I'm new here and have been reading a lot of your posts for the past couple days and I have a few questions and a story to share. Just wondering how many of you have taken quinolone antibiotics(cipro,avelox,tequin,levaquin) and also how many of you have taken sulfa drugs such as Flagyl and Bactrim?

My story starts when I was about 14(31 now) and I remember taking an antibiotic for a chest infection(bronchitis) so after a couple days of taking this med which was either biaxin or some form of metrodinazole(flagyl) I started having my first panic attack. I couldnt breath,needed water, had vision trouble, severe trouble swallowing, dizzy and a fast heart rate so I was taken to the doctor and told I had a reaction to sulfa drugs and to stop taking them. So I continued to have panic attacks and a constant need to drink water for about 4 months then POOF one day they were gone. After that I was perfect until Sept 2006 when I went to the doctor because of a sinus infection and was put on Tequin and Bactrim. My first night on the meds were horrible and I felt something wasnt right but i kept taking the meds. I took the meds for a total of 4 days and stopped them because my arms and feet were feeling numb for most of the day and I was very confused. After I stopped the meds I felt a ton better.

I was off the meds for about 2 weeks when all of a sudden I woke up and couldnt breath, heart was racing and had slurred speech. From that point on my life hasnt been the same and I wish I could take back time to stop myself from taking those meds. I was rushed to the ER and had a series of tests done and all had optimal results and no signs of stroke or heart attack. I couldnt figure it out I mean 2 weeks off some medication so there is no way it could be from that right.....wrong. From the information I have gathered you can get side effects from taking a single pill 6months to a year after taking it. So for the first 3 months I could barely put together a sentence in speech or writing and BRUTAL anxiety 24/7 would not let up TERRIBLE TIMES... Also I couldnt sleep for the first 4 months and would stay up for about 48 hours and then be so exhausted and pass out only to get about 3-4 hours of sleep and then up again for 48 hours again. I was so afraid of taking anything else and I just wanted to tough it out but after losing almost 30lbs and never sleeping I started on xanax which has saved my life. So I'm almost a year and a half into my drug reaction or whatever it was and Ive seen about 20 doctors who all tell me I have organic panic disorder and refuse to think it was because of the meds I took however I think they are pompus idiots who think their product of drugs is inferior when the funny thing is legal drugs kill more people than illegal drugs in the USA. Also when I eat sweets, soft drinks, tomato and some soy products I feel like have have been poisoned and brings on severe panic attacks that can last for days until whatever I ate is out of my system.

I would say im about 60% better from when I was first hit in Sept 06 so things are looking better and I can now kind of get out of the house a bit. Also just so you know the max amount of xanax I would take per day was 1mg.

Thanks for your time and I hope we all find a way to get better! I know my question was a little vague but those types of drugs(quinolones and sulfa) can have severe, long lasting, multisystemic damage to the brain which can get worse with time. Maybe some of you have taken these medications in the past and this may be a reason for some of your anxiety troubles. You may also have not reacted to these medications like I have but the damage from these medications are so multisystemic that you would never know. There is no test for damage from quinolones or sulfa drugs.