tigerchik,

First a little background. For most of my life I have been borderline obsessive compulsive, with a little bit of seasonal affective disorder. I am 34 years old. Most of my symptoms are pretty benign to me, but my wife really notices them and sometimes my actions (especially when there is an excess of stress in my life) my "little things" can get out of control.

I am a firefighter/paramedic. Through the course of my job, we had an incident that was psychologically difficult for me to handle. I spent about 6 months in a depression that really made my OCD and SAD profound. It also brought out quite a bit of anxiety. Finally my wife talked me into seeing a Psychiatrist. I was diagnosed with OCD, SAD, anxiety, depression secondary to Post-Traumatic stress syndrome. He recommended 6 months of counselling and also treated me with Lexapro (a fairly "clean" SSRI).

I was originally going to take it for the length of time that I was in counselling. But then the end of that was in August. So he recommended that I stay on the Lexapro through the winter to try to "combat" the SAD.

I can say that it helped tremendously, especially with the counselling. I'll be honest that I personally didn't notice a huge difference in my mood or my reactions. But my wife said that she could definitely tell once the medication was fully in my system.

The side-effects were not too bad with the SSRI. I had strange dreams, and sometimes I would wake up and not remember them but then at 2:00 PM something would remind me about them. Also I NEEDED to get 8 hours of sleep a day. If I was unable to get that sleep at night, I would end up napping at some point during the day. This was the most frustrating part for me, because my work shift is sometimes not conducive to sleep. I was lucky and I did not suffer any sexual side-effects, I guess some men do.

I wish you luck with this tigerchik. Anxiety is not an easy thing to deal with. I would highly recommend seeking some kind of counselling in conjunction with the meds. Perhaps tou could gain some psychological "tools" to help control the anxiety. Also, I would address ANY issues you have with unacceptable side-effects. There are so many meds in the SSRI family, and some work better on some people than others. A good psych- will work with you on this. Another good idea might be to have a REALLY good friend or family member serve as your benchmark. If your situation is anything like mine, you may be unable to look at yourself objectively and really see if the medication is helping or not.

For what its worth (and remember I'm only a fireman) you can e-mail or PM me if you have further questions about my experience.

Good luck,
Bernie

---

______________
"Slowbern has always made astute observations."-Casey 03/10/2009
2013-2014 Detroit Lions---13-3 until proved otherwise.

Actually, it will probably help some. The only downside could be that Paxil (long term) tends to cause some slight weight gain (as most SSRIs do).

---

____________________________________
Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD

I know you're a medical doctor, and I respect you for that. But that advice was not very intelligent. She'll be off the drug by tomorrow.

---

-
"Yeah, no one likes a smartass, but we all like stars" - Thom Yorke


smartasscoach.tri-oeiras.com

inability to orgasm too ;)

Salazar was on Prozac... Didn't seem to effect his performance.

SAC I love you and all, but I would hope that she is already aware of the potential side effects from her medical doctor. I also don't think she has anything to worry about as far as weight gain goes considering she's 18 y/o and active!

I love you too Kerri ;-)

---

-
"Yeah, no one likes a smartass, but we all like stars" - Thom Yorke


smartasscoach.tri-oeiras.com

petria thomas was on ssris. what about obree?

you know me too well.

Weight gain AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

---

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

I have been in therapy for it for a few years, it hasn't helped as much as we thought so now we're trying the meds. I too have pretty major OCD... although that tends to help me, training-wise.

Thank you for your work as a firefighter and paramedic - that is incredibly brave.

---

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

OCD - 2 stress fractures - and now you got a coach that has you doing 50000 yards swim weeks... hmmmm...

---

-
"Yeah, no one likes a smartass, but we all like stars" - Thom Yorke


smartasscoach.tri-oeiras.com

tigerchik,

How it was explained to me was that the combination of therapy and medication has a patentiation effect so that together they work better than either one singly.

Another possible side-effect that was brought to my attention by my Dentist. Apparently the SSRI family can have some disastrous consequences for your gums. Specifically increasing the rate of gum disease. If this is a concern, you may want to FYI your Dentist because there are some things they can do to counter this, such as gum-flushing with the ultrasonic thing-a-jig.

Bernie

---

______________
"Slowbern has always made astute observations."-Casey 03/10/2009
2013-2014 Detroit Lions---13-3 until proved otherwise.

well he asked how much I was comfortable swimming, I told him 8000yds at a time. He said fine, for this week swim 7000yds each day of straight continuous free because it will teach you patience and focus.

---

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

I don't know about that, as active as I am I seem to be susceptible to gaining weight from meds - happened with birth control pills :(

---

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

although as I'm single, that's not an issue right now :(

---

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Ah... a running coach... I see...

---

-
"Yeah, no one likes a smartass, but we all like stars" - Thom Yorke


smartasscoach.tri-oeiras.com

Yup. I don't think he knows very much about swimming.

---

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

That's why SAC has all his female athletes up their dosage of exlax and syrup of ipecac while on paxil or the bcp. That way he can spend more time answering swim related questions on ST and not have to worry about their Programs getting off track due to weight gain.

great. Try to overcome an anxiety disorder and get an eating disorder in the process.

---

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

I was on Xanax for a while and did not notice any adverse effects on sports performance (which I think was your original question).

good to know. It doesn't seem like any of them should affect it, I just am paranoid about anything screwing with my sports!

---

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

paroxeitine can feel like a very weak ecstacy pill. mix it with alcohol and it is like cocaine...apparently.



is this relevant?!

prob not.

Yikes.

I don't drink though, alcohol apparently interferes with bone density and with all the sfxs I need to be careful.

I better keep the meds hidden then... there are plently of college students who would love to have them if they knew that.

---

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

if your body isn't used to em..likely effect of combining them with alcohol is that you'll just feeel ill...