naturegirl: please help

[naturegirl]

I need help from a moderator please. I recently figured out i have pmdd (severe acute anxiety, insomnia, agitation, and si starting 1-3 days before my period). Ssris are normally the treatment but i reacted badly to the low dose prozac i tried for 5 weeks. This past month right before my period it was so bad with agitation and si that i went to er. Was given benzos and took a low dose for 5 days. Stopped 6 days ago, now i am in benzo withdrawal on top of everything. I am very anxious and not sleeping well. Please help me figure out how to go feom here. I was also given seroquel and take 12.5mg before bed, it barely helps. 

[getofflex]

Naturegirl, I would suggest that you go through and read through all the posts in your thread.  Have you noticed a pattern? The pattern I'm noticing is that you get withdrawal symptoms, and then you allow the doctors and hospitals to put you back on the psych meds to fix the symptoms, but these psych meds are probably making your symptoms worse.  It's a formula for failure.  Each time this happens, your brain becomes more destabilized, and your symptoms worsen.  I know you may not like to hear what I have to say, but I'm just going to be straightforward with you:  it seems to me you are still looking to doctors and the health care profession to help you deal with your anxiety, insomnia, agitation etc, and then they give you drugs, but this could be worsening your situation.   

 

There are other ways to try and cope with and reduce your symptoms besides drugs.  What non drug coping techniques have you learned to help you with anxiety?  

 

What natural ways have you used to try to help yourself with insomnia and agitation?  

 

Many members on this forum have learned some good, strong non drug coping techniques.  It's hard work, and it sucks, but it really pays off.  If it were me, I would make a plan for the next time you get PMDD.   Perhaps have a loved one to sit with you for the 1-3 days that you have this, and learn ways to lessen and cope with anxiety and insomnia.  

 

When you keep going back to the drugs, it puts you at significant risk of exacerbating your situation.  You may be working against yourself.  You get desperate and want us to help you, but we can't help you if you keep going back to the drugs.  You must be the one to help yourself.  

 

Acceptance is one key technique that many of us use.  It keeps us from getting so upset about our symptoms, and going into a downward spiral. 

 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/pieces-mind/201207/radical-acceptance

 

Acknowledge Accept Float

 

Here are some links with some basic coping techniques.  Let me know what you think of these techniques.  

 

For Those Who Are Feeling Desperate and Suicidal

 

Tips to Help Us Sleep

 

Neuro Emotions

 

Emotional Spirals

 

Music to Calm Anxiety

 

Breathing Technique for Anxiety

 

 

Audio:  How to Recover from Anxiety - Dr Claire Weekes

 

Anxiety Stuff - all kinds of stuff about anxiety attacks and things that help ...

 

15 hours ago, ChessieCat said:

Audio:  First Aid for Panic (4 minutes) Female voice - getselfhelp.co.uk

 

Audio:  First Aid for Panic (4 minutes) Male voice - getselfhelp.co.uk

 

Meditation

 

 

[naturegirl]

@getofflex,

I completely understand what you are saying. However, i have two small children to care for and a job so i am seeking to stabilize on something and then do a long slow taper from there. The only thing that has worked when this happened in the past was to go on a benzo consistently for weeks to help my brain calm down. Then slow taper off. Of course i don't want to, but i cannot suffer any longer. I will need to figure out something else for the pmdd. Unless u have experienced it, u won't understand how intolerable it is. I doubt anyone wants to sit up for me 2-3 nights twice monthly (because my period is coming more frequently than it should) while i pace and call the suicide hotline over and over. I'm sorry i cant just hole up for a few years and pray and cry until this ends.

[MothGarden]

My heart breaks for you. I can relate with you. I have two small children and my WD symptoms are WAY worse around the time of my cycle. I’ve always struggled with anxiety and insomnia right before my periods, even before meds.  
 

I’ve had to fight my anxiety. I find that it really helps to resist giving in to it and to cling to all that is good. Easier said than done I know but it gets easier the more you do it. You really have to push the bad thoughts and feelings away from you and ONLY give attention the good things. If it’s chemically induced that’s way harder to do I know. But that’s where distractions can help. The tricky part is finding one that’s not too stimulating. 
 

You absolutely will get through this. You’ll get better and you will also get better at coping. You just have to continue trying every single day.

 

Much love and support to you ♥️

[Altostrata]

Hello, @naturegirl I am confused about seeing you again. It seemed that after joining 8 years ago and going through everything you went through, you would know that psychiatric drugs are not for you and that you are sensitive to them, and you would solid coping skills for dealing with drug-related symptoms.

 

On 7/26/2022 at 7:49 PM, naturegirl said:

In retrospect, I think it was the 5mg melatonin I had been taking every night for over a year that messed up my hormones and triggered all this.

 

Unlikely that melatonin caused any problems. More likely, it was the gabapentin, trazodone, hydroxyzine, Ambien, doxepin, Seroquel, carbamazepine, and finally Prozac you went on and off from April to June of this year. 

 

Your drinking alcohol may be the key to your initial bout of insomnia. How often have you had an alcoholic drink in the last year?

 

How did you feel on 3.2mg Prozac, and why did you increase it to 5mg? When did you have what you call akathisia from Prozac? Did you drink any alcohol while you were taking Prozac for about 6 weeks?

 

When did you take 3 doses of 0.5mg lorazepam? What effect did lorazepam have?

 

On 8/6/2022 at 3:06 PM, naturegirl said:

Appetite is back and if anything is now bigger than normal. Overactive bladder seems slightly better.

 

On 8/9/2022 at 8:33 AM, naturegirl said:

Things that have improved are: tinnitus is still present but quieter. Appetite is back, maybe even increased now. No more gagging or dry heaving in morning. Sleep is becoming more regular. Vision is better. Personality is more like myself.

 

It appears that if you had an adverse reaction or withdrawal from the 9 drugs you went on and off earlier this year, perhaps aggravated by intermittent alcohol, it's settling down.

 

Strongly recommend you stay as calm as possible through the waves, which you should know very well from the many bad waves you coped with in 2015. I merged an even earlier Introductions topic with this one -- you might read through this thread from the beginning, as your old posts are very much like your current posts, and the responses to them probably still apply.

 

On 8/20/2022 at 7:09 PM, naturegirl said:

I had to drink a beer to get my body to calm a little. It helped, a lot. Just one beer.

 

Don't drink alcohol, not even a little, or it's very likely you're making your own problems.

 

On 9/11/2022 at 9:48 AM, naturegirl said:

I recently figured out i have pmdd (severe acute anxiety, insomnia, agitation, and si starting 1-3 days before my period).

 

I am sorry, being that this is a site about tapering and withdrawal, we don't have much knowledge of how to treat "PMDD", so we can't help you there. There are Web sites and Facebook groups specifically about non-pharmaceutical treatments, as well as gynecologists who specialize in this. Strongly recommend you consult them.

 

Personally, I always had a night of insomnia before cramps and diarrhea at the beginning of my period. Of course, I felt terrible, but that was before it was called PMDD. I found if I took an ibuprofen in advance of my period, it helped a lot.

 

Also recommend if you don't want to deal with the problems you seem to have with psychiatric drugs, don't take them.

[Lauren90]

Hi, how are you doing?