Anxiety disorders. Please help

[Swarna123]

I consulted a psychiatrist for the first time in my life Coz for the past 1 month due to too much anxiety all the time I am unable to sleep. He told m in depression. He straight away gave me fluoxetine, olanzapine and anxiety pills. I am worried this will make me dependent and have side effects.do I have an alternative others than meds. I mainly hv anxiety don't know why told depression and it was triggered by a conflicting situation in my life. B4 I was okay

Thanks

[Els92]

First of all hello and well done for reaching out for professional help. I can't comment on other options as I personally always turn to medication when my anxiety and depression gets too bad. I'm currently on fluexotine started 20mg now increased to 40mg after four weeks. I've also been given propanol and diazepam to help me if anxiety gets too severe until the medication completely gets into my system. Personally for me the first few weeks on fluexotine was horrific and made my anxiety alot more worse. Hense why my GP give me propanol and diazepam. I had shakes, sweats, upset stomach, loss of appetite, internal trembling, fuzzy head, constantly feeling anxious and scared full of fear but I can honestly say week four everything started to settle. My appetite increased, the shakes sweats trembling and constantly being on edge and scared started to decrease. My family started to notice a difference in me and told me they could see me getting better. I've just gone up to 40mg yesterday and Dr told me within 7 to 10 days I should see and feel a massive difference in myself with the higher dosage. However, please remember everyone is different and medications effect everyone differently. I know loads of people who are on fluexotine and had no side effects at all seems every single side effect hit me though...typical ha.

[Mokeyg in reply to Els92]

Hello Els92- I was very interested to read your post and am so pleased your symptoms are starting to improve. You must be well into your 40mg doseage- how is that going for you. I hope you are able to start enjoying your pregnancy. I’m 2 weeks in on Fluoxetine and like you, feel worse than I did before I started. My symptoms are just as you describe although you don’t mention sleeplessness? How were/are you sleeping? I feel like I’m awake almost the entire night 😱

[Els92 in reply to Mokeyg]

The 40mg has sent me up and down both my anxiety and depression. Day 14 to 21 my mood dipped really low, horrible thoughts and filled with total fear and dread. Dr asked me to ride it out as 20 days on increased dose was still early days. I'm going out more, I'm not running out of shops in panic, I'm not feeling like I'm going to pass out on the school runs anymore. But I do dread and worry how I'll get through each day and if this anxiety will ever subside. I still feel it daily think I'm just finding it easier to prevent myself hitting the point of total panic. Fluexotine didn't effect my sleep in the beginning because it's all I wanted to do was sleep however it has give me terrible restless legs, since increasing to 40mg I'm waking up alot more during the night and taking ages to get back to sleep. This then makes me more anxious in the morning when I'm so exhausted. Vicious circle x

[Mokeyg in reply to Els92]

I completely agree with the vicious circle Image. I’m trialling taking a sleeping pill every second night at the moment. Only a short term fix. I don’t want to take one every night. The sense of panic and dread is beginning to come and go for me- hopefully a sign the meds are starting to take effect. I’m on day 14- definitely gets worse before it gets better. I hope you have a good day. Have you tried mindfulness breathing practice to help with the really difficult points in your day? ☺️