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Mental Health Anxiety Disorders MEGA thread

Thanks Ho-Chi-Minh

Thats exactly the amount of Benzo's I'm on right now.
1 milligram of Lorazepam which keeps me sane! 8o

I probably wouldnt make it through the next day if I didnt have that tiny 1 milligram.

Anywho, cheers buddy
 
Ho-Chi-Minh said:
from what I've heard, lowering the dose then upping it then lowering it to the desired level is a preferred form of taper...by no means medical advice but it could hold
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sorry, i read through this page and still cannot figure out what this advice is to achieve? i'm in no way trying to participate in "benzo hate," but i do not know what if anything positive could be achieved by intentionally going over the necessary dose for any period of time. benzo tolerance feels like a wall that only advances, never recedes.


dude, you know how anxiety causes you all kinds of worry about a simple task? like, you are telling yourself its not really going to be that bad, it's not going to be awkward, just get it over with? sometimes i'm telling myself that, then i go ahead an do whatever it is and it actually is horribly awkward. i think it's self-fulfilling in a way. like i tell myself it's fine, it can't be that bad, and then i'm so preoccupied telling myself it's not that bad that i'm not focused enough on my actual actions. a really general example is having to speak to an audience. you tell yourself it's not that bad, you know what you're talking about, people do it all the time, blah blah. then you get up there, think "just do it," and focus more on being at ease, as opposed to focusing on properly delivering your message. and you're up there sounding like an idiot.

my neighbors recently started leaving their porch light on at night. every night. even with my blinds down, it makes my room way too bright at night. for over a year, they did not leave their porch light on through the night. i don't want to tell people what to do with their house, but i know it's a simple, justified request. for over a week i've needed to ask them this easy favor. it's been weighing on me and causing me stress. i've been playing out these crazy scenarios in my head where they say "no." then i'd tell myself that's crazy, they don't realize, they'll be happy to turn the light off. it's a normal person request.

just 10 minutes ago i got it over with. had just got back from running, thought i'd use the runner's high and momentum to get it done. it actually was really awkward. but i think i made it that way. i knew i just had to ask, so i did. but i think other people are smoother about that stuff. because i was nervous, i was not as conversational as normal people. i wish i was better at being nice. seems like it should be as simple as wanting to be nice. but it's not.

i don't trust my perception much on these matters. for all i know it went perfectly well. doesn't feel like it though.

edit:
if i ever talked to them when i didn't have to, interactions like this wouldn't be so stressed. i actually was really friendly and outgoing when i first moved in, but then i fell off and it's so hard to get back on.
 
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To clarify: dropping your dose, then waiting a few days, then going back to your original dose, then dropping your dose.
 
right on. that makes a lot more sense than intentionally taking more than necessary. is this to taper off or to taper to a lower therapeutic dose? if you are talking about tapering off, i disagree. but just my opinion and experience, of course.
 
What would be a good taper down program from 1 mg lorazepam daily??

Week 1 .75 mg
Week 2 .5 mg
Week 3 .25 mg
Week 4 OFF

Something like this??
 
Only time I ever had a legit Rx for anxiety was a one-time lorazepam from. an unqualified doc. thankfully she resigned. Rx didn't do anything for me.

Just stumbled on Etizolam last month, bad timing. Built a.quick.tolerance but now I'm.going to have to go in reverse.

Stopped smoking herb earlier this year, was a love/hate kind.of.thing especially with anxiety relief (relaxing but paranoic).
Quit drinking liquor as well but still.need my daily pints. My psych meds barely keep me in check.

Guess I can just OD on trazodone during the withdrawls. Can't imagine they're any worse than the weeklong nervous breakdown / mental health crisis I survived with no help this Spring. Worst week of my life but I refused to institutionalize myself, can't run the risk of my employer knowing I'm not 100% on the level
 
hydroazuanacaine said:
right on. that makes a lot more sense than intentionally taking more than necessary. is this to taper off or to taper to a lower therapeutic dose? if you are talking about tapering off, i disagree. but just my opinion and experience, of course.
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Just lowering the dose.
 
Since I quit Amphetamines 2 years ago I have been getting panic attacks every day, The only way I know how to stop it is by using cannabis as I get severe reactions and have been hospitalized from conventional medicines to control it.

I've tried to stop the weed but every time I do the panic comes back so bad i start to lose my mind sending me further into panic,
am I doomed to stay in this cycle? What other techniques can I try to stop the panic?
 
