The wild, wild world of anxiety meds!

[Warbirdwf]

It's amazing how many posts are anxiety med related. I've been dealing with my anxiety episode for 8 months now. It's my belief that it started after I discontinued Prozac after 3 years for stres (w/out weaning) due to sexual side effects. At about the time Prozac was fully out of my body and tissues, I was crushed with the starting of my current situation. I wish I would have put two and two together when this started and went back on Prozac to see if this anxiety would have went back away...! From there I was put on three different anti-anxiety meds along with Xanax. My worst was when I crashed after not handling the start up of Zoloft and realizing I had taken Xanax for too long causing rebound anxiety. After that detox and withdrawal from Xanax and Zoloft (at home while being off work for two weeks) and being put on MORE MEDS to survive it, I have been dealing with continual withdrawals for the past three months. I rarely take any Benzo's and am down to 30mg of Paxil. I discontinued Remeron last night after weaning down from 15mg over 10 days. As usual, I'm "enjoying" withdrawal symptoms from the Remeron, like increased anxiety, foggy brain, loose stools, hot/cold, etc. I'm very greatful that the symptoms are not too horrible and I haven't needed any Benzo's to cope.

Sooo....w/luck I will be only on Paxil and finally get a true measurement if it's helping fully or not. Through most of these past months, I've been going to work, playing golf on the weekends I feel ok, etc. I have found that I'm more of a home body but believe I will break out of that when I get to feeling consistently better for days on end.

So the question is...do you think these meds do more harm than good? It seems a lot of people get off them only to have "rebound" anxiety after days/weeks or months? I'm still on the fence.

[Warbirdwf]

The one thing any doctor will tell you is that meds will never cure anxiety and over time can make it so the brain can make it worse for some people. If you go a Google orYahoo news search on this mornings news they are reporting major issues with SSRIs - these things are powerful and we need to do all our own research and then decide, don't trust doctor to tell you they are too busy.

Which article? I saw one on birth defects and one on cataracts?

[WiSp]

They never talk about how good it has been for thousand of people. They always talk about the worse cases. Medias love very dark and shocking stories.

[fatcharlie]

Your anxiety could also be an effect of quitting Prozac cold turkey. Abruptly stopping any SSRI is going to cause withdrawal symptoms that can last anywhere from a few months to more more milder symptoms lasting a year or more.

[WiSp]

Your anxiety could also be an effect of quitting Prozac cold turkey. Abruptly stopping any SSRI is going to cause withdrawal symptoms that can last anywhere from a few months to more more milder symptoms lasting a year or more.

I want the source of this information if possible. I weaned off zoloft by -25mg each 3 weeks but I got a very strong anxiety while doing it and I think it has never gone. Later, starting celexa caused another boost and stopping it changed nothing, but all those boosts stayed with me and are still current it seems.