seeking others advise on potential medications I could use

so I have a bit of Anxiety issues, mostly general anxiety, social anxiety, and school-based anxiety mostly when taking tests.

as of the last few years, I have not really had a ton of issues with my anxiety. But lately, I am having more and more panic attacks that pop up out of nowhere and they are not easy to get out of my head.

I have a prescription for an as-needed anxiety medication,Hydroxyzine. Which certainly does help. And I don't really want to stop taking it.

However, because it also helps with insomnia, it's best if I take it near when I am going to bed since it makes me so groggy.

I know of course that bringing this up with my psychiatrist is going to be the final answer in how to deal with this. But I would really like to know from others who deal with this kind of thing. What kinds of options might I have for secondary as-needed, medications that could help me deal with panic attacks that would not have me walking around In the daytime while trying to take care of my one-year-old twins.

Instead of medication which indeed is a discussion with a MD. There’s exercise. Jogging and swimming seem to be the bests for anxiety. There’s apps like calm. There’s breathing meditation and just plain meditation all of which are better than starting more meds.

If you can avoid benzos, that would be best. It took me a year to taper off clonazepam and it SUCKED.

I am on propranolol. I take it twice daily but I think it can be taken as a prn. There's also buspirone (Buspar); that one I've always taken twice daily and don't think it is usually a prn.

I have hydroxyzine to take as needed; it's much safer to take than a benzo. In the past, I was on lose dose Seroquel, but if the hydroxyzine makes you sleepy, the Seroquel would probably knock you out even at a low dose. The Seroquel helped me more than the hydroxyzine does. What dose hydroxyzine do you take? Would it be possible to take 1/2 a pill and see if that would help without making you sleepy?

Of course, none of these meds are as effective as benzos for me, but they generally do take the edge off.

And as the previous poster suggested there is exercise, deep breathing, meditation. You should also google grounding for anxiety. Grounding work s a treat for me while I'm in the moment and doing the grounding exercise, but when I stop, the panic/anxiety usually returns. Other people have better success with grounding; you just have to try some grounding exercises and see how it works for you; there are lots of different methods of grounding. For me, what works best is closing my eyes while touching something cold, like a glass of ice water and just focusing solely on the temperature I feel with my fingers. But there are other grounding exercises like the 5-4-3-2-1 technique.