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Physical symptoms of anxiety and bipolar disorder

Posted by SilentScream on April 30, 2015, at 6:06:09

Hello.

I suffer from what is more easily perceivable as anxiety, but now the psychiatrist thinks is part of the bipolar spectrum and the anxiety is related to some mild hypomania.

I have a lot of somatizations (physical manifestations) of this anxiety/agitation, which bother me greatly. I would like some input into what kinds of medication I can try for each, or as a whole if possible.

My only stead medications are:

Lithium carbonate 900mg
Gingko biloba 50mg
L-theanine 200mg
Inositol 500mg
0.25mg-1.5mg Xanax every 2 days on average, as needed

My problems usually are:

Muscle tension - all over the body, really. But it usually bothers me more on the back, neck and knees, causing a lot of pain. Usually, applying heat, cold, exercising, stretching and massages helps acute moments, but it's getting emotional tension under control that resolves this. Usually, Xanax will solve this instantly, but I find benzos in general to be too harmful in the long run so I rather not use it as much anymore. It's hurting my memory, mood, sleep and there's always a rebound with benzos, in my case.

Teeth grinding - I already have a bit to protect me in my sleep, but during the day it also keeps going. Whenever I distract myself, I find that my jaw is clenching and my teeth hurt a lot. Benzos also fix this when it's too much and the other medications arent helping, but I would like an alternative.

Fatigue - I can't explain why this one happens. But my muscles feel tired and unable to acquire proper tonus, for some periods of my life. Sometimes it lasts a few months. I considered it to be a side effect of medications, like lithium which affects sodium and potassium channels and I believe that causes loss of muscle tonus. However, the fatigue wwas there before lithium. It comes and goes. Gingko biloba helped with it, so did a few antidepressants... So I'm guessing it's some sort of depressive symptom? Lack of good quality sleep, maybe?

Gastritis - mine is caused by my emotional state, no doubt. I already take proton pump inhibitors and milk of magnesia, and the "calming" psychiatric medications do help. But I wonder how I can stop this more effectivelly?

Panic attack symptoms - Heart racing, heartburn, sweats, etc.. Often in social situations or when speaking in public, as shyness is a huge anxiety trigger for me.

Allergies - these flare up whenever there's too much stress being accompanied by the physical manifestations of it. Maybe hypomania related? It usually resolves when I'm stable psychiatrically-wise, with no exagerated stress.

I guess that's it. Maybe the first three are all related with muscle tension and other responses of the parasympathetic system. Some people suggested beta blockers for this sort of symptom, specially for not altering my mind and covering so many of the physicall stress-response symptoms.

Someone also mentioned Seroquel might have similar effects to beta blockers for people with bipolar... Is this true?

Woudl love any input.


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poster:SilentScream thread:1078564
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20150407/msgs/1078564.html