Posts tagged Anxiety Medications

Hi all, I’ve had general anxiety disorder with panic attacks since I was about 9 years old, and I’m now 28. I typically deal with it well and won’t let it effect decisions in my life because I won’t submit to it, and I’ve grown less fearful of the symptoms because I’m now very well versed on the disorder and techniques for calming down. My doctor diagnosed me with mild to moderate anxiety with no accompanying depression.

There was a time in my life that I was on Paxil and it worked wonders. I was able to do things that would typically make me very anxious without feeling the symptoms. I felt so good that after a while I stopped taking the meds (which I now know is a big no-no). About 3 months later the symptoms returned, and Paxil didn’t work like it did the first time.

Since then I’ve been on Effexor and now Pristiq. Neither of them seem to do anything for me, and I just saw a TV ad saying Pristiq is an anti-depressant. Right now I take 50mg (smallest dose) of Pristiq daily, and .5mg of Xanax 1 or 2 times daily, typically 2x, at about 9am and 6pm.

I know why I have anxiety, it runs in my family, and was ignited from a quasi traumatic experience in my youth (which I now know wasn’t a big deal, but my brain has gotten used to the ‘perceived danger’ mode and it’s a hard fight to interrupt the cycle).

I’m not a big fan of taking Xanax, even at a fairly low dose, but it definitely helps my daily anxiety and panic. My goal is to find something like Paxil and return to the days where my anxiety was controllable without Xanax. I work in the music business, and since I have been on Xanax (about 4 months) I have cut out all alcohol, but whether you agree with it or not, a big part of my job is late nights… and while nobody cares I don’t have a drink with them, I would like to be able to from time to time which isn’t possible while on Xanax.

Most of the medications I hear about are anti-depressants, but I don’t have a depression problem. I’m extremely optimistic and motivated, while I have some bad days – they are few and far between and nothing that everyone hasn’t experienced.

I talked to my doctor and I’m going to gradually get off Pristiq and go back to Paxil. However, I wanted to post this in case anyone has been through a similar situation.

Also, please note that I have, and continue to, practice cognitive behavioral therapy as well. I know there is a lot of people out there that may say ‘get off all the meds and read this book’ or something along those lines. I have nothing but support for that, but you have to believe me when I say I’ve read thousands (if not tens of thousands) of pages on the disorder as well as DVDs and pretty much anything that has had good reviews (also spoken with therapists). I hope one day my brain will realize what my heart knows, that there is no danger, and everything is going to be fine, but I’m just not there yet – but believe me I am continually striving for that. My biggest milestone so far is that even though my brain has been trained to release these chemicals in certain situations, I know what it is, why it’s happening, and that there is nothing to fear. Hopefully I will be able to get to the point where the chemicals aren’t being released, but until then I will be on something to aid me.

Thank you!

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