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Anxiety...


holy roller.

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No, i definitely wouldn't equate it to fear. Naturally, people are more prone to experience anxiety in stressful situations, but for many people it can come up anywhere. As someone who has had terrible anxiety and panic attacks for years, i can tell you that plenty of my panic attacks have come while just sitting around my apartment, not doing anything that should be stressful or nerve racking. However, on the flip side, a lot of people get misdiagnosed and given benzos just because they tell the doctor they get stressed out taking a test or other situations where some stress is the normal reaction.

 

As fred nurk mentioned, a little stress isn't a bad thing, infact its normal. Its when you're experiencing anxiety that prevents you from dealing with your daily life in a normal manner that it becomes an issue, and meds are not the option that you should be jumping to right off the bat. I know that it seems like the easiest way out, but i personally think meds should be the final option when you've tried therapy, psychiatry, etc. Meds generally aren't a long term solution, but instead they're something to help level a person out while they work out their issues through practice and seeing a psych and/or a therapist. The goal while on meds is to learn to manage your anxiety to the point where you're comfortable going off meds and using your new knowledge and experience to function in a normal manner without them.

 

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people on meds seem to think that because they're fine on their medications that they don't need to see any doctors or work on their problems and that they can just stay on meds until their problems just go away. For some people this might work, they might grow past it or eventually learn to cope without really trying, but a lot of people just start to rely on their medications and go right back to square one if/when they go off of them.

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ok. xanax dependant here. Trying to take it responsibly. Problem is.... the addiction makes you want more. To not take more i get anxiety. Stuck between a rock and a hard place. Probably why i end up eating 90 mg scrips in 3 days. No longer is it for anxiety but a blackout clause

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When I was looking at med's they didn't even mention xanax. They were more about things like aropax and lovlan (however you spell it). Maybe it depends on what country you're in I guess. But I get the impression they did some research and found it becomes addictive and diffucult to come off...Whatever.

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I really only read the 1st post on the 1st page, and seeing it was o-l-d I only read the last page on here. Just to add my 2 cents in as few words as possible........

 

Meds are overused and not an exact science, useful/needed for some, but overall there are therapy methods, someone mentioned CBT, that I believe to be better. Xanax is an old classic, but a bit outdated at the same time and popular for abuse.

 

Anxiety and fear can go together, like how panic attacks relate to the 'fight or flight' response, but they are not necessarily the same thing.

 

I'm glad that people can challenge themselves on here and put issues out there w/o being dramatic/attention seeking.

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I have not read the whole thread. I am not religious. I am not a AA or NA member, but attended NA years ago. For dealing with anxiety that is situational I have always liked the ideas in the NA prayer.

 

God grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can;

And wisdom to know the difference.

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In a mother goose rhyme it was stated differently

 

For every ailment under the sun

There is a remedy, or there is none;

If there be one, try to find it;

If there be none, never mind it.

 

I find that accepting things that I have no control over and focusing on shit that I do has a way of putting my anxiety in check.

 

Like I said it is for situations that are stressful not social anxiety which I deal with by not having friends.

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ok. xanax dependant here. Trying to take it responsibly. Problem is.... the addiction makes you want more. To not take more i get anxiety. Stuck between a rock and a hard place. Probably why i end up eating 90 mg scrips in 3 days. No longer is it for anxiety but a blackout clause

 

get your ass into treatment

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i've actually just started taking st johns wort to see if it makes any difference (in addition to the other stuff ive been doing to manage my problem with out clinical med's) My doctor seemed to think it isnt much harm and isn't much help. I figured i'd try for myself and see. Like anti depressants I read it takes about a month to build up in your system and have any real effect. So I'll try and let you know in a bit if I'm noticing anything.

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anxiety is a motherfucker. i used to take lexapro daily but it had certain undesirable side effects so now its effexor XR 3 times daily. if anybodys on either of these or thinking about them let me know i can give the pros/cons.

Just a heads up, since i was on effexor xr for a year or two: if you're on a high dosage like i was (150mg), don't be surprised if you gain some weight. Effexor is notorious for it's big weight gain. It also has the worst withdrawl of any med i've ever been on besides narcotic painkillers (oxycodone). When you go off of it, make sure you taper very slowly, because it can be fucking miserable. My doctor at the time swapped me to celexa since i was unhappy with the side effects i was getting from the high dose of effexor, and i knew the withdrawl was bad from having ran out before and not being able to refill for a few days. Instead of tapering, he thought that if i started taking the celexa right away, the build up from that would help counteract the withdrawl from the effexor, but it didn't work out as planned. I was pretty much worthless for a little over a week due to crippling headaches, i couldn't sleep, and i generally felt like i was mentally retarded and had been punched in the head repeatedly.

