[Homeira]

Hi all you amazing people on this forum
I have a question. I have a lot of anxiety at times. I have to apologize for not being able to describe very well when my anxiety takes control ( because it really does take control of me sometimes). I have a hard time going into the specifics of it, because that in itself makes me more anxious. Anyways, is centers around my taking the three-hour trip to stay at my parents house. Makes me super-anxious. Next weekend me and my son have to go, because we are invited to a confirmation. Already I am feeling anxious about it. We are staying at my parents house for that weekend. Another thing that makes me anxious about it. Long story, not going into that, maybe another time...

But here comes my question. I am taking 10 mg cipralex in addition to 400mg Lamictal. My levels of anxiety are higher now, and they happen more frequently. So I am wondering what kinds of meds are those of you (who have anxiety-issues) finding helpful? The cipralex is to tackle the anxiety, but it doesn`t seem to be helping much anymore... Anyone have any suggestions, experiences, tips, advice?

[Nammu]

I take propranolol, it's a blood pressure med that has proven itself to help with anxiety. It works for me by taking it twice a day everyday to bring my anxiety down. If your looking for a PRN then you want a different class of meds, benzodiazepines. They tend to be addictive on a daily bases. I don't remember enough about which ones are long term and those with a short half life. Someone here could probably tell you. There is also burspar (sp?) for me that one increased my anxiety but I hear I has helped some people. Good luck.

These may have different names in your country and you may have access to other more herbal remedies than they have in the USA.

[Homeira]

Thanks for the advice. What is a PRN?

[Nammu]

A PRN means you take the medicine as needed. It's one reason benzodiazepines get so addictive. They work so many hours but you build up a tolerance and then people start taking them sooner to get relief and end up taking more than the prescribed dose. That's mostl people who take them every day. It's less likely to happen if you take them only before intense situations.

You could see about buspar. I've taken it before and it helped. Also hydroxyzine...

Hope you find something that works.

[raspberrytorte]

I take clonazepam and propranolol. Clonazepam has a long half life. I would stay away from the short half life ones, like alprazolam. AVOID alprazolam. It is evil. I wish I had never been put on it.

I take my clonazepam everyday, usually four mg as of late. Just my life in general is stressful. Like, I have anxiety about just daily life in general every day. The thought of tomorrow, in which nothing out of the ordinary is happening, is making me feel anxious right now. Benzos are okay, as long as you take them as prescribed, as in don't start abusing them and taking more than you're supposed to.

I tried buspar. It made me really sick. Whenever I took one it felt like when you have a night of heavy drinking and the room starts spinning, and you want to spew but can't.

Good luck!

[BeyondtheRainbow]

I take 2 mg of clonazepam routinely and 1 mg as needed (but can really have 2 with permission). I almost never use the extras. I take valium (diazepam) when I am manic. It used to just let me sleep a nice 8-10 hours and be fine. Now I'm battling with it to get it to work at all so that's annoying. I've not taken it so much that I should have tolerance problems at the moment (I probably do after the last week but not before then and it was a problem then). I also take gabapentin mostly for anxiety (a low dose). I've used hydroxyzine with good results and propanolol a long time ago and I don't remember how it works

Cipralex is an SSRI and they can be stimulating and cause anxiety so that may contribute to the overall problem.

[RisuNeko]

I'm on clonapin, and it's the only one that really helps me. I'm taking propranolol and perphenezine (a typical antipsychotic that can be used for anxiety) at my lowest dose and then going off both on tuesday because the propranolol caused brain fog and weight gain and the perphenezine caused weight gain. I don't need 3 anxiety meds, I just need one at the right dose. I was only on .5mg of clonopin for years and after a while that wasn't enough that's why the other meds were added, when really increasing the clonopin to 1mg at a time would have made a lot more sense and caused me a lot less grief in bad grades, poor memory, and poor word recall, and weight gain.