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Rogekj77
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Default Jan 04, 2023 at 04:02 PM
  #1
Curious if anyone has had success with medication for GAD. I tried some different ones like 10 years ago, but the side effects were worse then the anxiety. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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Default Jan 04, 2023 at 06:17 PM
  #2
Sorry you are afflicted with GAD. It can be brutal.

I am on Citalopram + Buspirone. Since I also suffer from Panic Disorder I am on Clonazepam for break-through panic attacks which are relatively rare, thank goodness.

I was also helped enormously by books on Anxiety Disorder written by famous Cognitive Behavior Therapists. They were a real game changer for me.

I was not aware that there can be unusual stressors that I never thought about. I think these stressors were working against the medications i was taking.

I have always tended to be a perfectionist so I tend to look at myself, others, things and events in life with a "could be better but isn't better" frame of mind.

I never realized that this frame of mind is a huge stressor in my life. I always thought I had to be an "ideal" human being. Unfortunately for me this involved unrealistic expectations.

I am not an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing, all-perfect, Infinite Being. So striving for perfection is very stressful to put it mildly. And doomed to failure.

I was not aware that there is another frame of mind . . . the "could be worse but isn't worse" frame of mind. I learned this through famous books by Cognitive Therapists.

I had to sort of re-program my mind to embrace more realistic expectations. I could be worse than I am but am not worse, thank goodness. People in my life and in general could be worse, but are not worse.

Looking at things this way generates feelings and moods of peace and gratitude, feeling lucky and such.

The "could be better but isn't or won't be better" frame of mind tends to generate very stressful emotions and moods: aggravation, frustration, guilt, anger, joyless striving and such.

The problem with perfectionism I learned it that it identifies goodness with perfection. So there is only perfection or badness. There is no grey area.

I girl I knew wanted to end her life because she didn't get straight A's in school. She told me she was a bad person.

This is a good example of perfectionism.

There have been a couple of men in the last 100 years responsible for the destruction of tens of millions of men, women and children through campaigns of genocide and forced starvation . . . people like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot.

So I asked this girl: "How bad are you really? Have you done anything that has caused the destruction of tens of millions of people? No? Millions of people? Hundreds of thousands of people? Tens of thousands? Thousands? Hundreds. No? So how bad are you really?"

What is failing to get straight A's on a report card compared to a failure like losing one's humanity and causing the demise of tens of millions of people? Pretty small really.

Perfectionism also led me into a "why is this a problem" frame of mind. I was almost always looking at myself and others this way. But there is an alternative frame of mind: "Tell me why this ISN'T a problem?"

This relieved me of a sense of life-or-death urgency about things that were not matters of life and death. This relieved me of unbearable stress.

It wasn't life that was stressing me. It was my expectations, unrealistic expectations about life that were causing me all this stress.

People can get consumed by a sense of life-or-death urgency over getting a good parking spot or getting ahead of other shoppers in a line at the supermarket.

I fear that I have presented the cognitive therapy view of anxiety in a poor way. I am not a doctor or medical professional so I am not really able to describe what I am thinking. Sorry about that!

I hope many people here who struggle with GAD will see your post and respond with their situations and experiences. Sorry again that you are burdened with GAD. It can take all the joy of living out of life sometimes. My heart goes out to you!
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Default Jan 04, 2023 at 10:43 PM
  #3
I have GAD really badly. I've taken all of the benzos. Klonopin worked the best but stopped working after a month or so. I've also taken propranolol, gabapentin, buspar, valium with no luck. Paxil was the only SSRI that stopped my anxiety. Ativan works somewhat but doctors don't like to prescribe it.

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Default Jan 04, 2023 at 10:49 PM
  #4
Thank you both for sharing

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