Is anyone having awful side effects on nicotine patches? I have been on the patches (21mg) for almost a month and have been feeling awful lately. I want to know if it could be from the patches. I have been having crazy, long, vivid dreams every night and have been sleeping 12 hours or more a night. Yes, I have been wearing them at night. I have been having awful mood swings and my ocd, which i have never taken medication for before has been way out of control. I smoked for 15 years and don't even have the cravings for them on the patches at all. I went to the doctor for the symptoms and they prescribed me Pristiq 50 mg, which made me feel absolutely awful and not myself at all, but never stopped the dreams. Went back today and they prescribed Celexa 20 mg and temazepam for sleep. I don't like the feeling of things messing with my brain so I'm going to cut out the patches at night and put one on in the morning, will take the sleep meds so maybe I can get a good nights rest and maybe that will help with the mood swings and crazy sleep issues. Does anyone know if this will help or have another suggestion for me? I also have ocd which i have never taken meds for and has been out of control since starting the patches.

Need a DR's advice- OCD drugs and mental health- Urgent-? My best friend was diagnosed with a sleep disorder 21 years ago in 1988- She was prescribed two drugs...Xanax, and Tofernal- At first the combination of these two drugs made her drowsy, but she would still go two, three, and even 4 days in a row without sleep. Then, her DR at that time increased her xanax in take to 3 10 MG per night- I always thought that was excessive and I watched my friend grow fiercely dependent on these two drugs- She absolutely had to have them, if she ran out one night and didn't get to the Pharmacy on time she would freak out- After 20 years of this cycle she finally decided she was going to ween herself off- She started going to a new Holistic DR (who is also an MD) who prescribed her Ambien and weened her off the Tofernal- Now- she is an Ambien addict- sometimes taking 20 MG per night- Ever since she quit with the Tofernal she has become completely OCD- She walks around so anxious everyday that she shakes uncontrollably, her limbs get numb, and then she convinces herself she has a brain tumor,aneurysm, heart disease, MS, and the list goes on- All I hear is how her muscles and spine feel so fatigued. She is in the ER at least once per week- She see's 3 MD's and a Holistic DR every single week- They have tested her for every disease known to man- they find nothing and tell her it's stress- Which I believe- I say this because the minute she gets her MRI results and knows it's not a brain tumor, suddenly she claims there is something wrong with her stomach- All of this stuff consumes her- I talk her down off a ledge for hours every day and I'm growing tired of it. She exhausts me. Now she wants to go back on the Tofernal because she never had all this OCD type worry when she was on it- Her new Doctors want her to try Celexa and Lexapro instead- So she fills the prescription...reads the possible side effects...panics...and will cut the celexa into a 1/4 of its size and take it... and within 5 minutes scream that it's making her feel weird and she thinks she is having an allergic reaction. I can't take it- I too just want her to go back on the toffernal so she will be normal again...The Doctors try to council her and try to talk her into giving the new meds a chance to work- she leaves their office confident and then freaks out and wont follow through- So in the meantime she has gone many months completely untreated and running around all freaked out like a crazy woman- My thought is...what difference does it make if it's Tofernal- or Celexsa?- Just give her the one she feels comfortable taking so she can get better- Period- I SOOO want to call her Doctor and tell her all of this, but I don't think it's ethical- Any thoughts?