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Weird symptoms or just normal? + Medication

I'm having a constant kind of pressure inside my chest, as well as chest pain, no difficulty to breath, no cought.. but the chest pain and thightness inside the chest is worse in the late afternoon and really bad in the evening... I'm also extremely tired physically and just take my shower or climb the stairs make my heart pounding very fast and hard and make me a lot tired as well as increasing my headache... I'm having a pounding heart (almost all the time now), can feel my heart beat in my head, also have a kind of numbness of the scalp of my head (all the time) and also eyes pain...i'm a lot dizzy,my headache increase when I have to get out of the house or when I use my computer or watch the TV, and i'm having those strong tinnitus in my ears all the time also, it's like a buzzing sound who never stop...

Is it normal to have all ot this? I know my panic disorder is extreme since 1 year, but those kind of symptoms never happen to me before... I had only mild panic who never last more than 10 minutes and was free of anxiety or symptoms after those panic... now the symptoms are chronic and worse each week...

Also, I will see my PDoc tomorrow. He want me on the Paxil again, but can't take more than 1 mg/day because it's increasing the cardiovascular symptoms as well as the headache and the number of panic attakcs... What I can do to lower the side-effects of the Paxil? Is it normal to have increase anxiety with a small dose of 1 mg or it's purely psychological? Don't want to take 5 mg and go to the emergency because my heart go crazy, like it happen some months ago...

I need also some advise for the Benzo meds... I'm on 8 mg of Rivotril/day. I know, it's a high dose and benzo meds should never be RX for more than 3-4 weeks, but I take them since 5 years now and i'm addicted to the Rivotril. The PDoc don't want that I decrease my dosage, he say that it will give to me more rebound anxiety... He say that I need to stay at 8 mg and wait until the Paxil work to stop the panic... but I wonder if I should ask to have some Valium, maybe 40 mg, who is the same as 2 mg of Rivotril... will cut the rivotril to 6 mg and add the 40 mg of Valium in small dose of 5 mg every 2 hours or so, the long half-life of the Valium will reduce the rebound anxiety maybe or the interdose anxiety?  That's weird cause the Rivotril is the only one Benzo meds who pop -out on me after 3-4 months of use... I was on the Valium for 2 years... had try also other ones like the Xanax or the Ativan for months and they never stop working for the anxiety, they was worse for the sedative and cognitive effects, but they had always the same anti-anxiety effect on me, but the Rivotril is really weak... and make me depress as well...

Anyway, thanks for any kind of advise!!!
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Avatar universal
Oupps... I should not write long message like the ones I just wrote... I just had a panic attack... Each time I focus too much on my laptop screen or a book or TV, i'm having panic... really weird... The PDoc think it's because i'm over focused on my body sensations... when I stop focusing on the screen and look at something else, I feel an adrenaline shoot inside my chest and panic start... and the headache increase of course... I hate that!!!

Anxiety does bad things... the power of minds is incredible... sometimes I just wish that I will find one day a button to shut my minds off and stop thinking and worries about everything...

Its my dream! lol
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Avatar universal
Another time, sorry for the mistakes... I mean that I try the Zoloft at 200 mg day and not 20 mg!!! ;-) Had anorexia with the Zoloft... manic-episode, even if i'm not bi-polar... it was a way too activating for me... Same for the Prozac... In other hand, the Lexapro was the worse cause I was so lazy on it and it did nothing for the anxiety, nothing at all, I was feeling worse, especially for the social phobia... also gain a lot of weight on it...

That's strange how peoples react differently to meds... for some peoples, the Lexapro will be the best SSRI... for others it will be the worse... same for the Paxil... really strange...
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Avatar universal
Hi ;-)
        You're right! Like I answer to you in another post, I will have my bloodwork test results in 1 week for the cortisol, the TSH, T3, T4 as well as other tests... If the cortisol level if higher than normal or lower, I will ask to have a reference paper to an Endocrinologist for sure... Will also ask for food allergies test as well as maybe lungs x-ray again, had 2 of them this year... and they are fine but well...don't want to miss something important.

Sometimes I think I have maybe hypoglicemia but I admit that I eat a lot of sugar food and strangely i'm loosing a lot of weight, especially since 4 months, more than 20 pounds and I do nothing, no exercises, not going out of the house, and I eat all the time... I don't understand what happen.. since I always gain weight very easily... had morbid obesity.... Anyway, sometimes, 1-2 hours after I eat something with sugar inside, I feel weaker than usual, like I can fel the adrenaline shoot inside my chest... and I take the blood sugar test machine of my mom and take my blood sugar level and i'm normal... I take it often when I wake up and i'm in the normal range also... so it's seem to not be linked to sugar...

Also have to take an appointment again with the Cardiologist, since a lot of my anxiety is linked to cardiovascular symptoms (slow heart beat, pressure in the head, heart beat on the head, clammy hands and feet all the time, eyes pain like pressure behind them).

For the meds, I try in the past all the SSRI's meds (Prozac, who was horrible for my anxiety, Luvox who was bad also and full of side-efects, Celexa who was a disaster for my anxiety, the Zoloft who was also very very bad for my anxiety and the Lexapro who was the worse of all of them!!!). The Paxil is the only one SSRI's who decrease the OCD and stop the panic... but it's hard to start it since i'm so anxious right now that everything I put in my mouth trigger panic, even foods... That's why he want me to start at 1 mg and increase very slowly... normally 12,5 mg work ok to stop the panic and worries... Note that I try all of them for more than 4 months and reach high dose (Prozac = 80 mg, Zoloft = 20 mg, Celexa 60 mg, Lexapro = 40 mg, Luvox = 300 mg)...

