Tiamat Posted August 24, 2008 Share Posted August 24, 2008 Hi, I am something of a newbie to the boards. Anyway something strange has happened to me. I had been prescribed Paxil for depression/anxiety and was very happy on it for 18 months. I went off because I was feeling "better." However, four months later the anxiety and depression have returned in full force. Priot to this I had been seeing a neurologist that was recommended to me because of the car accident for some strange, migrainy headaches, and he prescribed Gabapentin, kind of like Topamax light, with instructions to take it before bedtime and half a capsule only to see how well I tolerated it. It was OK, helped some with the headaches. However a week after this my anxiety and depression became worse and worse (along with lingering back and neck pain from the accident) so I asked my regular doc if I could go back on ADs, Wellbutrin this time instead of Paxil. The Wellbutrin was a bad choice, I stopped after two days, but since it is the weekend, I can't get in touch with my regular doc to go back on the Paxil. The pain was so distracting I became desperate and took two Gabapentin (what my neurologist had recommended to me on my last visit, but I was too afraid to follow up) Well! The cobwebs blew right out my head! I became functional again, not as happy and social as the Paxil made me, but not about to collapse into hysterical tears either. And the pain is gone from my back and legs. I looked the drug up and found out it is sometimes prescribed as a mood stabilizer and mild treatment for anxiety. Has anyone else had an experience like this? Could be a healthier substitute for SSRIs? I am dying to know! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mj1127 Posted August 24, 2008 Share Posted August 24, 2008 I'm taking Neurontin for anxiety, and it seems to be working pretty well. I may need more than I'm taking, but at least I'm off Xanax. I don't think it's done much for my depression. Anyway, that's my experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nalgas Posted August 26, 2008 Share Posted August 26, 2008 Well! The cobwebs blew right out my head! I became functional again, not as happy and social as the Paxil made me, but not about to collapse into hysterical tears either. And the pain is gone from my back and legs. I looked the drug up and found out it is sometimes prescribed as a mood stabilizer and mild treatment for anxiety. Has anyone else had an experience like this? Could be a healthier substitute for SSRIs? I am dying to know! Well, for most people, it's not terribly useful for mood, if it even does anything to it. However, a number of people have had good luck with it for anxiety and for certain types of pain, so that's not surprising that you noticed those two things happen. If it does work for you, it's generally a pretty benign med; it seems to be more common for it to just not do anything good or bad than it is for it to have significant side effects. It could take some fiddling around with it to find the right amount for you personally to take. It can be a little confusing in a way, because the more of it you take, the lower the total percentage of it is actually absorbed into your bloodstream, so you can double your dose and only be ending up with, say, 20% more of the med in your system, depending on how much you're already taking. Changing around when you take it can also help find what works best, too. It's out of your system pretty quickly, so a lot of people split their dose and take it twice or sometimes even three times a day to try to keep the level more consistent. With any luck, you and your doctor can come up with the right dose/schedule to keep you feeling how you'd like to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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