Anti-anxiety meds and the immune system

[cccourt1942]

Sharon--''tis a blur as to last year or two if anything made more dryness.  Wait--I cut Zyrtec in half & stopped using Astelin. I've told you about my water consumption. I stopped any alcohol consumption due to drying.  I needed the sleep--badly. I take so little--& I'm on 25 mg pilocarpine per day now.  The rheumy told me to not go any higher.  But now or back then--I was like sandpaper mouth & had burning tongue.  I couldn't notice any more dryness.  c3

[Sharon]

Yes c3 I can understand how you may not notice additional dryness when there's no way to go but up.
It's great that the Pilocarpine still helps you. I couldn't tolerate it, but knowing it's a possibility it somehow comforting.

[irish]

Many people don't understand that depression is not a "crazy" disease, it is a disease caused by a shortage of brain chemicals. The problem being, the word depression is not a good name for this physical illness. I think it was a label used years ago because people often did cry a lot and sit around and do nothing plus the brains chemicals were depleted or depressed.

The many symptoms of depression do not involve the brain(like in as crazy as many people think).. Symptoms can be sleeping too much, sleeping too little, excessive pain of any kind, overeating, undereating, lack of motivation and energy, severe headaches, severe stomach aches or symptoms akin to irritable bowel disease, nausea and vomiting, chills, profuse sweating, severe anxiety, inability to make decisions, social withdrawal, overactive socially, severe heartburn,(the GI tract produces a huge amount of serotonin which is also produced in the brain), weakness..the list goes on and on.

Also, one of the big symptoms of depression is extreme irritability and also many people also are making bad decisions. A short fuse and argumentative behavior is also a symptom of depression. Some people have lousy personalities, but they may cross the line into depressive issues and need a friend to help them out.

It has not one thing to do with being Mental and anyone who still gives any of us grief about having depression and taking meds is going to be in for a huge shock some day. There are very few families that get through life without someone having depression. The problem comes when we don't get treatment for ourself or others.

There are very few people who have autoimmune disease who don't develop some type of issue or issues that can be helped by antidepressants. Also people with other chronic dieases also develop many depressive issues. Reason being, our bodies get so screwed up from illness and our brain loses the ability to secrete the serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine. For most of us it is just a simple treatment to make our lives more tolerable plus also helping us get good sleep. Irish

[Carolina]

Inflammation causes depression, pain and profound fatigue...these are the hallmarks of our flares.

I have taken the SSRI antidepressants since Prozac came on the market in the 80's.

The SSRI antidepressants help with depression and with pain.  I found I could not stop my SSRI, not because of withdrawal or any problem EXCEPT elevated pain.

I take 60 mg of Cymbalta every night.

My immune System is very dysfunctional (doesn't protect me from outside attacks AND attacks my organs/systems).   However,  my Immune system has played havoc with my body since my birth in 1942.  No way related to  any ingested meds, believe me.

Best wishes.  Our Immune Disorders are complex, pervasive and life changing.

Regards,  Elaine

[AnneNeville]

C3- Don't the antidepressants and Xanax worsen your dryness?
BTW, whenever I'm asked by doctors if I'm depressed I'm thinking:
"Come on! Is it possible NOT to be depressed when you have 2 AI diseases?!"

The prozac seems to worsen the dryness somewhat, but I can't be certain what amount of dryness is from the medication and what amount is from the disease, which wasn't diagnosed until recently. However, the trade off of dry(er?) eyes for less anxiety is worth it for me, personally.

[cmclien]

I take a very low dose of generic Lexapro for anxiety and joint pain. It does work well for muffling some of the hyperactive nerve/pain receptors we seem to have.  I started out with Zoloft but it gave me severe diarrhea! No fun.  I do find the lexapro keeps my joints from aching too much.  Every time I try and go off of it my wrists and ankles become really achy and I remember why, in part I take it.  It really helps my social anxiety and even anxiety associated with traveling and some minor OCD at bay.

Partly its just starting really low and going slow with dosage.  Take whatever you're prescribed if you start one and cut it in half for a week or two.  Right now I am taking 5mg but have taken as much as 25mg.  A "normal" dose is 20mg.

It definitely helps with sleep when taken at night (for me anyways).  It helps deaden the pain that comes with dry eyes.  My main gripe taking it is yeah it works great to deaden some physical pain but it also deadens other pain, emotional pain (which can be good) but too much of a good thing and I feel like I'm unable to cry which is why I've cut back so much. It can also muffle other areas of nerves which is why many SSRI's make it hard to achieve the big O. 

All that said, if you can find the right dosage, I think it can be really helpful with symptoms without being too drying with SJS.

[Sharon]

Thanks for all your responses and insights gals,
sounds like these meds can help many things via the CNS but not specifically
calm down a hyper immune system which I was hoping for given the researched
connection between the CNS and the immune system.