[sunrise]

I really feel I need some pharmaceutical assistance with anxiety right now. I am currently having specific, high stress events in my life. Are there meds I could take on a short term basis, or right before the high stress situations, to help me get through them?

I don't know much about meds. I was previously depressed, but with quality psychotherapy was able to beat depression some time ago without the help of meds. I do not feel depressed right now or in danger of slipping back into it. My main complaint is severe anxiety. This is coupled with sleep problems, but I am much more concerned about the waking time anxiety and getting through difficult situations I cannot avoid. I've heard people mention Xanax before. Is this for anxiety? Is there another med that is appropriate? Valium? Others? Would I take these meds right before the stressful events to help me calm down and make it through them? That is what I would like. To be more functional and calm during the high stress times, and to not be in such pain. Then when these events are over, I won't need the meds anymore.

I am going to see my family doctor on Tuesday. What should I ask for? What words should I say to her so that she will prescribe me something and not just tell me to "tough it out"? I really need help right now. I am not an addictive type personality and am generally drug-shy, so I'm sure I wouldn't become overly dependent on whatever is prescribed. In general, I have a high tolerance for pain, both physical and emotional, and wouldn't use the drugs to excess, only when I just couldn't cope. What words should I say to my doctor to convince her I really need some pharmaceutical help at this time?

I'm really worried she will just say "tough s**t" and not give me any help. I have never asked for meds before and am scared they will just turn me away. Does this happen often, or are they generally willing to help? I do not want to see a pdoc as they have long waiting lists and I need help now.

I do have some narcotics at home right now, vicodin. Would taking vicodin help me if they won't give me a prescription for a med to help with anxiety?

[Direction]

Yes it is for anxiety...Buspar is pretty fast acting too much for me - I like Klonpin (steady).

Say the truth...you should not be told to "tough it out" - if you are then you need to see another doc. Generally willing to help.

Vicodin wouldn't be a good choice for anxiety...

[seeker1950]

Xanax will help with anxiety, but, in my case, I became addicted to it. I also suffer from anxiety, had a bad bout today. I no longer go to my doctor for Xanax, and he probably wouldn't give it to me anyway, since he knows how hard it was for me to wean myself off it! I had severe withdrawal. Others don't seem to have this problem, but as a person prone to addiction, myself, it worked, but I liked it so much I became addicted. The withdrawal from this med was not fun for me, requiring me to go to bed and just withstand it!
Patty

[zapot7]

If your doc says "tough *****", it's time for a doctor who will listen to you! Unless you have serious addiction issues, I don't know why she would do that. Let her know that you have tried to get through this drug-free, and it's just not working for you.

I would also expect her to go through the options with you, the pro's and con's of the various drugs. Good luck, I hope it goes well.

[sunrise]

Thanks for your thoughts, Direction, seeker1950, and zapot7.

I have no reason actually to believe my doctor will say "tough s**t." I'm just projecting my fear of asking for help with this problem. I come from a family tradition of "toughing it out", so I probably just naturally expect authority figures to all tell me that. I also worry because she is a brand new doc (so won't have a lot of experience prescribing anxiety meds) and is in a clinic where they tend to take the lowest intervention possible route. But maybe she will be receptive to my need. She does want to put me on blood pressure meds so I know she isn't scared to prescribe when need be. Maybe she can just give me a prescription to tide me over for a month or two until I can get an appointment to see a psychiatrist.

Thanks again for the advice.

I took Xanax for about 17 years at night for anxiety that was preventing me from sleeping. I didn't ever increase the dose or take it during the day. I just tried to ride out the anxiety during the day, because the Xanax did make me very sleepy.

My doc has now switched me to klonopin not for addiction reasons but because I had a long period of hypomania & not sleeping. Klonopin & Trazodone seem to do the trick for getting me to sleep.

I don't think taking an anti-anxiety for a short period of time would be dangerous. For people with chronic anxiety like I have it has been very helpful.--Suzy

[MissCharlotte]

Yeah sunrise,

Tell it like it is.....your doc should respond, mine did. My primary care physician gave me my antidepresants but it wasn't till I went to pdoc that I got the anxiety med. I take ativan for anxiety. I break a .25 pill in half and it works for me. Don't need it too often, but when I do, it works. I have also taken xanax but prefer the ativan although I hear xanax stays in your body less amount of time.

Both xanax and ativan are addictive from what I hear.

I hope you feel better soon. Take gentle care.

