Please I need some answers... - Panic Disorders Message Board

Karima · 09-03-2002, 09:00 AM

Hi,
I have experienced anxiety/panic attacks most of my adult life and they come and go. Sometimes lasting weeks and months and then I am fine maybe for a year or so. I have severe episodes of agoraphobia and when the panic attacks start up, I stay home..and I mean I don't even go out to get the mail just in case....

The only med I have ever taken for these times is Valium which has always helped. But not anymore. I want my life back, Valium is a great helper for that moment of anxiety but I am at the mercy of the anxiety. And now because of 3 recent deaths in the last 4 years, my mother, only sister and her husband(who was like my father to me)plus a divorce, I am probably depressed. Anxious and depressed at the same time?

I have a doctors appointment tommorrow morning, originally made for a general checkup, haven't been there since February. I know when I tell him this he is going to want to prescribe something...again. I am horrified of anti-depressants, etc...but I am also worn out living like this.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to a med that might help without the devastating side effects I read about at various boards...any med that I take, even anti-histamines has to be a childs dose because I am so sensitive.
Last night I had 3 panic attacks in a row. That has not happened in over 10 years and is not a good sign. I no sooner got through one, racing heart, shaking, fright and about 15 minutes later another one came on and the last one although by then it wasn't as bad. But I had to take 5mg. of Valium to stop trembling inside and out.

I would appreciate any advice....thanks..

andreaphilip3 · 09-03-2002, 09:35 AM

im so sorry 2 hear you go through that, its terrible. we're here 4 ya

i take xanax.

Karima · 09-03-2002, 09:42 AM

Thank you so much for the reply. Everyone seems to be taking Xanax and many doing well. I saw the lowest dose at .25, my math is awful...is .5 less than that?
Is it possible to be depressed and anxious at the same time and does Xanax help with that?

Just knowing I have to go out in the a.m., my worst time of day, has me already shaky...I am thisclose to cancelling...sound like a child...

Aster · 09-03-2002, 11:38 AM

I am terribly sorry your life is so filled with anxiety. Please keep posting; we care and feel for you. We know a little about these awful feelings you're having.
Xanax is fantastic for anxiety. But over time it becomes addictive. That is, SOMETIMES you need to increase your dosage for it to work as well as it used to. .50 is half of a milligram; .25 is 1/4 of a milligram.
I am finding as a DECADES long user of X that my daytime dose, if I take it during the day, remains constant. But for sleep I have problems with it. My sleep is not as refreshing as it was with taking nothing at all. And I need to use varying doses before dawn; it's a crazy time for me: I never know how much I'll need at 4am. Depends on what I'm thinking about.
If I had it to do over again I'd never have taken that first pill. But if I hadn't, what would have happened to me back then? I shudder to think.
Best Wishes,

------------------
Aster

andreaphilip3 · 09-03-2002, 01:20 PM

it is definiely possible to suffer both, believe me, i think im gettin there myself. unfortunately, xanax doesnt help depression. as far as doses go, it goes .25-2mg. i myself take .5 as needed with daily doses of .25-1.25 and sometimes need to use a low dose of atarax as well.