Posted by Alara on December 20, 2002, at 20:40:49
I called my old pdoc, explaining that I had just started a new job in a noisy environment and that I was spiralling into a paranoid depression. By `paranoid', I mean that I am overwhelmed by feelings of paranoia at work, that I self-reference etc, but that also completely aware of the fact that I'm projecting my own insecurities onto everyone else. There is absolutely no lack of insight or thought disorder. It's more a kind of social anxiety that has run amok. I have so much trouble coping with the noise around me that it completely fills my head and I can't concentrate on my work. Sometimes I have to leave the office for a few minutes because I feel as though I'm going insane. (I do not hyperventilate at all and these `attacks' seem to last for a good half hour or more. At these times my head is full pressure and office noise..I literally feel as though I'm about to explode. Are these panic attacks or are they something else?) Taking a Xanax helps but it sedates me so much that I'm paranoid about looking like a zombie!
My pdoc only had a couple of minutes to speak to me and has not seen me for several years but recommended that I ask my GP for Cipramil (known as Celexa in the US). My GP reluctantly wrote the script for me but asked me if I was really depressed. (His assessment of me that I am just highly anxious and, to be honest, my depressive-anxiety condition has taken so many different turns over the years that I never know WHAT the problem is anymore.) He was a little dubious about prescribing an SSRI as this class of drugs often exacerbates anxiety.
What concerns me most of all is that I've read that Cipramil/Celexa can heighten paranoia in some. Can anybody enlighten me? I don't want to fill the script until I am certain that this drug can help me as I cannot afford to lose my new job. I have Xanax to help meanwhile, so I don't mind if the Cipramil causes a temporary increase in anxiety.
I should mention that I have only recently (over the last few months) cut down to normal levels of alcohol drinking and that I was also a regular pot smoker (with boyfriend) between 2000 and 2001. Before that time I had never touched pot and don't know whether this is the cause of the paranoia.
Sorry to rant. I am extremely anxious at the moment.
Will Cipramil/Celexa help or hinder me?
poster:Alara
thread:132681
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021217/msgs/132681.html