Open Question: What is left to treat my anxiety?
I am 17 years old have had severe anxiety since I was 12. I also have depression. I have tried all natural remedies you can think of. Deep breathing, meditation, 5-HTP, St. John’s Wort, velerian, you name it, I’ve tried it. Medications tried are all SSRI treatments except for Paxil. I am currently taking 60mg of BuSpar each day, along with Effexor XR and Abilify. The depression and the psychosis is improving, but the anxiety is like it’s totally untouched. Remember I tried everything non-medication before I decided to take medication.
The Effexor or Abilify never made the anxiety worse, it’s stayed the same.
The only time I ever got relief from panic attacks was when I was taking Ativan on an as needed basis. 15 a month would be perfect for me, and usually I’d have some left over. I know it’s addicting and can be abused, but due to my past with suicide, Mom keeps my medication in a lock box so I don’t have access to it, although I’ve not had any thoughts of suicide in the past 4 months.
The problem is the doctor giving me Ativan was a jerk. He would be rude to me over my weight. I know most doctors when you are overweight will tell you that you need to eat better and exercise, which lately I have been exercising and eating right. Still doesn’t help my anxiety though.
The doctor prescribing it to me wanted to give me appetite suppressants and all this other stuff and I refused to take them so he dropped me as a patient.
I see a psychiatrist now who refuses to prescribe me the Ativan (or any other benzodiazepines) and I understand her point. She has prescribed hydroxyzine and it didn’t help me either. I know some doctors are very cautious about benzodiazepines, but nothing else works and I’m sick of the panic attacks.
Is there anything that can help for anxiety besides benzodiazepines? Thanks in advance for any help.
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Open Question: Switching to Benzos instead of these disgusting SSRI’s?
Here’s some history, I’ve been going through depression therapy for a while, jumping through hoops and taking the plethora of SSRI’s they’ve given. Like I said, I’ve been jumping through the hoops for years, taking Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro… The list goes on. I started this whole thing because of a depression issue, that I eventually discovered was caused by anxiety and my panic attacks, and it wasn’t truly depression. My doctor says SSRI’s will help reduce anxiety, but so far, I’ve gotten more depressed than I have been in years because of these SSRI’s. They make me feel like a zombie, some make me irritable, some make me just feel all around woozy and sick. All in all, I’ve not been relieved of my anxiety and they have been making my life harder and harder every morning when I pop that pill (Prozac currently). I have strong, overwhelming panic attacks due to situational anxiety and social anxiety. Before all these SSRI’s, I was prescribed .5mg Ativan to take 2-3 pills on the onset of anxiety, and that worked magnificently. Look at that, every night I could fall asleep PERFECTLY, every morning I woke up happy and motivated… Blah blah blah, Getting to the point; They helped. A LOT. And I didn’t even take them on an often basis, I took them as needed. The true anxiety relief about these pills is the psychological effect, the thought that, “I have these Benzo’s, and I’m very stressed right now. However, knowing that I have these Benzos in my pocket right now makes me feel a little more safe in my anxiety, some days I can go weeks without popping an Ativan solely for the fact that I know that I have them in my pocket. Their presence alone can reduce my low level anxiety, and when I have huge panic attacks, I have the safe guard ready to go.
Benzo’s have worked perfectly for me, and I have found a perfect balance to get the relief I need, without having the feeling of dependency on the drug. I’ve found that I do not get addicted to Benzos, and in the moderation that I take them, I am able to go days without feeling panic attacks while only taking 1 or 2 within a week. I also have discovered that in my method, when I stop taking Benzo’s, I have no withdrawal symptoms or increased anxiety. Like I said, I become less anxious just knowing I have something to save me when I need it.
So, here’s the question; after all of this, should I pursue finding a benzo prescription (in moderation and in contract (meaning I will commit to taking 2-3 weeks of prescription and checking in after those weeks are done to prove that I actually consume less than prescribed)) opposed to the SSRI’s that are slowly making me suicidal and angry?
(side note: I have currently found that the most effective anti anxiety treatment is self-medication through meditation. However, you can’t just shut down and start meditating when your boss is mad at you, or you have a 12 hour homework assignment ahead of you, or when I’m trying to socialize with others that are making me anxious… So my approach would be benzos for panic attacks, continued meditation otherwise.
