Hi Deanna: Yes! Brain zaps. I remember that. It was when I was going off Paxil. Just the opposite, but as I was cutting back the little brain zaps would come and I used to wonder what the heck it was. It went away in a couple of wks. no problem. I mentioned it to my doc. and she didn't know anything about it. It passed, so no worries there.
Well, I had 3 days on 30 mg and started getting brain zaps? It was like an electrical shock in my head. Very weird and then for 2 days I have had mild muscle cramping. So my doctor has recommended a calcium supplement. So today I only took 20 mgs of prozac and now no brain zaps so far today. Anybody else get brain zaps when upping their meds? It really was making the panic worse. Especially if you are hyper-sensitive to every little symptom in your body.
Lol- brain zaps= tumor
leg cramps= blood clot
Why does my mind do this? It makes me crazy-lol Then the doctor says take calcium and I'm like "Oh." Almost makes me feel stupid.
Sounds like you are doing a great job of taking care of yourself and making positive changes! You are nipping it in the bud and that is wonderful! Keep up the good work and thinking positive!
Well after that initial 2 hours yesterday of feeling out of it- I bounced back to a somewhat normal feeling. So it feels like I may adjust okay to the higher dose. Today I feel okay (2nd day higher dose) and don't feel out of it. So maybe it was a little bit of anticipatory fear.
I too have a small fear of meds. My very first panic attack was back in October 2010. I had taken an over the counter allergy medicine and shortly after I received my first panic attack. Now every since that-I think my brain is wired to believe that I should fear meds.
Also it feels I am hyper aware of every little symptom in my body. Like today-I have some minor weird pains in my arms. It feels ridiculous that my mind has to be aware of every little thing that seems out of order. However I can tell myself- you are tense and those pains in your arms are from the tension in your body.
Then there is the feeling of not getting enough air. When I feel like that, I try to take a 30 min timeout, do some breathing exercises while listening to a meditation mp3. And that usually helps. In extreme cases I can take 1/4 of a .5 mg tablet of atavan. But I am hoping to eliminate atavan altogether eventually. I mean I have good days and bad- last night I had no night time panic attack before bed- a first for me in at least a month. So I do have hope, just taking it one day at a time and keeping my chin up. :o)
I know how you feel! I too feel terrible when upping my meds because I feed like it's a step back, when all I want is for this to go away!
I recently had to go from 5mg to 20 in a week because my panic attacks were just escalating. Then my doc gave me a clonazepam, which can be highly addictive... so then what? right? I took it twice and haven't needed it yet, but my celexa is at 20, and I'm Ok with that now. I have an anxiety towards medication too, so it makes dosing for this even tougher.
But don't feel bad. You gotta do what you gotta do to feel better. I'm unfamiliar with Prozac. But I know Celexa takes between 2 - 4 weeks for it to start making a noticeable difference. I just recently read on one of these discussions that there was a lady here who noticed after 6. So even though my symptoms are still there (albeit not as bad) after 3 weeks, I'm confident that after 6 I'll be OK again.
Hi dtaber: This summer my meds for high BP had to be adjusted 4 times. Inbetween times was stressful with the physical sensations of adjustment, etc. But....I am well now. I stuck with it and am doing great. I hope you will too. Sometimes it feels like a step back. I don't think it is, it's just tweaking to suit your body needs. Good luck.
When I was in the psych ward for a rest I got breakthrough anxiety. I was on celexa but I kept getting panic attacks for some unknown reason. Part of it was that I was real comfortable there and just wanted to go home. They gave me a few valium to get the panic down and I got to go home shortly after. I was fine for a while and quit the celexa. I didn't want to do a benzo because of my falsely perceived ideas about them. When I tried to go back on the celexa I couldn't I had such a bad reaction to it I only made it two days. (core belief built on my reaction in the psych ward) I didn't want to live on benzos because of my Ativan addiction. So they tried me on a mood stabilizer (the tricyclic Trimipramine). Except for fatigue and a dry mouth it has no side effects for me.
What I am saying here is that this is how powerful core beliefs, even new ones can be.
The program will deal with them so that if you don't need the SSRI because of a deficiency you will be able to go back to a lower dose. Unfortunately there are no tests for deficiency so all you can do is trial and error. I am one of those that needs a different type of antidepressant.
The good news is I seldom need it for Anxiety but it works for pain so I am still using it in its lowest dose spread out as long as I can get by without it. We are all different and you will see that people are on different doses and different types, don't feel bad about asking for something different if increasing it doesn't work. And please stay with the program in case it is core beliefs because it will fix them.
Well after a minor set back yesterday of multiple panic attacks, I decided to jump up to 30 mg of Prozac. I have my doctors okay on that. In the past I have taken Prozac but the most I ever took was 20 mg. Anyway, I am trying to adjust to this new level today and feel a little out of it. I hope I adjust okay. It's really hard to work when I feel like this-a little nervous about a higher dosage, I guess. And more beating myself up-I thought I was on the path of getting a handle on this. Last night was really aggravating for me-to have a really bad attack, like that.
Well anyway, just wanted to share. Through sharing maybe others wont feel so alone.
