Welcome to the Anxiety Forum - A Home for Those with Anxiety, Fear, or Panic Attacks.

View Poll Results: How do you cope with your social anxiety?

Voters
1188. You may not vote on this poll
  • Medication

    162 13.64%
  • Herbal Remedies

    49 4.12%
  • Therapy

    56 4.71%
  • Self-help

    263 22.14%
  • A mixture of any of the above

    428 36.03%
  • I don't cope

    230 19.36%
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Results 21 to 30 of 526
  1. #21
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Posts
    3
    Quote Originally Posted by shahram72
    I don't take anything regularly. I take a small dose of xanax occaisionally at night to help me sleep. Tried zoloft once and it made me terrible anxious and caused my first panic attack. I don't want meds, they are too expensive and just mask the problem. I do beleive they have their place, but there's just no money in healing us, is there?
    I take an extremely small dose of xanax as needed(only 1/4 of a .25mg tab),but it makes me too groggy at first and a little more anxious before it actually calms me.
    mia0621

  2. #22
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    utah
    Posts
    8
    i am the exact same way with meds. What were you taking? I am thinking of going back on prozac but i am so nervous.

  3. #23
    im new to this forum, but i would like to say im not dealing with my anxiety that well, im on avanza 30mg plus valium (when required) and i still seem to be gettin panick attacks alot, but i like to write and record my own music, which makes me feel better, i express whats going on in my life through rhyme!

  4. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by soshy
    CBT and an SSRI.

    For many years i wouldn't take meds. I was afraid I'd be an anxious zombie. I have a handful of friends that suffer from anxiety and panic attacks and they went on an SSRI and had extremely good results. After a couple of months, they were able to do things that they hadn't done since their anxiety hit them. But i still didn't want to take the meds. After about 2-3 years i decided to try it, give it a chance because i saw my friends having a life with little or no anxiety. I read and researched as much as i could on SSRIs and felt that i needed more than just CBT (14 yrs of, at that time). I still remember the night i swallowed the pills! I had another friend who was taking it for the first time too that night. My close friend who had been on it for a couple of years stayed with us that night. I was nervous but very hopeful that this was going to help. The next morning i had no side affects, maybe a little drowsy or tired, but i don't know if it was from all the anticipation leading up to taking the med or the med. It's been six years now and I'm so happy i did decide to take it and wish i hadn't waited so long. It decreased my anxiety and wiped out my daily panic attacks within three months; and I am on a very high dosage of it.

    But there's no way I would be where I am today without CBT. If I just had taken meds alone, i believe i would still be very anxious. The meds stop the physiological portion of my anxiety so i do not escalate, but therapy stops my emotional escalation. I will always be in therapy and want to be. It's were i began to learn why i have panic attacks and social phobia and how to control and defeat. I good therapist who specializes in anxiety and social phobia has been the greatest gift I could ever ask for. The combo of the meds with CBT is the best road for me.

    But everyone is different physiologically especially when it comes to meds, so I'm not a big advocator on meds. This particular SSRI worked wonders on me and a few of my close friends - we had very similar anxiety and we must be physiologically similar for this med to work. I'm very sensitive to medications. I can't even take anything when im sick except certain antibiotics(if needed) or a couple of cough drops. The only thing I take if im in pain is aspirin or acetaminophen and i really gotta be hurting. Antihistamines make me freak out/panic and so do Rx pain killers. I had a serious neck injury a few years ago and the Rx from the doc was Percodan and half a pill threw me into panic.

    For me, consistently working in therapy and meds.

    Long-winded soshy
    great to hear a success story but what is SSRI and CBT

  5. #25
    I have tried Stelzine/parnate for my social phobia/gad/depression. Have found it very effective to get through in the past. Soshy could you tell me how CBT works for someone with SP/GAD. I have never been to therapy just to the doctor.
    GAD and depression sufferer. Have come to this forum to learn more about my condition

  6. #26

    ...

