Free1, your wishlist for an anti-anxiety medication was pretty much the same as mine. I started on Buspar close to 3 months ago. The first month I really liked it, but since then it hasn't seemed to help much. It really seems to act differently on different people. I read that people who have taken benzos for anxiety (xanax, ativan, klonopin, valium), do not find Buspar effective because they expect it to have a similar fast-acting, sedating effect, and it doesn't (it is not sedating). Buspar did make me less anxious the first month, almost by distracting me from my troubles. It did not make me sleepy or sedated or unable to function mentally. It was kind of like a stimulant for me, making it near impossible to get stuck in anxious patterns of thought. I just "moved on." I had been plagued also by difficulty sleeping, which I thought was anxiety associated. The buspar was so stimulating, that I found I needed less sleep, so low sleep at night no longer bothered me. See what I mean about this drug helping, but not the way I thought it would? From reading the literature, I've found that the ways people experience Buspar vary tremendously. You have to take Buspar regularly for it to have an effect and it takes a couple of weeks to build up in your system. It is not like popping a xanax occasionally in advance of a stressful situation.

I wish you good luck. Let us know what med you decide to try and how it goes...