Controlling emotions.

[mountainmadness]

Hi there.

Does anyone else deal with occasion, intense emotions and can this be contributed to MS? I got into a ridiculous argument with my husband this morning... When it is happening this overwhelming, uncontrollable feeling, I feel completely justified in my argument. A couple of hours later once I've been on my 'rant' logic sets in and I know I completely over reacted.

It is highly frustrating for me and my poor hubby takes the brunt of it. I want to stop doing this and feel more 'even'. I'm not on any medication now but am very open to the idea.

Please share your experience or anti-depressant preferences.

Be well.

[ThymeHBF]

Hey,

I definitely feel that with MS sometimes I am VERY emotional! I have had good luck with generic Zoloft

[gretchen1]

Hey MM,

I can't offer any help here, but I can relate. I was always a very level headed person. I am much more emotional since my diagnosis. I cry easier, get upset easier, get angry easier. I try to temper this but there is no way around the fact that I have changed in this way.

I don't take anything for this.......yet. It's weird for sure. I can't tell if it is the MS directly or is it just more of an emotional exhaustion from managing a chronic illness.

Good thread. I hope you receive lots of helpful posts. I will reading.

[Thankful2B]

Yes, I do!

I can completely relate!! For quite some time I had (and sometimes still do have) "moments" that later made me feel like I just want to crawl under a rock and hide!

Fortunatley, very few of those "moments" were directed at my husband and kids, UNFORTUNATELY, they were directed at my boss!

Thankfully, I was able to recognize that I had a problem, although it took me awhile. I just thought everyone was off their rocker for awhile! haha!

After a few visits with my PCP, she diagnosed me with general anxiety. I take the generic brand of Effexor XR, along with an occasional Xanax, and it has really helped me.

I was actually diagnosed with anxiety prior to being diagnosed with MS or having any "major" MS symptoms, so the anxiety wasn't related to how I was coping with MS symptoms or knowing I had MS. However, I've often wondered if the anxiety was brought on by MS itself...?

Sorry for rambling! I hope this helps you, and hope you sort it out soon.

[MBC3mom]

Yes, I used to attribute the emotional outburst to PMS.

MS can affect your emotions and moods as a part of the disease process (not just a result of dealing with the ups and downs of daily life with a disabling disease).

One of my first major flares was an episode of major depression (horrible). I had suffered with low level anxiety most of my life. I was prescribed Zoloft. I thought it was the best thing that ever happened, slept well, didn't feel paranoid, told my dh I should have been taking that years ago.

Then one morning I woke up (from a restful sleep) and couldn't move my head without puking my guts out. This lasted most of the day. If I had to go to the loo, I crawled on my hands and knees and puked the whole way. I thought I must have a brain tumor. My son drove me to the md and I was given a shot for vertigo. Afterwards, I was exhasted and slept most of the evening. I was off balance for several days afterward.

Since I had complained of dizziness a few months prior and the md had decided this was "all in my head", my new md decided I was faking. She persisted in calling this my "little bit of dizzyness". I had another episode about 3weeks after the first and it was even worse. I asked if the Zoloft could be causing the problem, and she insisted it could not because it didn't happen every day. I insisted on going off Zoloft anyway, because I knew I was NOT doing that to myself. The ENT she sent me too was a quack and I could tell he thought I was nuts before he even examined me.

Well, no one knew I had ms at the time and now there is no way to know if the ms caused the severe vertigo or the Zoloft. Since dizziness and balance problems were some of my first sxs, and since severe vertigo is a very rare side effect of Zoloft and I was on the lowest prescribed dose, I'm inclined to believe it was a flare.

The reason I am telling you all of this is that this episode lead to my being labeled a neurotic by my doctors and subsequent complaints were brushed off too easily. The label made me angry because I'm not a complainer and have always worked harder and pushed myself harder than anyone around me. So, I stopped mentioning any of my sx to the docs and just lived with it. I was finally diagnosed after a sever bout of ON that left permanent vision damage (it took my dh 2 days to get me to go to the md, even though I could not see out of the eye at all).

Now I have found the ms research has shown that ms can actually cause depression (not because having ms makes you sad or angry). It makes sense that a disease attacking the white matter in your brain can have a major effect on your emotions, even if your life otherwise indicates you should be happy. The unfortunate thing about this is, most mds don't know much about ms, don't keep up with the latest research, and find it much easier to blow off any emotional sxs by labeling you as a neurotic.

Tell your neurologist about your anxiety and emotional outbursts and that you need meds to help you with it. Hopefully your dh is an understanding and forgiving man like mine I take Lexapro now for depression and have found Ativan is wonderful for those long MRI's, but there are many to try. Everyone reacts differently on these type of meds, and it is important not to give up if the first rx you try doesn't work or causes unhappy side effects.

Most of all, don't doubt yourself or let others make you feel bad about being sick.

[mountainmadness]

Wow! Thank you all so much who have responded and shared your experiences.

I'm going to make an apt. with a neurologist and see what can help me find more of an 'even' state of mind.

I do have issues with vertigo myself so I'm hoping the medication doesn't make that worse.

Thanks again!

Be well.

Jennifer

[jersey-in-pa]

one more?

I was dx bi-polar w/ anxiety Well, at least that's what the DR wrote on the bottom of the page to bring out to pay. News to me. I was given lots & lots of sample bottles of Cymbalta. Tears and anger will always be human emotions for me, (who knew I was so sensitive?), so I'll just take the pills and be grateful for the lessoning of "drama". I also take 1mg of Ativan to "take of the edge".

