Dealing with anxiety. Antidepressants?

[g_dan1]

Hello everyone!
I recently went to the psychological hoping to get some help with my anxiety and trouble concentrating. I told her that i am constantly paranoid about little things and get small panic attacks in class. I expected her to help me with some therapy but all she told me is to go to psychiatrist and get antidepressants and possibly stimulants...
Do antidepressants really help with ANXIETY?
I really don't wanna take them but i wanna get rid of my anxiety.
Does anyone know any other ways of dealing with it? Maybe some natural remedies or relaxation techniques?
Thank you!

 

[Ignio]

Personally, I would stay clear of antidepressants for anxiety. In my opinion the effect antidepressants have on brain chemistry is too severe compared to the small benefit you might see. But I am against antidepressants in general after very bad experiences with them so I am not exactly neutral.

 

[g_dan1]

Can u elaborate on the negative effects of antidepressants? Thanks!

 

[AZtarDetroitpowder]

I have an old script of venlafaxine (Effexor) from a few months ago popped one cap 150mg and be been speeding since 12:00 pm yesterday it's now 4:11 pm next day and eyes are still size of a dime haha not sure if good or bad but this will help you with both!

 

[Theroux]

I can only speak from personal experience but low dose fluoxetine (prozac) alongside CBT helped me massively with my anxiety and depression. I should say though that you need to be careful with these drugs, after being on various SSRI's for 2 years I did suffer some withdrawal symptoms when I made the decision to come off. I emphasise the I because if I hadn't made the decision my doctor would have been fine for me to stay on them for much longer.

Are you taking any other drugs that could be making your anxiety worse??

 

[deos68]

I've personally been on lexapro and Prozac both are good but the side effects suck if you are a male be prepared to Have the sex drive of a 60yr old man

I pretty much killed my anxiety and any panic I had
I felt "normal" but at the same time I was emotionally numb meaning I wasn't happy or sad or anything for that matter
I literally didn't give a shit about anything

I didn't get much help of always feeling sluggish from lexapro but with Prozac I felt a bit hyper not in a bad way though it gave me energy and by the end of the day I was able to sleep normally if you will

You can experience a shit ton of anxiety more than you already do at first but it's normal
It'll go away I can how long it'll take but it's usually before the Med starts working

Lexapro was the fastest on working like 2 weeks and Prozac was about4 weeks that time frame changes from person to person Keep that in mind that it won't work over night

 

[Ignio]

Can u elaborate on the negative effects of antidepressants? Thanks!

Let me start out by saying that I am against the overuse of antidepressants. Not necessarily antidepressant themselves. Antidepressants have their place, but they should only be given to people with severe psychiatric problems. Giving them on the basis of a few depression related questions even to kids is dangerous. Doctors prescribe them like there are no side effects. Some doctors at conferences even say that it is better to describe antidepressant than not if you so much as suspect depression or other psychological problems because there are no side effects. There are side effects.


Giving antidepressant to people who doesn’t really have psychological problems can result in problems if not anything worse, then when the treatment is stopped. Stopping treatment can result in withdrawal like symptoms. Trust me I have tried. Furthermore, one study shows that 10% of people treated with antidepressant or ADHD-related medicines developed a completely new disorder as a direct result of the treatment, that is bipolar disorder. I my self got severe muscle stiffness, convulsions and twitching resulting in epileptic seizures that I had never have before. The epileptic seizures continued after stop of treatment and I today I am diagnosed with epilepsi. There is correlation between me taking venlafaxinie and getting seizures, but if there is causality is impossible to say. But convulsions et cetera is seen as a side effect, not often though. When I did stop with antidepressants, even though I was tappering out gradually reducing the dosage, I suffered withdrawal symptoms that I would compare to those you have from tramadol or similarly mild opioids.


I saw one firm writing on their web page that only 5% of people using antidepressant get sexual problems. Despite of this, a study showed that 59% out of 1.022 patient that had a normal sex life before antidepressants had sexual problems after treatment started.


One respected Danish researcher writes that anti-psychotic medicine is one of the main reasons for the fact that people with schizophrenia is dying 20 years before the average person. He also writes, that in the United States psychiatrists is the group of doctors that receives the most money from the pharmaceutical industry. His name is Peter C. Gøtzsche if you want to read more about him. He have researched antidepressant for several years and he is profoundly against what he calls over treatment with antidepressants.


