In Crisis -Need advice (w/response)

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[** Quick response -- The adrenal shots are not helping. Anything that

contains adrenal substance will raise anxiety. But you also need to stop

grasping at straws and changing everything. I've never seen anyone successfully

work these things out when they act from fear and panic instead of knowledge.

This always gets people in trouble.

It would make sense for you to have a consultation at this point given how

many changes you've made. We need to bring things back to a more stable base

but it must be done carefully. We don't want to shake things up any more than

they already are shaken up.

-- C

Hi and group,

I have been weaning off of 50mg Zoloft since April 2011. Since November

2011, when my daily dose was 25mg, I was reducing by 1 mg every week or

so as tolerated.

I was doing OK until I got down to 11 mg (March 14). After that

reduction, my sleep went from 5-6 hours to 3-4 hours. My car needed

some expensive repairs at that time which increased by stress. I wasn't

doing well so I increase back to 12mg.

A couple days later I got a severe nosebleed which really stressed me

out. It didn't feel like I was mentally stressed but my body reacted

very strongly with panic symptoms. My thyroid med (Naturethroid) seemed

to be increasing my anxiety, so I cut it in half, down to 33 mg. I

increase Zoloft to 14mg, then 16mg. No significant improvement even

though I felt OK when I was on 16mg previously.

I continued to feel extremely anxious and seemed to get worse instead of

better. On April 2 I went to my doctor to start weekly " adrenal combo

shots " . They contain live adrenal, pituitary, and hypothalamus cells

from animal embryos. Before I got the first shot, by BP was 168/100 and

I was extremely anxious. The next day (after the first shot) I

increased to 18mg Zoloft. I was doing significantly better for almost 3

weeks.

Then I got much worse again and increased Zoloft to 25mg on 4/25. I had

some improvement, then today all hell broke loose again. I don't know

what to do. Should I keep increasing the Zoloft?

I don't understand why this is happening. I didn't have symptoms this

bad during my entire withdrawal from Valium. This is worse anxiety than

I've ever had in my entire life. Constant shakiness inside, constant

chest pain, constant fear/anxiety, panic attacks, BP this morning was

135/102 during a horrible panic attack. By BP was still normal to

almost low before I got down to 11mg.

Are you familiar with the type of Adrenal shots I am getting? The

doctor told me he has been using these shots for 20 years and there have

never been any side effects reported and the shots are always

successful. But I'm afraid of everything right now and wondering if

they might be making things worse for me. Of course, I'd be the first

one! I haven't been able to find any info online.

Would it be best to schedule a consultation with you at this point?

During my entire taper with Valium and Zoloft, I never considered taking

another benzo -- until now! I'm seriously considering taking some now

since I still have some left over. I'm thinking it might be less

dangerous than the physical reactions and high BP I'm having now.

Please help!