Anxiety and depression, panic and agoraphobia

Discussion in 'Meniere's Disease "Database"' started by waxwing, Oct 14, 2006.

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?

have you ever suffered from one or more of these problems?

Poll closed Oct 21, 2006.
  1. generalized anxiety disorder

    25 vote(s)
    78.1%
  2. clinical depression

    14 vote(s)
    43.8%
  3. panic disorder

    15 vote(s)
    46.9%
  4. agoraphobia

    8 vote(s)
    25.0%
  5. other phobia

    1 vote(s)
    3.1%
  6. none of the above

    3 vote(s)
    9.4%
  7. all of the above

    1 vote(s)
    3.1%
  1. waxwing

    waxwing New Member

    Hi all! I just posted this in the Front Porch section by accident, so now I'm posting it over here...
    I love the polls!
    This time I'm looking at the connection between anxiety disorders and meniere's. There's already a lot fo research done on this connection, but I thought I'd check out our community ....
    Thanks and have a great day!
    Meghan aka Waxwing ;D
     
  2. TracyInIndy

    TracyInIndy Guest

    Meghan,

    You didn't include none of the above. I'm a none of the above.

    Tracy
     
  3. Amethyst

    Amethyst She believed she could, so she did.

    ...and I'm pretty much all of the above.
     
  4. waxwing

    waxwing New Member

    Dang IT! I'll go aaadd that None of the above...and all of the above!
    Thanks guys!
    m. ;)
     
  5. Amethyst

    Amethyst She believed she could, so she did.

    No problem waxwing :) only thing is, I already went and voted for the generalized anxiety and it won't let me remove that vote or vote again...sorry.....that's my big fun anyways though - the others are well in my past.
    (at least I sure hope so!!!)
     
  6. NurseMom

    NurseMom New Member

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  7. Mya46

    Mya46 Knowledge is POWER!

    NurseMom

    What is considered low dose of valium? I just started taking 20mg a day a couple months ago instead of "as needed" for vertigo. I also started acupuncture at same time. My vertigo is gone! I'm in remission again. My new PC doc told me 15 -20mg valium is extremly high for daily dose. I'm slowly coming off. I was taking 15mg in morning and 5mg at night. Now i'm just doing 15mg in morning along with acupuncture once a week. I'm going to start massage therapy too. I have GAD, always have. Had panic attacks in past at young age many times. SSRI's don't do it for me, too many side effects. Valium doesn't make me sleepy at all, no side effects at all. My new PC doc is shocked i'm not sleeping all day on that amount!? Yet my neuro tells me 1/3 of Denmark takes this amount daily (5-20mg), haaaaaaa....they all say something different! I know what works for me and thats how i operate. "As needed" seemed to be really messin with my head, making me spin more often.

    Thanks!
    Mya
     
  8. NurseMom

    NurseMom New Member

    The dosage of valium is all dependent upon what the doctor prescribes and also what a persons body tolerance is.
    When I first started on valium, the doctor told me I could take up to 3 - 5m tablets daily. Well, I'm a little more than cautious and just started out by taking only 1/4th of a 5mg tablet as needed and not everyday. 2 Years later, I take 1/2 of a 5mg tablet every morning and then if needed I will take the other 1/2 of a tablet later in the day. That seems to do the trick for me... but like I said, each of our bodies have different tolerances. We do learn our own body quite well if we pay attention to it also. I have noticed that is has helped me to take the small daily dose each morning.
     
  9. TracyInIndy

    TracyInIndy Guest

    Mya,

    I had a bad reaction to the valium. I was on 10mg a day (5 morning, 5 night) for 10 months. I became very depressed. I was so depressed I was seriously considering checking myself into a mental hospital for an extended stay. I wasn't thinking about killing myself, but I didn't care if I lived another day. Another thing that happened was that internal tape of all the mean negative things that people said to me as a kid turned back on. All day long I was telling myself how ugly and stupid and clumsey I was.

