Anxiety is a term which covers a variety of linked medical disorders.
anxiety
Over the next few months we will explore them all in more detail. But in the first instance we would just like to mention a few of the early signs and symptoms of anxiety.
a) Dry mouth
b) Irrational worrying
c) Fast heart rate
d) Nausea
e) Feeling of panic
f) Inability to relax or calm down
g) Emotionally upset of distressed
h) Sweating
i) Trembling and shaking
If you are at all concerned that you may be suffering from anxiety it is important that you contact a medical practitioner as soon as possible. It does not mean you suffer from anxiety but you should get it checked out.
How did this whole forum go from Anxiety to M. S.? I am confused!
I take Cymbalta for anxiety. Diet and Exercise seems to help too.
When I have high emotional stress, like one time my son and I had a strong disagreement. I felt I had to stand firm on my beliefs. the more we fought (with words) my legs became extremely weak to a point I almost collapsed on the floor!! I try to stay away from that kind of stress!! I only take LDN 4mg. every night and Elavil to help with spasms and sleep!!
I have had all those symptoms. A couple of years ago I had Laryngeal cancer, cancer of the vocal chords and the only way to treat and kill the cancer is by radiation. They make a mask that covers your shoulders, neck and head, then the technicians snap the mask, with me in it, to the table so the radiation can be delivered to the exact point and for the next 10-12 minutes you have no control. That was the scariest time of my life. I accepted the cancer and the fact that it could have killed me. The hard time I had was being snapped down to the table for 33 treatments.
Lethalmike Hi Lethalmike, just read your post about anxiety and that you had Laryngeal cancer. My dad went through the same radiation treatments as you and absolutely hated being pinned down in that mask. I’m glad you’re better. Dad’s cancer was squamous cell carcinoma. It started on his gums. After a five year battle, we lost him Sept. 21, 2013. It was/is the hardest thing losing my dad. I’m now on two antidepressants and still cry frequently. I’ve not been diagnosed with MS, yet I have virtually all the same symptoms. My doctor thinks I have “conversion disorder.” That’s when you take something mentally stressful (like my father’s passing) and don’t know how to handle it so your body reacts to it in a physical form, such as the same symptoms of MS.
I do not take anything for my anxiety. Every time I saw my GP she would always classify it as depression. I’d go in again she’d increase the dose. After I was diagnosed with MS I stopped my med for depression (and felt better) Initially I treated the MS with diet until I received a second opinion now I take Copaxone. I am still treating it with my diet and controlling what I eat! Feel better.
The anxiety still flairs up especially when I am under a lot of stress. My neuro told me to try and diminish the causes of my stress which should in turn stop the anxiety. It does work but the anxiety flairs up periodically when there is added stress. It is difficult to remove the stress in your life all the time. I no longer work which helps! Other issues arise when you do not have money. My husband is great in helping me with reducing my stress.
I am nowhere near ashamed to say I take extended release Xanax, I’m Rx’d 2 other medications. 1 is a mood stabilizer, the other an antidepressant. I also see a therapist every Wednesday. I like my life so much more than I used to!
I feel like i’m always by myself.All I hear is over medicated all the time to point I stopped allot of my meds.
I have had generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder since I can remember, way before they shot me down with the words Multiple Sclerosis. I stopped seeing any physician about anxiety, it’s all quackery. I’ve accepted I suffer from anxiety and expect those around me to do the same. It will never go away, no matter how much medication and psychobabble people throw at it. I’d be best off managing it if others would let ME do it rather than run their mouth about something they have never experienced on a daily basis, without you manifesting it–we DO NOT make it happen, it just does. It’s very much and uninvited guest just like Multiple Sclerosis and can appear unannounced just like Multiple Sclerosis symptoms. I’m saddened people are still stigmatized for something beyond their own control and how others think they have the magic bullet for you to control it, “if you just *insert bullshit here*”. Pfft. Whatever.
*an uninvited guest
I have read books about MS, researched on internet, talked to people that have MS, called MS friends, & participated in MS walks. I have also spoke w drug counselers & xanax users. Id like to further educate myself by asking more questions & more people to further my undestanding. I have met the father of my child (who has MS) less than 2 years ago and i would like to be the best for my husband & daughter. I would also like to help my husband be the best he can b for hisself & my daughter. I am trying to help & learn. I plan on being a life learner about this disease and im sure…. I will never know enough….. That is why i am on this forum bc i am trying to educate myself about this disease….and i pray for MS sufferers. It may help if i explain my question about MS. A rollercoasyer ride is exactly what i am seeing. Its awful to watch the ups and downs of emotion every single day. I wuestion the xanax because of the everyday mood swings, the fact tht he keeps them in his car & not the med cabinet& his lying about amount of usuage. He has had a drug addiction in his past with oxycotin before he was diagnosed w MS. He was put on subutex to wean off oxycotin. And i just found the subutex in his car w xanax. He said he keeps those two in his car bc he takes them as needed. Subutex is typically used to wean from opiates. It takes the pain of detox away. I asked him about subutex and he explained it helps w MS pain. He gets the scripts from a pain management doc & the other scripts from his neuro. I just want to know other peoples experience w xanax and if the experience they had and any suggestions bc i feel like the meds are not benificial at all.
