This personal story was originally posted to the Quinolone Adverse Reaction Forum. If you are a victim of a quinolone antibiotic and need support or advice then please visit the Quinolone Adverse Reaction Forum (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quinolones/).
 

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This personal story was originally posted to the Quinolone Adverse Reaction Forum. If you are a victim of a quinolone antibiotic and need support or advice then please visit the Quinolone Adverse Reaction Forum (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quinolones/).

Cipro
Posted on 13 January 2002
Reading through these nightmare stories, I realize I am not alone. My story is similar, about a month ago 5 days after taking cipro, I began experiencing literally out of this world sensations of fear, anxiety, and despair. Everything and for absolutely no reason upset me so much I thought I would be sick and it actually made my skin crawl. I could not function, and had visions of not being able to work, losing my house, etc, my life overnight seemed to be spinning out of control. This is/was 100% out of character, and I never would have thought it was coming from an antibiotic until I happen to mention cipro to my husband who thank God was more up on current affairs than I am and figured it out. I stopped taking it immediately and for the next 4 days felt much better, almost like I was on a high. But then I crashed again. Never quite as low as I was while on the cipro, but still enough to completely rock my world. Reluctantly I tried a small dose of zanex, and for the first time actually broke down in tears-because it worked, and I was having to come to terms that something was seriously wrong with my brain that I now needed meds to function. I tried taking the zanex for a few days and then pulling the plug as if it would go away, but it didn't. I finally saw a psychiatrist last week, who put me on paxil and in the interim klonopin as needed. Like someone else mentioned, he really didn't care where it came from but only wanted to treat where I am. I am taking paxil and a 1/2 of a kIonopin and feel much better, but am not the same knowing I'm med dependant, only 4 days into the paxil though and will have to wait to see if it works after I stop the klonopin or if paxil side effects come up. People talk of having a hard time going off paxil? Now here's the twist, I had my second baby 4 months ago and although I have never had postpartum depression/anxiety issues, did the cipro trigger postpartum or am I experiencing what everyone else here is going through here? I had one frightening similar experience 3 months ago when I took 2 doses of a drug called reglan, and it made me nuts too. Luckily one vicadine later the crazies only lasted 4 hours and never came back, the common thread here is that reglan also goes to the CNS. Hind sight, that was my clue that for some reason I have a sensitivity to drugs that go to the CNS, and never should have taken cipro. Can anyone out there compare this to postpartum, or in the long run are we all being dumped into the same category; anxiety/depression messed up brain disorders? My issues seem to be more categorized as GAD, general anxiety disorder as opposed to the panic attacks or phobia's. I'm also trying to determine if because of my hormonal state is that what makes me sensitivity to these drugs? I guess I'll never really know. I too also have the ringing in my head, and as I try to go without the zanax or klonopin, begin to feel a tightening in my neck. I totally didn't want to consider medication, but for me is helping me be able to function. I'm not sure if I'm just beginning or ending the road from hell? There is so much info on this site, over 6000 responses, it's almost impossible to get through all of this info. I'm thinking of trying to do the chat room to learn more from some of you that unfortunately are experts, but have never participated before. Any tips?

Originally posted on the Quinolone Adverse Reaction Forum at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quinolones/message/6006