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Why don’t anxiety meds work for me?
In Sept. 2024 out of nowhere I developed extreme anxiety. Went to primary care doctor and was prescribed Effexor (which I had successfully taken previously). This time it didn’t provide any help. Dr. then prescribed Lexapro (which didn’t help) and then Celexa (which didn’t help). By this time, I lost 45 pounds by not being able to eat and constant diarrhea. Dr. then told me to find another practitioner as there was nothing more she could do for me. Since then I have seen 4 PNP and none of their prescribed meds have helped. What do I do?
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I suggest you look into taking supplements. There's a few that I take that work really well without side effects. Vitamin B3 also known as niacin. I take 100 milligrams twice a day.
Rhodiola Rosea, 250 milligrams. Once a day in the early afternoon.
Kava Kava. 100 milligrams at night.
I tried Effexor and the side effects were terrible. Took the first dose on a Thursday. Friday took the second one. At that point, I was out of it for the next 2 days. Felt miserable and did nothing all weekend. Felt well enough to go to work Monday.
Do your research on these supplements. There's plenty of articles to read and for you to make an educated decision if they will help you.
Try an infectious disease specialist.....I had similar symptoms & ended up with C-DIFF
Also talk to your pharmacist.
Is there a med school near you?? another place to consider.
And yes, the library!
@dorothy1914 while there have been concerns about consistency between formulations of generic medications over the years, it’s highly unlikely they’d just leave out the active ingredient (by mistake or on purpose). This likely happened because you developed a tolerance to the medication. This happens with many drugs if you take them regularly for an extended period of time.
@dorothy1914 it really sounds like you need a better doctor! A doctor who refuses to keep treating you if the first thing they tried didn’t work is not a good Dr, and a Dr who has a patient cycle on and off psych meds every few days is being really irresponsible and ignorant.
Your doctor should have advised you that startup side effects from these medications are common and while they can be very unpleasant, experiencing them when you first start does NOT mean your experience with the med will always be like that. They should’ve encouraged you to stick it out past at least a week unless the side effects were dangerous or completely unbearable. And they should’ve told you that you’d likely not start experiencing positive effects right away.
A few days is WAY too soon to know whether most of these meds will or won’t work. Some can take 1-2 months to really start showing benefit! So I can’t fathom why they were having you stop/switch after only a few days.
The first week on Zoloft was awful for me. I had terrible insomnia, migraines, brain fog, brain fog, brain fog “zaps” (those weird head sensations you described, they’re very common) for the first few days but these side effects were gone by the end of the first week (maybe sooner, can’t recall). But it still took about a month or so for the meds to start helping.