# SSRI induced DP and dysphoric mania?



## AlexS (Nov 18, 2007)

I started taking Lexapro to alleivate my symptoms of depression and anxiety, but instead it made it worse! I have heard that people have gone bezerk when starting these meds and I can see why. I took them for about 12 days, only thinking that I would get pass this, but I couldn't take it anymore and had to stop. I had a constant panic attack that I couldn't shrug off and the only way to get rid of it was constantly running/working out, I had so much energy I could hardly feel pain. I didn't even think of eating and sleeping was like 3 hours a night, if that, even on sleeping pills. After all that crap, I started to notice that a sense of depersonalization. The doctor said it was akathesia, but said nothing about the DP. Ive been going on with this for about 2 months now and my sleep is still messed up.. I feel alone with this and wanted to know if anyone else had the same problem as I did. Why the doctor didn't warn me about this in the first place truely shows how ignorant most of them are. Or maybe I'm just a rare case..


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## comfortably numb (Mar 6, 2006)

I don't know how i missed this one.

Anyway dysphoric mania usually consists of being very energetic and very depressed at the same time. It's called a mixed state actually because you are suffering from mania and major depression at the same time. It's the most dangerous part of the bipolar spectrum and this is the state where you are most likely to try a suicide attempt. It truely sucks and i should know because i get it without the help of any anti-depressants.

When i get it i usually have these really black racing thoughts such as wanting to kill myself or cut myself up, paranoia, i can't sit still at all and i also get alot of rage and rant and rave about everything. Sometimes i will go punch a brick wall or a stell door until i get sick of that (i never feel pain in this state), occasionally i have cut myself (nothing serious yet thank god), i will get mild auditory and visual hallucinations and on a few occasions i have prepared to kill myself. I won't get into the last one.

What you experienced sounds like plain old mania or hypomania. Alot of people find out the hard way that they suffer from bipolar when they get prescribed a anti-depressant. Alot of people get depressed and suffer a manic episode that sometimes lands them in the hospital when their GP or sometimes a dumb psychiatrist prescribe them a anti-depressant without even checking to see if the patient experiences mood swings.

Hell both GP's and psychiatrists prescribe ssri's like candy due to having them pushed on them by drug reps. Though this is less common now (or atleast it seems to be around here but then again im actually seing a good shrink now) but it still happens alot. They are overprescribed for sure.

Are you still experiencing the increased energy and decresed need for sleep without feeling very tired? Im not a psychiatrist by a long shot and i would be a total idiot to try and diagnose you but seing a psychiatrist wouldnt be a bad idea at all. I would definately go see one for sure.

Akathisia is pretty rare with ssri's in fact ive never heard of anyone getting it from a ssri. But it is possible (i think) so maybe you where really unlucky i don't know. It's much more common with anti-psychotics especially the older typical anti-psychotics such as haldol or chlorpromazine. Even with the new atypical anti-psychotics paticularly seroquel or zyprexa it's pretty damn rare.

As for the DP it can be made worse and possibly triggered off by ssri's. I doubt it would cause it all by itself but many drugs are triggers for dp/dr. Ssri's are no different.

You could try a benzodiazepine for your DP and anxiety. Id suggest clonazepam or valium because they are both long lasting and clonazepam was very successful in curing my dp/dr, brain fog and anxiety. It worked much better then any other benzodiazepine and many other people report the same thing. These drugs won't make you go beserk (unless you take a shitload of one like xanax and drink a pile of booze with it) and don't carry a risk of mania. In fact they are often given to patients with bipolar to help calm them down and they are used alot in emergency situations for a acute manic or mixed state episode.

The main risks with these drugs are physical dependence if used everyday, withdrawal syndrome that can be severe if coming off a high dose cold turkey after being on them a long time, drowsiness, bad memory until you get used to your dose and fatigue. You can get life threating withdrawal symptoms such as seizures if youve been on a really high dose for a very long time and quit them cold turkey. The benzos with the short half lifes such as alprazolam (xanax) and lorazepam (ativan) are generally the worst for producing the most severe withdrawals.

Oh you can get plenty of benzodiazepine horror stories off certain websites and even off this website. Hell if you listened to every horror story about drugs on this website and other websites you would never even take a goddamn drug. Everybody has a horror story about a certain drug (i have a horror story about 3 in 3 different groups of drugs) and your brain did not like lexapro. That doesn't mean it won't work really well for other people.

Ssri's also have their place it's just the fact that they are prescribed in cases where they shouldnt be that gives them a bad rap. They are also vastly overprescribed in my opinion and especially where in the past and much better anti-depressants exist (with less side effects usually) that are hardly ever prescribed.


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## S13 (Dec 19, 2007)

I had a bad experience with Lexapro. I took it for three days and felt terrible. I didn't know who I was or what I was doing. I still feel that way four months later, but I'm pretty sure the Lexapro is out of my system. Maybe it started the depersonalization cycle again as I hadn't had it several years. I don't know.

I was taking tranxene for the past year and recently switched to xanax because the tranxene wasn't helping my panic attacks. My panic attacks are better with the xanax, but my depersonalization has gotten a lot worse. I don't know what to do now.


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