What would you do?

Right now I'm on buspirone for my anxiety. I think I've been on it for three weeks? I don't know if it's working or not. We went to see Star Wars the other night and I had a panic attack in the movie theater. I don't usually have panic attacks.

I'm not sure if there's a connection or if it's just a coincidence?

I think it might be making my anxiety worse.

But I read it takes four to six weeks to start working?

When I was on gabapentin I had no anxiety issues at all. Anxiety completely gone.

My pdoc told me I could wean myself off the gabapentin and take as long as I needed, so pretty consistently I've been taking one of those (400mg) a day in the morning before work.

I wanted off gabapentin because it was making me foggy and bloated and causing some weight gain because of water retention. Every day I was busting out of my pants. Seriously. When I went down to one a day I felt so light. It was nice.

If you were me, would you call and ask to be taken off buspirone?

Or should I just wait out the buspirone for awhile longer?

I'm not sure what to do. I almost just want to go back on gabapentin and deal with busting out of my pants every day and not being able to take my wedding ring off!

It worked so well for my anxiety. I was taking it for granted. It worked better than clonazepam. It was like the best of both clonazepam and alprazolam.

(Except neither of those made me retain water and bust out of my pants.)

Sigh. We never just get away from taking these meds, do we? There's always a side effect...or two...or three. Always a payout of grief for our troubles. Of course I'm not a psych, but in my experience at three weeks you're pretty much seeing what you're gonna get with a new med, for good or for bad. I'll tell you a story of how a psychotropic med gave me anxiety too.

I was always a cock-sure confident type...scared of nothing, and loved to wade into a crowd of people to see if I could get some laughs stirred up. After hospital and some experimentation, I settled on Lamictal 150mg and Lithium 6oomg.

I've been meeting my pals at this little mountain bar/grill for dinner since I moved back here in '09. I've known several of these guys for over 55yrs. Well, after I titrated up on the Lamictal...for the first time in my days...I had anxiety. I would drive up to the bar...get that knot in my guts...cruise through the parking lot...and head back home. It made no sense.

A couple times during the next few years I had this anxiety. Missed a couple funerals I should have been at for family, trying to get sick in the parking lot. Wanted to fly out to see my sister so I got the ticket and wifey took me to the airport. Got within 15ft of the cabin door and freaked out. Wifey had just pulled back into the driveway, so she turned around and made the hour trip back to DIA to get me.

I was stunned about what happened, really. It just made no sense. Right up to the point I crashed, went to hospital and started on this med I was flying 8-10 times per year. I had -0- problems with flying. I didn't feel good about never being able to get on an airplane again, so I went to CBT to learn a coping mechanism. I worked with my psych to lower my Lamictal dose a little. Got some anti-anxiety drugs and Xanex too. Thought I was good to go.

Two months ago, Wifey's son was getting married in Reno. I was ready (I thought). When I parked the truck, I took half a Xanax. Got to the terminal and had a nice lunch with Wifey...then took the other half and waited to board. Same *****, different day: a few feet from the door and I'm stumbling around down there by the strollers and car seats about ready to pass out. So I gave Wifey a kiss...she got on the plane...and I went home, shaking my head. IT JUST MAKES NO SENSE!

Perhaps I should lower the Lithium to see what happens. Psych gave me a couple other meds to try too: hydroxyzine and another I can't remember, but I don't want to take any more meds every day for the off chance I may need them. I wanted an 'as needed' med. My therapist suggested Buspar too...don't know why my psych has steered me away from it.

Yes, these meds can foster anxiety. Beings our physiologies are different, they will react differently in each of us...and psychs don't have a snowball's chance in hades of knowing how. What do you think perhaps of just taking half of a gabapentin to see if that lessens the water retention?

I remember being told by my pdoc in grad school that he didn't use Buspar because he felt it wasn't very effective in most cases. He preferred to treat anxiety with ADs (this was prior to my BP diagnosis). Obviously some people get great results or it wouldn't still be on the market but none of the pdocs I've seen have ever recommended trying it and I'm on a decent amount of benzos and have been for years so I think if it was likely to work someone would have had me try it. I can't take it now b/c it interacts with my MAOI but that's only 6 years; I've been seeing pdocs for almost all of the last 18 years and meds managed by a family dr prior to that and whenever I didn't have a pdoc.

I don't know what that means for you but maybe it just isn't the best drug for you? I have no idea. I think if it were me I'd try the gabapentin but see how low you can keep the dose. It sounds like you gain water weight on that so maybe your pdoc can help suggest how to decrease that, or your family dr can (since they deal with that more).

Thanks for the reply! I was also thinking about asking my pdoc if I could just take 400mg of gapabentin as needed. Before she was having me take it three times a day. And it works for me as a prn med. I really like how much it works! My husband wants me to go back on it since he doesn't care about the weight gain thing and when I was on it he'd never seen me so relaxed and happy.

Maybe if I tried drinking a ton of water?

I also take 200mg of seroquel and that really helps with my anxiety too (and my paranoia) so I also thought if we bumped that up to 300mg maybe that would help enough were I wouldn't need an anxiety med.

Sigh. I really wanted buspar to work.

Thanks rainbow!

Yeah. Maybe there is something we can do about the water retention. I'll ask.

I sort of feel like buspar is having an opposite effect on me. It makes me elevated and restless, instead of calm and relaxed.

If it were me, I'd probably give the buspirone a couple more weeks to see if it's going to work. If the situation doesn't get better, then consider going back on gabapentin and see if there is anything you can do to combat the side effects.

I'm fortunate not to have side effects from gabapentin, but wonder sometimes if it even works. I take 800mg at night and have found I can't sleep more than a couple hours if I don't take it. Sometimes I take it PRN maybe 400mg early in the day if anxiety is bad. Sometimes it does helps a little. Glad it works for you! Anxiety is terrible.

One thing I do like about the buspirone is that it has helped a lot with my anxious thoughts. I can't even make myself have them. And it's made me very sharp. I've never been on a med that's done that. If only it helped with my physical symptoms.

buspar has been good for me so far ... no side affects ... has allowed me to all most completely give up xanex .... seems to work on the paranoia also ... JMO

wire - When you first started it how long did it take to work?