Hi

For the past 6 months I have been suffering with anxiety. It started off with the tingling of body, which panicked me into believing it was a stroke. Rushed to Emergency Room, where everything checked out fine.

Since then I have lost count on the amount of times I have visited the doctors thinking there is something wrong with me. My doctor has prescribed me 100mg elavil which seems to be working slowly, but saying that I have only been on them 5 weeks. Starting at a dosage of 25mg for 2 weeks, then 50mg for 1 week then 75 mg for 1 week then upto the 100mg in the last 3 days.

Some of my symptoms seems to be alarming me, so I am writing here today for some reassurance that anyone can give and how long did it take for the medication work.

Symptoms

Severe muscle tension in neck and shoulders
Pulling sensation in throat, behind nose and eyes
Numbness feeling to cheeks, whereas I can feel to touch but when I let go it feels like its numb.
Pressure in base of skull and upper jaw
Scared of going out on my own just in case something happens to me.

Also the pulling sensation in throat, nose and eyes only seems to happen when I am anxious, like at a shopping mall and I have to stand in a queue before being served, but when I finally get to the front and start packing my bags I sort of go alright. Can anyone relate to any of this because I am feeling rather lonely at the moment because my partner doesn't properly understand even though he does try.

goodmorning and welcome to the club :( all your symptoms match symptoms many of us have on bad days we get all of them at the same time and good days well fewer symptoms make the day easier.How long has it been since you developed symptoms?
Tyna

Hi Tyna

Thank you for your reply.

I would say it has been on and off now since August 04, but been getting worse since October. That is when the doctor prescribed me Paxil to begin with but I was having worse panic attacks with Paxil than without.

So I decided to try and beat it myself, but to no avail :-( So I started elavil approx December 15th, which it seems to have lifted the depression and some of the tension but not all.

The most bothersome symptom is the pulling sensation behind nose and eyes when standing in a queue, it seems to take a hold of you in seconds.

By god now I know what my mum use to go through when she has one. You don't really understand how scary panic attacks are until you suffer with them.

Does elavil help with these symptoms because my doc seems to think that the pulling sensations in nose and eyes are muscle spasms from my neck and that the medication will help relax the muscles. Also I have a night guard because I seem to be a constant clencher which also isn't good for the head and neck muscles.

Evonne

Yes, yes, yes to all those symptoms.

I have 24/7 face tightness, 24/7 eye pressure (both eyes), 24/7 ear fullness (both ears), 24/7 neck tightness, 24/7 whole head tightness.

I tried wearing the mouth guard ( $500 out of pocket), and it made my head pressure worse in the morning.

I tried the cheapy "football" mouthguards. No luck there either.

In 2004, I started taking Effexor XR before bed ( for depression-anxiety and for muscle relaxation-clenching)

This is the only thing I've found to work for me. All of the tightness everywhere is still there 24/7 , just not to the point of not wanting to get out of bed and face the day.

:wave:

Are you getting any talk therapy?I am stopping the SSRIs with the doctors help it seems i am intollerant from the reaction i had to two well known drugs anyways therapy has really made a huge difference for me i went from not wanting to get out of bed in the morning because i dreaded facing the day to actually starting to funtion and get out.Learning coping mechanisims helps so much you learn to deal with panick triggers and physical symptoms without going into a full blown attack.I have a social phobia among other things and actually joined a gym this morning with a trainer, i had explained my condition beforehand in case a freaked out and bolted which didn't happen even with all the people and loud music.The exercise kept me focused so i got through my hour without an even which is huge for me, i haven;t been out to eat in years or movies because of my panic so i was very pleased with myself today all of this was made possible because in the past few months through therapy i learned alot about myself and my anxiety problem.Medication helps alot of people but should be used with therapy to increase your chances of leading a normal productive life
Tyna