If you got awful spikes of anxiety from SSRIs, what worked?

[glimps]

I’ve tried a couple of SSRIs for anxiety/ agoraphobia- sertraline and fluoxetine. After a couple of days on them, I had really intense spikes of supercharged anxiety. So much worse than the anxiety I was trying to help with the drugs that I discontinued both times.

If similar happened to you, did you find any SSRI that worked? I am wondering about trying escitalopram before throwing the towel in on them.

I was switched onto venlafaxine after trying citalopram, sertraline, paroxetine and mirtazipine. Have stuck with venlafaxine for over 2 years now but also prescribed clonazepam twice a day and as needed promethazine for the anxiety which has worked wonders. Might be worth discussing with your GP.

Thanks @didntsignupfothis
how did you find starting on the venlafaxine as opposed to the others?

Unfortunately SSRI’s have a tendency to increase anxiety initially, I’ve taken fluoxetine and sertraline previously and now take escitalopram. For me the escitalopram has been by far the best , started very slowly with it, breaking 5mg in half and gradually built up but it has been very effective and feels gentler somehow. Sometimes GP’s will prescribe short term valium or lorazepam to cope with the early days of SSRI’s but the escitalopram was fine with the gradual build up

Taking the Venlafaxine is the best thing I have done. Initially it made me nauseous, yawn a lot and headaches but this only lasted about 2 weeks. My emotions are stable, I do also take a mood stabiliser and antipsychotic as well as clonazepam and promethazine. But when I have missed a dose on Venlafaxine, within 24 hours I become tearful, my emotions are all over the place and generally feel low.
be advised though that if you start taking it, 1) if you miss a dose you will probably feel really unwell, get brain zaps, the shakes, sick etc as it’s known for doing that if you forget to take it and 2) it’s a bugger to come off if you decide to at any point - it cannot be done cold turkey, your GP will have to wean you off very gradually over weeks/months as the withdrawal is awful.
This isn’t to put you off it, it’s just things to consider. As I said before I’ve been on it quite a while now and have no intentions of stopping it whilst I am the best I have been in a long time ☺️

That is really reassuring to hear @TheOliveFinch thank you

In the past I’ve had mirtazapine as I can’t tolerate SSRIs (they make my anxiety so bad that I’m extremely agitated and have very dark thoughts).

It’s an anti-depressant but not an SSRI. It made me sleepy at first and increased my appetite which could have been problematic if I hadn’t lost a LOT of weight through the anxiety and needed to put weight on.

I tried sertraline. Took two doses and felt so so so awful. I was going through a rough time and it seemed to make it worse. I lay awake at night sweating and heart pounding. I was delirious with lack do sleep. I threw them away

Have they started you on a low dose OP? I've had various reactions to different types, and ended up on Citalopram, which works wonders for me. But the golden rule I've found, if you're sensitive (I am to most things in general!) is to start low and increase slowly, and vice versa coming off.

Did you find that the mirtazapine helped the anxiety @EssexCat? I’m scared of the weight gain aspect so wonder if it’s worth it.

I have 5mg pills @Smarvellous but was going to half them

Absolutely. It was a game changer for me - but I did find my appetite soared.

When I started on sertraline I was also prescribed 10 valium to take if it gave my any real anxiety spikes/panic attacks. It didn't really so I ended up not using them, but it was offered to me as if it was pretty standard practice.

I wouldn't know if that's a high or a low dose for Sertraline (for Citalopram it would be low, but possibly dangerous to compare!). I do know my gp has always said to persevere for a fortnight on whatever I've tried. Based on mine and others experience of Citalopram, I would certainly be tempted to try it in your shoes, but chat it all over with your gp. They're probably going to be best placed to help you decide.

My daughter had agoraphobia. She got terrible spikes at first on sertraline but pushed through and it settled and she’s been on them for years. It’s a question of whether you want to be better long term really.

Initially when I started on sertraline I felt sick, lacked any energy and it increased my anxiety, the side effects went away after about a week and within 3 to 4 weeks I was slowly starting to feel less anxious and it's been an absolute godsend for my PTSD I'm also on mirtazipne but take that at night to help me sleep

After a 20yr on / off relationship with citalopram- I’ve realised that this is a massive problem for me too. But to be honest I’ve just persevered through the awful bit. I have had diazepam in the past but no chance of that now from my Gp.

The problem I have is that I just darent stop medication in case I have to start again