Anticholinergic drugs causing anxiety?

[Lightning-Nl]

I've noticed that all drugs that antagonize Acetylcholine make my anxiety a lot worse.

I am fine during the day, and have pretty normal day-to-day anxieties, but at night, for some reason - I get filled with so much anxiety that I get psychotic; and again - this is EVERYDAY. On nights that I have more anxiety than what is normal (meaning normal for me) I get manic and usually stay this way until the next day at around 5PM when I finally pass-out.

Anyways, I have tried a number of medications that either do nothing for my anxiety, or actually make my anxiety worse. For instance, Diphenhydramine, Hydroxyzine, Doxylamine, Quetiapine, Clozapine and many other drugs that antagonize acetylcholine have always made my psychotic symptoms much worse at night thus increasing my anxiety.

Why is this? Is it possible that I am deficient on Acetylcholine or something?

I've noticed that Nicotine (a direct agonist of Acetylcholine) reduces a lot of my anxiety associated with nightfall. I understand it's possible that this could be due to the fact that Nicotine is an indirect GABA agonist, which is actually more likely the cause for my reduction in anxiety now that I think about it, but it's weird that All these drugs have some sort of cholinergic affinity.

It is possibly placebo? Since I know that these drugs are anticholinergic's, is it possible that because I think they give me anxiety, they do?

 

[tentram]

Id talk to your doctor about this honestly so you can work together to find suitable treatment.

 

[paranoid android]

Actually hydroxyzine while being a strong anti-histamine has no anti-cholinergic properties. Quetiapine itself has no anti-cholinergic effects despite being a very strong H1 antagonist but it's metabolite norquetiapine has some mild anti-cholinergic effects. However although these drugs are relatively free of anti-cholinergic side effects they can still feel sort of like anti-cholinergics due to their strong H1 antagonism. It is the strong anti-histamine effects that make hyroxyzine and quetiapine so sedating.

So there pretty much goes your theory on the anti-cholinergic effects of these drugs being responsible for the reason they cause anxiety for you . However if you get this before you fall asleep it could be due to their affects on falling asleep. I noticed that with some anti-histamines or anti-cholinergics that they could sometimes cause a weird feeling while falling asleep. On a few occasions with some anti-cholinergics i got sleep paralysis from them and had that sense that someone is there just out of the range of your vision or even more terrifying i would on a rare occasion see something move within my room. People here call it "the old hag" as it's common for people to see visions of what looks like a old witch of sorts. Different cultures have different names for it but the symptoms are pretty much the same. Sleep paralysis has been linked to anxiety disorders, migraines and other things. So if a drug causes increased anxiety for you it's only logical that it would be the cause of it.

The way i got through it is to treat it like a bad trip and just ride it out. Once you realize that none of it is real it goes away or is nothing more then interesting. Granted i'm a sick fuck who likes fucking with his brain so this may not be for everyone . I have found that benzodiazepines and Z-hypnotics taken before bed reduce the incidence of this by quite abit. However i have heard other people say that benzos and especially Z-hypnotics can actually cause it.

Of course i am assuming here that it is sleep paralysis. I would recommend talking to your doctor and telling him/her what drugs cause this for you.