[caedus]

Just wondering what everyone's favorite auntie anxiety and panic attack medicine is for daily routine non narcotic use... Please explain how it works and any negative side effects you have experienced and overall the good outweighs the bad and things like that just your experience in general, I suffer from sudden onset of panic attacks to do with fear of physical symptoms like we do not exist in this going to strike me anytime cuz he shortness of breath making me feel like I can't breathe or I'm dieing or heart attack or something horrible happened and of course once I take a valium it all goes away but I want to take something daily that may help you avoid these in general

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[ChangingMyMind]

I am curious to see the answers. I haven't taken Paxil or Effexor but Celexa helped my general anxiety but made my panic attacks worse.

Side effects were ok for the first 7 years... Sexual, yawning, frequent urination, constant throat clearing, weight gain, low blood pressure, low heart rate but after 11 years the side effects increased to the point where I couldn't take it anymore.. Hypersomnia, bruxism that lead to severe TMJ syndrome and vertigo.

I am hypersensitive to meds so I am sure I have more side effects than most.

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[The_little_didgee]

Paxil helped my anxiety and obsessions somewhat. I had to stop it because I couldn't tolerate the severe suicidal thoughts and impulsiveness it was causing. I've tried Effexor but couldn't stay on it because it gave me severe dry mouth. Gross. The drug eliminated all my obsessions and anxiety. Now I'm on Cipralex, which I find helpful. I still struggle a bit, but my nerves and obsessions are not severe as they once were. It is nice not to worry about anxiety, panic and my terrible obsessions. I function a lot better on it.

Cipralex hasn't caused a lot of problems for me. I find it constipating and it makes me very hungry. Prunes help the first problem. I don't have an issue with the second problem since I'm trying to gain weight. The drug also makes me sweat.

[gloamingone]

I've been on Effexor for years (mainly because the withdrawals hit me so hard I never want to go off!). Initially it was for depression, but when I was diagnosed with GAD, they didn't add anything.

My main side effect is very slight dizziness during the day. Also quite a bit of weight gain, but that's probably due to my med combo.

My pdoc now thinks I'm bipolar II, so things are changing on the med front. I haven't felt that Effexor has been working anymore for me for at least the last few years. But like I said, the discontinuation syndrome hits me so hard I'm terrified to quit!

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[shamon86]

I'm on effexor as well for GAD and it has been the best so far to help with day to day anxiety but I have not tried paxil or celexa. Effexor is hard to get off of. I can notice if I miss a dose. I was also given xanax for when I do have a lot of anxiety.

[Disorder7]

Paxil worked wonders for preventing panic attacks. So much so that I thought I was "cured" and slowly stopped taking them. The next dr gave me Celexa, which didn't seem to help at all.
They both gave me daily, almost constant headaches.

Prozac doesn't give me any side effects, but personally I don't think it's as good as Paxil for panic attacks. I asked to go back to Paxil and endure the headaches, but my pdoc thinks it causes more weight gain than Prozac.

[splitimage]

I'm on effexor and Celexa for depression, and neither do squat for my anxiety. For that I take Clonazepam and Seroquel. If you want to avoid the benzo's and aren't afraid to take an AAP, seroquel's pretty good. It's prescribed at a low dose for anxiety. Main side effect for me is it makes me really drowsy. I haven't gained any weight on it, but I know that's a risk with this med.

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[Jolisse]

I've tried all of them and not one helped my anxiety.

[vvector0000]

Way back in the day when I was in my early 20's, Paxil was completely effective in controlling panic attacks. I remember trying my damnedest to work myself into one and just failing at it, which was great.. it lost its efficacy rapidly, as most of those Prozac analogs do.. so at 80mg, we decided to switch to something else.. (Serzone, like a month before it was taken off the market.. lucky me on that one)

(Also Serzone did nothing anyway)

Celexa and Lexapro both were total placebo or less (acetaminophen effect)..

Effexor, hard to tell, by that time I was steadily on clonazepam. I would say it is effective for the slice of the pie that benefit from NARI. I've recently noticed Strattera actually reduces anxiety and Effexor was one of the few I was on for years.

Nothing really beat imipramine, strangely enough.

Imipramine and chlorpheniramine (chlor-trimeton) are possible in the top 5 effective A/Ds.. and one's OTC. Worth reading up on if you're treatment resistant. I can attest that it's a very good anxiolytic and you will get SSRI effects if you take it daily, regularly (roughly 8mg/day would be a starting dose)

[ChangingMyMind]

Originally Posted by vvector0000

Imipramine and chlorpheniramine (chlor-trimeton) are possible in the top 5 effective A/Ds.. and one's OTC. Worth reading up on if you're treatment resistant. I can attest that it's a very good anxiolytic and you will get SSRI effects if you take it daily, regularly (roughly 8mg/day would be a starting dose)

Really? An antihistamine as an antidepressant?
You say chlorpheniramine can act as an SSRI if taken daily... Are you referring to just anxiety or depression as well?

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[vvector0000]

It's a short-acting anxiolytic.. I wouldn't want to pile on a lot of it daily, although it really does not have much of the drowsiness of some of the other TCA antihistamines.. in fact, substitute chlorine for bromine and you have brompheniramine, which morphed into zimelidine, the first SSRI.. it's all on wikipedia and in literature)..

But really the longer term efficacy of it is for depression and through that mechanism, just like imipramine, sertraline, etc. it is a long-term anxiolytic with the added benefit of working as a sedative even on the first dose.

There are no known reports I have come across detailing any sort of withdrawal syndrome, and it's enough of a putative effect that msot doctors will agree, and some even give -prescriptions- for 12-hour chlorpheniramine.

Really interesting stuff.. I think about this a lot, every time I read about a new potential blockbuster that was 'inferior to imipramine in phase III trials'.

Originally Posted by ChangingMyMind

Really? An antihistamine as an antidepressant?
You say chlorpheniramine can act as an SSRI if taken daily... Are you referring to just anxiety or depression as well?

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