Medications

I’m going to challenge your idea that your body will naturally produce less serotonin after stopping the medication. Why are you so against helping yourself? There are lots of medications that can help you. SSRIs are different than Xanax for example. If you don’t trust what your doctor is suggesting then perhaps look for anew one.

Good luck.

You bet. I learned the hard way that my antidepressant helps. It doesn’t make the anxiety go away but it keeps me stable. Anti anxiety meds like Xanax only works for a very limited time in the body, whereas antidepressants work much longer and must be taken daily to keep a therapeutic level going for full benefit. Plus, as far as I know, they aren’t addictive like the Benzos are. Anxiety is a tricky phenomenon. It can exacerbate and recede. Many times people have expectations of these medicines that aren’t realistic. Not to mention the commercials on tv push the idea that taking an antidepressant will make you happy again. WRONG. All they really do, in my humble opinion, is give a small amount of relief from symptoms, but do work at stabilizing the mood. These drugs do not change the core of anxiety, the low self confidence and negative thinking that causes it. This has to be addressed by the sufferer for recovery. As I work at my own recovery, my plan is to wait until I am certain that my recovery has progressed to a point that I feel confident that I can start tapering off the antidepressant. Lots of people hate taking meds, I do too. But I’m willing to give myself the little extra boost they provide to keep me stable while I maneuver through early recovery stage. Many people are so misled by the hype of meds, they expect more from them than the meds are capable of providing. That’s why you see so many complaining their med quit working, when in fact, it’s their anxiety exacerbating and they don’t address the core problems I mentioned. They are never told by the doctors that meds can’t cure them, that their anxiety is highly treatable with alternative methods of dealing with the negative thinking. The doc just switches meds to satisfy the patients fear and on and on it goes. The truth about anxiety and depression is never truly given, instead we get a prescription and a pat on the head. The mental health system is just revolving doors and prescriptions that can’t provide lasting results. After being in the system for over thirty years, I’ve seen how it operates. There is no money to be made by drs or pharmaceutical companies if patients are cured.
On another note, Anxiety is a “disorder”, not a disease. Yes, our brain chemicals can get out of wack, but it’s the low confidence and the negative thinking that starts the whole ball of wax rolling, not a chemical imbalance per say. Let’s look at a scenario: your house is a mess, things are not neat and tidy, they are out of place, the garbage needs taken out and disposed of properly. This is what anxiety is, plain and simple. Things need straightened up and put in their proper place and the garbage has to go. Medications aren’t smart enough to do this, we have to do it ourselves. And if we are brave enough to face the fear head on and willing to work toward changing the negativity and giving up hanging on to our old friend anxiety, we can recover. It’s just a disordered thought process, it’s fixable. With or without meds. Some of us are more resilient than others, some of us have had anxiety so long we don’t remember what normal looks or feels like.

There is no cure for anxiety from medication. They are designed to calm us down so we can think clearly about our condition. It's as well to remember that any prescribed drug can be 'tapered off' when no longer required, But this must be with advice from your doctor. Never go it alone by coming off any medication all at once. But why suffer when help is at hand. Mild medication can help so much in the early stages of anxiety.

I would ask what would improve your lifestyle? Medication or no medication? They help some people live a better form of living than before they took medication. Hey, the choice is yours come the end of the day.

There is in the UK the Professor Ashton manual for tapering prescribed drugs, especially benzos.
She made a study of withdrawal from drugs, and I found her advice very useful. It has to be done slowly over many weeks. That is assuming of course that you can come off them and really want to. As has been said, it's all about personal choices.

Jonathan123 said:

There is in the UK the Professor Ashton manual for tapering prescribed drugs, especially benzos.
She made a study of withdrawal from drugs, and I found her advice very useful. It has to be done slowly over many weeks. That is assuming of course that you can come off them and really want to. As has been said, it's all about personal choices.

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There is a forum “Benzo Buddies” that I used soooo much when coming off benzodiazepines. Right now I’m back on them but hopefully some day soon I’ll start tapering.