Ive read that MS causes mood swings but i also read that long term use xanax causes mood swings. i was just wondering if someone that has MS and uses xanax has experiences. Or if anyone knows of someone w this experience. Or any suggestions.
Happiness1433For MS pain, please try your hubby on Vitamin B12 as Methylcobalamin.. 1000 mcg a day enabled me to give up the Tramadol/Ultram SR 200 mg daily that wasn’t particularly effective anyway! ALL Benzodiazepines are addictive. They also cause Magnesium deficiency which can actually worsen anxiety! Magnesium deficiency worsens many symptom of MS such as pain, spasm and depression/anxiety/panic attacks. Magnesium deficiency worsens a failing immune system so MS’ers have EVERY reason to supplement with this mineral, as well as the Vitamin D3 needed to absorb and metabolise it! Magnesium can be useful to someone when trying to get off Benzodiazepines.
FYI I carried out a piece of clinical research in the UK back in 1984, as part of my post-graduate studies, a 3 month long, double-blind placebo controlled trial into the effectiveness of Magnesium Acetate on insomnia. Those taking Benzos were NOT helped as much as those who were not taking Benzos, probably due to the depleting effects of the drug.
I HIGHLY recommend two books for you.
Power Of Vitamin D: A
Vitamin D Book That Contains The Most Scientific, Useful And Practical
Information About Vitamin D – Hormone D http://www.amazon.com/Power-Vitamin-Scientific-Practical-Information/dp/1490576770
andThe Magnesium Miracle by Dr Carolyn Dean
http://www.amazon.com/Magnesium-Miracle-Carolyn-Dean/dp/034549458X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380729385&sr=1-1&keywords=magnesium+miracle
On the Methyl B12 front, there is a ton of research out there on the net.. Google Methylcobalamin Multiple Sclerosis, but I also recommend this book as it covers virtually everything that is out there:Could It Be B12?: An Epidemic of Misdiagnoses
http://www.amazon.com/Could-Be-B12-Epidemic-Misdiagnoses/dp/1884995691/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380729481&sr=1-1&keywords=b12+book
I have a history of addiction, so I do understand why you are worried. I also have MS, psychiatric issues, I have pain problems (not only due to MS, but because I now have 4 herniated discs in my spine as well), and also deal with asthma and allergies, etc. It CAN be really crazy sometimes trying to care for myself and treat all of my medical issues AND psychiatric issues appropriately without becoming addicted to my medications. One thing that everyone needs to remember is something a specialist explained to me once when I first started my recovery. Dependence on medication and addiction are not the same thing. That being said, it is a VERY fine line. I have a specialist that I work with for my psychiatric issues. I have been completely honest with her regarding my history with addiction. She knows what I was addicted to and for how long, she knows that I have not done any drugs or even drank alcohol for 4 years and 10 months! WOOHOO! She was already prescribing me for my mood swings and depression – Topamax 200mg twice a day, and Effexor XR 225mg/day, but she wanted to add an anxiety medication. She told me that she felt that since I had stayed off of drugs and alcohol for that long that I could probably handle taking anxiety medication responsibly, especially since I see a therapist once a week, so if I felt tempted to take extra I should just tell my therapist and my support network. I currently take Xanax. What my psychiatrist did though, was when we discussed it, I was worried that it would be breaking my “clean time” and she said it isn’t if it is prescribed by a doctor AND that doctor is a doctor you were honest with and you told him or her that you used to be addicted to something. Plus I found out that day that there is a Xanax XR and she decided to give me that instead of regular Xanax. That might be a good idea for your husband. That way (I know from personal experience) he can’t easily get high from it. The medicine won’t release right away when he takes it. The Xanax XR releases the dose over 24 hours. So I only take mine once per day. There’s no such thing as “as needed” for me because with my history? You write “as needed” on something like Xanax? I could convince myself that I needed one every 5 minutes if I wanted to, ya know?
