What Induces Fear?

Hear Again said:
my flashbacks occur during the day and night -- although they are worse in the daytime when i hear other people's voices. i also can't stand the sound of a child or infant crying. that instantly sets me off into flashback mode as well.
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Wow, me too. The sound of an infant crying makes me flashback like crazy. I spent over two weeks with family in Austria and my nephew was sick the whole time and cried 24/7. Suffice it to say I was glad to be back home.

Hear Again, just so you know, SSRI's tend to be very good at helping with depression, anxiety, and insomnia. I am taking Zoloft which is a first-line SSRI. Zoloft is also the safest among the group of SSRI's. The second line of drugs are MAOI's, followed by tricyclic antidepressants. The last two are less safe and only used if SSRI's don't work. However SSRI's are good at killing several birds with one stone since many people with PTSD also experience depression and insomnia. They have also helped me become slightly more social, and they help me not dissociate as strongly.
 
dreama said:
Thanks. I'm not just scared of loud noises. It got so bad that any noises freaked me out which is why I stopped wearing hearing aids.
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Noises of any kind freak me out. It's gotten so bad that many times I truly wish I was Deaf/Hoh. Going blind has always helped calm my anxiety cause I used to panic at any sort of movement, and now I only panic at sound (and visual stuff if it's right in front of my face.)
 
Liebling:-))) said:
I can climb the ladder up but can't go down.... :aw: I alway make sure that my hubby hold the ladder to get me go down... :giggle:

I can't bear to look down from high height...
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I'm a little confused. If you can't bear to look down from high height... how does your husband holding the ladder help if you can't go down? :scratch:
 
Nika said:
Wow, me too. The sound of an infant crying makes me flashback like crazy. I spent over two weeks with family in Austria and my nephew was sick the whole time and cried 24/7. Suffice it to say I was glad to be back home.

Hear Again, just so you know, SSRI's tend to be very good at helping with depression, anxiety, and insomnia. I am taking Zoloft which is a first-line SSRI. Zoloft is also the safest among the group of SSRI's. The second line of drugs are MAOI's, followed by tricyclic antidepressants. The last two are less safe and only used if SSRI's don't work. However SSRI's are good at killing several birds with one stone since many people with PTSD also experience depression and insomnia. They have also helped me become slightly more social, and they help me not dissociate as strongly.
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my psychiatrist has me on fluoxetine (prozac generic) for the depression aspect of my bipolar, but he also feels that raising my current dosage will help relieve the anxiety i feel due to my ptsd. i have no idea how much he plans to increase my dosage, but i will talk to him about that when i see him next week.
i've never liked maoi's. i used to take them for depression years ago and always suffered severe side effects as a result, so those are out of the question. in fact, it is specifically written in my chart not to prescribe maoi's to me for this very reason.

how many milligrams of zoloft are you taking? i'm only on 20mg of fluoxetine right now, but that's only because i started taking this med on new year's day.
 
Nika said:
Wow, me too. The sound of an infant crying makes me flashback like crazy. I spent over two weeks with family in Austria and my nephew was sick the whole time and cried 24/7. Suffice it to say I was glad to be back home.

Hear Again, just so you know, SSRI's tend to be very good at helping with depression, anxiety, and insomnia. I am taking Zoloft which is a first-line SSRI. Zoloft is also the safest among the group of SSRI's. The second line of drugs are MAOI's, followed by tricyclic antidepressants. The last two are less safe and only used if SSRI's don't work. However SSRI's are good at killing several birds with one stone since many people with PTSD also experience depression and insomnia. They have also helped me become slightly more social, and they help me not dissociate as strongly.
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What I bolded is misleading. No medication is entirely safe. I think what you mean is how strong the serotonin reuptake is, and actually, the weakest of these is prozac. The strongest reuptake inhibitor is paxil.

Prozac (fluoxetine hydrochloride) is the weakest of the SSRIs.

