Mental Health Horror story of anxiety, gonna keep short

[razordesignz]

Been on meds and drugs for 10+ years
Xanax kolonopin valium ativan librium all the bs SSRI'S welbutrin etc vybriid. Tryed so many fail meds, benzos work my tolerance builds too fast though and now I'm on 40mg oxy a day and a ton of gabapentin. I'm struggling to deal with my anxiety I can't work out because my back I am desperate for answers. I feel so lost

 

[Burnt Offerings]

One thing I've found that helps relieve my anxiety is to focus on what I'm "grounded" to...for instance, focusing on the sensation of my back resting against the chair (if I'm sitting), or gravity pulling my feet against the ground (if I'm standing), my back against a flat surface if I'm lying down, etc. You get the idea. Someone told me about that one time and I was skeptical of it working but it really is a simple thing that helps, along with breathing exercises.

Benzodiazepines are helpful medications for some people but, in my personal experience, they're not terribly helpful long-term, or if you're ultimately interested in techniques to manage anxiety without drugs. I've also been on drugs like Xanax, Valium, several anti-depressant class drugs & a couple other assorted tranquilizers, so I'm somewhat familiar with the pharmacological "solutions" to this problem. I'm currently not taking any medication of that sort for anxiety and I'm not interested in any, to be perfectly honest.

 

[Slow_Mobius]

Have you tried kava? With everything you've taken and what sounds like pretty severe anxiety, I doubt it would work on its own, but it might help you to lower your doses or dose frequency and help prevent tolerance build up. Kava isn't physically addictive.

Also, have you tried kratom?

 

[Felonious Monk]

Have you tried talk therapy, CBT, anything besides drugs?

 

[T. Calderone]

Have you tried talk therapy, CBT, anything besides drugs?

I was going to say the same thing as I have spondylosis and spinal stenosis. I'm going back to counseling and getting physical therapy before they do the epidural injections. Severe pain and anxiety seem to go hand in hand so I know it can be maddening. I'm going to move this to Mental Health and hope you get some relief!

 

[razordesignz]

Thx guys I suppose I will see I have tryed kava. Kratom ofcourse helps depending on the strain. Tryed therapy psychology and psychiatry not 'tall therapy' though

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

I honestly think you need to put a bit more work in.

I think that a lot of people get prescribed a benzo and then feel like all the work back to health is done. And for several days, weeks, it is. But then they begin to be confronted by symptoms again. It's not to say that benzos stop working, but they stop doing all the work. At that point, a lot of people complain to their doctor about them not working. But sooner or later a doctor caps the dosage, at which point the less enlightened of us gobble ever higher doses.

What you really need if you want to recover, and stay recovered, is some sort of therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has a huge amount of positive literature on it. Learning CBT while on medication (be it benzos or whatever) is going to make you the healthiest. But you really have to apply yourself to the therapy.

It also goes without saying that you should be straight up with your doctor about everything. You do that, and chances are the medication side of things is taken care of. Once the meds are relatively stable, then you find a good therapist/psychologist who specializes in CBT.

 

[SKL]

Agree w/all above re: CBT. Can even help with pain, believe it or not.

Med wise, you are on no BZDs now? Probably best to keep it that way except possibly something on an as-needed basis if you feel you can actually control that; gabapentin is actually a pretty good med, I find it great for anxiety and also for urges to drink, and doses can be pushed pretty high; with pain in the picture the only thing I can really think of is switching to pregabalin; if you were to go the benzo route, I'd go with Valium as it is long acting, gentle on the come-down d/t active metabolite (unlike klonipin, xanax), good as a muscle relaxant which may help with pain (but pregabalin will help too especially if your issues are neuropathic but possibly generally as well.)

Among the SSRIs Viibryd is by far one one of the better ones as it also has action on 5HT1a, not just reuptake, which is specifically anxiolytic (this is how Vistaril works as an anxiety med beyond just being a histaminergic sedative.) However, while establishing a baseline dose of benzos can indeed help a bit even after tolerance builds, it's best not to take them constantly (either using them as a PRN only, or taking short "drug holidays") and not to escalate the dose, which will only make it harder to get off of; however, psychological dependence plays a bigger role than one might think, given that most of the discussion about benzo withdrawal regards the horrible physical part (which is horrible, worse than opiates, potentially lethal, everything you hear), in this pattern that says "I will just take this pill" instead of actively working to control anxiety mentally (which is what CBT is going to be doing.

Concomitant use of BZDs + CBT is not uncommon and not necessarily a terrible thing, the idea that the meds are to help until the CBT helps and then the CBT will also help in tapering off.) Again, though, choice of benzo is important, XANAX is terrible d/t short T_1/2 and liability for abuse, dependence, and behavioral dysregulation being worse than others; klon is harder to come off of than dzp d/t lack of active metabolites, etc. But you probably know all this, so the route that you really need to be taking is CBT ± stable med regime with an emphasis on not escalating dose and particularly not using as prescribed, i.e. sourcing from the black market; as not only will this cost you, it can leave you in a rough spot if your connections fall through. So again, emphasis on CBT.

IMPORTANT: This post or any of my communications are not professional advice nor do they establish a professional relationship of any kind; I make no claim to any professional credentials; in person consultation is essential for any medical decision.