Mrcasual said:

So part of all the shitty stuff that comes with suffering from anxiety for me is one of my anxieties is taking medication. Doctors have prescribed me Xanax but part of my anxiety is I don’t like taking any medication. Especially something like that because we suffer from a chemical imbalance which is low serotonin the medication they give us will produce serotonin for our bodies but intern our body starts producing even less that’s why a lot of people can never be off medication and they have to keep upping the doses and some people get off it and their anxiety is worse than when they started and that’s my fear. Has anyone else started medication and truly believe that it’s helping them?

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Hi, well, in my opinion, medication should be the last treatment option while dealing with anxiety or depression. I am not an expert but I know for sure everyone should go to coping strategies and counseling in the early stage of their treatment, but taking medication is not the right option. i am telling you this from my personal experience, I had anxiety a few years back and now I am doing perfectly fine, this is just happened due to counseling therapy.

derrickmyles said:

Hi, well, in my opinion, medication should be the last treatment option while dealing with anxiety or depression. I am not an expert but I know for sure everyone should go to coping strategies and counseling in the early stage of their treatment, but taking medication is not the right option. i am telling you this from my personal experience, I had anxiety a few years back and now I am doing perfectly fine, this is just happened due to counseling therapy.

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I appreciate your view. However, there are a lot of extenuating circumstances that affect each individual. I think the main reason is ignorance of the condition and what options there are to treat. When anxiety is left untreated for a length of time, it gets a stranglehold on a person. The resulting depression combined with the anxiety can be very severe, to the point of being debilitated. Count yourself fortunate that you received help quickly and effectively.

I wish SSRIs helped my anxiety/depression. I have tried most of them over the years and the side effects are so bad and I feel so much worse I can never get to a therapeutic dose. I always hoped I would find one and feel better. If I could do that I would never be in a hurry to get off of them. Unfortunately, I am one of the people who cannot tolerate them. Why not get relief if you can?

It often happens that medication is very necessary in the early stages of anxiety. It gives one the chance to think about our condition and decide what to do about it. Mild medication and good counselling combined can work wonders. As we improve medication can be dropped, but only on your doctors advice. To suffer unnecessarily when medication is available seems foolish to me. But it does depend on the depth of suffering. Why would we not hesitate to take pain killers when in pain but not when in the pain of anxiety?
There is no doubt that anxiety has various levels. Some have mild symptoms, others life changing ones. Every individual has to be seen in the context of their own individual circumstances. That is why counselling can be so helpful.

Jonathan123 said:

It often happens that medication is very necessary in the early stages of anxiety. It gives one the chance to think about our condition and decide what to do about it. Mild medication and good counselling combined can work wonders. As we improve medication can be dropped, but only on your doctors advice. To suffer unnecessarily when medication is available seems foolish to me. But it does depend on the depth of suffering. Why would we not hesitate to take pain killers when in pain but not when in the pain of anxiety?
There is no doubt that anxiety has various levels. Some have mild symptoms, others life changing ones. Every individual has to be seen in the context of their own individual circumstances. That is why counselling can be so helpful.

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What is considered mild medication? Just curious

suzzeeb said:

What is considered mild medication? Just curious

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Have you tried Buspar/buspirone? It is an anti anxiety but is not a benzo or antidepressant?

By mild medication I mean low dosages of tranquilisers. Anti depressants should only be given for depression. Your doctor can advise on this. But, unfortunately so many doctors prescribe anti depressants for anxiety. Severe agitation does need medication. Of course, if one can do without medication so much the better. Meds can never cure anxiety, but they can give relief from some of the worse symptoms.

