Treatment Anyone w/ bad social anxiety find something to work as well as benzos?

[Mycophile]

Has anyone here who has bad social anxiety that responded well to benzos (KLONOPIN SPECIFICALLY), but who got side effects from the benzos, ever found another drug or treatment that worked equally well and was able to get off the benzos?

A bit of background info, I have been on Klonopin A LONG TIME, many years....longer than everyone thinks you should be, and I am always told how horrible it is, but it's all that ever worked for my anxiety.

I have had what I call "eye contact anxiety" where I can't feel comfortable making eye contact with people and it's really NOT TOLERABLE AT ALL. I mean, it would nearly make me agoraphobic.

The Klonopin ERADICATES THAT...but I believe it has led to a serious worsening of my depression and definitely made me chronically tired.

I was able to get off it a few years back (with almost no WD either which was VERY surprising), and I was off it for 9 months and my hypersomnia and fatigue went away, but then my social anxiety came back and it was intolerable and i had to get back on Klonopin.

Now it's years later and the fatigue and depression are bad and I want to see if there's anything else I can take that might help equally as much as the Klonopin but with far fewer side effects, but I am afraid maybe nothing exists.

Kratom does work, in fact, it works FAR better BOTH for social/general anxiety and fatigue and depression, but it's just too short acting and I has led to extreme worsening of my chronic fatigue and I just don't see how I can take it every 4 hours for life. If only I could or it lasted longer, but it doesn't.

Other gabergics work, like booze and Phenibut, but those are just as bad or worse.

That's really all that helps my anxiety.

I've thought of trying Gabapentin and been told by some people that it has worked for them better than Klonopin and that they replaced Klonopin with that without the fatigue, but then a poster here PMd me telling me to NEVER EVER use it, that Gabapentin literally destroyed his brain and it takes him like 2 hours to write 100 words and he can't focus on anything, but then again, my aunt takes it and has none of those problems, and there's always a portion of the population who has these horrible reactions to drugs.

What do you guys think?

Is there any hope of someone who has serious social anxiety and been dependent on Klonopin for years finding anything with fewer side effects to replace it without either going through HORRENDOUS withdrawal or horrible side effects from the new drug or with the social anxiety coming back?

Thanks.

 

[swilow]

Pregabalin helps but all of these drugs poop out eventually and you either need to escalate your dose or totally come off it. It also has pretty bad side effects of dependance and brain fog. Honestly, I take pregabalin but I really could not advise it. I wish I hadn't gotten on it, it has seriously detracted from my quality of life. Though I did not experience much anxiety when it first took it- it's pretty effective.

Look into a beta blocker like clonidine. This should suppress the physical aspects of social anxiety which for many is a huge trigger for it. The sweating and shaky feeling and hot flushes and general awkwardness will be relieved though the mental aspect is relatively untouched- you're not going to feel disinhibited or high or euphoric, you just won't feel physical anxiety all that much.

I get social anxiety but I've realised there really isn't any medication that will help. It's a question of retraining my reactions to anxiety- rather than avoid and run away, I try to now just accept it and push myself into any situation that unsettles me. It's not fun but it's more effective than any medication that I've had thrown at me and it has no side effects!

 

[Mycophile]

Pregabalin helps but all of these drugs poop out eventually and you either need to escalate your dose or totally come off it. It also has pretty bad side effects of dependance and brain fog. Honestly, I take pregabalin but I really could not advise it. I wish I hadn't gotten on it, it has seriously detracted from my quality of life. Though I did not experience much anxiety when it first took it- it's pretty effective.

Look into a beta blocker like clonidine. This should suppress the physical aspects of social anxiety which for many is a huge trigger for it. The sweating and shaky feeling and hot flushes and general awkwardness will be relieved though the mental aspect is relatively untouched- you're not going to feel disinhibited or high or euphoric, you just won't feel physical anxiety all that much.

I get social anxiety but I've realised there really isn't any medication that will help. It's a question of retraining my reactions to anxiety- rather than avoid and run away, I try to now just accept it and push myself into any situation that unsettles me. It's not fun but it's more effective than any medication that I've had thrown at me and it has no side effects!

Well I don't know. I've heard that beta blockers are probably not going to work for this, and while you say no med "works" for you, that's not true for me, they totally do work for the social aspect (not so much generalized), just w/ side effects.

No offense, but it's also NOT true that all the benzos "poop out". Though I know everyone will say how bad it is, except for the 9 months I got off it I've been on Klonopin around 16 years, and that's pretty scary considering how much everyone says my brain could be destroyed by it, which I wish they wouldn't say cause it only makes me more anxious and may not be true, but it STILL works just as well for my social anxiety as originally, it just comes with so many side effects, but when I last got off it I remember vividly prefering the side effects to the anxiety.

Kratom works, but it's so short term I don't think it's managable to be on for years and years.

Also, Klonopin does NOT make me "euphoric" in any way shape or form.

I'm not so sure I can just retrain my brain not to get severe anxiety over eye contact, which is what happens off the meds.

I don't know, I'm actually in a very angry mood right now, I'm drunk but I'm usually a happy drunk, but I'm just really furious right now.

Everyone says something else regarding my anxiety and depression and no one is able to help and I go in circles.