[sunrise]

I went to my doctor and it went really well. I gave her a bulleted list with my symptoms. We talked about depression vs. anxiety and I told her I had been depressed in the past but did not feel so now. She suggested an anti-depressant (SSRI) for the anxiety plus xanax for short term help and also help with sleep. We also discussed Buspar. The anti-depressants are not my first choice so we decided to go with Buspar for daily, regular use and Xanax for intense situations where I need extra help and for help with sleep. She was really open to my concerns and said it is all trial and error anyway. And why not start with Buspar and see if that does the trick instead of jumping right into the world of SSRIs. I really felt it was a joint effort and she heard my concerns. It went well! So I just picked up my meds (total cost for both was only $2!!!!) and will start later today. The big downside for me is neither is supposed to be taken with grapefruit or grapefruit juice and I am a grapefruit-aholic. I have a grapefruit every morning for breakfast and more grapefruit at night. Guess I'll have to give that up.

Thanks everyone for your advice in this thread. I'm actually kind of excited to start these drugs. I've never done meds before and am curious to see their effect on me, which I hope will be good!

[Direction]

I'm glad it went well...sounds like a good joint effort.

Just my 2 cents, sunny.

Be careful. And for me, Xanax made my depression worse so just keep that in mind so if you notice that happening it might be the Xanax.

Relaxation CD's are great too. Especially if done regularly. They keep the adrenaline level down so that when something comes along to bump it up, it doesn't spike it way up and you don't end up in overload. Learning to relax on breathing out is so great because it can be done anywhere, any time and is instantly effective.

Not trying to tell you what to do, trying to be supportive as I just hope you feel better as you're going through all this.

[SecretGarden]

2 bucks is a heck of a deal. I have heard good things about buspar.

I take a smidge of ativan when I am anxious during the day but too much makes me groggy. At night with my current anxiety I have bumped my dosage up.

Good luck with the buspar and good for you for making it though your depression without meds.

Glad it went well with the doc & he/she listened to you. Giving up the grapefruit juice is a small price--but i do miss it! Hope all works well with you. As I mentioned I couldn't take Xanax or Klonopin during the day due to the sleepiness it caused so make sure you don't have to drive or be in top form until you figure out what your reaction is.--Suzy

[SecretGarden]

My antid says no grapefruit. Sunny, if you are intaking that much grapefruit then your gut must be pretty strong and that is a good thing...no ulcers. Good for you.

[sunrise]

I am on my third day of the buspar. I don't know if I'm less anxious or not. But I definitely notice some changes. I feel like I am on a mega-dose of caffeine. I have a lot of energy and am getting a ton of stuff done. I seem to have gained the ability to see that something needs doing and to just do it and complete the task, instead of putting it off, or doing it halfway and then quitting. I didn't even realize I had a problem with that, but hey, this is great! (And my boss is pleased with my increased work output. ) Also, could this be possible, I am more talkative and social? I went for a walk yesterday and stopped to talk to 3 strangers I met along the way. I never do this. And today, for the first time ever, I visited the new cafeteria at work, which I have avoided since December, because I didn't want to run into people I know. Anyway, I did run into 2 acquaintances there today and chatted with them for a while. It was great! What was the big deal before?

I'm not sure if these are supposed to be the effects of buspar, and I know the early effects can go away after you settle down on the med, supposedly. Having never been on meds, this is fascinating to me.

[SecretGarden]

I am glad you are having a good experience with the buspar. I have heard these attributes before. Glad you are enjoying the ride so to speak and maybe a promotion is around the corner... ;-)

[sunrise]

Day 3 on the buspar ended up being kind of rough, just too much go-go-go, hyper-hyper-hyper. But I heard this could happen in the early days, and by Day 4, I was OK. I increased dose on Day 5 (today) with no ill effect and will increase again on Day 6 to my full prescribed dose. In addition to the over-caffeinated feeling on the first few days, I had some weird effects that are now gone also: heightened sense of smell (it was really trippy, I felt I could distinguish 20 different smells from one another in the air, like a dog) and reckless driving. I am glad the driving thing is gone. Kind of scary, but I couldn't help it. Very unlike me. However, I must say, I am not feeling a decrease in my anxiety, which is why I took this drug. And my sleep has been disrupted. I'll just keep plugging away, think I'll give it 2 weeks.

