Excessive anxiety symptoms and conditions

I'm a 35 yr male and have been dealing with depression/anxiety for years due to current & past issues in my life. This post IS dealing with singulair side effects but want to give some history as to why I think it's singular and not something else. For the past 2 or so years I've been using xanax which has worked fairly well in controlling my anxiety, but my doctor preferred I stop taking it because of it's potential for abuse. I've been on SSRI's before and I hated them, so I did some research and decided to try wellbutrin which works differently from the SSRI's. I was still using xanax while ramping up on wellbutrin the end of February. To my relief, the wellbutrin started working wonderfully - felt like I could cope with life, increased energy, better mood, with no negative side effects (actually some positive ones) - the only problem I was having is I traveled during this time frame and developed a bad case of sinus rhinitis due to the climate changes. I've had chronic sinus problems my whole life so it's no surprise. I tried most otc meds and nothing was helping. In the meantime I was feeling so much better (other than the rhinitis) that I decided to start tapering myself off the xanax. When I got to the point where I'd stop taking the minimal dosage I would start getting physical withdrawal symptoms (headaches, dizziness, etc) which is fairly common after taking for a prolonged period of time. The side effects were strictly physical - no excessive anxiety or psychological craving My sinuses were still really bothering me so I had two reasons to visit the doctor - try to get something to relieve my sinuses and to get a short supply of a benzo with a longer half-life to ease the withdrawal from xanax. The doctor gave me a prescription for a month of diazepam and 9 weeks of singulair samples. That was 3 weeks ago. I immediately begin using the singulair, but still had some xanax left so I decided to continue on a minimal dosage and use it up before I went to fill my rx, which I just started several days ago. Coinciding with when I started taking the singulair, all the positive benefits I was feeling from the wellbutrin just suddenly stopped. My depression and anxiety came back worse than they were before - another persons post describes the change in me: feel very anxious, fearful, reclusive, depressed, that everything is going to go wrong, or is always wrong. I'll have extreme anxiety about small everyday things. I’m unable to concentrate. I've also become more irritable, argumentative, and aggressive. I have difficulty falling and staying asleep. I also experienced a very noticeable decrease in sexual energy after a very noticeable increase which is a side effect of wellbutrin. I can even understand the rationale for suicide just to be free of this emotional nightmare - not that I would do it - but can understand it. I couldn't figure out why I went from finally feeling good about life to suddenly feeling worse than ever before. I guess I didn't realize it right away because my sinuses were much better, but I know these symptoms began occurring very shortly after I started to take the singulair. I was trying to figure out what was going wrong with me and yesterday I did a web search on 'singulair side effects' (since it’s the only variable I could think of that changed within that time period) and came across this site and several similar ones. It blew my mind how many people were talking about the exact things I was feeling. Yesterday was my last dose. Does anybody know how long it takes for this crap to work its way out of your system after 3 weeks of use???

My 4 year old son was placed on Singulair right before his 2nd birthday. 3 weeks ago I had scheduled him an appointment with his doctor to talk with him about my son's behaviour (excessive anxiety, aggression, terrible sleeping patterns, aggitation, reduced attention span, etc) thinking it was going to be something along the lines of ADD. Right before his appointment I found this board and another in which parents have voiced their own experiences of having their child on Singulair. Needless to say, I switched his appt to his allergist and pulled him off the Singulair. It's been 2 1/2 weeks, and he has become a different child at home. He is sleeping better, the nightmares have disappeared, his tantrums have become almost non-existant, his concentration and ability to retain information from scholastic has improved, and those constant complaints of leg pains are gone. Doctors really need to be warning parents about these side effects, especially when putting very young children on this medication. We thought it was the terrible twos that carried over into the three's then four's. Apparently it wasn't........

I began taking Yasmin Dec. 2004 on my ob-gyn's advice. (My previous pill, which I had been on for years before and between pregnancies, was making my breasts very tender and sore but otherwise was OK to be on.) Within one month, I noticed several changes in my health and mood that I initially thought might go away after my body "got used to" the new birth control pill. Unfortunately, the symptoms did not go away and other even worse symptoms appeared. These symptoms included the following:

1. feelings of chest constriction and tightening
2. heart pounding/racing for no reason
3. inability to sleep (and thus fatigue and tiredness all the time)
4. severe changes in skin texture (esp. facial)--leathery and sallow
5. excessive anxiety, worry, depression, and feelings of panic (NOT AT ALL my personality prior to taking Yasmin)
6. development of asthma-like symptoms that turned out to be symptoms of acid reflux disease (which I had NEVER had before in my life!)
7. a general and pervasive sense that I was just not the normal me--I know this is not very "clinical" but it was very very disturbing to me and my family--everyone noticed changes in me
8. a dangerous jump in my blood pressure--prior to Yasmin my blood pressure was never higher than 120/70 (which is about what it was in Dec. 2004 at the office visit where I got my first pack of Yasmin)--not even at any point in my two preganancies! Yet in Feb. 2005, my resting blood pressure was 160/90 and was even higher (180/100) at times!
9. From Dec. 2004 through March 2005 (which is when I got off of this terrible medication), I was sick virtually non-stop with some type of cold or flu every 2 weeks--yet no one else in my household was getting sick!
10. a near complete loss of sex drive

As I have read from women in other postings, both my GP and ob-gyn (both of whom are women incidently) also said these effects could NOT be because of Yasmin. The only doctor that indicated he believed there might be a link between my symptoms and Yasmin was the ear-nose-throat guy who diagnosed my reflux.

I am writing to tell other women that I do firmly believe these health problems were DIRECTLY related to taking Yasmin--I noticed improvement in my health in all areas within about 6 weeks of stopping Yasmin--now several months later, I have normal blood pressure once again and my reflux has resolved itself, I'm the old "me" again (my Dad especially was terribly bothered by how my outlook on life had changed in just a couple of months after starting this pill). I'm 41 years old and have never had any type of emotional or health problems prior to taking Yasmin.

I contacted the manufacturer of Yasmin (Berlex) and made a report about the adverse effects I believe were attributable to taking Yasmin--I urge anyone who feels this drug has impacted their lives in a negative way to also do so. I have also made clear statements to my docs about what I believe happened to me in the 3-4 months I was on this stuff.

I felt such a wave of relief when I first found this Web site--it was like reading 100s of e-mails that could have been written by me!! I actually called my Mom sobbing on the phone after reading several pages from this listing on Yasmin--everything that was happening to me had happened to other women also, and I stopped taking Yasmin immediately.

I wish anyone who has gone down this road the best of luck--while doctors are usually good, educated people who try to improve people's lives, they are NOT infallible--if you believe Yasmin or any drug is affecting you negatively, be proactive about your own health no matter what your doc says--there are always options. To this day, despite how dramatically different my health is compared to earlier this year, my docs still will not say that they feel Yasmin was the root cause of my problems. (I guess it is the price you pay when so many people are afraid of lawsuits and such.)
Connie