Of course, I try all the olders antidepressants meds, including the dangerous MAOI's like the Nardil or the Parnate, who almost killed me with a lot of hypertensives crisis without foods interraction... Had to be rush to the emergency several times on the Parnate, at one point, I had 190/120 of blood pressure, the headache was so strong.... thanks god, I had a med to decrease rapidly the blood pressure in emergency case, it was call Nefipidine... That's saved my life 4 times at least...

The TCA's was also a bad experience for me, the Imipramine, Clomipramine and the ones who hit more the Noradrenaline was by far the worse meds I try in my life... on the Nortriptyline or the Despiramine, I had fast heart rate of 160 and more at rest...

I seem to be very sensible to the adrenaline effect... especially the meds who touch the adrenoreceptors of type 1 and 2... The Remeron was also a very bad experience, probably because of the action on those receptors... and the Desyrel was also very bad for my anxiety... especially the next morning anxiety...

I also try off-label some meds as well... some Dopamine agonist (Mirapex) who was a disaster, I had strong panic disorder on it all the time and weird mania like buying expensive things...

I try also almost all the Beta-blockers meds and the Clonidine, who is an agonist of the a2 receptor... who decrease the blood pressure and pulse rate...

But well, for me all the SSRI's was like candy... I never had a problem with them, even with the Paxil... I think the BAD experience from the Parnate (hypertensive crisis), trigger on me a meds phobia as well as the cardiophobia, since I had to carry everywhere with me the blood pressure machine, especially at the restaurant, in case I felt an increase of my blood pressure... so I have probably psychological side-effects to meds now...

For the Benzo... I was addicted to the Xanax after 2 months of use at 12 mg in 2008... the withdraw was a nightmare... wasn't able to speak for 1 month... poor memory, tremors... but no panic attack and no cardiovascular effect as well...

The Valium worked great for 2 years... but when panic disorder start again last year, my Valium intake was 30 mg and it was not enought to control the panic when I was out of the house... so I ask to be back on the Rivotril... who was a big mistake... I admit it...  The Ativan have a weird effect on me, not good for the anxiety, I feel like i'm drunk on it... more tired, more headache and more dizziness who trigger panic...the xanax also give me the same kind of effect... but not the Rivotril... I don't know what to do...

I think I should stay on the Rivotril 8 mg for now and just start the Paxil very slowly... I was on 6-8 mg of Rivotril from 2005 to 2007... and I remember that at the end, I had the same kind of weird chronic headache... so I don't know if it can be linked to the Rivotril or not?!?...  Will talk about it with the PDoc tomorrow... We don't have anought of choice for the Benzo meds... the older ones don't work very well for panic.. they tend to make you very sleepy...

Of course, I was on high dose of Neurontin 3 years ago... who do nothing for my social phobia or my anxiety... I had just pins and needles on it at 3600 mg day... Same thing happen with the Lyrica, no effect for the anxiety and the same pins and needles. On the Topamax I had also the same effect...

The only meds I never try are the older ones for treating the seizure like the Valproic acid or the newer ones like the trileptal... but my PDoc say that if I can't tolerate the Paxil, I will probably never be able to deal with the side-effects of those meds...

For now, my Therapist take a break from work... If fact, she take another job so i'm on the waiting list to see a new one... Since it's a public service and I don't pay to see a Psychologist every 2 weeks, I have to wait... and of course, I can't work with all my chronic symptoms so I have no money to pay a private Therapist...

Yeah, I will keep you update!!!

Thanks again greenlydia!!! ;-)

Take care of you!!!
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370181 tn?1595629445
I suggest you get a thorough medical work-up to rule out any organic reason for your symptoms, especally since you have not had them before. Many of them can be caused by anxiety, but too many doctors are taking the lazy way out and just diagnosing anxiety without any further testing. Sadly, once they know you've dx'd with anxiety, they tend to put everything down to that. It's not fair to you as the patient and it's unprofessional of them.

If you seem to have some problems with Paxil, you need to make sure your p-doc really understands this. There are many other medications he could try you on. Taking a medication that you have doubts about will create anxiety for you and that totally defeats the purpose. It is your right to tell your doctor you don't want to take a particular medication. Don't let his credentials bully you into taking something that does not feel right to you. They know way more about psychiatry then we do, but WE are the only ones who know ourselves the best.

As far as the benzo medication, again, that is going to have to be something you discuss at great length with your p-doc. He IS right about the Rivoitril.........you can't just stop taking that cold turkey, you need to taper. If you did, the rebound anxiety would be a nightmare. Xanax is a med that is great for the short term and excellent on a PRN (as needed) basis, but you do NOT want to take it daily for longer than 4 months. Talk to your doctor about long term benzos such as Klonopin.

The only correct answerr here is that you have to work this out with your p-doc. We are all different and it can often take a fairly long time to get the right combination of meds working for you. Patience is the key, which is very difficult. Just don't give up. It will get better.
Are you in therapy? You might also discuss that with your p-doc.
Let us know how you're doing and write us anytime.
Peace
Greenlydia  
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