Amazed new member

nanny

2008-01-25 06:29:29 UTC

Hi Julie and all. This is my first time to visit this group, too. I don't
know why I haven't been here sooner. I've lived with anxiety and panic
attacks for most of my life. At their worst some years back, a doctor
prescribed a combination of Paxil and Doxepin, which calmed me down and
smoothed off the rough edges of my anxiety. Those meds were satisfactory
for many years.

But now, I am starting to get the anxiety attacks off and on again. They
sneak up on you. Most of the time, I can't identify what caused it; it just
hits you unexpected. That happened to me yesterday, and it scared me, as
usual thinking I was having a heart attack. Got in to see my doctor today
and he started me on Ativan (generic), first time I've been on that family
of drugs. He told me to stop Doxepin, but to stay on Paxil. He prescribed
.5 mg. twice a day, and I noticed nothing different today. I have a feeling
that is a very low dose. I see him again in 2 weeks for a re-evaluation.
BTW, Julie, I have found out from experience that it isn't worth it to
"fight" the symptoms and try to go without your med. It only makes you even
more anxious to do so.

Is Ativan a good one? How does it compare with Xanax? What dosages do you
people take? This is new to me, so I'll probably stick around and see
what's going on and gain some valuable information. Sorry this is so long,
but it's my introduction to the group. I'm known as Nanny, and I frequent
alt.med.fibromyalgia and alt.support.arthritis. I'm a wife, mom, and
grandma and my hobby is reading. Nice to meet you all. Nanny

Post by G***@gmail.com
Hi
I just joined the group this morning. I just finished reading the faq
about an hour ago....and thought it was really great! I can use so
much of the information and can see how it will help greatly.
On the other hand, reading the faq went fine and positive but
simultaneously my flutterbys (what I call it when my stomach is doing
that strange rolling twitch thing) started building up.
When I finished reading the faq I had a full set of symptoms
immediately. Hypomania was triggered, flutterbys, headache, pacing.
Now I'm afraid I'm worse than I thought if reading something made me
trigger like that.
I spend alot of time doing reading and gathering information on being
bipolar and anxiety-panic as a co-disorder. None of those readings
affected me as far as triggering symptoms.
I tried an experiment: After the FAQ reading tweak out, I looked at my
bottle of Klonipin and thought " I dare you". So I went to my 20 year
old son and asked him if I could babble at him for a bit to distract
me, and see how long I could resist the urge to medicate the panic
away. I talked so much even I couldn't believe it (about how weird my
reaction was, how I was feeling right then, if it was passing/fading
etc). I am not usually a jiggle person (jiggle leg, tap foot, tap
pencil etc.) and I found myself swinging one foot back and forth about
6 inches as I babbled. Then I started to cry and hugged my son, the
world's biggest teddy bear with a huge heart, and he held me and
reassured me. slowly the flutterbys faded....and left me with
hypomania that is just insane.
I sat at my desk, and realized my arms were tense around myself and my
whole body was ready to spring out of my chair at any minute. At this
point I had to take a klonipin...the hyper was making me start to lose
it again.
I went 30 minutes after the episode started before I relented to a
klonipin.
I was amazed, to tell the truth. I hate hate hate that flutterby
stuff...and I withstood that part.
I'm shocked.
I am so glad I found this group
Julie