Please Help!

Hello dontwantaname

I am so sorry you are suffering.

I'm wondering, are you on any meds? Did this all happen to you after taking meds?

I discovered that I was reacting to the citalopram. It had caused me to develop a condition I'd never heard of called akathisia. I had to find this out on my own. Akathisia causes an intense need to move all the time and    a feeling that it's impossible to sit or lie still. This is because of dreadful feelings inside all the time. It's accompanied by intense feelings of doom and darkness and suicidal ideation. It's caused by psych meds. All antidepressants and antipsychotics can cause it. It can happen in withdrawal from meds too.

i got off the citalopram and the psychiatrist said it couldn't possibly be the drug that had done this. He then put me on more meds (sertraline and quetiapine) which made things much worse for me. I got off those and now have severe withdrawal syndrome on top. I eventually found a psychiatrist who said it absolutely was down to the drugs. The previous osychiatrist sort of admitted it in the end, too.

i don't know if this is what has happened to you? I started off with anxiety and depression which happened after I took antibiotics and reacted to them. But then I was getting through. What I did was keep making myself dress and go out. I visited people. I used to go in and out of it. I would have recovered if I had never taken meds.

i just wondered, given your description, if you were either on meds or have stopped any that you were on?

Hello,

Thank you for such a fast reply!

I am currently on Sertraline 50mg a day, but unlike yourself this did not start when I started taking the meds, I just feel that the meds are making no difference to me. It came on all of a sudden at work and caused me to quit my job the next day and hasn't gone away for a month, but this month feels like it has been about 2 years, just getting through each minute seems impossible.

I really really struggle to get dressed and go out, and when I do I struggle to stay out for more than half an hour, maybe an hour at most. my life feels ruined. I am sorry that you have had to deal with this for so long as it truly is awful.

It is now concerning me what you have said about the meds as the doctor has told me to be persistent and that they take 4 - 6 weeks to start working properly, but reading your experience I feel that maybe I should not stay on them, this is so confusing.

 

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry you. Your situation may be different from mine. I did have symptoms before I went on the meds. They were just different from what I have now. I had loads of nausea, derealisation and other stuff.

i wouldn't like to suggest anything regarding your meds. It doesn't sounds like they are affecting you like they did me. I didn't mean to scare you. My situation is different so try not to worry.

do you do anything to distract?

Thats fine, I dont think i've read much that hasn't worried me!

and i try my best to distract myself but it is virtually impossible, I am practically bed-bound. I know staying in bed isn't going to solve anything but I feel too weak and tired to do anything, even though I cant sleep.

The doctor isn't really helping either, he told me i'm going crazy and doubled the dose of my sertraline yesterday and gave me temazepam for sleep and recommended 1 tab, i took 3 and still didnt sleep.

I think the worst part of this is that nobody seems to understand, even people that I know that have major depression seem to have different symptoms and say that they dont understand my symptoms

Im really stuck with what to do.

thank you for trying to help I really appreciate it

Thats fine, I dont think i've read much that hasn't worried me!

and i try my best to distract myself but it is virtually impossible, I am practically bed-bound. I know staying in bed isn't going to solve anything but I feel too weak and tired to do anything, even though I cant sleep.

The doctor isn't really helping either, he told me i'm going crazy and doubled the dose of my sertraline yesterday and gave me temazepam for sleep and recommended 1 tab, i took 3 and still didnt sleep.

I think the worst part of this is that nobody seems to understand, even people that I know that have major depression seem to have different symptoms and say that they dont understand my symptoms

Im really stuck with what to do.

thank you for trying to help I really appreciate it

I hope I don't offend anyone but I hate how doctors push medication on to people, I know some need helped a lot and saved many lives, but they are filling their bank accounts and I don't think many docs really care about making people better. Do some research on children and ADHD meds, it's crazy, it changes them. I would give anything to help, mind, body and soul, that's not even recognized anymore

Dear Dont,

I feel just this same way & it is so hard to cope. Every day seems like a nightmare. I am constantly thinking about suicide, but then I wonder if I already killed myself and that's why I feel like I'm in hell. I see my loved ones, and I wonder am I in my own personal hell. I can't talk to anyone about this, because I don't want to worry them. I wonder if it's possible to be in a kind of hell in your own mind?

Hi dontwantaname I know this is an old post but I was wondering if you ever found any relief from the problems you were having causing you to suffer. I also wondered if anyone has told you that you don't have to necessarily be new to a medication for it to cause side effects. What I mean is you can be on a certain medication at a stable dose for a relatively long period of time & suddenly begin to experience side effects. I understand that typically most side effects are seen when a patient is first introduced to a drug or is prescribed an additional drug or increase in dose of a drug but there are cases where patients developed side effects years after they began the medication prescribed to them.

I'm particularly interested because I've been reading this thread & am very sympathetic to the side effect called akasthesia which the original poster ultimately discovered she had due to a medication prescribed to her. If I hadn't seen her post where she finally figured it out I was going to post ITS AKASTHESIA FROM THE MEDICATION!!!!

I have experienced this side effect myself. I had been prescribed a medication & had successfully taken it for half a year when I suddenly developed severe akasthesia. It was the worst feeling I have ever in my entire life had. I'm a registered nurse & can usually figure out what is wrong with me fairly quickly due to being very knowledgeable in pharmacology & Had no reason to suspect it was the medication I had been taking for so long because like most people I figured if I were going to have side effects from a med they would have presented themselves in the very first/early stages of medication therapy. However there is an exception to every rule which I should have already known but it's very hard if not impossible to think rationally when one is experiencing active akasthesia. Like I said worst thing I have ever ever ever experienced.

Anyway I hope you have improved by now. If there is anything I can help with feel free to ask I will try to lend my expertise & medical experience in helping you figure out which path to take to get some relief.

Thank you so much. I pray, others are praying for me, I have healing, I try everything. I'm told this gets better in time. I'm in touch with others who were severely injured by meds and in time, lots of time, it got better.

Thank you Tracey. I'm so sorry you are having a dreadful time too. I can't risk medication as it was medication that did this to me. I didn't know what was happening but I discovered everything I was going through was side effects of the drugs. It all started on antibiotics and citalopram and valium made it all much worse. Then more drugs were added and it kept getting worse. So I'm med free and fighting for my life. Everyone on here is so kind and supportive..I really appreciate it.

All of our problems starts out with maybe headaches or fatigue, we go to a doctor because they are supposed to make us feel better, the doc sends you home with a script for pain pills or depression meds, they have side effects that make us feel worse so we go back, just to be given stronger more addicting meds, after that your life turns into a disaster and we are addicted and screwed

Hi meteor just wondering how you are doing now?