[Jessica6626]

Ok, I am new to this site and I am a 26 yar old female who has been suffering from: major panic/anxiety disorder, O.C.D., depersonalization disorder, depression/bipolar, and agoraphobia since I was in elementary school. So we wil just guestimate around 15 years. I didn't know what was wrong with me at first but then after years of fighting this demon a late night commercial came on talking about anxiety and panic disorder and I was like, "Oh my goodness, that is what I have!!?!? So there is actually something wrong with me i'm not just weird! So I told my mother that I believed I was havig panic and anxiety and she told me to suck it up and she didn't believe me. This was due in part to the fact tht her and my father, whom divorced when I was age 4, argued all the time about this problem because my father himself had it very bad. He also had S.V.T. , sudden ventricula tachycardia, and eventually had to have an ablation done. So when I told my mother this she blamed me "believing" I had this because my dad. My father never talked about this though so that couldnt have been it. Well to get on with things, I would have good times and bad times, as im sure we all do with our anxiety, and I had been doing extremly well until I got married and had my first child. After that it came back full throttle and worse than ever!! After months of losing weight and not being able to eat anything because it would make me vomit I decided to go see a psychologist. I was on a low dose of xanax at the time tht the E.R. Dr. had given me from being in and out of the hospital with heart palpitations. I have M.V.P. So I went to see this Dr. and I was put on xanax 1 mg 4-5 times daily. I was also put on 50 mg of zoloft. I never had any side effects from the zoloft until I started coming off of it. The xanax I LOOOVVVEEEDD!!!! I eventually did get extremely addicted to it and had to go through detox. I said I would NEVER take xanax again! That is the most awful feeling having withdrawls from something like that, i'm sure some of you out there know exactly what I am talking about. Well I did great there for a long time except the fact I couldn't really travel outside of my comfort zone. Then I met my hsband now and we had a baby and after I came home from having the baby everything came back again but it was worse than it had ever been! I was vomting three to four times a day with nothing inmy stomach, i would try to make myself eat but couldnt and would usually throw up in the process. I became extremly agoraphobic and didnt leavemy room or even take a bath for over a month. My husband was having to work and take careof everything. I wouldn't even get up to go to the bathroom, I would urinate in cups and he would dispose of them when he got home from work. He had to bring me all of my meals I was actually bedridden. So my mom actually called my Dr. and told him what was going on and he said that in order for me to get started on medications that I would have to come in for a visit. Which at the time was out of the question so I was homebound for over 10 months in 2006. My Dr. eventually turned my care over tomy mother, she would come by and give me my medicine and make sure I took it and all that stuff because my Dr. couldn't do anything for me unless I came in. So after finally getting on 150 mg of zoloft he wanted to put me on xanax and I was against it because what had happened last time. So he inisted that I tried Klonopin!! My mix of 150 mg of zoloft once a day and klonopin 1 mg three times a day was my God send. I was up and my normal self again after 1-2 moths of being on this coctail. I have been on several differnt medicatin throughout my suffering with this and that was the best fix for me. I am now back in school full time and out of the house I go and come as I pleas and am almost back 100% so for any of you out there this is what I would sugget you take to rid youself of the demon panic and anxiety disorder. For all of you women out there, you might have noticed in my paragraph that the two worst times I ever had with my panic and anxiety diorder was after giving birth to both my children. It hasn't been proven but I know in my case that is waht triggered mine to come back because it happend twice so if you can get out of the house I would highly recommend haveing your thyroid levels checked and your hormonial levels checked first thing. I am in the process of recieving my doctrine for nuclear medicine andi have a masters in genetics so i just didnt make this stuff up. Iknow what i'm talking about. If you cannot relate your anxietyto something in your environment you just have anxious episodes for no apparent reason you shoudl definately consider medications. I know how some of you out there are a little phobi about taking any medications because I used to be the same way too. It is so worth it though because it can and will heal you. Maybe not my exact drugs I am on but something will help you ad relieve you of this terrifying nightmare you have been living for only knows how long. I am here now if anyone needs any advice!! If you can check out my quizzes you can see what conditions I have and what I dont have. Oh yeah one more word to the wise, exercise is the best thing in ther world for people with anxiety disorder. It releases you of all your nervous energy you have. I would highly recommend exercise. Also make sure and drink drink drink plenty of water!!!! Water can help stablize mood and so can a proper diet!!

[deborah42]

i dont know anything about meds except for the one im on for depression which is wellbutrin...i now finf this med maybe isnt working great for me but tom i go to see mt doctor maybe she will prescribe something different.i just need to be able to sleep.i hope everything will work out for you tc