Experiences with SSRI drugs for blushing

[Daria]

So I tried to search, but there are not many threads that discuss this, so I thought I should start one. Feel free to share your experiences with the rest of us love2:.

I have like many other people developed social anxiety because I blush when I get nervous, and I get nervous around people. Yesterday I finally talked to my doctor and asked to try out SSRI, turns out my doctor actually expected me to ask because every single person that came to him in regards to blushing/red cheeks had asked for SSRI. So if anyone is nervous about asking your doctor, maybe you think it is wierd, it is not. console:

I started yesterday, I take 20mg fluoxetine(Prozac), the reason I take Prozac is because I am concerned about my weight, I dont feel like gaining 20kg. Anyway, I will give you guys some feedback pretty soon.

[phlika29]

Have you seen this website for blushing:

http://www.esfbchannel.com/forum/index.html

[Daria]

Oh thanks a bunch smile:

[Marvin]

I've been taking 20mg Cipralex for over a year now. It's made alot of difference for me, in a positive way. It has by no mean cured me or anything but I flush less often, my burning sensation has not been as severe and I actully manage to smile now and then. It has given me time to come to terms with my situation and try to spin my life in a more positive way. Now I only hope they find a cure for rosacea and psoriasis and Ill be fine. ;o)

[allibear]

Well this is an interesting thread regarding SSRI's.

It's a bit of a long story how I ended up on one, Cetalopram, (would be known in the States as Celexa). But here we go in as brief as possible without missing any of the gory details.eek1:

Last August at a friends BBQ I ate a load of crap and had a few Vodka's. At some point in the day someone ran a hot poker into my back and the Rock of Gibraltar flew out of my gallbladder and got stuck up my left hepatic duct, along with a nice splattering of small stones already stuck up there. (I had been experiencing this in smaller doses for a while). Every organ in my body felt like it was going to explode and I thought I had had a heart attack. I sat with this for a week and then went to hospital. No joys there I was sent home with an antacid, (and on a second occasion at the beginnig of December when my pancreatic blood tests where elevated I was sent home again and told to take painkillers.Cry:) I later had an endescopy wihch showed nothing. I sat with this pain for approx 2 months and then the 'Rock' decided it had had enough of where it was sitting and broke loose with devastating consequences. The first few times it 'bounced' up and down the common bile duct caused me to have an instant blackout, as it lost force this decreased to something like what I would describe as the body going into shock and this happened when I ate or drank anything.

I kept going back and forth to the doctor's with the pain but after I had a clear endescopy I kept being told there was nothing wrong with me. When all this started happening I was told it was a panic attack and was prescribed Cetalopram. I didn't know what was going on at the time and believed the doctor and took the medication hoping all the pain and trauma would go away and had convinced myself and my family that I was indead insane.

WRONG I spent the first 2 weeks on this medication confined to a bed with my brain on fire, loss of vision and no co-ordination, couldn't put one foot in front of the other. Things improved when the 'Rock' finally passed out into the digestive system but I was popping stones regularly and it took me to Christmas to coincide these horriffic side effects I was having with this drug and stone activity and I stopped taking it.

I eventually went private to get a diagnosis, well to get the feedback and proper results of my ultrasound already done on the NHS in November but waited to the end of December for an ignorant pig of a Consultant who didn't want to spend more than 5 minutes on the appointment to tell me my stones where silent and to make an appointment for another review in two months time. Turns out the stones where putting pressure on my portal veins and my blood pressure was actually jumping up and down and that's what was causing the blackouts and the so called panic attacks and I had multiple stones stuck in the bile ducts which doesn't even class them as having a pair of slippers on let alone being bl**dy silent.

What's passing know is very small but still gives me headaches and numbness in the left side of the body, when they shoot up the left duct, (I lost the power of my left arm when the 'Rock' blew out and it's still not quite right), I am hoping that the 'biggies' are now gone and I don't return to this sort of trauma whilst I await for a date for surgery to remove the beastly sac and it's contents, (coudn't afford that privately but at least going private got me onto the NHS waiting list other wise I would never be getting anything done about it).

But take all this out of the equation. I have held a remission with my Rosacea for almost a year despite having a host of stomach problems, which I was working on improving not knowing what I was really up against, and all this going on on top of it. I was on Cetalopram 3 days and my skin started to break out with groups of Papules. It turned bright red really on the first dose and started to feel burny and itchy. This continued for the six weeks I stupidly continued to take it and as soon as I stopped it only took a week for it to all calm down again. I would almost be back to my remission status again only I have been using apple juice to help soften the stones and too much of it gives me the odd little papule but I'm not overly bothered by that as generally I am not burning up and feeling all irritated and 'romancing the stones' is the foremost important thing at the moment.

OK it's just my experience with one of these meds. and lets face it this must have been the misdiagnosis of the century and circumstances that this med. definatley shouldn't have been prescribed for judging by the horriffic side effects I experienced but thought it was worth sharing the experience.