[adel34]

Hi Everyone,
From reading this forum, and talking to others in persons, it's become clear, at least to me, that I really don't want to use meds like xanax to deal with anxiety. The risk of adiction seems very high, and often it seems a person's anxiety is worse once they get off it than it was before. I realize these meds are helpful to many people, but I just don't want to take the risk of my situation becoming worse.
Having said that, does anyone know of safe anxiety meds? Meds where you can't get adicted to it/ get bad withdrawal reactions?
Any thoughts would be apreciated.
Thanks.

Buspar is a med for anxiety that is not addictive. You have to take it regularly rather than as needed as it needs to build in your system over time. It works well for some people.

Vistaril is actually an antihistamine, but it is sometimes given for anxiety I believe.

[dillpickle1983]

Buspar works wonders for me. As stated before its also non addictive, and I think its very hard to OD on, but don't quote me. I have beers before while taking it and it had no affect like a benzo would.

[~JD~]

Buspar is fine for people with light anxiety. It's a well known fact that for anyone with severe anxiety or panic disorder, it's utterly useless. I can vouch for this. It didn't do a damn thing for me, even after almost two months on it.

Personally, I love diphenhydramine (Benadryl) as an anxiolytic. It's honestly a miracle drug. The only issue with it is that you build up a tolerance to it's sedative effects fairly quickly. Most the people I talk to say that one or two knocks them out, and for me it takes about 7 of the 25mg pills to even make me drowsy. The FDA maximum recommended daily dose is 50mg, or two pills, and I usually take about 125mg at a time, or about 250mg throughout the course of a day.

I guess the most popular "safe" choice for anxiety meds would be SSRI's (antidepressants). They do help quite a bit, but I personally won't put up with the side effects.

i liked buspar for anxiety, i took 15mg twice a day. 30 total per day. it took a little while to start working. i got off of it tho becuase after a while it started making me feel weird like 15 minutes after i took it, then i would feel normal but i didnt like the weird feeling it gave me, but only did it sometimes.

[sunrise]

SSRIs
Vistaril
Neurontin
Buspar

I took Buspar for a while and it did not help with my anxiety.

[adel34]

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for all your responses!
I'll look up buspar, and maybe ask about it if I need something for anxiety. I don't have panic disorder or anything so I would assume it would work for me.
I'm on an SSRI now, zoloft, and it doesn't seem to help when I'm anxious so who knows?

[angustios101]

Some SSRI's actually INCREASE anxiety for some people (happened to me on Prozac but only after long term use).

Another drug to look into are beta or alpha blockers. There was a VA study on soldiers with PTSD being prescribed Prazosin and they experienced significant decrease in anxiety-levels/night terrors. I tried it and defeintly felt not anxious but also felt just plain tired. They say this sideeffect lessens with time, though. I did not stick with it to find out.

Lamictal works wonders for me. It makes you kind of spacey though.