It cant be any worse....give it a shot and a few weeks...

YES! i am so against meds but i finally tried one for anxiety and it stopped the tape of negative thoughts looping around my head. Until all those thoughts stopped i didn't realise how loud they'd been. It was amazing. Anxiety isn't always a physical symptom sometimes it your thought patterns, i didn't know that.

I recently tried Prozac again, and I was really surprised at how quickly it tamed some OCD in me.

It's a hard decision to make. About the side effects, I think most are pretty mild and they do go away after a couple of weeks.

Hi Rainbow,
That's so interesting that DBT T thinks you have OCD, and no one else has brought up that diagnosis. I guess this is why ocassionally consulting another therapist can shed new light on things.
It took being of zoloft for a couple years after being on it for a while, and then going back on recently to show me how I'll probably always need to be on meds. I know how you feel though. The zoloft doesn't seem to be really working anymore. I'm not sure whether to increase the dose or start with a whole new med. I have a Pdoc appointment the 21st. So I know the anxiety of trying to talk with a complete stranger (not your t) about your feelings, what's going on, and about choosing a med that can effect your body/ mind / emotions so much.
I guess just take it one step at a time.

You don't have to decide whether or not you will try meds before a consult with a pdoc. You can go and just ask questions about whether or not the P thinks they would be helpful and why, and how they work and what the expected side effects are and what can be done to manage the side effects. It has been a long time, but I took ADs for about a year 20 years ago and the P was very good about starting me on a very low dose as a way to see what the side effects might be. If you are not in a crisis then started slow and building gradually can be a way to go.

But I think it would be a good plan to discuss meds with your t, get a referral, go to the pdoc for consultation, then come back for a discussion with T and then decide.

Rainbow - it took my T 3 years to convince me that meds were a good idea for my anxiety, and it took me another 3 months to get up the courage to contact the p-doc she recommended. It took a bit of trial and error to find the right med for me, but my p-doc started my on such a low dose each time that the side effects were very minimal.

I am so very, very grateful that my T convinced me to try meds. I told my T that I actually am starting to feel like the person I project to the rest of the world. Most people see me as calm, confident, strong. Inside, I've always just been a big ball of anxiety. My biggest problem was that my physical symptoms of anxiety were so severe that I could never get myself calm enough to get to a point where I could think through things. Now, with meds, the physical reaction is under enough control that when I start to feel anxious, I can slow down and think, and not get overwhelmed.

It wouldn't hurt to meet with a p-doc and at least ask some questions. Meeting with one does not automatically mean you'll have to start taking meds. The p-doc can offer their opinion, tell you what meds they think might be helpful, and you can go home and research and think about it. My p-doc didn't put any pressure on me at all, and was totally willing to let me ask questions and think about his suggestions before I started meds.