    Quote Originally Posted by __freespirit
    I'm coping without medication. I was on it for a year or so but it didn't do anything for me. My doctor perscribed me something that the side effects were anxiety, which made no sense to me. I think I'm doing fine on my own.. even though it's very hard sometimes.

    I don't believe in medication.. I wont take it again. I have never been to therapy or anything of that nature. I am my own therapist and the only thing I find that truely helps me with my anxiety is music, and my family.

    I really strongly believe I can over come this without medication.
    Hell yeah, im med-free also.

    AND i agree with your solutions, music and my family.

    At was put on paxil a while back for minor anxiety. Then when i was hit with an intense episode, that never left me quite the same, i was put on xanax and zoloft. I took those on and off. Then stopped taking them, kause i started talking into the mirror, and someone else, that had my face. So i stopped taking them.

    Then i was prescribed this anti-seizure medicine. But if you ask me, being on meds with the names "Anti-depressants, anti-psychotiks, and anti-seizures" wasnt a very good feeling. So i stopped. And started jamming more, and leaving my house more, and being more social, and hanging out with my familyu more, and just pushed myself and forced myself to do things.

    now im med-free and am doing pretty fucking good.
    Her mind a machine, a repetitive thing.

  7. #27
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    Auburn NY
    Posts
    3
    Healthy life style:

    Eating properly
    Excercising
    Therapy
    Family contact
    Avoiding: caffeine, alcohol, cigarrettes, drugs
    and a lot of effort, pushing myself, never giving up.
    "No matter where you are, you'll still be there" Confucious.

  8. #28
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Posts
    6
    I just started taking Lexapro about 6 days ago and I am new to taking any type of SSRI. I tried and tried to resist going on any meds for my GAD and mild depression that I've had for the past 5 years but WOW and I glad that I decided to. The very first day that I took the Lexapro my anxiety disappeared and my mood was much better. i found myself not hating the mornings as I usually did, listening to music again, talking much more at work and just overall not stressing or caring too much about the small things that used to mentally wear me down. The first day I took it I did feel pretty spacey so I right away wasnt sure about it but decided to keep it going - sometimes I do feel a little desensetized but not always. The weird thing is that I can feel my increased heart rate as I did when i experienced my anxiety but I dont feel the uneasiness or inadequateness that comes along with talking to others or worrying about what they think. Kinda strange still feeling the physical symptom or the anxiety but not the mental crap that goes with it. other than that I have been pretty lucky with the side effects. I have had a little jaw clenching but that seems to have disappeared, decreased appetite (who can complain about that as long as you dont become a toothpick) and the very worst thing has been complete loss of orgasm (even the first day on the med and I am usually someone who never had a problem here) - hopefully it will be as they say and any side effects you do have will disappear within a few weeks because I know I cant live like a horny toad forever! Other than that, everyone is different but for anyone with GAD I would recommend this highly!

  9. #29
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    9
    Currently taking Lorazepam (hope I spelled that right). So far it's really been helping with anxiety attacks, especially ones relating to leaving the house. So far I've been able to attend work and school consistantly without too much trouble. However I want to start doing something that doesn't involve just meds. yoga or meditation or something but I'm not sure where to start. I think if I was trying to clear my mind it would just start going into overdrive! Any suggestions on how to get started on calming exercises and if they help at all?

  10. #30
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    My Chair, My Living Room, My Flat, My Street, Louth, Lincolnshire, England, UK, Planet Earth.
    Posts
    411
    I've Tried SSRI's and Tricyclic (not sure about the spelling) Antidepressents in very high doses due to the SSRI's making me feel zoned out and tired I came off them. However being my arrogant self I just stopped taking them. Big mistake I should of come off the dose slowly over the course of three months or so. I got electric shocks in my head, fear, my heart beat became irregular. I finally went to a doctor and he was worried I was having heart trouble, right up until I told him what I had done, after which he said it was a text book response and that it should ease after a few days. Now I take a very low dose 50mg of Dosulepin and self help.

    Because as the song says "the drugs dont work they just make you worse" and mask your problem.

    Duncan
    In a mad world only the mad are sane

    Akira Kurosawa

 

 

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