2nd reply. After I quit drugs & alcohol almost 5 years ago, I went back to school and finished a psychology degree. Then I went on to be licensed by the State of Maryland as a Chemical Dependency Counselor. I worked for nearly 2 years at an outpatient rehab. That rehab’s specialty was dealing with opiate addicted clients, meaning clients either addicted to prescription pain pills or clients addicted to heroin. However, many of our clients, while primarily seeking help for their opiate addiction, wishing to be treated with Methadone, were in fact polysubstance dependent, meaning addicted to several drugs at once. Many had problems with benzodiazepines. Many other patients had problems with cocaine or marijuana. Others were alcoholics. My point is about some of the things that I learned while working there. Subutex is not a medication that is meant to be taken on an “as needed” basis. Normally, the physician decides an appropriate maintenance dose for the patient, based on how much narcotic they were using, and how often. The patient then remains stable on that dose for 1 or 2 months before the dose is lowered by 2mg at the most. The dose is only lowered if the mandatory urinalysis that the patient has submitted to has been clean. I have never in my life heard of an “as needed” prescription for subutex. I also find it a little odd that he is being prescribed subutex for OxyContin withdrawal at all. The number one medication of choice to be prescribed by physicians for recovering opiate addicts is suboxone, subutex is more of a drug that is primarily only used during a transition period of a few days perhaps, sometimes when switching from methadone to suboxone, the combination of those two drugs is not very good, so a physician or medical director will often use subutex just for a few days in the very beginning of the transition so that the patient will be comfortable. The only other time I have ever heard of subutex being used long term for addiction and opiate withdrawal rather that suboxone was with one patient. Tests were done after she broke out in hives and had to be taken to the hospital after she was prescribed suboxone. As it turned out, she was actually allergic to suboxone and the doctor’s only other choice was to prescribe her subutex. Suboxone is in fact a more difficult drug to abuse however. I have no idea if your husband knows anything about it, but there is one way to abuse subutex. I will not post on the internet what it is because I do not want to accidentally teach anyone who doesn’t already know. However, if you try the same thing with suboxone, you just become violently I’ll with precipitated withdrawal. I think you would prefer the latter. As for his Xanax prescription, if his doctor feels that it is medically necessary, I would see if you can get it switched to the extended release version. Xanax IS a benzodiazipine however, and all of them can be addictive, especially if your suspicion that he has been abusing them is correct. I do not know howNo, the FDA are not correct.
More and more, the United States government agencies feel that it is their job to protect the people from themselves with laws, rather than using older strategies. For example: when it comes to certain prescription medications, the government used to require warning labels. Now, the FDA feels that far more restrictive laws are required to protect citizens from themselves. This is not the case. Attempting to protect a human from him/herself does not work because the human has free will.
Just because SOME patients CAN and WILL (I was probably one of “those patients” years and years ago) choose not to heed their physician’s warning, risking their own lives, punishing every single patient that is in pain is not the correct way to “solve” the problem, nor is it anywhere close to remotely fair to the rest of the population of patients that are in moderate pain. long he has been taking Xanax for, but I’m assuming that it has been longer than 2 weeks. There are 2 withdrawals that come with seizures. Alcohol withdrawal comes with seizures, and benzodiazipine withdrawal comes with seizures. I guess you know now I was addicted to benzos. The benzo seizures can be deadly. This is no joke. I am lucky I had checked myself into a rehab 3 days earlier. I had a 10 minute grand mal seizure. The nurse on staff at the rehab said that if I had seized for another 2 minutes I wouldn’t be here, or if I WAS here, I would have brain damage. Do NOT let him come off benzos alone. Call an
Sorry about that! Accidentally pushed post before the end of the sentence. All it was going to say was: call an ambulance and get him to a hospital for a medically supervised detox. Make sure he survives it. If you want a bunch of info on Narcotics Anonymous, I have all that too. I just try not to go posting it & shoving it in everyone’s face unless they’re ready to see it. Otherwise, what’s the point? I’d be wasting your time and my own. GOOD LUCK & GOD BLESS!
Anxiety can be treated without sedatives. I understand the need and use of them, but you can’t take them forever. Assuming control over yourself, your treatment, and accepting responsibility are key. I m in no way attacking those for whom it works, I’m just saying, if your doctor just throws sedatives at you instead of talking and exploring actions that’s his bad. If you’re just wanting sedatives for sedations sake.. I wish you the best.
I was on Xanax, but different doc put me on diazepam due to the longer lasting effect of the drug. Xanax is fast acting, but doesn’t last long. Valium, Diazepam, will stay in your system much longer. I feel much better on diazepam than I did with Xanax. With the Xanax I felt like I was on a roller coaster. Diazepam is more of a smooth sailing, than the ups and downs of Xanax.
