Efficacy of anxiolytic medications (non-benzos)

[haintblue]

I have an extremely tough time battling anxiety too, it is excruciating, I get so nervous that I get tunnel vision, ringing in my ears, vomit, and faint.
SNRIs/SSRIs completely destroyed my life, Vistaril worked too good, I was hungover and groggy for days, Ativan worked very well for me because I didnt take it daily, only when I was having a meltdown, but doctors wont let me have it anymore.
Buspar does nothing for me, and all the other antidepressants and atypicals just made me very suicidal, retarded, and fat, a chemical lobotomy.
I have tried several herbal remedies, but in my case they dont work, diphenhydramine works in a pinch but then I cant pee and get all crispy dehydrated.
Beer sometimes works but I dont really like it, and then the anxiety just comes back worse.
I found exercise to help in the long run but sometimes I would start having a panic attack during a long vigorous walk, and now it is difficult to get outside because of frigid temps and feet of snow.
I do eat healthy, mainly a macrobiotic diet, nothing overly processed, fresh vegetables and fruit, artisan bread, real cheese. I really have to watch sodium or I blow up like a puffer fish, I cannot eat canned or fast food at all, its makes me pretty sick, guess I am severely sensitive to additives.
I dont know what to do, I am besides myself, I cant seem to be able to figure out how to go about finding a new doctor, I am on disability for post traumatic stress, anxiety/panic, and clinical depression, my last therapist quit to go into private practice and I havent seen a doctor that I got along with for many years, and the paranoia is setting in, cause the last doctor that I did see wanted to put me on epileptic medication, I have never ever had a manic episode in my life, I do get agitated, upset, and self loathing, he must be getting kickbacks from the manufacturer.
somebody please help me

 

[Artificial Emotion]

I think it would be helpful if you told us about the specific nature of your anxiety. Has it been diagnosed as social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder? This would be helpful as, chlorpheniramine for example, may be effective in treating OCD, but useless for treating social phobia.

 

[noone1]

I made a thread recently about using Chlorphenamine as a SSNRI to combat anxiety and depression but no one was really able to tell me much. It didn't do squat for me except three weeks in I was so depressed that I had to discontinue use or risk killing myself. You might have a different effect though and SSRIs generally have never done anything for me but neither have benzos. Chlorphenamine also has a mild anxiolytic effect but it only made me really tired.

 

[xxkcxx]

^hydroxyzine (atarax, vistaril) is considerable more sedating and less anticholinergic than many other anithistamines... namely, CPM (hardly sedating) and diphenhydramine and doxylamine (VERY sedating but also very anticholinergic which can be quite uncomfortable).

I was on this after abusing all the benzos. The doctor really just did it to appease me I think because when I talked to a nurse about it she said it really doesn't do much, especially to someone with a drug tolerance. Also, it tends to be like benedryl where after a few regular uses, the effects go away.

 

[haintblue]

I think it would be helpful if you told us about the specific nature of your anxiety. Has it been diagnosed as social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder? This would be helpful as, chlorpheniramine for example, may be effective in treating OCD, but useless for treating social phobia.

Hypervigilance
psychological torture from my employer, and then when I was supposed to be recuperating from the nervous breakdown and suicide attempt my only child was kidnapped

 

[xxkcxx]

Hypervigilance
psychological torture from my employer, and then when I was supposed to be recuperating from the nervous breakdown and suicide attempt my only child was kidnapped

Holy shit, man. That's terrible.

Did your kid get safely back to you?

 

[haintblue]

Holy shit, man. That's terrible.

Did your kid get safely back to you?

nope