[laur88]

The past few weeks have been very stressful and my anxiety level is wayyyyy high... I think it is triggering my crying bouts and depressed feelings. Anxiety deprives me of sleep, makes me unable to work well (which results in low grades and low self-esteem) and it overall make me less able to cope.

What do you think?

I'm thinking is this anxiety continues I might ask my pdoc for some sort of anti-anxiety med - Do you think that would help to prevent depression (along with taking my mood stabilizers)?

To those of you who take anti-anxiety meds, how have they worked for you?

THANKS!!
-L

[PT52]

Hi laur88...you should definitely talk to your pdoc - everyone reacts differently to meds. When I was on only anti-Ds, I was manic and extremely anxious, now I'm on Lamictal only and don't have the anxiety as much, but have much more intense depressions. Plus, you have to determine with your p-doc if it's anxiety caused by BP or if something external is causing it...hope that helps, and hope you feel better.

[blueoctober]

I don't take specific anti-anxiety meds, but I have been on a-typical anti-psychotics which help control the anxiety.

When I'm depressed or hypomanic I have found I can be anxious. My current med combo has been working well to control the anxiety and seeing a therapist regular definitely helps.

I have taken ativan as needed, which has helped my anxiety. However, I rely mostly on an atypical antipsychotic called seroquel which has not only helped with my anxiety, it has stopped daily panic attacks that I used to have.

I hope you'll talk to your doctor about all options that could work for you, and not just the "classic" anti-anxiety medication, as I have found the atypical antipsychotic very helpful!

Sending you many hugs and hoping you find what works best for you as soon as possible.

Hi laur88 and welcome!
For me it seems that going depressive precedes the anxiety kicking in, but only by a little bit. They are so closely tied, it's almost hard to tell.
I do take alprazolam PRN for anxiety. It is specifically for anxiety with no other attributes that I know of, and therefore wouldn't prevent depressions. Some of the meds that are for mood stabilizing also have anti-anxiety benefits, and those may be something to look into. Perhaps the mood stabilizers you are taking don't have anti-anxiety attributes(?) So, it might be that you could take an anxiety specific thing in addition to your mood stabilizers or find a mood stabilizer that also has anti-anxiety properties. Check it out with your Pdoc to see what might be right for you.

[DaveyJones]

Yeah, stress is definitely a HUGE trigger for me... I have pretty severe anxiety that accompanies my depressive episodes. I go to a publicly funded clinic so my pdoc can't prescribe any sort of anti-anxiety drugs, so I just have to deal with it. Sometimes (like now) it gives me a tummy ache, I just really can't stand it.

I guess the best thing to do is practice stress-reduction techniques. I used to do it all the time, but I guess I've gotten out of the habit. I saw a thread in the Emotions forum that talked about CBT and DBT, both of which I've done in the past, I guess I'll have to start up again! One link is to dbtselfhelp.com. You might give it a try, it has been very helpful to me in the past. Good luck.