[joshwendt]

I think i need medication for my anxiety so that I can have a proper social life. but ive read that medication makes you less creative, less intelligent and unable to concentrate or memorize things (I've read that psychiatric meds basically "chemically lobotomize" you). i want medication for my anxiety (therapy hasn't worked much) but I don,t want side effects that will affect my inteligence/creativity or blunt my emotions to much (if that makes sense)

[Blue_Bird]

A lot of people say they lose creativity and stuff on meds, I've never experienced that side effect and I've been on several SSRIs/SNRIs, APs, anti anxiety meds, and mood stabilizers. So I guess it just depends on the person. You may not ever experience that while someone else does. I don't think meds can make someone less intelligent, maybe a sedating med could mess with cognition but that's about it so I wouldn't worry about it

[Nix]

This is one of the reasons I stayed away from medication so long--I had been told that it does take away creativity. I guess it makes sense if certain medications can blunt your feelings that you might be less creative. I am on medications and currently feel no creativity whatsoever, but I don't know yet if it's a result of the medications or just a depressed state. I guess the tradeoff is the meds might be able to help the other problems that interfere with life. For the sake of creativity I'd almost go off meds again if it wasn't for my family who needs me to have my life somewhat together.

Hi Josh. I'm in my 50s and I started taking psych meds then I was about 26, so I have taken a lot of different ones.

My experience has been that some do flatten my emotions some, but nowhere near to the extent that I feel like a zombie. It's more like the highs aren't as high, and the lows aren't as low.

I prefer medications that don't have that effect.

If you are getting a medication specifically for (social?) anxiety, there's a possibility that it might be propanolol, which was originally used for high blood pressure. If that will work for you, I'd vote for it over an SSRI medication like Zoloft, Prozac, or Paxil.

I have taken both Prozac and Zoloft and did not think that they blunted my emotions or affected my memory.

I think I wrote to you in another post about trying non-prescription methods for dealing with anxiety.

I think that the supplement L-theanine is helpful for mild anxiety. The active ingredient in it comes from green tea.

I also like the supplement SAM-e very much. It is used for depression + anxiety more often, but when I took it, I found that it seemed to make my mood much steadier and calmer and optimistic.

Omega-3s are also a good supplement to take.

Working on your overall health is helpful for anxiety. I had lots more anxiety when I was younger than I do now.

This may sound weird, but I always had this sense that the anxiety came from an excess of energy that got directed the wrong way. I would notice that when I got sick and felt really exhausted that my anxiety level would go way down.

I don't know if you've experienced that. Anxiety tends to run in my family, and my siblings and I all found when we were younger that strenuous physical exercise helped to keep our anxiety levels lower.

Having said all that, sometimes doing all those non-med things aren't enough. If you do a search on this site for "propanolol", I think you'll find some posts by people who take it for anxiety. I am thinking in particular of one teen who takes it for musical performance anxiety.

One of the best things about propanolol to me is that you don't have to take it everyday for it to work. If you take and SSRI medication, you have to take that everyday for it to work correctly (I think you can skip days with Prozac, but not really with the others.)

One more thing regarding the effects of psych meds. Some of them that I tried made me feel "zombie-like", but those tended to be in the anti-psychotic or mood stabilizer family. Even so, for most people, most of that feeling tends to go away after a few weeks. Those meds are not typically prescribed for anxiety, though.

I think much of the problem with memory and emotional blunting from psych meds comes after taking them for years.

That's part of the reason why I am encouraging you to look at adding non-med options to your tools to deal with anxiety.

You said that therapy didn't help. That usually means that you didn't have the right sort of therapy or that the therapist wasn't effective at helping you to understand what to do.

I'd also like to say that I can't tell from your post how severe your anxiety is (I don't mean this in a critical way.) There's a huge range of severity in anxiety, from "gives me problems in certain situations" to "is making it almost impossible to live my life".

I think it's good that you are looking into the correct kind of medication for anxiety. Many people use alcohol and/or weed. To me, if you're going to use those substances, they should used sparingly, for fun, and not to medicate yourself.

So maybe do a site search for propanolol and see what you think.

Good luck.

[leomama]

Where did you read that? I started my painting career after I started taking medication. I have anxiety as a symptom of PTSD. What's your diagnosis?

[Chickenkicker]

Very rarely do we just get away with taking these meds and suffer no side effects. It boils down to priorities at the end of the day. Occasionally I'll take a med that dulls me a little, but I'll take it rather than going back to being a dysfunctional fool like before.

[Yoda]

Topamax affected my vocabulary; resolved after DCing med.