Ok I know I cannot tolerate SSRIs but have been on what I consider a low dose of clonazepam. I have taken on average .50 in the evening to help my anxiety so I could sleep. I am now trying to stop taking them and started cutting them in half and then cut them so there is a smaller half which seemed to be ok but for the past 3 days I have been cutting them in quarters and seem to be struggling a lot with feeling internal jitteriness and anxiety. When I started taking them every day about a year and a half ago it was because I spiraled into really bad anxiety, so how can I tell if the anxiety I am feeling is from cutting back on the medicine or it is still the anxiety I have been dealing with? I also have depression when my anxiety gets as severe as it was when this started, and I still feel the depression to some degree so I assume I am still in this anxious depression episode. The last one I had resolved after a couple of years on no medication. I am just tired of worrying about the medication causing this. My last doctor was very against my taking the clonazepam so that totally freaked me out like I was a drug addict and would never be able to stop taking it, so that may be where my anxiety is coming from trying to stop right now.

I know you are/were a counselor so I thought you might be able to give your opinion.

First off Xanax is terrible. Low half life burns out quick etc. I take 6- .5 mg tabs of Klonopin a day. The half life is 48 hours. So there is no "Oh no I need another one!" They are amazing for anxiety! You don't get high or buzzed with them but they are a benzo, so they will calm anxiety and panic! I just came off a trycyclic antidepressant. It is pure hell so far. There are withdrawal symptoms with any medications! Now SSRIs are designed not to make serotonin for your body but to regulate it. That's what antidepressants do. They never actually make it for your brain. They work by working with nerve receptors in balancing serotonin and norepinephrine. Hence making you more apt to do things that actually do increase serotonin levels naturally. Anxiety is not caused by low serotonin in levels. It is caused by imbalances in the chemicals between receptors. That make sense? Now for the withdrawal, ya gotta understand anything that messes with chemicals and nerve receptors in your brain for periods of time. It gets used to that. My only withdrawal side effect are nerve electrical sensations that seem to zap my body every few minutes. But they do dissipate. Don't be afraid of meds.! But do ask your Dr. for a benzo with a longer half life like Klonopin! Good luck!

Have you ever had your testosterone checked?
Could help your issues

suzzeeb said:

Ok I know I cannot tolerate SSRIs but have been on what I consider a low dose of clonazepam. I have taken on average .50 in the evening to help my anxiety so I could sleep. I am now trying to stop taking them and started cutting them in half and then cut them so there is a smaller half which seemed to be ok but for the past 3 days I have been cutting them in quarters and seem to be struggling a lot with feeling internal jitteriness and anxiety. When I started taking them every day about a year and a half ago it was because I spiraled into really bad anxiety, so how can I tell if the anxiety I am feeling is from cutting back on the medicine or it is still the anxiety I have been dealing with? I also have depression when my anxiety gets as severe as it was when this started, and I still feel the depression to some degree so I assume I am still in this anxious depression episode. The last one I had resolved after a couple of years on no medication. I am just tired of worrying about the medication causing this. My last doctor was very against my taking the clonazepam so that totally freaked me out like I was a drug addict and would never be able to stop taking it, so that may be where my anxiety is coming from trying to stop right now.

I know you are/were a counselor so I thought you might be able to give your opinion.

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First of all never begin to taper off medication on your own. Always consult your doctor. Withdrawal symptoms can be worse than anxiety itself.
Look up on the web 'Professor Ashton's Manual' for medication withdrawal. It is free to download. So much information on there about tapering.
The brain and body can get so used to medication it is sometimes difficult to come off. No one should ever be forced to come off meds if they still need them. Just because you may feel better does not mean you can go 'cold turkey' and just stop. NO!!! You are not becoming a drug addict. That is totally different. We all know medication can cause side effects. I doubt there will ever be a medication that is a 'suit all' one.
People vary so much in their ability to take meds. It is normally a case of trial and error. IF you think meds are causing this then you definitely should see your doctor. He/she knows you and may know how you react to meds. And of course, the more you worry over it the more it will bug you. It will settle down. It always does if we accept it for what it is, another phase of Mr. Anxiety's box of tricks.

Already talked to my doctor.

Matticus1983 said:

Already talked to my doctor.

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Crap wrong post!

Matticus1983 said:

Already talked to my doctor.

Crap wrong post!

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I’m glad I’m not the only one who bungles from time to time.