 

On the other hand, it worked nicely for me until the end of my stint with it when i started feeling really zoned out and finally got sick of the weight gain. And about 2 months after i swapped from that to celexa, i finally got off all daily medications and have been that way for over a year now. I occasionally take xanax, but when i initially went on meds i was having constant massive panic attacks all day every day and couldn't even function.

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Anyone know anything about cymbalta?

 

personal experiences not what google will tell you.

 

 

i was on it for a while....

It helped.... but my doctor acted like it was going to make me a real happy-go-lucky individual.

It didn't.

It just made my "attacks/episodes" a little bit less severe, and I tended to get over them a little quicker.

 

Really, it just caused me to not think about offing myself every couple of hours.

 

Probably the best anti-depressant I've been on thus far though. I'm going to change over to Wellbutrin soon. Everything I've read about it seems to be alright.

 

Fuck Lexapro.

 

I also need to get on Xanax or something.

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Just a heads up, since i was on effexor xr for a year or two: if you're on a high dosage like i was (150mg), don't be surprised if you gain some weight. Effexor is notorious for it's big weight gain. It also has the worst withdrawl of any med i've ever been on besides narcotic painkillers (oxycodone). When you go off of it, make sure you taper very slowly, because it can be fucking miserable. My doctor at the time swapped me to celexa since i was unhappy with the side effects i was getting from the high dose of effexor, and i knew the withdrawl was bad from having ran out before and not being able to refill for a few days. Instead of tapering, he thought that if i started taking the celexa right away, the build up from that would help counteract the withdrawl from the effexor, but it didn't work out as planned. I was pretty much worthless for a little over a week due to crippling headaches, i couldn't sleep, and i generally felt like i was mentally retarded and had been punched in the head repeatedly.

 

On the other hand, it worked nicely for me until the end of my stint with it when i started feeling really zoned out and finally got sick of the weight gain. And about 2 months after i swapped from that to celexa, i finally got off all daily medications and have been that way for over a year now. I occasionally take xanax, but when i initially went on meds i was having constant massive panic attacks all day every day and couldn't even function.

 

agreed, the withdrawl from effexor is horrible, i didn't realize what it was until someone suggested it to me. i take 3 75mg pills/day which i think is kinda high, initially i went on it for depression anxiety and a tendency to be an angry person, now i just deal with the anxiety mostly. I experience more weight gain with lexapro than with effexor however i didn't really work out when i took the lexapro and i work out 5 days a week now adays. if i miss the morning and afternoon dose by that evening im ready to rage

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That's a pretty good sign that you need therapy, not meds.

 

I wish that was the case. I've actually had a lot of therapy at this point with some benefit but over all very little long term results.

 

My anxiety has a few triggers, the most problematic is that I can get very anxious in group social situations. My last therapist was recommending med's. I wasn't in the best lifestyle or circumstances and I knew I had to pull myself out of that before I made any decisions (I knew trying to sort out the correct med's at the time and with no family or friends for support would of just fucked me up more)

 

Like I said, I'm just trying to manage my anxiety naturally at the moment..and it has improved a bit, I do ok, but I still have to deal with it all the time though. I think over the next couple of years I'm going to have to try medication. But who knows, it seems the whole point of meds is to help people find a point where they can build a good environment for themselves and good mental outlook to go with it. If I can do that without aropax all the better.

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im contemplating the easy way out. at 1 i plan to call my doctor. Im already

at 6 mg of xanax a day. I figure if he bumps me to 9 or 12 i will be able to

float from day to day and not feel anything anymore. Thats what im going for

complete numbness

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When I was at a point in my life where complete numbness was the goal I used Heroin and xanax together. Just a touch of xanax is like hamburger helper for chiva and makes a little go a long way. In the end I lost two close friends and had my lungs and heart stop not once but twice.

 

Going for more medication is not, in my never humble opinion, going to help much.

 

I find that sometimes if a person is stuck in the same location for too long they become like the center of a bulls eye target where they can not see the whole picture of their life because they are surrounded by it. The best thing I ever did for long term improvement of my state of mind and self esteem was to move to another country for a while. That time enabled me to see what was going wrong at home and when I returned it gave me the strength to overcome some of my problems.

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