I would think that treatment with antidepressants will only make topic starters anxiety worse when he stops treatment. So if he starts, he should consider the possibility that me might have to stay on antidepressants for a very long time. At least I would say that he should not start before he has been examined thoroughly and tried other treatments. Attempt to find the source of the anxiety before you treat the symptoms with antidepressants.

You can find the studies I mentions above at pubmed.

To sum up. I am not against antidepressants as I said. I just think doctors prescribe them too much and to people that don’t need them. Like some anti-psychotic drugs, only a specialists should be allowed to prescribe antidepressants due to the risks associated with them.

 

[manboychef]

OP: Your problems sound a lot like my own. I have OCD, panic disorder (if the phone rings I jump and have fight or flight response), and major depressive disorder. The first thing to do is get a diagnosis. The second thing you do is try therapy, and changing your behaviors/routine. Another aspect of the therapy is to work on anxiety mitigating exercises like mindful meditation, heart mathematics, yoga etc. Also you will want to write down your triggers for anxiety. Keep a journal of your feelings and write a scale of 1-10 how anxious you are throughout the day at regular intervals (the best being, at wakeup, at noon, and at bedtime). The triggers and anxiety scale will give your psychologist and psychiatrist more to work with when figuring out a treatment plan for you.

That being said: Ignio has it right. Medication should be something that is pursued after everything has been tried, or used in conjunction with therapy. It seems like many doctors today have large caseloads of patients and want to just throw a pill at every problem they have. I mean the prescription pad is like having a hammer. If all you have in the toolbox is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail.

What has worked for me is therapy (cbt/ talk therapy), meditation, and 100mg of zoloft in the AM. I have tried many antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and anti-psychotics. For me finding the right medication and pairing it with anxiety/ paranoia mitigating skills has been paramount in helping my mental disorders.

OP: Feel free to PM me if you want to talk about symptoms because your symptoms sound a lot like mine.
To sum it up: Take notes, work on mitigating skills, and be very honest with your doctors about how you feel. Yes the antidepressants are going to have side effects. What needs to be done is some pretty deep risk v. reward thinking. Take notes when you are on them for a month. If symptoms do not improve, it is time to move on to a different med, and therapy regime.

 

[Ignio]

Seeing my own answer again a little after I wrote it, it seems strange to talk to you, g_dan1, in third person. Sorry for that. But it doesn't change the intention of the statement. It seems like a good way to start of to talk to manboychef. I just can't stress enough my advice to start of with other attempts of solving your anxiety than starting on antidepressants. That is the essence of my first post. But I am obviously not exactly subjective due to me own experiences with antidepressants. That being said, I should think there is enough empirical evidence of the side effects to merit serious thought and other measures before you go down that road.

If your anxiety gets so severe that it starts to influence your life in a way where you stop doing things just because you are anxious that would be when I would start to consider serious methods. Not living life is worse than living a life where you can't feel the worst but also the best of your feelings, which antidepressants might cause. But it doesn't seem like you are there yet, so the suggestions above and therapy seems, for me, like the place to start. A journal is an underestimated tool when dealing with psychological problems, addiction and so on. It has helped me get past things I didn't think I could get past.

You mention two obvious things to start with. Anxiety and then lack of concentration as well. Both can be symptoms to several underlying issues, but that can't be diagnosed on an online board as well as I can not really allow myself to say that antidepressants aren'y the solution for you. I can only warn you of the side effects, tell you my experience with antidepressants and advice you to look into different methods and I would strongly advice starting therapy or some way of getting a better insight into yourself and your challenges. I don't think it is something you can solve alone as well as I don't think it can be solved with medication or "natural remedies" alone.

 

[g_dan1]

Thank you all for replies! Yes, i dont wanna take antidepressants and i didnt get them. The thing is that i went to psychologist (who doesn't even prescribe meds) and all she told me is to go to a psychiatrist and get meds lol. No therapy or anything like that... she also said that insurance psychologist suck, even tho she is one haha.
Does anyone know any better opitions to treat anxiety? I will try writing it down and figuring out where it comes from.
Should i try some supplements like l theanine? I heard about st johns wort but also heard that it has withdrawals and side effects

 

[g_dan1]

Also i occasionally use adderall and ritalin for studying (from a friend). Like once a month or even less often

 

[zirbeldude2]

Dont take it. Stimulants are the last thing one should take when dealing with anxiety.

 

[g_dan1]

I only get anxiety in certain situations. I dont usually get it when im studying at home

 

[zirbeldude2]

Then your best bet would be behavorial therapy.