I need help for my son -How do I find the right treatment?

[MomDebra]

My 19 YO son has had GAD since middle school. He was terrified to be in school, so in high school, my husband quit his job to home school him. During his teen years, he started doing drugs and we sent him to a Wilderness program and then a therapeutic boarding school for 6 months. When he came back home, things went well for many months, and then he started abusing the xanax his doctor prescribed. In fact, his psychiatrist wrote as many scripts as my son said he needed and he ended up addicted to benzo's. He is currently clean, but really struggling with social anxiety. We currently live in West Palm Beach, FL. I need to find him a new Psychiatrist and treatment for his anxiety that is not just medication based.
How do I find a great counselor and doctor?
My insurance web site is like picking a doctor from the yellow pages. They all claim to specialize in everything!
The right Doctor and treatment is critical, but I do not know how to find a great doctor. We have no support system in West Palm.
How do I find the right Doctor and treatment center??

[alankay]

I recently joined and saw this post. If the xanax is at least keeping lid on his anxiety it might be best to get on an ssri(you didn't mention an ssri) and after some time for it to begin working start on tapping down the xanax dosage. I've recently seen lyrica being used for some GAD off label (it's approved for that in Europe I guess). If he's had srri what about snri's(effexor, etc). What I'm saying is the monotherapy(one drug) with xanax is usually not done, so maybe I'm missing something. Long acting benzos are also more common for GAD than shorter acting ones like xanax. Did he get no relief from longer acting benzos? Usually an antidepressant of some type is used and then a benzo when really needed(sometimes as my case a beta blocker too). Goal being to use the anxiety reducing effect of the AD to be able to get by on less benzo. All I can say is try to get a board cert. pdoc or one recommended by other docs. I understand wanting no meds but even if he doing just "OK", make no sudden changes. I will add this URLs. I found this doc. as a "contingency" for myself(My GP is OK for my garden variety anxiety disorder) and know it would be a drive but read some of her reviews.

http://www.vitals.com/doctors/Dr_Emily_Lazarou
http://www.lacoop-pa.com/

Message me ANY TIME. I am sorry to hear about your Son suffering. I can relate. Alankay. Central FL.