owainm
04-12-16, 18:04
Hi all I have suffered from ocd/anxiety/depression for 30 odd years now. I had been on Paroxetine since 1998 and started a slow taper off it 4 years ago, this was going fine until April this year when I stumbled upon an article about one of my other meds (Lansoprazole) causing possible vitamin b12 deficiency. This in turn lead me to investigate the possible outcomes of this one of which was damage to your vision. I have always had a phobia of something happening to my vision so I immediately took this on board and started obsessing about it constantly. I then decided to goggle (worst thing I ever did) my other meds which are proprananol and at the time paroxetine and guess what I discovered beta blockers which proprananol is, can according to the beaver dam study Increase your chance of getting macular degeneration by 72%. This again gripped me with fear and added fuel to my already growing paranoia and anxiety. I then searched ssri's and found info linking them to eyesight damage and possible blindness that was the final straw, I had a full blown nervous breakdown due to my fear of something happening to my eyes due to my meds.
This resulted in me being admitted to my local mental hospital as I was threatening to harm myself and others as the anxiety/depression was so severe. I then had to leave my partner and four kids and go live with my parents for 3 months whilst being seen by a specialist mental health team every second day. The doctors on this team got me to stop taking the paroxetine cold turkey (I was only on 10-15 mg at this point) I managed this with very few side effects and was then started on prozac 10 days later. I was initially on 20mg then after three weeks upped to 40mg at that point I had very few side effects however I now get strange random itchy attacks that come a go and have woken up a few times with red and hot skin on my inner thighs and calf's which is raised with hives, this clears up when I take an anti- histamine tablet. I also have a horrendous metallic taste in my mouth all the time are these down to the prozac??
I have been on the prozac for 4 months now and am back home but still suffering enormously from this ocd obsession with the meds damaging my eyes. I am still taking proprananol and have researched prozac and guess what found info that says it can cause vision probs and even blindness on top of this I found one web sight claiming that retinal detachment can occur in paroxetine withdrawal so im worried about that too. At the moment I have had periods of two-three weeks where I am almost 100% but in between these spells the anxiety keeps coming back and it is crippling me. I just can't shift this fear and obsession about the meds harming my eye sight.
I have had my eyes tested twice in the last 5 months and even had an OCT scan of my eyes both times and my eyes are fine. However I am still completely obsessed and can't shake my irrational fears and it is tearing my very existence and life apart. Please any answers/suggestions or info from others is much appreciated, thanks Owain
This resulted in me being admitted to my local mental hospital as I was threatening to harm myself and others as the anxiety/depression was so severe. I then had to leave my partner and four kids and go live with my parents for 3 months whilst being seen by a specialist mental health team every second day. The doctors on this team got me to stop taking the paroxetine cold turkey (I was only on 10-15 mg at this point) I managed this with very few side effects and was then started on prozac 10 days later. I was initially on 20mg then after three weeks upped to 40mg at that point I had very few side effects however I now get strange random itchy attacks that come a go and have woken up a few times with red and hot skin on my inner thighs and calf's which is raised with hives, this clears up when I take an anti- histamine tablet. I also have a horrendous metallic taste in my mouth all the time are these down to the prozac??
I have been on the prozac for 4 months now and am back home but still suffering enormously from this ocd obsession with the meds damaging my eyes. I am still taking proprananol and have researched prozac and guess what found info that says it can cause vision probs and even blindness on top of this I found one web sight claiming that retinal detachment can occur in paroxetine withdrawal so im worried about that too. At the moment I have had periods of two-three weeks where I am almost 100% but in between these spells the anxiety keeps coming back and it is crippling me. I just can't shift this fear and obsession about the meds harming my eye sight.
I have had my eyes tested twice in the last 5 months and even had an OCT scan of my eyes both times and my eyes are fine. However I am still completely obsessed and can't shake my irrational fears and it is tearing my very existence and life apart. Please any answers/suggestions or info from others is much appreciated, thanks Owain