Drugs to reduce anxiety?

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

An SSRI will help, exercising regularly, and meditation can help as well.

I've heard that benzos get rid of anxiety but they're highly addictive.

 

[cyndiann]

Kratom can be helpful for anxiety but is an addictive opioid so you shouldn't use it more than twice a week IMO.

It's not an opioid, it reacts on the opioid receptors like an opioid. It's also not addictive, anymore than coffee is, which it's related to. Lots of people do find it helps with anxiety and unlike narcotics it's never killed anyone.

Even opiates are only addictive a very small amount of the time. The press has blown that way out of proportion. I use kratom for pain relief and it works a lot better than the oxy's and other drugs prescribed to me and I did notice I'm more relaxed. I don't have to deal with doctors forcing me to do steroid shots in my spine, no signing drug contracts, no more dealing with the pharmacies and their games. It's been a great experience.

 

[GrymReefer]

I saw someone else mention supplementation above, but it never hurts to reiterate information with good intention.

Immediately thinking you should jump to a chemical to treat your issue is already starting off on the wrong foot. Treating the issue with more pharmaceuticals besides really discovering the root issue isn't what I would consider Healthy Living. Probably sound like a party pooper, but you should always look to using chemicals for treatment and maintenance of psychological issues as a last resort. Have you ever been to a doctor relating to mental health before? Don't be discouraged to seek help because it happens to pertain to something within your mental state. We are all wild and crazy in our own ways and having some social anxiety is not an uncommon thing.

You say you have anxieties about what people may be thinking or even if they are thinking of you. In all actuality you are the true deciding factor on making that perception tangible. Obviously we are humans and we tend to display ignorance and superficiality as our prime adjectives to describe our perception of life and others. Pardon my language, but if some dickhead wants to negatively judge you just from mere sight then to hell with him. Those are people you don't even need to be around. So with that being said you can't always worry because the issue will become progressively worse due to the psychosomatic nature of how your thinking. This is all coming from personal experience because I can relate to you about what you describe and feel. I don't know exactly what you feel, but I can relate to you.

You know sometimes the best thing to help overcome and conquer these issues is to tell your closest friends that you can honestly trust. If you got real homies/ride or dies/bruhs/"insert bizarre label here" then they should be compelled to make sure your always feeling the best you can feel when they are around. You know some of the most renowned individuals in history were completely bonkers in terms of their social abilities or even their everyday routine. You could possibly be greatness in the works!

 

[Mysterie]

I take an SNRI (amongst other things) following many years trying different SSRIs. I certainly don't find either class "dirty" (wtf?) and the SNRI has been helpful for my anxiety. It makes me a little tense (as in physically - my muscles tense up when I'm at rest) but not really to an extent that I'm persistently conscious of. I think that's the only noticeable side effect I have from them.

well, subjectively i find the class dirty (classic antidepressant medications). i dont mean dirty in the sense that i look down on the people that take them. but in the same way that i find dxm to be dirty, its physiological effects are broad and not very specific in what they target.

 

[Mycophile]

It's not an opioid, it reacts on the opioid receptors like an opioid. It's also not addictive, anymore than coffee is, which it's related to. Lots of people do find it helps with anxiety and unlike narcotics it's never killed anyone.

Even opiates are only addictive a very small amount of the time. The press has blown that way out of proportion. I use kratom for pain relief and it works a lot better than the oxy's and other drugs prescribed to me and I did notice I'm more relaxed. I don't have to deal with doctors forcing me to do steroid shots in my spine, no signing drug contracts, no more dealing with the pharmacies and their games. It's been a great experience.

First of all, coffee is DEFINITELY addictive, pretty strongly IMO and I get SUPER irritable if I don't have enough coffee.

Second, Kratom is only related to coffee in the sense that the plants are in the same plant family but in actuality in terms of the way Kratom works on the brain it is more closely related to Opiates.

And also, I am pretty sure that the definition of opioid is something that works on Opioid receptors, hence Kratom.

But Kratom is most DEFINITELY physically addictive and if you don't believe it just check the COUNTLESS reports of people online who have had strong withdrawal from it including insomnia, muscle pain, naseau, depression and irritiability.

It's not AS strongly addictive as stronger opioids/opiates, but it's definitely addictive.

I like Kratom a lot, in fact, I am on it now, but you are not fooling anyone but yourself to say it's not addictive.

And Opiates are NOT "only addictive a small amount of the time".

It might be true that only a small number of people actually BECOME ADDICTED, but the opiates themselves are still actually addictive 100% of the time in that if taken too frequently the person will become addicted.

You might want to be a bit more careful about the accuracy of your statements on an HR forum like this dude.

 

[swilow]

It might be true that only a small number of people actually BECOME ADDICTED, but the opiates themselves are still actually addictive 100% of the time in that if taken too frequently the person will become addicted.

You're sort of saying the same thing. There's no exclusions to the concept of 100%.

You might want to be a bit more careful about the accuracy of your statements on an HR forum like this dude

I agree but you did it regarding klonopin earlier in the topic.

I know that my experience is unique as most people do get severe WDs,

Its hard to draw any sort of broad conclusion from anomalous data. Benzo's may be useful for anxiety; but they may also be one of the worst things an anxious person can take. There will always come a point where you will not be able to obtain more of your benzo, and then you are fucked. It is best that we accept the practise of the medical community, and limit benzo's to short term use, because most people will find they lose efficacy and cause tolerance/addiction and eventual relapse into anxious/panic disorders.

I was addicted to diazepam for 5-6 years (legal prescription) and ended up having severe withdrawal symptoms such as blackouts, seizures, psychosis, extreme mood change, no impulse control etc. Obviously, for most users, this state will not eventuate and is at the extreme end, but benzo withdrawal from regular use in generalised or social anxiety is a very real risk and it is a syndrome that is very difficult for an anxious person to deal with.

 

[Nom de Plume]

I'm a life-long sufferer of severe anxiety. What has worked for me (other than alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, quinazolinones, and the almost infinite number of other GABAergics)? Nothing.

Sorry, but severe anxiety is like severe pain: every drug that works too good is addictive, seldom prescribed and/or illegal.

 

[swilow]

Whilst the drugs work for a while, they require no effort, their effects decrease and can end up increasing the severity of the initial condition. The scales are balanced out though in that something like meditation (which was one of my important tools to overcome my own shit) is effective and freely available. It just requires a fair amount of hard work and the benefit is not immediate; but I would posit that it is longer lasting and therefore a more valuable benefit then insta-relief (which does have its placed in panic, etc.) Given how chancy it is deriving a benefit from anxiolytics, it seems wiser to have a go at something that, at its very worst, will simply do nothing. And there are heaps of great online resources to guide people in beginning meditation and it need not be religious or mystical.

 

[CFC]

The best drugs I used when I used to suffer from severe anxiety were either propranolol (beta-blocker) or clonidine (a2/imadazoline agonist), sometimes both.

But this doesn't obviously do much to fix the underlying problem. Meditation, or more specifically mindfulness meditation, was the most effective and permanent treatment I found, along with working on the comorbid mental health issues that were fuelling the anxiety.

 

[dieslgrl]

I prefer ashwaghanda (herb) for anxiety. No WD here and it really really works! I was on valium for 8 years at 40-60mgs/day. Went though a few months WD, haven't really been the same since, so benzo is a no-go to fix the problem. I do not have the anxiety I once did, but this herb does work wonders for me today. Specialty supplement stores have liquid forms which I find work best.