[robyn55]

An opposing point of view. We are in general an over-medicated society. I get depressed once in a while - so does my husband (and we both cry during sad movies). My father wound up the worst of us with depression after my mom - his wife of 62 years - died. He was the only one of us ever to take anti-depressants (after meeting with a shrink) - and he said he felt like was walking in a fog all day. He couldn't stand feeling like that. So he stopped. Being 92 - he has lots of aches and pains (his brain is doing a lot better than his body - his "parts" are wearing out) - so he takes drugs to deal with his pain - but ones that don't make him a zombie 24/7.

FWIW - I've been married almost 40 years - and have dumb stupid loud arguments with my husband from time to time. Who doesn't ever have fights with the people around them - unless you're friggin' Mother Teresa .

When my MIL was dying - well the doctors thought she might be depressed. Of course she was depressed. She was dying. Who wouldn't be depressed? But she would sit in her recliner - unable to move. And when we looked at her meds - good grief. She was on so many depression/anxiety drugs - well if I was taking what she was taking - I wouldn't have been able to get out of the recliner either. We cut those drugs out. And stuck to the ones that helped her with the symptoms of her terminal illness. And the pain. She became much more alert - but remained free of pain.

We're human beings. We're allowed to have emotions. To be happy - be sad - be angry - and to express our emotions. I am all in favor of drugs that help people to control disabling symptoms and pain - even MM if that works for people - but don't think it's appropriate to turn people into emotional zombies through the indiscriminate use of anti-depressant/anti-anxiety drugs. There is certainly a place for them IMO - but a much smaller one than most drug companies would have us believe. Robyn

[Thankful2B]

Robyn, I completely respect your point of view, and agree with it in many cases.

In my particular case, in addition to the mental aspect, the anxiety was absolutely physical. I litterally felt like I was going to implode, sometimes that came out in severe aggitation or sadness. My heart rate sky rocketed, I would pour sweat, my muscles felt like they "tickled", I couldn't relax, but I couldn't be productive either. I had to live with the attacks until I was diagnosed, and it was like torture. Sometimes the "attacks" lasted hours or even days.

I do think that too often, Dr.'s prescribe unnecessary medications. Those could quite possibly be the patients that react to the meds negatively (i.e. makes them feel like Zombies). For me on the other hand, the meds simply make me feel "normal".

I'm not advocating the use of meds, I'm just saying for my personal experience the meds are a blessing.

Take care,
Mandy

[Frecklebrat]

Have pretty much the same view as Robyn on this.
that is my personal experience.
It does nothing for me except fog me out of functioning.
as if there is not enough to deal with
I thought it was cogfog!
I am better without this

IŽll cry if I want to.

[MBC3mom]

I agree that emotions are a part of everyone's life. And a good cry is very cathartic

But, our emotions can also get out of control. Anxiety can cause relationship and job issues. Uncontrolled major depression (which I experienced) can lead to suicidal thoughts and worse. I knew something was very wrong when a television sitcom provoked hysterical laughter that turned immediately into uncontrollable sobbing. That, coupled with my first ever write up at work for an angry outburst with my supervisor, led me to seek help.

The chemicals in our brains can get out of whack and require "resetting". Medication can help. I'm one of those people who always hated taking pills. I even refused to take tylenol and motrin. But sometimes we need to accept help. If anxiety and depression cause problems in our lives, it is just like having a physical problem and there should be no shame in asking and accepting help.

This is not the same as being sad about life events or getting nervous over a job interview or getting angry because our roommate refuses to pick up dirty clothes on the floor.

If medication causes you to stop enjoying your life (or possibly gives you severe bouts of vertigo LOL), then a change (or discontinuation) in medication is certainly warrented.

[jumpinjiminy]

I was prescribed Cymbalta for generalized anxiety disorder a fews years back. It helped tremendously, but about a year into it I had a headache that lasted three months and lost interest in everything I normally enjoyed. I thought it was the Cymbalta and went off.

Never did get back the enjoyment in life and the headaches continued. So it wasn't the medication. It was another health problem - likely hypothyroid and this other thing as yet undefined.

Now I'm back on it and feeling much better. Stress is a major trigger for flare ups, and I'm good with anything that helps reduce stress.

If I can't sleep, I get something for that. Anxiety - huge stress - get something for that. People suffer enough with all of the crazy symptoms from neuro diseases - and much of the time emotional lability is part of the disease process itself.

The neuro I saw last week told me that irritability, brain fog, anxiety, depression, they all come along with migraine headaches and it's all about the brain chemical imbalance from the process itself.

On the plus side, they're finding that anti-depressants inhibit certain types of brain inflammation.

The calcium channel blocker he put me on also inhbits brain inflammation.

Nicotine they've found plays a role in inhibiting brain inflammation.

Every little bit helps. I feel like a zombie without any medication. It helps me focus and function better. They'll probably have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands after this.

[Johooper]

If my MS is 'playing up' I find I get very irritable and also my jump reflex is off the scale, if I get a text on my phone, I jump through the roof, a patient came to the desk the other day but i never noticed him til I looked up, I jumped so much he offered me mouth to mouth. My trick is to warn my colleagues that I have me 'kranky pants' on today and they understand and leave me to my own devices. I tell hubby and kids the same so they are more understanding of my snappiness. If you warn people they tend to be more forgiving.

Jo