Hi PAD (I'm beginning to tire of that name already).

Okay, hiya ((((Juliana))))!!!

Lose dose beta blockers (say 10 mg...unbelievably LOW) are used by a lot of people for stage fright. It helps with physical stress, not psychological stress. So it helps to prevent the hand shaking, the blushing, the dry mouth, the quivering voice, etc. It just doesn't do anything for the fear. Lol.

It basically prevents the heart from being flooded with adrenaline when you're under a situation of stress. It keeps the heart beat steady and the blood pressure even. It works fantastic in conjunction with an anti-anxiety: one for physical and one for psychological. And it's a cardiac protector.

Side effects: Well, why back in the ancient days when I first started on Inderal LA (which passed the blood/brain barrier, so that MAY have contributed to it), it would make me a bit drowsy at first. But once you get used to it in say 2 or 3 days, you don't even notice it at all.

Like I was just telling Chichi, you should take the sustained release version since both of us still had chest discomfort on the regular versions. And I would feel my heart beating in my toes, back, fingers, top of my head, stomache....freaky! I didn't like it, and those things can send me into a full-blown panic attack.

Have the doctor take your blood pressure and maybe even just listen to your heart for any irregularities (since I doubt he has a heart monitor in his office), and then just ask to try Lopressor SR. He may think it's only for once per day, but make sure he realizes you want to take it every 12 hours. I probably wouldn't start out at 100 mg 2x day....maybe start at 50 mg 2x day and then see if you notice a difference in your physical stress and if you think you might need a little higher dose. But it all depends on if it drops your blood pressure too low. You can always tell by checking it at Shoppers in a few days.

Wish you luck!

God bless,
Sandy