Approved by the FDA to treat depression in December 1992, Paxil (paroxetine hydrochloride) is either the most potent or second most potent of the SSRIs, depending on which study you read (and including the one from A Primer of Drug Action Paxil wins three out of four).

http://www.crazymeds.us/
 
Oceanbreeze said:
What I bolded is misleading. No medication is entirely safe. I think what you mean is how strong the serotonin reuptake is, and actually, the weakest of these is prozac. The strongest reuptake inhibitor is paxil.

Prozac (fluoxetine hydrochloride) is the weakest of the SSRIs.

Approved by the FDA to treat depression in December 1992, Paxil (paroxetine hydrochloride) is either the most potent or second most potent of the SSRIs, depending on which study you read (and including the one from A Primer of Drug Action Paxil wins three out of four).

Crazy Meds! The Good, The Bad & The Funny of Neurological Medications
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one thing to note about paxil is that (according to my psychiatrist and my own personal experience) its' effectiveness can diminish over time. i took paxil back in the mid 90s for depression and after only a year of taking it, it stopped working.

my psychiatrist also told me that prozac is a very potent med and is absorbed into the bloodstream very quickly. that being said, the reason my psychiatrist placed me on it is because research has proven (according to what he told me) how well depakote and prozac work together in addressing mania and depression.

having said that, i don't know how prozac compares to other ssri's.
 
Nika said:
"The safest" does not imply that it is safe. It just means it's safer than other options according to my psychiatrist and Worst Pills, Best Pills.
https://www.worstpills.org/bookpurchase.cfm?src=P5XWPWBK
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nika,

what you're failing to take into account is the fact that regardless of how safe a med claims to be, there are other factors involved such as side effects. *no* med can be the "safest" since they all carry risks.
 
Remember everyone, being scared of is not something to be ashamed of. Every living thing, no matter how diverse or big it is always has - as modern and past biology has always told - to have an instinct stimuli consisting of "survival of the fittest". Thus in response we always may do things that seem stupid to other people, or to an animal like your dog or cat. Everyone and every animal is different.

The elephant is huge and bold, yet it can succumb to a mouse. (Its somewhat true, this has been mythbusted: YouTube - Mythbusters: Are elephants afraid of mice? )

The mouse may be nimble and timid, and is easily devoured by the owl. But the mouse is not afraid of heights, or a slash thriller movie consisting of Jason Voorhees.

The owl may be the ruler in the forest during the night, but it can also succumb to the hawk and eagle.

The hawk may own all of the skies, but easily succumbs to the poacher, and in rare cases, other mammalian beasts such as the lion, tiger, and so on.

The poacher, a human and being the expert marksman he is, he could be easily outwitted by the presence of alien beings, heights, Freddy Krueger, snakes, snails, whatever else you want to name here.

If you wanna be more bold, brash, strong, and undaunted I suggest observing and practicing more Mr. T, the Rock, Stone Cold are a few to name.
 
Jiro said:
I'm a little confused. If you can't bear to look down from high height... how does your husband holding the ladder help if you can't go down? :scratch:
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I know it sound :crazy: :lol:

I know that the ladder can stand itself well if I want climb down from high height like garage attic or pick up fruit from the tree... I can't trust ladder to stand alone without anyone's supersivon. I fear the ladder might fall if I want to climb up and down from pick the fruit from the tree or something from garage attic. I asked my hubby to hold the ladder to make sure that the ladder won't fall ... I can't go down if the ladder stand alone... I need someone to hold the ladder then I can go down... :giggle:
 
naisho said:
Remember everyone, being scared of is not something to be ashamed of.
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exactly.

i have 7 different types of paranoia (fear of people following me, calling the police for a crime i didn't commit, poisoning me, watching me through video cameras installed in my apartment, dying a slow and painful death, losing complete touch with reality like i did in 2006 due to my auditory hallucinations and obeying my voices when they tell me to harm myself).

i'm not ashamed in any way because i know it's something i can't help. i take several different meds for my paranoia, but i still have severe symptoms.

i've learned to accept this as my reality since there isn't anything i can do about it.
 
I think that is the purpose of this thread. For us to all realize we all have fears and that we're not "weak" for having them.
 
Nika said:
I think that is the purpose of this thread. For us to all realize we all have fears and that we're not "weak" for having them.
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after i experienced my manic/psychotic episode in 2006 and was well enough to leave the hospital, i experienced depression for close to a year because i kept blaming myself for being afraid of my auditory hallucinations. it took me a long time to understand it wasn't my fault and that fear was a normal reaction for me to have. a very good friend of mine who has bipolar II also told me that it's not uncommon for people who experience severe psychosis to take at least a year to fully recover, so that played a part in my reaction as well.
 
Nika said:
"The safest" does not imply that it is safe. It just means it's safer than other options according to my psychiatrist and Worst Pills, Best Pills.
https://www.worstpills.org/bookpurchase.cfm?src=P5XWPWBK
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I wouldn't rely on a book to tell you what meds are safe. I also wouldn't limit your options. You seem awfully symptomatic and that may have alot to do with the meds you're taking and whether or not you're in therapy. Meds can go along way to help you recover, but only if you're taking the right one or the right combination of meds.
 
Oceanbreeze,

I'm not just relying on the book. I've had several therapists tell me Zoloft was probably the best option for me.

My meds are working wonderfully for me. They've helped decrease both the frequency and severity of my symptoms.

Of course I can't say what works for me works for everyone. I can't say that a medication is side-effect proof. I'm just saying that based on what I've read and heard, Zoloft is one of the safer drugs. I don't mean it in an absolutist way--there's always an exception, all drugs have their side effects. I do recognize that. I guess I assume people understand that when I make that statement. I will try to be clearer in the future.

I just increased my Zoloft dosage because my depression is coming back, probably triggered by my winter "vacation." But now I'm on the minimum dosage, instead of half the minimum dosage. My body is very sensitive to anything that goes into it, so that's why 25mg/day worked beautifully for about 6 months despite pretty "severe" (according to my therapists) PTSD and MDD symptoms. (If you think I'm "awfully symptomatic" now you should have seen me this summer. In fact I was supposed to be hospitalized.)
 
Nika said:
Oceanbreeze,

I'm not just relying on the book. I've had several therapists tell me Zoloft was probably the best option for me.

My meds are working wonderfully for me. They've helped decrease both the frequency and severity of my symptoms.

Of course I can't say what works for me works for everyone. I can't say that a medication is side-effect proof. I'm just saying that based on what I've read and heard, Zoloft is one of the safer drugs. I don't mean it in an absolutist way--there's always an exception, all drugs have their side effects. I do recognize that. I guess I assume people understand that when I make that statement. I will try to be clearer in the future.

I just increased my Zoloft dosage because my depression is coming back, probably triggered by my winter "vacation." But now I'm on the minimum dosage, instead of half the minimum dosage. My body is very sensitive to anything that goes into it, so that's why 25mg/day worked beautifully for about 6 months despite pretty "severe" (according to my therapists) PTSD and MDD symptoms. (If you think I'm "awfully symptomatic" now you should have seen me this summer. In fact I was supposed to be hospitalized.)
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nika,

if you don't mind my asking, why couldn't you be hospitalized? you're 19, correct?
 
Hear Again said:
nika,

if you don't mind my asking, why couldn't you be hospitalized? you're 19, correct?
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Correct. But my insurance would only cover for 2 weeks. My therapist was talking about a several-month-long stay. And the only people who could finance that would be my parents. So even though I could legally check myself in, I pretty much had to have my parents on my side--which they're weren't.
 
i'm curious. how does 25mg of zoloft help severe ptsd? how often would you say that you experience flashbacks while on zoloft compared to the times you weren't? the reason i ask is because i'm taking fluoxetine for the depression aspect of my bipolar, but my psychiatrist said that it can also help my ptsd (in addition to the topamax i take). i have several flashbacks a day, but am hoping to cut that down to 2 or 3 a week.
 
Nika said:
Correct. But my insurance would only cover for 2 weeks. My therapist was talking about a several-month-long stay. And the only people who could finance that would be my parents. So even though I could legally check myself in, I pretty much had to have my parents on my side--which they're weren't.
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why not go inpatient for 2 weeks then? at least that would have given you some help and some help is better than none at all.

why did you need your parents on your side if you were 19 at the time? that makes you a legal adult who is able to make his own decisions.
 
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