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Mucinex And Anxiety

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Fadeaway

MyPTSD Pro
I am posting this here as a warning to anyone else before they take Mucinex, or for anyone who may have had my experience.

2 days ago, I woke up after 4 hours sleep with a sever anxiety attack. Now this in and of it's self is not uncommon for me. However, the anxiety usually subsides unless something else triggers my anxiety. As the day progressed my anxiety intensified to unbearable levels. By the following morning I had not been able to sleep due to it, and I experiencing the worst panic attack I have ever experienced. I was so scared and nauseated for the shear intensity of the fear.

I recalled the worst one I had ever had prior to this and this was a step above. The difference is that My worst one prior to this had a cause. This had no ryhme or reason for being this bad and I was grasping for a reason for my anxiety to be this severe. My husband convinced me to go to the hospital. They started talking about admitting me, which scared me worse so I bolted. I was looking for help like a pill that is stronger than my usual meds that didn't touch this anxiety not something to cause me more fear.

So eventually later on during day 2 it started to subside. By the evening I was feeling much better. That is when I noticed the Mucinex I had taken just a few hours prior to waking up with the anxiety. There are no warnings on the packaging of any side effects or drug interactions so I hit the internet.

None of the offical information lists anxiety as a side effect, but I kept running into stories about people who had experienced bad anxiety attacks after taking the drug. I can not come up with any other reason of having such a bad attack especially without being triggered or any other obvious cause. I am pretty convinced that it was the Mucinex especially after reading the other stories online.

I just wanted to get this out there for anyone else in case they have a bad experience.
 
I realize this response is a year out but sounds like you were experiencing serotonin syndrome!
Do you also take SSRI or other meds in that class? These meds raise your serotonin level & guess what several OTC meds like dextromorphan (sp) and Chlortab, St Johns wort & herbals also raise serotonin. Too much serotonin is not a good thing, (you can google serotonin syndrome & get more details). It messes with your autonomic nervous system, thereby making you anxious, you can get BP fluctuations, & heart palpitations & essentially a *panic attack*. If the serotonin continues to build
the symptoms deteriorate & involve other body systems & you may need to be hospitalized & monitored ! BTW the spice GINGER can absorb some of this excess serotonin, it may be enough to help you tolerate the serotonin excess. You can just take the kitchen spice version of ginger & put it in a capsule you empty out, like a cold med or herbal med capsule & put the ginger in. Ginger only absorbs one type of serotonin & I believe there are 6 or 7 subtypes of 5HT. ( 5HT is the scientific name for serotonin) BTW I have had serotonin induced anxiety so I know how you must have suffered when you endured this for those 48 or so hours, stay healthy !!!
 
Was it just plain Mucinex (one ingredient) or was it something like Mucinex Max (a few ingredients, at least one more likely to add to anxiety)?

I don't get anxious from regular Mucinex (guaifenesin), but maybe that is possible. If you are taking some kind of multi-symptom preparation, I wonder if you are responding to phenylephrine (main ingredient in Sudafed)?

ETA: just noticed this is an old post, assume @Fadeaway sorted it out by now. :) But I personally avoid all those creepy multi-symptom concoctions. If I'm just a little stuffed up I get plain Mucinex (guaifenesin) and plain Sudafed (phenylephrine) if really needed, but only take one in the morning. I also just stick to a lot of nasal spray, tea, and throat drops. In the mutli-symptom cold concoctions you have to look at individual ingredients, rule out what is causing problems and what you really need. My doctor just advises against these mixtures and looking for just the singular ingredients I need.
 
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ETA: just noticed this is an old post... But I personally avoid all those creepy multi-symptom concoctions.

My freshmen year of college I got lectured by a Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant (whatever you want to call them) for taking multi-symptom over the counter medicine. Told it was "over-kill", and only harming my body with unnecessary drugs. Like @Chava said I only needed a single ingredient.

Have used Mucinex, but anxiety only got really bad past couple years so I can't say to original post. But everyone reacts differently to medicines. I know there are some over the counter medicines I won't take again - even though they help many people.
 