Happiness1433
I have MS.. I have Never taken Xanax but I have Anxiety which is a
natural part of MS.. Our Emotional Centers of the Brain and the
Chemistry can be affected by the Disease as well as the Unpredictable
Nature of the Disease ITSELF ALL together can cause Depression, Anxiety,
easily angered etc.. MOOD SWINGS! And the Reality is that NO YOU CAN
NOT UNDERSTAND exactly the way he is feeling.. but if you try to get
Educated on the Symptoms of the Disease and what to expect you won’t be
so caught off guard when the symptoms present themselves. And as for
being “Addicted to Xanax” DUH! Is that not the point of taking
Medications 3x a day? Your body becomes addicted/ OR USED TO ANYTHING
you do on a regular basis… like drink COFFEE, BLOOD PRESSURE MEDS.,
SLEEPING, GOING TO THE BATHROOM.. and when you try to depart from
something you are USED to doing daily, it will cause problems in the
bodies Homeostasis..People use the word “Addicted” with some negative
connotations when the fact is.. a DOCTOR Prescribed Medicine and a
Patient takes said Medicine to help their Medical Condition.. THAT IS
NOT ADDICTION!! Get a clue People!! I can understand why he would not
want to change his MEDS or anything he is using to control his
Symptoms.. this disease is frightening enough with the unpredictable
nature of symptoms.. he is afraid to upset the “Apple Cart” But as I
stated before.. it is the DISEASE causing the Mood Swings, Not the
Meds..MS Group Leader
MS Group Leader Do you know how to say this minus the condescending smartassness? Happiness1433 said, “im trying to find a way to help.” not please talk to me like I’m four.
MS Group Leader Happiness1433 I agree with your view on addictions. To further add to this, there are good /positive addictions as well (working out, eating well, meditation, etc). Positive addictions release inborn feel good, positive chemicals/hormones( i.e. endorphins and dopamines) into our blood. The problem with many medications is they take away our own body’s ability to produce it’s own stabilizers – it’s often easier, though. I’m not saying meds are not necessary for many (I do take meds for the fatigue and ataxia) – it’s very personal and individual and dependent on the path of the disease. I was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of MS 5 years ago but they think I’ve had it for 30 years. I’ve been through a whole range of iMS related issues throughout my life apparently but particularly in the last 5 years. The BEST thing I’ve done is WORK OUT! Not running or even walking sometimes but weights, Tae Bo DVD’s at home in case I fall. An elliptical trainer, a bike. During more challenging chunks of time I do a little, when I’m more stable I do a lot. Anything is better than nothing. There is a lot of research into neuroplasticity and my neuro thinks working out has made a huge difference and has really helped to rewire around damaged area’s (of which there are many – quite extensive apparently). It REALLY seems to help with strength, coordination, spasticity, AND the emotional issues and anxiety as well . It even seems to help with my cognitive stuff – maybe because the blood flows better and I seem to sleep better. Just saying …….
There is a difference between physical dependence on prescribed medication, when it is being taken as prescribed, and addiction. The two are NOT one in the same.
My husband takes 3 -1 mg of xanax a day for anxiety and im not sure if the meds are causing mood swings. Hes been on xanax for at least 3 yrs. Has anyone ever taken xanax and did it help?
Happiness1433 By now, he’s probably addicted to Xanax and has reached the plateau of the dosage. He should talk to his doctor if it appears that Xanax, at that dose, is no longer working.
I tried to go to doc w him but he became very defensive about his needs & the meds. I honestly dont know what to do. He has MUltiple sclerosis and says i can not understand what hes going through. I have no clue what hes going through and im trying to find a way to help.
Happiness1433 Maybe a sit down with your husband would be beneficial to the both of you. Start the convo in a loving, ready to learn way. Maybe start by asking him to make a list of things he wishes you could understand to give you a starting point. Also a spouses and family support group would be very happy to help you because, as you said, He says you can’t understand what he’s going through, which is very true. You will never be able to understand it his way, but talking to others who understand your role to him could help you figure out how to support him in the best way you can. You could contact the MS society or chapter also for ways to find a group such as that or give you information to help you learn. Best of luck to you, namaste.
Happiness1433 did you read my response that I wrote previously? Xanax is a fast acting drug, but doesn’t have the lasting effectiveness. So it does create mood swings. He feels good when it kicks in, but when it wears off the anxiety comes back. I was on it. My other doc switched me to a longer lasting drug. Diazepam, which is generic Valium, stays in your system longer causing a more stable mood. You might want to check with the doc if your husband also agrees that Xanax is causing ups and downs.