Best anxiety reducing meds?

[boredwithanxiety]

I need help to cope with my anxiety at work-very nearly resigned today but have a very understanding boss!

Waiting for doc to call today and ideally something that works quite promptly.

[esarempee]

If you don't want to go for prescribed drugs and try something 'alternative', I recently read about passion flower which in clinical trials has shown to be quite effective. I've started taking it recently and do feel calmer, but I am prone to the placebo effect. Proof will be in the long term, but might be worth a shot.

Good Luck!

[candyapples]

I found that the st johns wort helped me a lot with some presentations, and my driving test. You can get this from places like holland and barrett.

I take propranolol, prescribed from the GP, now which works in the same way and calms you down. It doesn't take away your "anxiety thoughts" but it takes away all the symptoms. I used to have a REALLY dry mouth whenever I talked to people, and propranolol has taken that away for me. Even when I don't take propranolol, it has fixed the dry mouth. It's weird! My friend took propranolol for anxiety and it "cured" her of her anxiety. It hasn't cured me fully, but it certainly has helped.

I've tried diazepam and they are the only med that has worked completely. It just zones you out, and makes you completely relaxed. These are really addictive though, and you can quickly build up tolerance to them. They are also quite difficult to get prescribed from a GP, and if you get them prescribed, they'll be in a very low dose and only a few tablets.

Have you thought about trying the talking therapy route? CBT has helped a lot of people, it trains you to change your thoughts. It's worth a shot, but I'm still on the waiting list and it's been almost 3 months. I've heard it can take upto 6 months but it's definitely worth the shot.

Good luck to you xx

[SocialRobot]

My experience:

Propranolol, calms the physical symptoms (e.g heart racing, shaking etc.) no side effects. Doesn't make the anxious thoughts go away, but it becomes one less thing to worry about. 80mg slow release I've found works best.

Diazepam (Valium). Takes the edge off when the anxiety gets really bad. Are notoriously addictive, so it's hard to get a prescription. But 2.5/5mg to get through the toughest spots has helped me move forward.

SSRI's : Just masks and numbs with noticeable side effects.

[Aelwyn]

Like SocialRobot and Candyapples, I find propranolol very useful. In fact it's the only anti-anxiety medication I've ever had. My prescription if 80 mg slow release propranolol (one a day) - however I don't take it every day, just when I have an anxious situation coming up. But if work is constantly stressful for you, you could take it every day.

You still feel anxious, but it isn't nearly so obvious.

[shybutterfly]

So beta blockers, benzos or SSRI's? And the herbal cures like st Johns wort too of course. Has anyone had any experience with any other types of meds?

[Rarebit]

i might try passion flower

[Rarebit]

Originally Posted by esarempee

If you don't want to go for prescribed drugs and try something 'alternative', I recently read about passion flower which in clinical trials has shown to be quite effective. I've started taking it recently and do feel calmer, but I am prone to the placebo effect. Proof will be in the long term, but might be worth a shot.

Good Luck!

thank you for this tp

[daveysurfy]

most supermarket herbal sleep aids contain passi flower, aswell as valerain and hops

[Duke of Prunes]

The only prescription that has helped me is MPH (Ritalin/Concerta), but I guess that's probably because I'm in the minority of SA sufferers who also have ADHD (they seem to be directly linked in people who have both). It has the issue of replacing my ADHD and SA with anhedonia, but it's still powerfully anxiolytic.

[Dandelion10]

I take paroxetine, a standard SSRI which I heard was the most effective OCD reducing tablet.

It doesn't touch the compulsions one bit but does get rid of the underlying fear that something terrible is about to happen.

It raises the cholesterol in your blood though meaning you might work out but your body won't always look as if you have. If I miss a few days I get severe shock pains and tremors.

I want to come off and try either another SSRI or a more natural type of drug but without them I probably would struggle to cope.

[Suzanne]

My husband went to our chemist and came back with hebal anit anxiety tablets and wow they are amazing!

They leave me feeling so calm that all I have a sense of is a tiny flutter in my tum and such a relief!

Kalms is another one that works.

They have no side effects but never take them at night time, because I made that error and oh wow, I thought I was going to die from panic and then did a piece of research and found out that it is because it has a small portion of a the deadly nightshade which causes the brain to over react at night!

So if I am feeling really anxious enough to know that sleep is going to be difficult, I take it around 9pm for 10pm when I go to sleep and that works.