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Open Question: Why do I blush? surely someone has a meditation technique for me?
it’s crazy I can’t look people in the eye and i go red if someone looks at me, I don’t really get the racing heart anymore as bad as I used too (I’m 19) when I was like 15/16, but the biggest problem is I have aspergers so the reason my SA has gotten worse over the years is because of getting frowned upon for years for saying things inappropriately in public, that is a big thing in aspergers for those who are unaware. Anyway I’m new to this forum and this is my first thread, I never have the energy to do anything, as my SA causes me to be depressed the majority of the time, I’ve taken different SSRI medications in the past which have helped, but just make me feel high as hell, I hate struggling around people and it’s like the only thing that completely eliminates my social anxiety in public is getting drunk before parties, but then when drunk I make a show of myself and end up coming home sick early from excessive alcohol abuse! I’ve tried the whole vitamin b12, B6 diets, I’ve smoked cannabis, I’ve tried lots of herbal remidies, I take zinc and magnesium everyday with a muti V, I also take 5htp and while all this does make me feel cool, I still don’t feel as anxiety free as what benzos and alcohol bring, why? surley there is a way around this, I’m a strong strong believer in meditation what buddhist monks do, but there is hardly anything on youtube about meditation techniques, the only tutorial videos are the same which all say ‘watch the breath’
now watching the breath does work I must admit, but it doesn’t work good enough due to me having poor breathing rhythms and bad patience, there is like 1000s of types of meditations and i bet most of them work but I just don’t know how to do them!
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Open Question: Why do I blush? surely someone has a meditation technique for me?
it’s crazy I can’t look people in the eye and i go red if someone looks at me, I don’t really get the racing heart anymore as bad as I used too (I’m 19) when I was like 15/16, but the biggest problem is I have aspergers so the reason my SA has gotten worse over the years is because of getting frowned upon for years for saying things inappropriately in public, that is a big thing in aspergers for those who are unaware. Anyway I’m new to this forum and this is my first thread, I never have the energy to do anything, as my SA causes me to be depressed the majority of the time, I’ve taken different SSRI medications in the past which have helped, but just make me feel high as hell, I hate struggling around people and it’s like the only thing that completely eliminates my social anxiety in public is getting drunk before parties, but then when drunk I make a show of myself and end up coming home sick early from excessive alcohol abuse! I’ve tried the whole vitamin b12, B6 diets, I’ve smoked cannabis, I’ve tried lots of herbal remidies, I take zinc and magnesium everyday with a muti V, I also take 5htp and while all this does make me feel cool, I still don’t feel as anxiety free as what benzos and alcohol bring, why? surley there is a way around this, I’m a strong strong believer in meditation what buddhist monks do, but there is hardly anything on youtube about meditation techniques, the only tutorial videos are the same which all say ‘watch the breath’
now watching the breath does work I must admit, but it doesn’t work good enough due to me having poor breathing rhythms and bad patience, there is like 1000s of types of meditations and i bet most of them work but I just don’t know how to do them!
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Open Question: How do i get lorazepam as my doctor doesn’t prescribe it and i am siffering?
Hi i have had anxiety for 13 years (severe). I have been taking lorazepam for many years but suddenly my doctor has stopped prescribing them and i am paralyzed w/o them
How can i get a script as i don’t want to multi-doctor as that looks bad on my medical files?
I have tried everything out there including most SSRI’s, benzo’s, natural products, meditation etc. and my anxiety does not stop. I am 37 and if i don’t figure out what to do i am finished.
Someone please help as i don’t know where to get lorazepam from (im in B.C), i shake, i’m always nervous and my life is all worries 24/7.
What do i do if anything?
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Open Question: How do i get lorazepam as my doctor doesn’t prescribe it and i am siffering?
Hi i have had anxiety for 13 years (severe). I have been taking lorazepam for many years but suddenly my doctor has stopped prescribing them and i am paralyzed w/o them
How can i get a script as i don’t want to multi-doctor as that looks bad on my medical files?
I have tried everything out there including most SSRI’s, benzo’s, natural products, meditation etc. and my anxiety does not stop. I am 37 and if i don’t figure out what to do i am finished.
Someone please help as i don’t know where to get lorazepam from (im in B.C), i shake, i’m always nervous and my life is all worries 24/7.
What do i do if anything?
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Open Question: Could you help with panic attacks?
I have severe anxiety disorder and severe panic attacks. They are extremely scary, and trust me I’ve survived a drive by shooting and these feel worse!
I have tried 3 different medications, and all made me feel worse. Everyone just tells me, including psychologists, “stop worrying” or “it’s all in your mind.” It sounds to me like society just isn’t educated enough about anxiety disorders because I do NOT want to feel this way.