    All this cleared up about 5 weeks after I stopped the valium cold turkey. I was put on an anti-depressant for a couple months to help me recover.

    The other thing that happened to me is I have very little memory of that 10 months. It's been 16 months and my memory has never returned. The final thing that happened is that I had the best memory of anyone I know. I could repeat a conversation I had 2 months ago word for word (hubby hated it because he couldn't win an arguement about what was said :D)

    My memory is not the way it was before I started on the valium. I've worked very hard trying to exercise it, but I don't think it will ever be what it was before the valium.

    Not everyone has the kind of reaction I did. But you need to know it can happen.

    Most of the people here to talk about daily doses of valium, talk about 2.5 to 5 mg daily. Personally I don't know what I will do if I ever get so bad that a doc wants to put me back on the valium.

    Good luck backing off of the valium, Tracy
     
  10. Mya46

    Mya46 Knowledge is POWER!

    Oh boy, thanks from both of you for your input! I definitely notice memory problems though i was bad even before the valium which makes it scarier (i'm only 45yrs old). I tried Wellbutrin before all this and i literally would forget what store i was in sometimes, Klonopin did same thing! It seems to me i'm pretty high i guess in dosage but affects aren't anywhere near as bad as others i've tried. I've read up to 20mgs for anxiety, but you are not supposed to use it for long term. I was given it by my ENT and my neuro both stating 2 - 4 a day (5mgs) for vertigo. I think i'll keep on lowering dosage 5 mgs every week, keep up acupuncture and add in massage! ;)

    Mya
     
  11. TracyInIndy

    TracyInIndy Guest

    Mya,

    I'm only 44 so I know what you mean about the memory problems being scary!

    Tracy
     
  12. Mya46

    Mya46 Knowledge is POWER!

    Tracy

    Your story is very interesting. About the past creeping up on you and remembering mean, negative thoughts. I certainly don't need that, i've been that road and don't want to go back. I feel really good right now, just winter blues creepin in as usual. My acupuncturist claims she has good chinese herbs to help me, i hope shes right though i'd rather just NOT take anything. One thing i've noticed is i can't spell like i used to. I am a whiz at grammer and spelling, all the engrs (ha) at work ask me to proof read stuff now and then. That is starting to bug me! May i ask what AD helped you through your cold turkey and was it just a small dosage and did you get side effects?

    Thanks!
    Mya
     
  13. waxwing

    waxwing New Member

    Hi everyone
    I wanted to encourage you to answer the poll regarding issues you had in the past as well as the present. I used to have panic disorder and agoraphobia and depression but I don't anymore. I did have them before the meniere's started but they got worse afterward. it took years of therapy and ssris to get me back to normal but I notice that thinking about menieres or having an attack throws me right back into panic mode. So, if you used to have panic disorder, please answer with that.
    Thanks!
    meg
     
  14. Cillana

    Cillana New Member

    Generalized anxiety disorder and clinical depression way before all this vertigo stuff. Also OCD and trichotillomania (TTM). All cured by meds and therapy except TTM. Anxiety/depression/OCD run in my family. I'm the only one with vertigo though. Yay... :-\
     
  15. waxwing

    waxwing New Member

    Hey Cillana, me too! anxiety, depression and OCDin the family. I think my great grandma and her twin sister both had meniere's. There was always talk of them having "spells" where's they'd be dizzy for days, holed up in their bedrooms...
     
  16. Goomeri Spinner

    Goomeri Spinner New Member

    Had to look that one up Cillana (trichotillomania) ???

