Hiya hoping to get some advice.
Both my boyfriend and I suffer from anxiety. I cope quite well by taking amitriptyline. My boyfriend was coping without medication. He finds going to the gym regularly helps keep his mood stable. He's tried therapy and found it very unhelpful.
Just before Christmas he had a major relaspse with his anxiety and stopped being able to go to the gym. He also developed chronic insomnia.
In January he went to the doctor with my support and was signed off whilst the doctor checked his tyroid. The tests came back normal.
The doctor he saw was a trainee who decided to prescribe him citalopram without reading through my boyfriend's notes. My boyfriend has previously tried citalopram with horrendous side effects including suicidal thoughts. He's had horrendous experiences on most SSRI drugs. Citalopram and sertraline caused suicidal thoughts. Fluoxetine had no positive effect. He's tried other drugs, Diazepam didn't seem to help him. Mirtazapine helped him sleep but didn't help his mood.
He explained all this to the doctor who insisted he give the citalopram another go. This time he found the side effects 10 x worse and was unable to sleep at all.
He was going mad and popping sleeping tablets all over the place and decided he wanted to try my amitriptyline.
He slept 12hrs straight after taking his first dose (40mg) and felt a lot better. The doctor was reluctant to prescribe it and insisted he should now try sertraline but my boyfriend was adamant that he didn't want to ever try sertraline again. The doctor finally agreed to prescribe it but insisted my boyfriend started on 10mg and scaled it up. My boyfriend found he was needing to scale the dose up every few days to help him sleep but he was feeling better. After 3 weeks I noticed a huge improvement in his mood.
But 2 weeks ago it all started to go wrong. He's been finding he can't get to sleep easily and needs a sleeping tablet with the amitriptyline to drop off. He's been getting more anxious again and keeps over thinking and can't relax because there's too many thoughts in his head. He's currently taking 60mg of amitriptyline. I personally think he needs a bigger dose. He's a big guy, over 110kg, so I think he naturally needs a higher dose.
He's frustrated because he was feeling better on the amitriptyline and he's terrified to go back to the doctor because the doctor will expect him to try another drug.
At the moment we're considering increasing his dose (doctor said he could) or trying it in combination with another drug. I'm wondering if amitriptyline and diazepam might help.
I also think he might start feeling better once he gets back in the gym but he can't get motivated to go when he's feeling so low.
Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions.
What drugs help you with your anxiety?