Hi
@CapQ
You mentioned panic attacks and bad sinuses, and that is an interesting combination: in my case, both my severe anxiety symptoms and my chronic nasal and sinus congestion and inflammation appeared after catching a virus (my virus was a nasty one, and induced several mental symptoms, including anxiety and anhedonia, as well as physical symptoms such as a chronic sore throat and chronic nasal and sinus congestion, and then later on unfortunately ME/CFS — more details of my viral symptoms
here).
The panic attacks you started experiencing at 27 could also have been triggered by catching some infection. No effect is without a cause, so if your body or brain suddenly start producing new symptoms (panic disorder in your case), there must be reason. (I think that catching infections, which can often initially occur asymptomatically, will eventually be discovered to be the cause of all sorts of mental or physical ailments that suddenly appear without apparent reason).
But now to my current predicament which is withdrawing from the Lorazepam, I am doing a Lorazepam-Diazepam swap and taper schedule, I am already weeks ahead but obviously suffering severe withdrawals (those familiar with benzo withdrawls will know the long and terrible list, so far i have experienced everything on the list except, seizures and death).
If the Lorazepam withdrawal symptoms are increasing your anxiety levels, then possibly the anti-anxiety supplements detailed on this thread, especially N-acetyl-glucosamine (NAG), may well help ease the situation.
Although note that
panic disorder (PD) is a little different to
generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). People who reported they significantly benefited from the supplements like NAG detailed on this thread have GAD rather than PD, so I am not quite sure how these supplements will work for PD.
PD may involve surges of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine being released, which then causes the physical responses of increase heart rate that can occur during panic attack. Whereas GAD does not really involve norepinephrine. Some theories about the brain dynamics of panic disorder are given
here.
My initial question is combining NAG with the Dexamphetamines. From what I gather it is probably not a good idea,
I wouldn't have thought that there will be any adverse interactions.
As far as I can figure out, NAG likely reduces anxiety by an anti-inflammatory mechanism. That is to say, I think NAG works for anxiety by reducing inflammation in the brain, gut and sinuses (brain inflammation is being increasingly investigated as an underlying cause of mental symptoms such as anxiety and depression).
Most of the supplements detailed in this thread I suspect reduce anxiety by reducing brain inflammation. This brain inflammation itself could be caused by a chronic infection of some sort, as infections precipitate inflammation; even a chronic gut infection can cause brain inflammation (since it is now known that gut infections can trigger brain inflammation via signals sent along the vagus nerve).
I think the anti-anxiety supplements detailed on this thread will likely only work for people whose anxiety is caused by underlying brain inflammation. The fact that you have an inflammatory condition (sinusitis) does suggest that you generally have inflammation going on, and that inflammation could be behind your anxiety symptoms. (Though note that sinusitis can also be caused by bacteria or fungal infections in the sinus cavities).
The likely reason that brain inflammation may cause anxiety I think is because this inflammation pumps out lots of glutamate, which excites neurons. Neuronal stimulation is actually controlled by two main neurotransmitters: glutamate which excites neurons, and GABA which relaxes neurons. The state of the neurons is determined by the glutamate–GABA balance or seesaw.
Most anti-anxiety treatments work by increasing the GABA side of the seesaw, but it may be better to work on the glutamate side, and try to reduce glutamate in order to quell anxiety, especially if the original cause of anxiety is too much glutamate created by brain inflammation.
More details on the glutamate–GABA balance in anxiety in
this post.
Kava kava root (300 mg daily)
has been shown effective in mitigating benzodiazepine withdrawal, so that's worth considering. Kava is interesting, because it works on the GABA system as does benzodiazepines and several other supplements. Most drugs and herbs that work on GABA suffer from tolerance and withdrawal problems, because tolerance and withdrawal seem to be intrinsic to the GABA system. However, kava is one of the few substances that work on GABA but does not suffer from tolerance and withdrawal.
Second thing is that all along, and still, I have a feeling of weakness, like low blood sugar and/or low blood pressure, if I don't eat enough. This triggers severe anxiety, if I eat something sweet or a solid meal the anxiety quickly subsides? I present most of the symptoms of being diabetic although i am not. Again this has been thoroughly tested and i am was repeatedly fobbed-offby multiple doctors. The diagnosis i have always been given is that anxiety manifests itself in physical forms and this is basically 'all in my head'... Though i myself know 100% that there is a direct correlation between this low blood sugar feeling (which clearly comes first) and anxiety.
You are quite likely being fobbed off here. Pretty much everyone on this forum believes that such psychosomatic diagnoses are nonsense. Unfortunately there is a dominant school of thought in the medical profession that assumes certain hard to explain physical symptoms are the result of a mental symptoms manifesting in physical forms. These physical symptoms supposedly caused by the mind are called psychosomatic or somatoform symptoms. But everyone on this forum thinks this view is complete nonsense.
Interestingly a few years back my father began experiencing a similar thing, he gets shakey, feels faint/dizzy and nauseas.
You say those are also the symptoms you feel when you get these episodes of feeling weak, except that you have anxiety rather than nausea. One possible diagnosis to consider is POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), which myself and many people have on this forum (POTS is very common in chronic fatigue syndrome). POTS may appear after a viral infection, and there is evidence that POTS is causes by autoimmune attack on the autonomic nervous system.
The symptoms of POTS include: postural tachycardia (increased heart rate on standing), headache, abdominal discomfort, dizziness, feeling faint, nausea, fatigue, lightheadedness, sweating, tremor, anxiety, palpitations, exercise intolerance.
POTS can also cause panic attacks, so that's why I thought POTS might possibly explain your situation.
It is very easy to accurately diagnose POTS yourself at home. Here is how to diagnose it within 10 minutes:
POTS is medically diagnosed using the tilt table test. However, even at home you can easily check if you have POTS using a simple testing method sometimes called the poor man's tilt table test. Like the professional tilt table test, the poor man's tilt table test involves measuring the increase in your heart rate that occurs when you stand up from a relaxed lying down position.
To perform this poor man's tilt table test, you simply lie down horizontally and relax for 10 minutes, and at the end of this 10 minute period, measure your heart rate. Then stand up, and after two minutes standing, measure you heart rate again. After 5 minutes standing, measure your heart rate a third time, and after 10 minutes standing, measure it a fourth and final time. If any of your heart rate measurements taken on standing are faster by 27 beats per minute or more than your heart rate while lying down, then you have POTS.
Source:
here.
If you do not have at least a 27 point increase in heart rate on standing up from a relaxed horizontal position, then you do not have POTS. So diagnosis is very clearcut. If you don't have POTS, then we'd need to figure out some other explanation for the weakness.