    OK Meghan, now to answer you question :)

    I have had MM since I was 21 (now 54 years old) and yes, used to get anxious when an attack occurred and the chundering was uncontrollable, as I thought I was going to inhale it and kill myself :eek: but between attacks was not anxious or even worried about when the next would occur...probably cause they were infrequent at that time and I had been told to "live with it" so I basically did...that was just me :)

    In fact I never suffered from any kind of mental health issues until the middle of the 90's when I got clinically depressed after a breakup with a man :mad: :D It was a horrible time in my life but I was "cured" with a 3 month term of SSRI's and counselling and then just got on with my life :)

    As I became bilateral and the attacks were more frequent and debilitating I would get worried about when they would hit again, but by that stage I was on a small dose of valium daily to prevent the attacks and I suppose that helped to control the anxiety as well

    Fast forward to 1992 and the sh*t hit the fan :eek: I was working in an environment that was very stressful and dangerous and had an incident occur that made me frightened for my life (I was just the unlucky bunny who was in the wrong place at the wrong time) and in the end caused me to lose my career as an RN.

    I have worked in stressful and dangerous situations before and have coped really well but this time something was different (maybe cause I was perimenopausal...who knows :-\) anyway, I basically "went to pieces".....developed PTSD, then Major Depressive Disorder, panic disorder and agoraphobia...you couldn't pry me outta the house for all it was worth without the panic setting in, and the MM feeding off that made life not seem to be worth living, hence the major depression

    Eventually the docs found the right regime to help control the depression and panic, but the agoraphobia is still there a bit, but I can deal with it. I notice now that I am more prone to a panicky feeling for anything that is new or unusual, but don't deal with anxiety on a daily basis even though I am no longer on daily valium (but am still on Efexor...an SSRI A/D which is supposed to have anti anxiety properties as well)

    My MM is in burnout and I have major balance issues, this doesn't cause anxiety, it just really p*sses me off as it had interferred with living soooo much...actually, I am now less prone to anxiety/stress than I have been in the last 4 years...it could be the A/D's but I'm not complaing :D and not willing to try life yet without them :-[

    I do not have a family history if these things, in fact, think I'm the first to be "nuts" but I did have some very, very eccentric rels ;D ;D ;D and alcoholism (but we blame the Irish in us for that :eek: :D)

    Basically I agree with Di in that chronic anything messes up your head and you would be mad if it didn't effect you in some way :( and vertigo/MM is soo bad that me thinks it is normal to feel anxiety, even without an attack going on :)

    Do I think that mental health issues cause MM...no bloody way :eek: ;D I had MM way long before I had any mental health issues, but those certainly caused the MM to become worse

    OK I'm rambling...sorry :-[ hope that this has helped

    Maggie
     
  17. Mya46

    Mya46 Knowledge is POWER!

    Wow, someone with TTM, i've had that since i was a teen! Wish meds helped me through it. Therapy with a wonderful counselor seemed to help this past year though. Whenever winter sets in i start grabbing but i'm really trying hard to face the beast and say NO! I just picked at the split ends of my hair, didn't pull it out but made for unhealthy hair.

    Mya
     
  18. waxwing

    waxwing New Member

    Hi Goomeri Spinner,
    Thanks for sharing all that. Its amazing how similiar many of our stories are! It makes me feel validated in a way, to know that so many of us have walked such similiar paths...all that suffering alone in the 90's is now healing hearing these stories....
    Actually what I am trying to discern is this: The vestibular nerve is also active in certain mental health scenarios--panic, anxiety, etc. It has been shown that people with meniere's and MAV are more likely to suffer from various other issues where the vestibular is concerned. Basically, we are more prone to conditions such as GAD, panic and depression. I don't doubt that those conditions are exasperated by meniere's or MAV, but I had mine before I had meniere's or MAV. If it is a purely physical condition, could it have been brought on by excessive stress to my vestibular function caused by severe panic and depression? And if you have meniere's prior to developing a mental health issue, could it not have been made worse by excessive vestibular stress? It's just something I've been thinking about a lot, I've just never had a forum in which I could ask these questions on a larger scale and really trust the responses. You guys are great for being so honest and open and it makes me feel SO much better.
    Thanks.
    m. :)
     
  19. Cillana

    Cillana New Member

  20. Goomeri Spinner

    Goomeri Spinner New Member

    ooops...should read "fast forward to 2002" not 1992....sorry :)
     

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