What Happened To Me? (In The Netherlands)
QUESTION:
Hello, Doctor Heller,
Here's a question from The Netherlands (Europe). In September last
year I slipped into a depression after quite a hard year which involved
moving house and getting a new job. For me it has been quite hard overcoming
this depression. In my opinion mainly because at my work my illness has
not been taken seriously, and problems at work continued (also because
I thought I had overcome the illness and apparently overstepped my boundaries)
I slipped back into the depression.
This is what happened when I was back at work after a couple of weeks
after taking an anti-depressant (seroxat, in your country also known as
Paxil. All over sudden I became extra sensitive of (in my opinion) other
people's worries. It was although I could see how hard live was on others.
This felt as a burden on me, I felt as if hardly anyone in my environment
was happy, including myself. Apart from the seroxat I also was on stilnoct
to get some sleep. Stilnoct, I was told, was a light sedative to help me
to sleep. With the help from Dutch internet I later found out it is really
a strong sedative, not suitable for people taking seroxat.
After almost two weeks of experiencing oversensibility for 'other
peoples negative feelings', and because of a heavy workload at the time,
I lost two whole days. I went to bed on a Wednesday night, to awake on
a Friday night. This scared the hell out of me. On top of being scared
like this I found a letter from the company I work for telling me I was
very wrong not to notice them not being at work. This gave me another shock.
These events made my company doctor decide to sent me to a specialist.
My question for you: do you know anything about the combination of
the medication I took (seroxat(paxil) and stilnoct), and do you know of
events of patients of yours like the one I told you about above (for all
I know I slept for two whole days). I'm grateful for your answer.
