Anxiety and medication journeys

Posted , 5 users are following.

I've started this thread as the other one "Any one taking Escitilopram and Mirtazapine " has got so long.

A bit of my background.

I am 57 and have suffered from anxiety and depression for many years.

This escalated when I was diagnosed with breast cancer aged 43.

It escalated again when I lost my mum last year.

I was initially taking Citalopram, Tamazepam, and Zopiclone.

This was after a while changed to, Citalopram, Diazepam and Zolpidem.

After a few years, I was changed to a different AD, but after a few months it was obvious it wasn't working for me.

I was then put on Sertraline, which I could not tolerate at all.

I was then put on Trazadone along with Diazepam still.

This worked well, until on a visit to my GP at the end of May I mentioned my anxiety had been playing up again.

He took me off Trazadone cold turkey..... big mistake!

Put me on Mirtazapine, after a few weeks increased the Mirtazapine which sent my anxiety rocketing!

I was referred to the mental health nurse specialist at my surgery who told me to taper off Mirtazapine and introduced Escitilopram at 10mg daily.

For two weeks I was a wreck, I had horrendous withdrawal from the Trazadone and on top of that withdrawal from Mirtazapine and side effects from starting Escitilopram!

My GP then introduced Quetiapine too, as I was running on pure adrenaline , having daily panic attacks etc.,

So now I am currently on,

Escitilopram, Diazepam and Quetiapine.

Things appear to be settling down, into my 6th week of Escitilopram.

But my sleep is still a big issue, go off to sleep but am awake a few hours later!

Well that's my background of my journey with Anxiety and medication, I have a appointment with the mental health nurse specialist this afternoon, so will see what he has to say.

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  • Posted

    Hi All,

    How is everyone feeling?

    I'm still a little anxious and gutted about the holiday, but we've decided that we'll just try short breaks in this country first!

    Really was too soon to go abroad!

    No amount of medication was going to help unfortunately.

    Ann I hope your not struggling too much xxx

  • Posted

    Hi ,

    Haven't posted for a while, after the disaster of not being able to go on holiday due to heightened anxiety.

    Took a few weeks for me to stabilise again.

    My mental health nurse specialist wasn't surprised I wasn't able to go on holiday as he said it was only a few weeks before that I'd actually managed to catch a bus by myself.

    On top of this my best friends nephew took his own life.

    Initially after not being able to go on holiday I increased my Quetiapine every other day by one extra tablet in the morning and at night.

    I'm now back to my original dosage of 50mg in the morning and 100mgs at night.

    Along with 2mg Diazepam and it was 10mg of Escitilopram but today my GP increased that to 20mg a day.

    Hoping I don't get any side effects from the increase.

    See my GP again next Friday.

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