My situation has been getting worse, it's either I feel anxiety and not depression or I feel both. I have had issues with both for most of my life but anxiety has taken me to a whole new place these last 3 years since I gave up meth and began drinking more then ever. Some days I function like a normal human being, other days I am too anxious to do work, it's either I do try and do it and then do 20 minutes and after that it's too much. In the end I find myself just staring at a screen reading various news sites in a repetitive loop until the day is over with. Then pretend to my family I worked when in hindsight I was at a library doing not much. They still don't know I left my job because of my anxiety and depression issues and have always made fun of me for this problem or dismissed it as some joke. My mum especially won't acknowledge it as she herself is a manic depressed person who cries nearly every day over nothing and puts people down but yet refuses to get help. Dad tells me always to shut up about mental health stuff and sees it as something that should be hushed and assumes the problem will go away some how in time. Unfortunately when this shit has been going on for over 20 years it's not going to fix itself any time soon.

At present am concerned, I am trying to get a business going and know am capable of it but when I work on my own I am my own worst enemy. It's like there's no energy there and I can't get what I want done. Yet when it comes to helping others I can always do that. It all sucks as I need cash at the moment after being in a bad accident where I will now have to pay the other driver as I drove drunk.
 
^^
I have taken pregabaline (lyrica) for my GAD for a while , also an anti-epilectic working the GABA processors. and had similiar results as you.
Although it was supposed to be a safe, non addictive drug with no withdrawl according to my former Psych, i quickly found out that all the effects were due to the fact it got me high, similair to a benzo, but in large doses even more high in a way i would describe as a combo of alcohol/weed/opiates, with a touch of amphetamines.

I typed in Lyrica high and all of a sudden i was in world of thousands of reports on this substance, the high, but mostly the withdrawls.
And boy, that withdrawl is hellish. I cannot even describe how ill i got when i quit taking this, its like the worst of benzo's and opiates combined, with an undescripable pseudo psychotic state of mind added to it. It was complete and utter misery without any relief.

You should really consider if you actually want to take these type of medication, and if you do, never ever get high on them, and never quit cold turkey because it can kill you for sure.
I really do not believe this is a 'safe laternative' for benzo's, but are just as nasty and addictive.

I am now Effexor, and allthough its not ideal, it has its side effects and withdrawl could also be very shitty, it doesnt get me high or anything, and because of that it leaves enough space to actually work on my problems and dont have to just sit back and let the medication do all the work for me.
 
I'm with you perfectdisguise all through Highschool I'd go home sick feeling hot, sweety, and nauseated. Now 4 years out I'm now battling it. Just wish my original doc back then would have realized it was anxiety and not depression. ( This same doc told my gf's mother the lump in her breast was just fat...it was really cancer.) My new docter is very understanding on how hard it is for me to find new jobs, go to college and just be social with my anxiety. She's been a god send with perfecting my meds and getting my life back to normal. Now I can go to a mall, grocery store and even out of town without panic attacks still anxious but controllable. Was never looking for a magic fix all pill
 
njirem said:
I am now Effexor, and allthough its not ideal, it has its side effects and withdrawl could also be very shitty, it doesnt get me high or anything, and because of that it leaves enough space to actually work on my problems and dont have to just sit back and let the medication do all the work for me.
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I can relate to that.

I went along to see the mental health services at the start of the Summer & they said I had mild GAD. Anxiety wasn't a major issue for me every day, but when it got bad... it was pretty nasty. It was so hard dealing with it when it always seemed to come largely out of nowhere.

I was put on Citalopram & went up to 30mg briefly but then decided to go down to 20mg because I was getting side effects 2 weeks after going up from 20mg to 30mg. After a little anxiety from dropping dose, I find I'm pretty much on top of my anxiety now. I still get some from time to time, but now I've had some worksheets & therapy, I know better how to cope with it the 'feeling'. Just remind myself it's just that, a feeling & isn't indicative of anything bad itself - it's just an automatic response.

To think I was meant to be going up to 40mg. I'm glad I didn't. I might have a little anxiety creep up from time to time but at least I'm learning how to deal with it at a manageable level rather than the medication doing all the work.
 
Ah good to hear you are getting more in controle over your anxiety, its the worst feeling to be anxious all the time for no good reason.

The two things that helped me te most to gain controle were first to get a good diagnosis about my GAD, after living with the feeling so long i didn't even realise i was in fear apart from the times i clearly knew i was having PTSD flashbacks, but just going to the store and feeling like you are haunted by a group of mass murderers didn't really sunk in, i didn't get it, i know how i felt, but not what i felt.
After my diagnosis some pieces of the puzzle fell into place, how i was constantly hyperventilating, why i was avoiding a lot of social gatherings and why i was always on hyperalert and could't relax, why is was automedicating with alcohol and drugs.
This helped me a lot to realise that, as you said, it a response based on automatism and old behavior and thinking, i could finally tell myself, ''listen bro you feel fear for something that happened like 20 years ago, it is totally irrelevant, you can defend yourself if you need to and apart from that your environment is no longer in such a way were i should actually be affraid.