Does anyone here, **with a medical background**, have any ideas on how to eliminate or reduce to severity of my panic attacks? They have really inflicted my life in many ways. I am trying: meditation, vegetarian diet, yoga, psychotherapy, and was using valerian root. I am willing to try a 4th SSRI medicine but the last ones were awful. Zoloft put me into waves of severe panic attacks over a 23 hr period.
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Open Question: How can I let go of my obsession over the ability/inability to concentrate?
This is a strange question but I have severe attention problems. I cannot function at work because my mind blanks out or thoughts get stuck in my head. I lack common sense because of this issue. I struggle to comprehend books or think carefully about decisions.Whether its anxiety or ADD, I’ve tried almost every possible solution: trying to stay focused, vitamins, coffee, herbal supplements, benzodiazapines, SSRI’s, Adderall, Lecithin, Omega-3, Binaural beats, therapy, meditation, praying, setting goals or a purpose, weed,. The more I try to find a solution to my concentration issues, the more I suffer since nothing seems to work. Now I have one choice left: to give up the fight. The more I try to concentrate, the less focused I get since I only end up thinking about concentrating. It just ends up in an obsession I think of like 24/7. I even questioned: is there a reason to live if I can never concentrate no matter how hard I try? I wanna live though. Suicide is stupid.
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Open Question: fluoxetine issues – increased libido but can’t write or feel anything?
Hi,
I’ve been on fluoxetine for a couple of years and I’ve been happy with it. But there’s a couple of issues that I’m finding are beginning to bother me and make me wonder whether a move to a different anti-depressant is a good idea.
1. I find that I can feel a sexual response to my boyfriend (ie can feel turned on) and do have a sex drive (and also am relaxed enough to actually have and enjoy sex) when on a low dose of 20mg per day of fluoxetine (Prozac). However, I am also unable to write (and that’s my job!) or be creative when taking it as I feel emotionally numb and don’t see the little details that inspire writing.
But, off fluoxetine as I am now, I cannot have sex – I just seem to not get turned on by anything.
Any advice as to why the sexual response is there on fluoxetine, and isn’t when I’m off it? Or any other drugs available in the UK that might be suitable and help my anxiety enough to allow me to yet turned on, but not make me feel so emotionally zombie-like?
2. I get a really dry mouth and dark urine on fluoxetine. Have been tested for UTIs, etc, and all fine.
Note: I’ve also tried 5htp, but that just made me feel as though I’d taken something that sped my thoughts up…I felt wired constantly! I have also tried CBT and counselling for the sexual issues but neither really helped, and yoga and meditation for my anxiety. Fluoxetine helps the sex issue but anxiety isn’t really diminished.
Additional Details I certainly can and do feel attracted to my boyfriend (and just men – I have never been attracted to a woman and wouldn’t deny it if I had – that’s not the problem here, the medication is!) when I am taking the fluoxetine. It’s like I relax more so can feel turned on, very easily. But I also have emotional numbness so I can’t write. Maybe there is another SSRI which might help?
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Open Question: fluoxetine issues – increased libido but can’t write or feel anything?
Hi,
I’ve been on fluoxetine for a couple of years and I’ve been happy with it. But there’s a couple of issues that I’m finding are beginning to bother me and make me wonder whether a move to a different anti-depressant is a good idea.
1. I find that I can feel a sexual response to my boyfriend (ie can feel turned on) and do have a sex drive (and also am relaxed enough to actually have and enjoy sex) when on a low dose of 20mg per day of fluoxetine (Prozac). However, I am also unable to write (and that’s my job!) or be creative when taking it as I feel emotionally numb and don’t see the little details that inspire writing.
But, off fluoxetine as I am now, I cannot have sex – I just seem to not get turned on by anything.
Any advice as to why the sexual response is there on fluoxetine, and isn’t when I’m off it? Or any other drugs available in the UK that might be suitable and help my anxiety enough to allow me to yet turned on, but not make me feel so emotionally zombie-like?
2. I get a really dry mouth and dark urine on fluoxetine. Have been tested for UTIs, etc, and all fine.
Note: I’ve also tried 5htp, but that just made me feel as though I’d taken something that sped my thoughts up…I felt wired constantly! I have also tried CBT and counselling for the sexual issues but neither really helped, and yoga and meditation for my anxiety. Fluoxetine helps the sex issue but anxiety isn’t really diminished.
Additional Details I certainly can and do feel attracted to my boyfriend (and just men – I have never been attracted to a woman and wouldn’t deny it if I had – that’s not the problem here, the medication is!) when I am taking the fluoxetine. It’s like I relax more so can feel turned on, very easily. But I also have emotional numbness so I can’t write. Maybe there is another SSRI which might help?
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