Seroxat Alternatives

Hi

This is my first post here, i never realised there was a message forum!!

I was taking seroxat for 6 years which i found helped brilliantly with my anxiety.

Came off in Feb this year to find i still suffered with the anxiety. Have been trying to find a med to help since. Only stuck with citalopram for 4 weeks (it made the anxiety worse), mirtazapine i tried for 13 weeks (didn't help at all). I've now been on 10mg of Cipralex for nearly 6 weeks and this isn't helping either. Although i'm a lot less depressed i'm still very anxious. Can the cipralex take this long to work? Also has anyone found another med thats as good for anxiety as seroxat is.

Cassie

The cause of your anxiety will be stopping the Seroxat. How did you stop did you taper ?if so for how long?

Hi Cassie,
Is there a particular reason why you had to stop the seroxat if it helped you so much!?

It personally did not work for me but happy for you that it worked for you.

I did also try cipralex but that didnt help me either, however i know someone who is taking a higher dose (ithink about 25-30mgs)and it is really helping him and improving his anxieties. Can you ask your doctor about increasing the dose to see if that helps?

If not maybe go back to seroxat?
Good Luck
x

Hiya

Thanks both of you.

I suppose this could be prolonged seroxat withdrawal but after 7 months of stopping!! My anxiety symptoms returned whilst on seroxat (though i'd been taking lots of diazepam on top so it could have been rebound anxiety from that). I was changed from seroxat to venlafaxine but at the time (about 8 weeks on the new med and offf the seroxat) i had what i'd call a nervous breakdown, couldn't stop crying, suicidal thoughts etc.

In hindsight i think this was seroxat withdrawal but at the time my doctors and i thought it was the venlafaxine so that was stopped. The annoying thing is i think the venlafaxine was starting to help as my symptoms inproved after a few days but by this time i was on a reducing dose. Now the docs wont give me venlafaxine again so i'm back at square one only worse then ever. Sorry this is a bit long.

Cassie

Hi

I found seroxat really helped me too. When I came off it my anxiety came back with avengeance as well as lots of other weird symptoms. I have been on cipralex for 12 months on 10mg and not helping much so just gone up to 15mg.

GP won't prescribe seroxat again because of its bad press but I wish they would as it seemed to really help me although put on a lot of weight - small price to pay for being able to live again !

Good luck

KatieS

Hi KatieS

Yes i'm begining to think that seroxat may have been the only one to help me. I'm willing to try it again if nothing else works though i've heard it doesn't work as well for people the second time around.

12 months on a med thats not helping is a long time, i can't believe you didn't increase before. I asked to be referred to a psychiatrist so i'm seeing her on the 31st (have been before) if i'm no better i'll be asking to increase then. Take care

Cassie

Hi Cassie,

Hope your cipralex starts working for you if and when you can increase the dose you are taking.

By what you describe it sounds like you were stopping and starting medications very quickly, i think its really important to taper off them slowly so your body can adjust and just as important to let your body get used to new drugs by starting on a lower dose and slowly increasing.

Like I said before I have a friend who is taking cipralex and it is really helping him, next time I see him I will ask what doses he started on etc and how long it took for it to start having a positive effect!
x

Hi Cassie

Like you, I was taking 50mg seroxat a day for seven years until Feb when I started suffering from severe anxiety and it no longer seemed to be helping. I'm now on a relatively new anti-depressant called Cymbalta/duloxetine which is going to be licensed for anxiety and which is really helping me. Like seroxat, it boosts serotonin and also something called norapinaphrine (sic). I've also spoken to 2 ppl on here who like us took seroxat for a long time and then started to find it wasn't working and are now on cymbalta.
Take Care, Sarah

Unfortunatley they all stop working after a while. Where do you go then?

I suppose if the cause isnt caused by some sort of chemical imbalance that can be treated with anti depressants then you would have to work on the root cause of the anxiety with therapy etc.

Everybody is different and for some medication is what they need to get their lives back but i suppose sometimes they can mask the problems, i expect cbt would be good here.
x

The Chemical imbalance theory has never been proven, It is something that cannot be measured.

The chemical imbalance theory has not been proven, your right, although its not been disproven either. Not enough is known about how the brain works at the moment.

Whilst meds don't necessarily fix our problems they can help the symptoms and until enough IS known about the brain nobody can say whether our problems are down to disordered thoughts OR a chemical imbalance.

Cassie

Im sorry, I hadn't even questioned the chemical imbalance theory i assumed that there was one, especially when it came to depression. (such as bi polar for example!?) Dont know very much about that either to be honest!

Like you say Cassie the meds can at least help the symptoms of anxiety, it is great if you can find a medication that can help you with these again.

How are you going with the cipralex? Has it started to work yet?

x

Hi Hazymind

Well i've been taking 10mg of cipralex for 7 weeks as of today. Its definitely helped for my depression and maybe a little bit with the anxiety but its certainly not the miracle i was hoping for. Am hopefully going to increase the dose when i see the psychiatrist at the end of the month.

Thanks for asking

Cassie

Hi Cassie,

Its good to hear that the cipralex is working for your depression, maybe a slight increase is what you need for it to start improving your anxiety!

10mgs is a fairly low dose so I'm sure your psychiatrist will increase it. I was taking 20mgs when i tried the cipralex but it is hard to say whether or not it helped my anxiety as I had so many other issues to deal with at the time, im not sure any amount of meds couldve helped at that time!

Let us know how you get on with it!

Hazy x