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I am posting this here as a warning to anyone else before they take Mucinex, or for anyone who may have...
3/6/16 last week i bought Mucinex DM for a cold ive been dealing with. Id been taking for two days, then saturday morning i set out to get a things at the grocery store. At the store i began to become dizzy, so i left the store and was going to head home when the I started feeling really odd quickly, heart started racing shortness of breath and my left side started tingling. I thought I might be experiancing a heart attack so I pulled over and dialed 911. in the ambulance they gave me all the checks for EKG and blood pressure which was elevated quite a bit( I dont ever have high blood pressure) the symptoms were really scaring the hell out of me. Couldnt catch my breath, a pressure in my chest, shakes really bad. The emts gave me asperin and two nitro pills that didnt help much. When we got to the ER they wheeled me in and started to tests and exrays of my heart. Things had calmed down a little till I started thinking about some stressfull issues again and the whole thing started up again, heart rate went up, flushed feeling, numbness in left side, trouble breathing.. nurse came in and gave me a shot of lorazapam and with in 10 minutes everything started to calm down and all was fine. This has NEVER happened to me and I deal with high stress situations all the time and it took an anti anxiety med to chill me out?? the Hospital released me with s script for lorazapam and I went home. i also stopped taking the Mucinex. this last week was fine till the weekend as my nose started running again and I wanted to get a good night sleep without coughing, so I took a mucinex, and this morning the same thing started all over again, light headed heart rate started to race and numbness in left side, except this time I had some lorazapam and took one. the symptoms started to subside. After finding this article I am now sure the mucinex is what has caused this apparent panic attack to happen. Again, I have always been able to deal with high stress as part of my job. and have never needed meds for stress.
No More Mucinex ever for me.
 
3/6/16 last week i bought Mucinex DM for a cold ive been dealing with. Id been taking for two days, then satur...

I think threads like this are how misinformation spreads around the Internet. The "D" means there's pseudoephedrine in the pill. Think major upper! This is the reason it is held behind the counter AND you are carded when buying it (license required). Pseudoephedrine is an ingredient in Meth. I'm not saying that Mucinex won't cause anxiety, but in the case of the last guy, he's blaming "Mucinex" and not the "D". It doesn't do anyone any good to spread fear about something when you're unsure of the mechanisms at play and potentially blaming the wrong drug in a multi-drug pill.
 
I am posting this here as a warning to anyone else before they take Mucinex, or for anyone who may have...
I too have had a bad anxiety attack from musenex . I never experienced anything like that until i used musenex. That was years ago . I recently experiencend an even worse anxiety attack after using nasonex it didnt happen until after 2 weeks of using it so i was confused as to why i felt this way . Luckily after talking to my mom she suggested i stop taking anything that i was taking . I tild her i wasnt taking anything new ,I didnt even realize but as i began to use the nasonex that night i stopped myself and later that night i felt normal again . I was so relieved and since then i have been back to my happy self . I will only use saline from now on there some ingredient in those meds that react badly with me . Hope this helps someone it was the worst experience of my life .
 
Been fighting a cold for a week and everyone is like, take Mucinex and finally i was feeling so crappy i took some, 3 doses over 24 hours as opposed to the six you can take and all day today ive been dizzy, shakey and very edgy. just went out to the store and had a massive panic attack. this stuff is evil and i think if you're prone to panic (as i am) this just makes it 1000% worse. I'll never take this again. I always avoid OTC meds but everyone was so insistent that it's a miracle...and maybe for some it is but for me, a complete anxious nightmare.
 
I am posting this here as a warning to anyone else before they take Mucinex, or for anyone who may have...

I had anxious reaction to Mucinex D. I switched to plain Mucinex 600mg which was better. However, with both, I cannot sleep. Feel too alert, a bit edgy. Will go it sans drugs for the rest of this cold episode.
 
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I am posting this here as a warning to anyone else before they take Mucinex, or for anyone who may have...

This was also the case of my 17 year old son. He is a very healthy active kid and this was the first time he experienced such a crazy episode of anxiety when he took Mucinex.
 
This Mucinex almost put me in the hospital. If my fiancé were not here I don't know what I would've done! I do have anxiety attacks but every blue moon and usually a deep thought or dream triggers it. I had a cough I wanted to suppress so I took Mucinex DM, this was in the a.m. later during the day I felt extremely tired but couldn't fall asleep I guess in my home it was just too much sunlight coming through. I began working out to wake up and hopefully get tired later that night. We'll eventually I dosed off but woke up to a bad anxiety attack! It felt my nerves running wild in my legs and arms, my heart was pounding and my thoughts were all over the place. I read once that yogurt and almonds were good for anxiety so I began taking them and about 5 minutes later I was ok. However it made me so nervous that it made it hard for me to get any good sleep after that thinking to myself it would happen again. I know it will wear off and this will be a thing of the past so I'm just glad the worst of it is over. DO NOT TAkE THIS MEDICINE!
 
this stuff is evil

No it's not! It's a stimulant! This is what stimulants do!

Mucinex D has pseudoephedrine in it, which is a stimulant. Guaifenesin, the main ingredient in Mucinex, is an expectorant. Not a stimulant. Therefore pass on Mucines D and just get Mucinex (plain). But it's not this evil drug and works very well in loosening and expelling mucus.
 
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