Second was the realisation i really really needed medication, have been keeping that away for many reasons, and now i realise that is just another sign of my GAD, that would include fear from meds. I only looked at 'all the horrible side efects' rather then how and eventually did enlighten my suicidal thoughts and anxiety.
Now i have some air and space, i don't need to drink myself to sleep and be affraid of tomorrow anymore, i have a non addictive (well psychological maybe, but it kicked mirtazapine a couple of years back and that was just some insomnia for a few days nothing else) sleeping aid and can practise going out and living life, living alongside with the fear and let it be hwat it is, am starting EMDR in a couple of weeks too.
 
Lyrica is the first pharmacutical i abused, used to open the capsul and snort it when i was 14 xD i got mu first panic attack when i was 15-16 mostly because of weed ive smoked since 13 years old every day till 16 years old, weed fucked up my life, i didnt finish school i did nothing in those 3 years.... Just smoking away time... I think of my panic attacks/anxity as a blessing i know its weird but thats the main reason i stoped smoking it weed a put my life back in order :) im not saying weed is bad only that i found a escape in it, thumbs up for the people who work all day do their shit and then smoke weed at the end of the day :D but me, i can turn anything to heroin :3 i dosent even need to be a drug xD anyway since i stoped smoking for almost 2 years my anxity i mostly gone, i get panic attacks but i kinda beat them they arent intense anymore and when they happen, i neve go "ohh fuck im having a panic attack" that makes it worse, what i do is carry on doing whatever i was doing to distract* myself and be like "meh" hope this helps :3
 
Make a conscious decision that they wont happen again, and dont be afraid they will happen, its the same as tripping if you fear a bad trip is gonna happen it probly will... So dont be afraid when they happen dont pay attantion* to them do what ever to distraced* your self.. Once you beat one panic attack it will be alot easier for next time :) i know its easier said than done but one day you will figure it out :3
 
One thing that's happened to me since I stopped taking sedatives, which I didn't really expect, is that I never really feel any anxiety (I didn't before but then I was taking things for it).

I just feel much more stressed and stimulated, so it's like there's no room for feelings like that, I mostly feel irritable and aggressive, and my patience is much shorter, so I blow up easily when someone pushes me.

It's a lot like being on a low dose of stimulants, really (and I hate stimulants, my natural state is too stimulated).
 
If I am being honest as much as I love benzodiazepines getting prescribed first Ativan and then Xanax is probably the worst thing that could have happened for me even though I knew exactly what I was getting myself into. They worked great at first but now anxiety seems worse then ever and the rebound anxiety is hell. I can't take these drugs as prescribed and as a result have helped myself to the world of benzo RCs. I am thinking about ordering one with a longer half life in order to taper myself off of the Xanax and Etizolam, perhaps Flubromazepam. I really don't have any idea but all these drugs seem to do for me now is keep me content and sane. Without them I am incredibly irritable. And yet still I feel comfortable being myself on them therefore just kind of accept it. At least I can feel comfortable being me and not care what others think. They provide me with a confidence that is now downright impossible for me to achieve without them. I'm rambling sorry feeling a bit lost and scatter brained. Time to take my medicine.
 
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Detox and the first 3 months are tough. Lots of repressed stress and aggression coming to the surface and your body has lost the ability to calm itself. This also comes to an end, though might be replaced by an indifferent, emotionless state at the point when you can't deal with the stress any more.

Ar least that's how it happened for me. Regaining the ability to feel positive emotions from that, and not just feel bored and disinterested in everything, is a challenge.

But in the end you don't feel much different to how you were on benzos that doesn't work any more and you're much more stable without the ups and downs (really strange).
 
I know this sounds stupid and overly simple but I tell everyone about my social anxiety as soon as I meet them. Or for example like if a friend calls me and asks me to come over he will tell me if one of his friends who I don't know very well is there because he knows how I am and I'll say "tell them about my anxiety so they don't think I'm being a dick or something." People knowing about my disorder takes a lot of the sting out of it because I am not focusing as much on trying to seem normal. I have been in mental hospitals and shit since I was a young teen and I am always calm and comfortable in there because I know people expect me to be awkward and crazy and I don't have to put on a front, It's kind of the same thing.
I still can't go out in public places and stuff without being intoxicated though.
 
I know how it is trying to make it through the day without intoxication in some form or another. Without my meds I could never function and do what I do every day. I have to though my family relies on me financially and I have aspirations and goals I would like to achieve.
If telling people up front about your anxieties helps you to loosen up and feel comfortable around them then why not. Any decent person would understand and be supportive.
 
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