I'm new here, looking for hope...

[quidditchkeeper]

I have GAD and a panic disorder, and I've tried 3 different SSRIs so far. Prozac did absolutely nothing, and zoloft and lexapro made me a sleepless anxious mess. I'm just feeling really demoralized about finding something that works for me to make my anxiety feel manageable. I have a great psychiatrist who's helping me figure things out, but in the short term I'm feeling overwhelmed. How do you achieve peace with feeling miserable in the short term?

[uhtobehonest]

I’m not a doctor or anything but I’m in my last semester of nursing school (if that helps). I have anxiety too and it got really bad a few months ago. My doctor suggested I tried Vistral (similar to Benadryl) but it gave me heart palpitations. I was using melatonin for the time being until I was put on Buspar and that’s been helping me at school.

A lot of doctors will start with short term anxiolytics like benzos (Xanax, Ativan) and also have you take long term anxiolytics like welburtrin and buspar. Eventually you’ll stop the benzos and only be on the long term ones.

[quidditchkeeper in reply to uhtobehonest]

Thanks for your reply! I'm sorry you went through medication struggles as well, but I appreciate hearing similar stories.

[Calm_mama]

Hi quidditchkeeper,

First, I'm in Hufflepuff. I have one teen in Hufflepuff, and one in Gryffindor and husband is in Gryffindor although he sometimes says he's Slytherin. That's crucial info up front

Next- if you have only been on a few SSRI's there are many more meds to try. I know it's hard, but try to be patient and keep the faith. Next, are you in therapy? Therapy can be incredibly helpful. Some people feel it's better/more effective than medication! The right match with the right therapist. Lastly, take a look at my profile for excellent resources for anxiety, including Dr. Claire Weeke's resources. Some people recover from anxiety exclusively using her approach. Keep us posted? Wishing you all the best~

[quidditchkeeper in reply to Calm_mama]

Hi Calm_mama,

I'd probably be in Ravenclaw, but really I'd attend Ilvermorny.

I am in therapy. I've been seeing my therapist pretty much weekly for over 5 years now (not always anxiety related), but he's currently out of the country for the holidays. I've done a lot of targeted CBT previously, been off all meds previously, and felt pretty good. When the current anxiety spiral started, I tried to go back to zoloft, which worked for me in the past, but I had a really bad reaction to it. I was on remeron for a while, which helped the sleep, but not actually the panic. So I'm trying new meds, which I've had bad reactions to so far. I've been trying to approach my current anxiety with a CBT approach, reminding myself that anxiety passes and isn't actually dangerous - but when I'm just feeling awful from some side effects of my anxiety (little sleep, nauseated constantly so very few calories in) I find it really hard to believe the rational truth that I am okay and I'm going to be okay. Even when the peak anxiety passes, I still feel terrible because I haven't been eating or sleeping. Things are slowly getting better, I think, but I still don't think I've been handling any of it very well.

Thank you for the recommendations - I'll look through the resources you posted now!