posted
I am on too many of these. I need something more effective. Any ideas? Preferably something that is much stronger and works consistently. I don't want to feel drugged. Thinking about going back on combination therapy of herbs and antibiotics, but I know from experience I can't do it without something that will keep the anxiety stable.
I recently developed the typical skin manifestations of Bartonella after 1 year of being ill with it after starting anti-bart herbs. My anxiety is probably as severe as it gets, and there is no situational cause or anything like that. I need to get this out of my body.
What are some non-benzo options so I can be prepared to discuss them with my psychiatrist. I've been offered anti-psychotics, but never took them as I thought they looked to be bad drugs. I changed my mind and I may take them if it will help me get better.
Please only people with severe anxiety from bartonella respond.
Thanks.
Posts: 967 | From A deserted island without internet access | Registered: Sep 2009
| IP: Logged |
Hoosiers51
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 15759
posted
I didn't have severe anxiety, but I had bad irritability and was very argumenative (to the point I was impossible for others to live with..it affected my relationships) and I was basically not myself AT ALL.
I believe this was all due to Bart.
The mood stabilizer Lamictal really helped me. It is not an SSRI. It will actually keep your brain safe from all the turmoil and "mini-seizures" (paraphrasing how my psychiatrist explained it) that can happen in the brain with intense mood swings.
You can also get blood levels tested to see if you can take less. I think a normal adult takes 100-200 mg per day, but I only needed 100 mg.
I took it for about 3 years with basically no side effects noticable. Eventually when my Bart started to improve, I could just tell I didn't need it anymore, so I slowly went off it and had no problems with that.
Posts: 4590 | From Midwest | Registered: Jun 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
I do occasionally get intense mood swings that come out of nowhere. 98% of the time it's just anxiety and/or feeling of doom.
I do believe I get some type of mini-seizures that only last a few seconds. I don't lose consciousness or anything like that. I was going to do a EEG, but it was around the holidays and sounded too stressful.
Posts: 967 | From A deserted island without internet access | Registered: Sep 2009
| IP: Logged |
Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- ADRENAL support is a major helper to avoid mood drops. I assume you are already on a low glycemic diet but be sure not to let blood sugar drop too low. Eat frequent small meals and lots of good protein, good fats and non-gluten grains like Quinoa.
LIVER support can make a huge different. Magnesium, Fish Oil and Curcumin, too. Curcumin really helps our bodies deal with stress and is a great antioxidant.
Magnesium can also help decrease seizure activity.
Many benzos are hard on the liver and can make anxiety much worse. Be sure to avoid any that use the Cytochrome P-450 liver detox pathway. Anything that uses that pathway can make anxiety (and even seizures) much worse for lyme patients due to elevated porphyrins adding to toxic levels.
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic