r/dysautonomia • u/ConsequenceOdd7685 • 1d ago
Question SSRI that helps?
Hiya, I have hyper andrenergic symptoms, would anyone recommend taking an SSRI to help the symptoms? I’ve been prescribed sertraline but my husband has heard bad things about it and is cautious…
Is there an SSRI anyone would particularly recommend for adrenaline and hyper arousal type symptoms? Thanks! 🙏🏻
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u/writeitout_ Undiagnosed but searching 23h ago
I had a really bad experience with SSRIs and I have hyper adrenergic symptoms.
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u/ConsequenceOdd7685 22h ago
Ah interesting, maybe I’ll stay away then! Thanks for replying, which ones did you try?
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u/writeitout_ Undiagnosed but searching 22h ago
I think mine was an odd and extreme case, and there are a lot of factors at play that I'm still sorting out. It catapulted me into the worst flare of my entire life.
I took prozac 10 mg and buspirone 10 mg for 7 days.
What kind of symptoms do you have?
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u/Sloth_are_great 16h ago
I don’t think you’re an odd case. They did the same to me.
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u/writeitout_ Undiagnosed but searching 16h ago
Damn. Prozac for you too? Did you take it for a short time?
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u/Sloth_are_great 16h ago
No. But every other SSRI and SNRI and atypicals as well as amitryptiline and nortryptiline
Edit: I took them for varying lengths. Some short, some long.
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u/ConsequenceOdd7685 21h ago
Ahhh fair enough, sorry to hear that!
Yeah mine was weird too I fell over into a door and hit my head and whiplashed my neck and then have had these issues ever since
My symptoms are high heart rate at rest, and adrenaline surges waking me back up every time I start falling asleep, I’ve been completely reliant on sleeping meds since the fall and they don’t always work to stop the adrenaline surges 😟 are yours similar?
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u/DeliciousFun6402 13h ago
Im in the same boat. I found diazepam 2.5mg helped me last night. I tried temazapam 2.5mg and 5mg for 2 nights. I would fall sleep in 30 mins, but i would wake up after 3hrs with the high heart rate and wouldn't be able to sleep for the rest of the night. High heart rate, shaking.
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u/ConsequenceOdd7685 7h ago
I have that high heart rate going on rn it’s awful, I didn’t take propranolol before I went to bed 😟 the heart rate thing feels sooo crazy. Sadly I’ve gotten v tolerant of diazepam as I’ve been taking it on and off for 5 weeks now
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u/DeliciousFun6402 6h ago
Oh no. Sorry to hear, i am dreading going to bed again tonight. Its like groundhog day. How high does it go? And does it spike and come back down or stay at that level?
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u/writeitout_ Undiagnosed but searching 16h ago
I have high heart rate but only sometimes. Sometimes my heart rate is lower and my pulse is weak… I don’t know my body is so confusing. So sorry to hear ab your accident though, seems scary, physical trauma like that is a big fear of mine, but hopefully this medication could help you? Maybe? I know it’s so difficult knowing what will work and I would say in my experience that caution and skepticism is very important. I jumped into the prozac with little research… but at the same time, how would I know how it was going to affect me until I tried? I think thats where my ocd and anxiety really fool me. Tricks me into thinking that with enough research I can prevent bad things from happening. BUT again, to a large extent, knowledge is power, so keep asking questions.
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u/IndependentSad5795 1d ago
Following as I want to know the same. Partly because dealing so many years with this and being rejected by doctors has largely made me depressed and anxious. On top of symptoms.
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u/ConsequenceOdd7685 1d ago
Yeah it’s such a frustrating situation, I wish there were more doctors who specialised in this, hopefully we can get some reccomendations!
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u/Potential_Jello_Shot 23h ago
I have hyper adrenergic symptoms as well. Being on SSRI meds didn’t make a difference in that, I still adrenaline dumped and had heart rate issues. I’m off of them now and feel pretty good, still have the symptoms and they haven’t changed with being in vs being off. Be cautious as the meds can come with some pretty crap side effects. Have you been on any beta blockers? Obviously any med will come with its own bag of tricks, but propranolol really helps me! Just something to consider. Good luck!
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u/ConsequenceOdd7685 23h ago
Hiya thanks a lot for replying😊 good to hear from someone with the same symptoms, yeah I take propranolol too. I take the 10mg multiple times through the day, I’m wondering if a larger dose at modified release would be better, is that what you take? And are your adrenaline surges under control with it?
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u/Potential_Jello_Shot 22h ago
I take 20mg twice a day. I’ve considered taking it more but my hr gets too low sometimes. I’d say they’re mostly controlled. If I miss a dose or am late on a dose I’m surging pretty bad. I do have break through though. Like if I get waken up in the middle of the night or get spooked. Even if a car pulls out in front of me or brake checks me I can surge lol it’s kinda different every day, but overall the propranolol has me pretty well controlled
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u/No-Cook6089 18h ago
i was having dysautonomia symptoms and several doctors misdiagnosed me with anxiety and i tried prozac not knowing how it could affect me. it took my POTS from like 20 to 200 after being on it for 4 days. my body still hasn’t lined back out. I was diagnosed with POTS about a month after trying the prozac.
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u/ConsequenceOdd7685 17h ago
Ahhh thank you for replying, that’s really good to know to avoid that! I’ve been put on quite a lot of medication to override the symptoms I’ve been having and I am worried that it may be making things worse in the long run…
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u/No-Cook6089 17h ago
i personally had to stop trying with mental health meds:/ i’m pretty sensitive to everything at this point. good luck on your journey!
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u/swimmer3914 23h ago
Zoloft has helped with my anxiety and depression. Doesn’t seem to affect my other symptoms too much. If anything I think it has lowered my heart rate.
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u/ConsequenceOdd7685 22h ago
Did you have adrenaline surge type symptoms? And how long did it take for you to see positive effects? Thanks for replying 😊
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u/swimmer3914 22h ago
No problem, yeah major adrenaline issues especially trying to sleep. Took me a little over two weeks to start feeling more calm. I’m currently on 25 mg though will probably go up higher soon. I also take gabapentin at night also though which has helped me to.
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u/ConsequenceOdd7685 21h ago
Yeah I’m 5 weeks into it after hitting my head and still completely reliant on sleeping meds, it’s sooo crazy
Did you do anything else to help the calm?
I think gabapentin would help me too it’s just seeming quite hard to get prescribed for me in the UK as it’s a controlled drug… they want to try me on amitryptiline first but I’m not really sure whether it’s doing anything tbh. Did you have any issues getting a script?
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u/swimmer3914 21h ago
My neurologist prescribed it to me to help me sleep. 300 mgs but I have increased it to 600. It really helps make me tired and sleep better throughout the night
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u/hmarko48 18h ago
The two antidepressants used for dysautonomia are cymbalta or wellbutei . Wellbutrin seems to have eliminated my heart arrhythmias!
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u/ConsequenceOdd7685 17h ago
That’s amazing, thanks for replying! Do you have hyperadrenergic type?
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u/hmarko48 17h ago
Yes I do. I also think red light therapy helped me a lot for the hyperPOTS but the heart arrhythmia seems to have responded to wellbutrin… actually I take auvelity BUT dr Grubb in Ohio told me they do Wellbutrin and wanted me to update him on this med. I hated cymbalta to be honest. Far as antidepressants it sucks and oddly the HPOTS disappeared after I was tapering off. I’m complicated :)
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u/Cmax3021 13h ago
SSRIs are just sooo hard to get off. I’m on 50mg of Zoloft and feel very stuck. I have no idea if it helps. What does help me is clonidine which I take daily. And then a lot of cognitive behavioral therapy to not let my mind spiral and make symptoms worse. It’s a real party!!! 🤪🤪🤪
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u/ConsequenceOdd7685 7h ago
Yeah Zoloft is what I’ve been prescribed, I haven’t taken it yet. Are you worried to come off of it then?
I really want to try clonidine too, was it difficult for you to get it prescribed?
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u/HealingSteps 1d ago
Sertraline caused my dysautonomia. SSRIs are dirty drugs. They don’t even know how they work. I’d highly recommend finding another route as they are risky. They do help some though so it’s a tough decision.
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u/Cool-Lavishness9532 22h ago
What are your dysautonomia symptoms? Because I don't know I got it from sertraline also.
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u/1212chevyy 1d ago
Benzos played a huge role in mine. Now drs try to push anti depressants on me because I'm depressed I'm sick... ummmm nope nope nope
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u/KBlake1982 21h ago
Does it go away? Medication induced dysautonomia? Does the body reset if ceasing all drugs that affect the nervous system?
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u/1212chevyy 16h ago
Yes and no, had it for 9 months went away for 3 years, smoked pot once came back for about 2, went away from almost 4 years. Hurt my neck now back again but different for the past 9 months. My body is dumb
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u/KBlake1982 16h ago
You smoked pot one time after years of not taking anything and it came back? So that was gonna be my next question is can I re-introduce medication’s again in the future but sounds like from you I won’t be able to.
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u/1212chevyy 16h ago
Yup, i was 100% fine zero issues everything went away, i was in benzo withdrawl when i took an antibioticand next thing you know i was blacking out. Then smoked one time and it all came back years later. My autonomic dr and pcp both say I am no the normal autonomic patient. Hell I got this at 32 and I'm a guy which is way more rare. It's dumb
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u/KBlake1982 16h ago
I have not been diagnosed. This is a very recent thing. Well, not exactly totally recent. I’ve noticed symptoms building for about two years, but they’ve been pushed off by every doctor. I’ve seen written off as something else… But was on a lot of vasoconstrictors and a lot of them PRN so my system was going up and down up and down in a constant state. I also dabbled with some illicit stuff which I think pushed me over the edge. Today I found specifically MCAS and I can’t tell you how fitting every single word is to what I’m going through, did you find out what specifically you have
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u/1212chevyy 16h ago
My tilt table test said Orthostatic hypotension. But my entire autonomic nervous system has basically shut down too. Along with loosing my mind. As crazy as it sounds I went from a totally normal dude to overnight crying over everything blacking out. Weird stuff.
My wife actually has mcas
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u/snowlights 22h ago
Likely hyperPOTS here as well (cardiologist claims there's no way to possibly know, but my BP is high and my symptoms line up with hyperPOTS more than the other presentations). I haven't tried sertraline so can't give an experience there, but both amitriptyline and trazodone work well for me - taken for sleep and chronic pain. I don't really notice much for side effects, I found amitriptyline worked better for me. Amitriptyline also acts as an antihistamine, and if your histamine is high, adrenaline is high in response. I take 10 mg a few hours before bed, if I take it too late then it's hard to wake up the next day. I've taken up to 50 mg, and would probably do better on 20 or 30 mg currently, but I'm always trying to keep my doses low (I take several medications).
I did the worst on SNRIs and NDRIs, so I would definitely recommend avoiding those.
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u/ConsequenceOdd7685 21h ago
Ahhh interesting… how crazy that there is no way to possibly know!
Oh I didn’t know that amitryptiline was an anti histamine as well, my symptoms all started after a fall and hitting my head and I got prescribed this for pain. I’m taking 20mg a night at the moment, is it if you have a bad flare up you take more? My script says up to 70mg a day but I’ve seen that sometimes higher doses can cause more anxiety?
Interesting about the other meds, I’ve just googled what they are and that’s so crazy as it sounds like they would for sure help, I’ll know to stay away from them now… did they cause a bad reaction for you then?
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u/snowlights 20h ago
I think there's ways to know, but my cardiologist isn't informed well enough to pursue them, and he seems to think all presentations of POTS can be treated the same ways (he's really stuck on propranolol and ivabradine, both which I've tried now).
It might depend on the doctor, but I was told by my original (now retired) doctor to increase the amitriptyline gradually until I felt it was effective, and stick with the same dose over time, potentially increasing or dropping it slightly depending on how I'm doing or if I notice side effects, but not to change it abruptly day to day. The doctor that's been prescribing since the other retired doesn't give me the autonomy to figure out the dose myself and will prescribe the minimum, if I think I need more I need to make an appointment and get a new prescription from them but they practically interrogate me over it, which is frustrating.
Yeah, for NDRIs and SNRIs, I tried Wellbutrin and Cymbalta. Cymbalta was my worst prescription experience out of everything I've tried. I legitimately thought I might drop dead, but the side effects crept in gradually so I didn't realize it was the cause. I would wake up in the middle of the night so overwhelmingly nauseous that I couldn't even breathe, would literally crawl to the bathroom, because standing would make me borderline faint, and try to throw up. But usually I would just end up laying on my bathroom floor on the brink of fainting, breathing weird, breaking out in a cold sweat. It generally made me feel extremely jittery and wired through the day. My doctor had me drop Cymbalta cold turkey because it was giving me dangerously high blood pressure. Wellbutrin wasn't as intense but very similar, extremely jittery and anxious feeling, more lightheadedness, high heart rate and blood pressure. Both gave me issues with sleeping.
I didn't know I probably have hyperPOTS when I tried those medications, but knowing what I know now, it makes sense that meds that increase adrenaline would have those results for me. Which is why I'm now trying to convince my cardiologist to try something that will block adrenaline (like clonidine or guanfacine), because I think it could be really helpful. Maybe I'm wrong, but I really want the chance to at least try them.
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u/ConsequenceOdd7685 19h ago
Did you have trouble getting the trazadone prescription?
And did propranolol or ivabradine help at all?
Oh that’s really frustrating you can’t adjust it as needed anymore… did 20-30mg work best then? I’m not sure what effects I’m even supposed to expect for it, my neurologist said it is just for pain and might help me sleep. But I haven’t noticed either effect really
Wow that’s sooo crazy those effects you had from those drugs! They would literally be the worst for the symptoms that we have! Did you ever manage to sleep at all?
Yeah I’d really like to try clonidine, seems tricky to get prescribed though, in the UK it seems to be anyway… I hope you manage to get one of them!
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u/Miserable-Caramel795 1d ago
If you decide to go for it start as low as possible. Maybe even half of the lowest dose. They do help some people.