Prescribed hydroxyzine and buspirone for anxiety help ?

I have never seen a psychologist before, at least not one outside of my family. My grandpa was a psychologist for the state as I grew up and he always "counseled" my sister and I.
He passed a few years ago, ever since then my anxiety and panic attacks have increased. I began having weird feelings of "not being real" or feeling "apart" from my body when I was 16, but I never did anything about it. I'm 24 now and with recent events all over the news about what is going on in our world my mind is falling apart. I've scrubbed my hands raw from washing, I pour hydrogen peroxide inside my fingernails before I eat, etc. I'm turning in to a loon.
Alongside of that, I fear death more than anything and black out from panic attacks. I don't have a doctor, so I went to the local medical clinic run by UW. the doctor prescribed me zoloft and hydroxyzine. Obviously zoloft is not kicking in, but the other is not working well. I still feel panicked and it doesn't help when I go in to full panic attack. I told her about this via email, hoping she'd see me again. She wants me to see a temporary counselor to see if I have a real problem or if it's just the recent events on the news that are causing this panic. So she prescribed me buspirone. I have not picked up prescription yet but I have heard it doesn't work...what do I do?

I've heard both good and bad things about Buspar, everyone's different so just give it a try and hopefully it will help you

have you tried therapy? natural methods, understanding panic attacks? check my topic http://forums.psychcentral.com/anxie...ides-meds.html ppl told me really good advice there so maybe it would help you too
feeling of 'not being real' is depersonalization, I have this too, my old doc said that that's how brain reacts for too much of anxiety, stress, etc. and cleaning hands etc-ocd. fear of death, panic attacks, same here I was at the point that stopped going out besides my room, meds make me fear of ppl and i had every side effect possible, and so on, lost the best years of my life. but I tried meditation, breathing to paper bag, and it helped better than chemical meds still fighting with this all, but it's like 1 step forward, 3 or 4 steps backward, not like before, 1 step forward 10 backward so I advise you to try therapy to find a reason of anxiety, understand anxiety, read why, how it happens, because meds will only calm down the sympthoms for some time, not erase them completely, and avoid any doc who's family member, coz what I've noticed, in about 90% cases of ppl who suffer from anxiety disorder problem comes from home, and you just can't be neutral to a family member

Buspirone works for some, not for others. Don't expect it to work immediately, because it won't. It is not that kind of medication. It needs time to build up in your system, and its effects won't be as dramatic as with a benzodiazepine. It worked well for me, but I had side effects as my body doesn't tolerate drugs that work on serotonin levels.

I have tried hydroxyzine but I don't think it works that well. I will try it again though.

I'm using hydroxyzine too and it helps only slightly. Better than nothing but not quite enough.

Buspar made me dizzy. But everyone is different.

Thanks. I have had OK results with hydroxyzine and have yet to try buspar because my paranoia of drugs is bad. Takes me a while to push myself to try the meds.

I am not familiar with hydroxyzine, but buspar has a very low success rate, it barely beats the placebo, bit for people that it does work on they love it. It's just doesn't have a very high success rate. Zoloft on the other hand has a higher success rate for anxiety then buspar! Only problem with zoloft is if your atypical or bipolar while it still helps with the anxiety, it can either stop working or dpression or mania can increase. Unfortunately the best thing for anxiety is still benzo's and pdocs are reluctant to prescribe them for long durations but some pdocs understand the benefit out weighs the risk and will for last resort. Good luck!

I have gone through the same thing this past year and finally decided to see a therapist, good news is that the depersonalization (unreal feeling) is the worst stage of anxiety. So you can only go up from here. I am also on zoloft and buspar. I've been on zoloft for a couple months now, and it does take a while to kick in but just bear with it. If you want to know what to expect on the meds and see the success rate, just google zoloft reviews. Everyone is different you will have to try different dosages to see which fits you best, it's a trial and error. I'm at 100 mgs right now and feeling about 70% which is better than I was before. You really have to be patient with the illness and go easy on yourself, also really consider seeing a therapist. Best of luck

I don't believe it, but I got a new pdoc and he wants to weed me off my klonopin, and prescribed of all things, Vistaril. I had to agree to try it because I never have before, but what can I expect from a antihistamine for serious anxiety?! That sucks. May be if it doesn't work he will let m stay on the klonopin, he did give me another script for them too.

Would he be offended if you showed him the Ashton manual? For benzodiazepene withdrawal. It is a great resource.

I've been off and on benzo's for 20 years. The longest period on them for 1 year straight. I've never encountered any withdrawal from them and I have stopped cold turkey many times. I realize some people experience withdrawals. I know what withdrawal feels like, cocaine, and opiates, now your talking withdrawal. Stopping Benzo's is like missing my morning coffee for me

Well that's good. I, and another lady here, have benzodiazepene withdrawal syndrome and we're going through hell. It's been since early 2013 for me, and about as long for her too.

Since you can go without them, why are you opposed to being weaned off?

pdoc suggested it, and I'm not going to argue it with him as it is the only thing that has ever worked for my anxiety so well.

I am sincerely sorry for those that have a hard time getting off them. I believe some folks do. It should be just as easy to believe some people don't

Best Wishes!