starting medication

[dawn2]

Hi, My baby is 5 weeks old. For the past few weeks I've had awful panic attacks which are lasting for days, well the feelings are more or less constant. I'm really anxious about absolutely everything and convinced something awful is going to happen. Also feeling really low at times with despair that noone will be able to make me feel better. Because I don't see this as typical depression I'm scared the anti depressants won't work. Am seeing doctor today. Can anyone reassure me that they'll help with the anxiety as well as the awful thoughts. Feel like my head is cloudy and everything is dangerous and that I'm going to lose my mind or something. have loads of physical symptoms like chest pain, dizzyness, loss of appetite etc. Will the tablets help with these?

[Dawn2]

Hi Wendy,

Thankyou so much for replying. I didn't much like the gp I saw. He wasnt listening and said I was looking for a quick fix and there wasn't one. Because I admitted I'd been anxious in the past he assumed this was just what I was like and I had to put across how I was feeling against him dismissing it which was very difficult. He didnt think I was depressed just an anxious person but this is so much more than that. He agreed to give me some tablets called paroxetine saying "if you want them you can have them but I have to warn you they can make you feel worse and read the side effects". I've looked at them since getting them and am so anxious about taking them and because he was like that think that if I get any awful side effects it'll be my fault because he didn't really want me to have them anyway.

[Veritee]

Hi Dawn

Welcome

The symptoms you describe are indeed very common for women with PNI.

PNI does indeed appear to its sufferers not to be 'typical depression' and in fact women who have had clinical depression in the past and then get PNI say very strongly that the too are not the same at all.

However to reassure you the medications prescribed for ' typical depression' do help relieve the symptoms of PNI!

It is so unfortunate that women get such a mixed response from GPs when they go to their doctor with PNI to get some treatment.

I have just replied to a women who seemed to have the opposite reaction from her GP from you - and left her GPs surgery believing that if she did not take the Anti Ds prescribed she would be somehow damaging her brain.

While you got the exact opposite information - that you may do damage to yourself by talking a similar Anti D or the SSRI type???

see this thread: veritee.proboards7.com/index.cgi?board=intro&action=display&n=1&thread=3389

but this is just as misleading as the response you have had to your request for Anti Ds.

I guess your GP is anti Anti Ds !*!*!

and in one way I think more GP should think before the prescribe and more thought should be put into prescribing medication for PNI and other mental/emotional illnesses an alternatives used more often such as counseling or support etc

but your GP did not offer you an alternative and the response on the other thread by a GP seems to have been the complete opposite from the response you got.

I understand that not every GP can know about everything but I really do wish that the NHS as a whole would get its act together on their response to PNI and formulate a coherent and common policy on PNi and its treatment!!.

But in answer to your questions:

paroxetine is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), Paroxetine is indicated for the management of depression, obsessive-compulsive disorders, panic disorders, and premenstrual dysphoric disorder

It could very well help you and it has been used with some success by many women for PNI



However I really urge you to change your GP or at least see someone else from your practice who has more understanding of the horrible illness PNI is and how you can still be a functioning person from the outside and yet be suffering horribly inside.

If you feel that what you are suffering is more than 'normal ' anxiety then you are the one that knows best about yourself .

I can only feel that your GP was not listening to you- or not hearing you.

Anyway I am not myself sure there is such a thing as an 'anxious person ' any level of anxiety that a person finds intolerable - needs addressing in some way!

There is more that can be offered for PNI if you can tap into the right services, apart from and as well as medication.

But it helps to have an understanding GP to do this.

However can we help to support you further as well

do you want to post some more about yourself - perhaps on the main section - or open a PNI Dairy?
see main section veritee.proboards7.com/index.cgi?board=general
and PNI diary: veritee.proboards7.com/index.cgi?board=Journal

But of course you do not have to.

Let us know what happens though with your anti Ds - I am sure they will as long as you tolerate them well help alleviate the symptoms.

It is true what your GP said that some people get intolerable side effects - but if so they're rare many Anti Ds to be tried as well as the older non SSRI types

But if he is so against Anti Ds as your GP appeared ( and I have some sympathy for this view)
I can not understand why you were not offered alternatives like CBT

I hope you will find the forum useful

all the best

veritee

[dawn2]

Thanks Verity for your reply. I've seen another doctor who has given me details of a councillor I can speak to about managing my symptoms. Still have the medication although haven't taken it yet. Over the weekend managed a little better and wasnt quite as debilitated but I dont think thats down to me it seems out of my hands and am just dreading feeling bad again. If it doesn't get better I'll have to take the meds. Am trying to rest loads and eat well and hopefully keep it at bay. Will let you know.
x

[collette]

hi Dawn

welcome to the forum and congratulations on your wee bundle.

i was very saddened to hear that you did not get a good response from your initial GP. as veritee said there is too much of this goes on nowadays.

i too am quite an anxious person but when i was at the height of pni there was definetely more to my anxiety and more going on in my head.

i am glad to hear you have spoken with a different gp and are beginning to get some better support. it is so vital in this illness to have support and people round about you to help practically and to listen to you without judging.

it is a hard struggle but u will come thro the other end. i was very ill after i had my baby boy in september 2004 by around november time. i went to a gp about this and she straightaway [prescribed me anti ds but i told her i didn't want to take them and could handle this on my own, as i believed that i wasn't really ill just stressed. i got thro christmas but come january feb time things had gone from bad to worse, i had awful thoughts, harmed myself a few times nothing bad just out of anger frustration etc, so i went on anti ds.

to be honest i feel pretty recovered now but still get the odd blip, but i have found the anti ds have stabilised my moods so i can think about things more rationally.

i just want to offer you some hope and hope we can all support you on this forum.

love collette xxxx

[gail]

hi dawn

the symptoms youve described are identical to mine. i too have panic attacks that last for days along with a constant feeling something awful will happen at any second. i felt worried that as this wasnt a typical depression that nothing would work - i was convinced i was doomed to feel like this forever. i think that's part of the illness.

i lost my appetite, couldnt sleep had awful thoughts about the baby - nightmare,
i was prescribed paroxetine and gradually i have got better.

have you taken your meds yet? have you felt better? i hope youre ok
peace love and light
gail x