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Originally Posted by Gabyunbound
It seems that a lot of us suffer from anxiety as well as BP. How does your anxiety affect your BP (or vice versa)? Do any of your BP meds also help with anxiety?
I'm hoping to find a BP med that also helps me with my terrible anxiety (which is the one symptom I really do have every day). When I was taking Seroquel (for BP) at much higher doses it did help with it, but I just can't tolerate it at any dose anymore.
I take klonopin, but just once a day, mildly helpful. And propranolol once a day for the physical symptoms of anxiety (shaking, etc.), moderately helpful with that aspect of it.
As far as how my anxiety affects my BP, or vice versa, the only thing I can say is that when I'm depressed, my anxiety increases and when hypomanic it disappears. I'd love to hear your guys' experiences. It's a combination (BP and anxiety) that really sucks  |
Anxiety definitely plays a role in my episodes. As my pdoc says, it is "secondary' to the BP diagnosis, but still creates a lot of difficulties in my life.
When hypo: More agitation than actual anxiety, but sometimes I get fixated on activities and anxious about all these grandiose plans that I start making, so anxiety is usually there at a moderate level
Manic: High anxiety and even higher anxiety when in a dysphoric/mixed mania, coupled with paranoid ideation. I start looking over my shoulder and thinking different people in my life are out to get me. Plus, I get all the physical anxiety symptoms around this time. At the onset of mania, I don't feel as much anxiety, because I usually have more confidence, but other factors, such as irritability, eventually lead to terrible anxiety symptoms physically and emotionally.
Depression: General feeling of being overwhelmed sets in. Some days, I'm too hopeless to even experience the full effects of anxiety, but anxiety I think always plays a significant role in the "crash" of not being able to keep up anymore.