellbutrin SR 150 mg twice a day, and is going to add Buspar if in a month I don't feel better. My hubby and I are planning on trying to get pregnant soon, so that's why we aren't trying Xanax or anything like that. Anyways, I am on day 5 of the Wellbutrin, and the past two nights I have had some trouble sleeping. I don't have a problem falling asleep, but several times throughout the night I find myself waking up for no reason, then dozing back off. I never usually have a problem with waking up during the night. I have read this is a common side effect...but was wondering what other people's experiences were with the drug. I take it at 11 am and 11 pm, maybe I should take them at earlier times? Any input or personal stories welcome and appreciated! Also if anyone can let me know if all those physical symptoms can be traced to the anxiety/depression, if it has happened to them before etc etc. SORRY SO LONG. I also posted this in depression forum too.

[Paxiled]

I've never taken wellbutrin.  It's known as a stimulating anti-depressant, and as such isn't usually used when the primary problem is anxiety.  So that could be your problem.  But as to the withdrawal, often the emotional part of withdrawal follows later than the physiological aspects.  That happened to me, and often happens with a protracted withdrawal.  So your problem, given that you developed something you didn't have before you quit taking the med, suggests it could very well be withdrawal.  If so, treating it with a different type of med is unlikely to be effective, though it might.  Body pain and trouble sleeping are also common symptoms of protracted withdrawals.  Some people recover quickly, some don't, when they quit taking these meds, and it's worse for those who quit cold turkey.  There's one way to find out, though you may not like the option, which is to go back on the Celexa and see if your symptoms go away.  If they do, it's withdrawal, and you needed to come of it much more slowly.  By the way, doctors continue to give out Buspar, but check the research -- other than augmenting an ssri, this med has very poor showings in studies.  Now, you are you, and not anyone else, so take this as just something that might be helpful, but it also might not.

[Paxiled]

I should add, no psychiatrist I've ever met has ever heard of protracted withdrawals, or they just won't admit it, but it's in the diagnostic manual.  It's usually associated with addictive substances, but ssris and snris might as well be called addictive given the difficulty of coming off them.  So you might have to tell your psychiatrist to google protracted withdrawal syndrome -- and even then he or she might refuse to do any homework, as I've run into that pretty much universally as well.

[imanursenscared1]

Thanks for the response. I've already started the Wellbutrin, so I really don't want to stop that, and go back on the Celexa at this time. But I did think of that before he gave me the Wellbutrin, of just going back on it and weaning off. Do you think these physical symptoms could also be due to the anxiety? I read up a lot on anxiety, being that this is relatively new to me ( I have felt that I have had anxiety for a good part of my life, a chronic worrier, but not to this degree)....anyways I read up on anxiety, and see that it can manifest in many symptoms, with everyone being different. I was just wondering what it has caused in others, because it is hard to accept that all of this is due to that.

[birdie0907]

The physical symptoms you refer to are pretty common with anxiety. Chest pains, then overanalyzing yourself to the point every twitch or ouch becomes a thing of wonder then a trip to ER where the docs say you are healthy and just suffering from anxiety. I went thru the same, but when I got the all clear on the heart I never worried about it again and the pains disappeared. Not everyone can take the leap of faith and accept the diagnosis because of the nature of anx making you more watchful of your body, but if you can the pains will disappear magically.
Anxiety and dep go hand in hand feeding off each other, so it is confusing to the victim who is trying to sort out how they feel when they go to doc for meds. you didn't mention why you were on Celexa. It works for both disorders, btw. Probably wellbut does too, but I am just guessing.
I couldn't get wellbut to last past 4 pm when the veil of dep would come crashing in every single day. It was so frightening that I would take an ativan to recover and after a while I had anxiety and dep mixed up so much I couldn't tell which I hated the most. Eventually I became the world's worst employee, spending 50 seconds out of every minute fighting anxiety but I managed to survive 8 weeks then switched to Celexa which gave partial relief within a week but like everyone else, I had to take it for it to build for a month or so before I got full benefit.
I see wellbut advertises they have the least side effects, so if that one works for you, great.

[birdie0907]

As per paxiled's latter response, I also doubt you got a late withdrawal effect. Most likely you need a med to function, at least at this stage in your life, so it is probably the lack of med that caused the big worries you got 3 weeks later.
When I went off Celexa (which worked very well for me) I was high as a kite for weeks and asked my pharmacist if that was the real me now uninhibited from the dep and anx which had plagued me before I had taken Celexa, which in turn taught me how to be happy again. I was now wiser than before about how to be happy from all the meditation and other relaxation books I had been reading, so my theory was I was stronger than I had ever been in history. Unfortunately, you have to self diagnose your feelings, so I will never know if I was correct, but the pharmacist who had helped me thru a few rough Q&A moments with helpful answers said it was very possible.
Who needs meds when you are naturally happy and have the tools to fight unhappy curve balls? was my thinking. So I keep all that in mind as a tool whenever an unpleasant mental experience shows up to try to stay level. You really have to work at staying happy or free from anxiety. Which brings me to the point for you. Until you can accept the doc's diagnosis that there is nothing wrong (except anxiety) you will keep overanalyzing your physical body events (like pains and twitches) and that devil anxiety will have a good time feeding worries.
Of course some people are hard-wired to be anxious, so don't think it is a given that anx can be beaten, because some of these people fight it as best they can and either can't find a med that works, or the hard-wiring just forcefeeds worries into their mind to keep the vicious circle intact.