I carry them around with me every where because the anxiety just attacks me suddenly.

[Suzanne]

Her is the link for the hebal anti anxiety tablets I take and they are INSTANT. I mean within 5 mins I feel much calmer!

http://www.docsimon.com/article/sedatif-pc-tbl-60

[jlee620]

Originally Posted by shybutterfly

So beta blockers, benzos or SSRI's? And the herbal cures like st Johns wort too of course. Has anyone had any experience with any other types of meds?

St John's Wort works for me. It is pretty cheap and OTC, so worth a try.

[PussyRiot]

Mood stabilisers have helped me enormously. I wish the herbal remedies had worked for me but they only touched the surface so, Quetiapine 300mg, and Mirtazapine (which I only recently started but can feel a big difference). Just realised that the fact that I am posting this at 3.30 in the morning must look like the above have not worked but I actually forgot to take my meds yesterday (long story) and so wide awake .

Green tea does help too.

[ArkoN]

Originally Posted by Duke of Prunes

The only prescription that has helped me is MPH (Ritalin/Concerta), but I guess that's probably because I'm in the minority of SA sufferers who also have ADHD (they seem to be directly linked in people who have both). It has the issue of replacing my ADHD and SA with anhedonia, but it's still powerfully anxiolytic.

i have adhd. i believe my sa is linked to my old adhd medication. tell me what you know about adhd and sa together?

[Duke of Prunes]

Originally Posted by defiance21

i have adhd. i believe my sa is linked to my old adhd medication. tell me what you know about adhd and sa together?

Too lazy to search for studies today (I know I've seen some before – it shouldn't be hard to find ones that show high co-morbidity at least, and there are plenty of studies that link anxiety to impaired dopaminergic function and anxiolytic effects to dopaminergic drugs), but anecdotally, SA seems to be pretty common in people with ADHD. In my case, they're basically the same thing.

I feel really uncomfortable when I'm trying to do something that requires lots of effort – I can't really engage with any activities at all because they seem to require so much more effort than they should, and it feels like I'm trying to scale an infinite brick wall. As a result, my mind is always elsewhere. The same thing applies to social situations – my focus is always drifting on to anything other than the situation itself, so all of my social skills just go out the window, and that's a very distressing thing to experience (it's like being in a class at school, not paying attention to any of the lesson, and then being told to stand up and answer a question about it), and over time that has lead to social avoidance.

Treating the ADHD also treats the SA, basically. Stimulants make me feel really engaged with what I'm doing (as long as I don't take too much, in which case I become a zombie and sit around doing nothing all day). Medication seems to work better for SA symptoms than ADHD symptoms in my case, as the learned habits of my SA are less set-in than those of my ADHD (with SA it's mostly just avoidance, but with ADHD it's a complete breakdown in working habits/attitudes), but regardless, it still eliminates the ADHD ‘feeling’.

Obviously SA comes in many forms, and having both might not always mean that they share the same underlying problems, but it's still worth thinking about. Also, stimulants can definitely cause anxiety in some people, even if they have ADHD, so YMMV.

Apologies for off-topicness – just answering that quote.

[ArkoN]

thanks for the reply, im not sure thats answered my question how i hoped, but i guess only a shrink can tell me what i want to know. for someone with adhd, you sure do alot of punctuation. i hardly bother with most of it. and i dont even check what ive written before i press enter, thats how bored i get lol.

[Duke of Prunes]

Originally Posted by defiance21

thanks for the reply, im not sure thats answered my question how i hoped, but i guess only a shrink can tell me what i want to know. for someone with adhd, you sure do alot of punctuation. i hardly bother with most of it. and i dont even check what ive written before i press enter, thats how bored i get lol.

What sort of answer were you looking for? Maybe rephrase the question a bit and I'll have another try.

[ArkoN]

Originally Posted by Duke of Prunes

What sort of answer were you looking for? Maybe rephrase the question a bit and I'll have another try.

i dont really know. i guess the answer doesnt really matter to me anymore, i dont care why i have SA anymore. for most people it was triggered by horrific past events or some sort of social humiliation, but not me, i know my adhd meds screwed me up and gave me SA. thats what i wanted confirmed. but i dont think there will be anyone who obtained SA in the same way, even if there was it woudnt help me to recovery. its irriversable...