Topic Title: 5-HTP Causing Anxiety?
| |  "5-HTP Causing Anxiety?"
, Sat 18 Dec 11:39:
Hello fellow sufferers,
I exposed a SEVERE case of generalized anxiety complete with tremors, insomnia and hyper-sensitivity to all stimuli after taking a 6-day course of Medrol. Since then I've tried Paxil which gave some benefit but couldn't titrate up due to side effects. I even augmented that with Buspar with no improvement. My PDoc added Desyrel to the mix for sleep which gave me 5 hours. We dropped the Paxil to try Effexor but that didn't agree with me either. We decidedto drop everything to get back to a baseline and see where I am. The Effexor withdrawal was bad but I was really surprized about the Desyrel (trazodone) withdrawal! That was bad - night sweats, crying fits, anxiety, depression - terrible. I've never had an anxiety-free day in the past 7 months, only a relative calm hour or two at a time.
Anyway, its been 24 days since my last does of anything. I've seen a Naturopath who is also an M.D. and I am trying the nutritional/supplement route before trying another artificial drug.
She has me taking multivitamin, Omega-3, Rhodiola, something called Cenitol and naturally, 5-HTP.
I tried taking 5-HTP previously but that was during my withdrawal from Desyrel. Now I wasn't sure if it was the 5-HTP or the withdrawal, but something gave me big time anxiety and I thought it might be the 5-HTP so I discontinued it.
Now she wants me to try it again since I've essentially washed out since ending the desyrel. My question is, does 5-HTP cause anxiety? I generally anxious about taking any meds now - even taking Klonopin or Xanax gives me anxiety after I take them.
What I want to know if does 5-HTP cause anxiety? I'm taking 100 mg in the morning and 100mg at night (she wants me to take 150mg at night). I also noticed that when I startedit, last time and this time, I got a persistent headache. Is this common?
Thanks for the response!
David
[this message was edited by AnxiousDavid on Sat 18 Dec 11:41]
Posts: 1 | | Registered: Sat 18 Dec 2004 11:28 |
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| | "Re(1):5-HTP Causing Anxiety?" , Mon 20 Dec 18:45
Difficult to answer your question about 5-HTP as it will affect everyone differently. It affects Serotonin levels which I believe can cause temporary anxiety, but should in theory help with mood (assuming you have low Serotonin) and probably anxiety in the long term. I've tried it (for chronic anxiety & mild depression) but had to stop because of stomach problems) But I'm sure it was helping with the anxiety (I was combining with SJW)
but certainly it didn't make it any worse! Vitamins & Omega 3's are good things to take regardless, and I still take those daily.
I would have thought you'd be trying the 5-HTP and Rhodiola separately to see which works best, but I'm not medically trained, so defer to your Naturopath's advice on that. If she's an MD as well you should have all bases covered.
Good luck, and drink lots of Chamomile tea!
Posts: 97 | | Registered: Wed 14 Apr 2004 23:27 |
| | | "Re(2):5-HTP Causing Anxiety?" , Mon 20 Dec 18:48
And about the headaches- I didn't get anything like that from 5-HTP, but I'm pretty sure I ended up with something similar from Rhodiola, couldn't be sure though! When you try that many things in combination it's hard to know what's causing what!
Posts: 98 | | Registered: Wed 14 Apr 2004 23:27 |
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