Hey.
Is there any medication for anxiety without being a benzodizepine? Like Lyrica for example. And what are the downsides of these medications?
Thanks
Lotus
All of the anti-Ps are anxiety meds. We used to call them “major tranquilizers,” and the benzos and barbiturates “minor tranqulizers.”
In the last 20 years, several of the SSRI-class anti-Ds were FDA-approved for anxiety, including Paxil paroxetine (what a mistake that turned out to be), Celexa citalopram and Lexapro escitalopram. These anti-Ds do reduce anxiety for a small %age of pts who are truly physiologically (meaning autonomically) “depressed and anxious.”
BUT – and this is a VERY big “but” – if the pt is bipolar (which is far more common in those who are currently – but only temporarily depressed… and more chronically anxious) taking any anti-D for any period of time more than a few months is very DANGEROUS. Anti-D’s are stimulants. And, as such, they will make bipolar worse over any long run.
That said, you might be shocked at how many prescribers there are who don’t seem to know this. Thought many (probably most now) do.
What? You need more than an antidepressant for anxiety. And I know several bipolar on a anti depressant it’s not the condition it’s the lifestyle that makes bipolar worse.
@notmoses, is it likely that someone with decades-long atypical depression and anxiety could be undiagnosed bipolar? Not asking for a diagnosis, just wondering if this is a not uncommon occurrence. Was just prescribed Lexapro by my GP while waiting to get in with a pdoc (long-standing anxiety and depression issues hitting a crescendo currently but month-plus wait for pdocs in my area). As far as I know, never been suspected to have bipolar, but suddenly panicky after reading your comment (ref. anxiety, lol). Any warning signs to watch for and report back to him? He’s keeping a close eye on me in the interim.
From three sources one can trust (vs. the many one should not):
Hey
The Invega Injection that I’m taking, and Invega isn’t that anti-anxiety.
I have very strong stings in my chest area due to anxiety and I struggle very much to cope with this.
Benzodiazepines don’t seem to do the trick for me and I don’t want the dependency attached to them.
I’ve said Lyrica (Pregabalin) because I saw some patients taking it to ease the anxiety. Doses of 75mgs. I’ve taken 25mgs but it didn’t do anything for me and the doctor took me out of them.
I’m currently on Invega injection 50mg (Xeplion - Europe’s brand name) and on Valproic Acid.
I’m really struggling here.
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Thanks. Hard to tell the difference between bipolar ii and just having a better day/gap between depressive episodes. I don’t think I meet the criteria, but I’m sure I’m not the best judge of it.
Mainly wondering, are things like increased anger/irritability (something I experienced when briefly on Paxil years ago), for example, the sort of thing that might tell me Lexapro is not just not helping but possibly actively harming me? Or is there something else to watch out for?
Does your head “ruminate” a lot? Meaning think and think and think and think?
Anger and irritability is helped with physical exertion not everything is cured with meds get healthy.
It thinks plenty. I don’t know if it’s a lot or not. No way of knowing if it’s too much or not.
Yes, there are the SSRI’S - Buspar - Beta Blockers like Inderal - Gabapentin (Neurontin) - Pregablin -
You could try Theanine (Natural) etc…
It’s more about the quality of the thinking than the quantity. Is the quality is anxious, projecting the worst, critical, pessimistic, self- abusive, etc.?
Not dismissing their usefulness if you have to go to them, but they are so sfx-inducing that they’re now seen as “last houses on the block.” (Clonidine is another commonly used by p-docs when the pt.'s Subjective Units of Distress Score – or SUDS – is in the '80s or higher.)
cc: @Lotus
Well, yeah… but only in the short term. Buspirone works, but the high-probability sfx can get ratty in a hurry. Aren’t most p-docs (still) using it as a temporary bridge while the intended effects of SSRI’s “build up?” (In whatever event, I don’t suggest any AD for anxiety unless or until I’m real sure the pt. is truly in “autonomic lockdown.”)
I’m not currently having anger and irritability problems, but am about to start a new med and have had that reaction to a different med in the past. Since notmoses mentioned issues with both my old med and my new med used to treat one of my current problems, and since my new med was not prescribed by a specialist and it will take some time before I can get into a specialist, I feel like I need to be vigilant.
But Lotus, sorry for derailing your thread. It seemed topical when I first asked but seems less and less so now. And I do agree with Daze - gardening for me doesn’t solve my anxiety problems, but it does help me cope sometimes. Slow deliberate breathing helps with the chest pains; there’s no way I could garden when they’re happening. I hope you get answers that work for you from people in a better position than me to give advice.
I think it’s the quality of the thoughts. But most of them are engrained and invisible that I feel negative emotions mainly. Sometimes the materialization of thought manifests themselves but mostly I feel bad but know that there are underlying issues there to be resolved. I don’t know if I made myself clear?
Are you hip to the following psychotherapies that target exactly what you’ve reported?
(One can do them on the cheap with workbooks, btw.)
REBT – Rational emotive behavior therapy - Wikipedia
Schematherapy – Schema therapy - Wikipedia
Learned Optimism – Learned optimism - Wikipedia
Standard CBT – http://www.beckinstitute.org/what-is-cognitive-behavioral-therapy/About-CBT/252/
DBT – http://behavioraltech.org/resources/whatisdbt.cfm
MBSR – Welcome to the Mindful Living Blog
ACT – ACT | Association for Contextual Behavioral Science
MBBT – An Introduction to Mind-Body Bridging & the I-System – New Harbinger Publications, Inc
10 StEP – Pair A Docks: The 10 StEPs of Emotion Processing
That’s a lot to choose from. I don’t know the majority of them and I can only do by my own but I lack also the will power to go through an entire book.
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I’ve started to read the 10 StEP program and it states there this under the Observe part.
The mindfulness meditations are the action of Observing – of just “looking at” – to produce Noticing and Perception. (One can look into authors like Tara Brach, Pema Chodron, Arthur Deikman, S. N. Goenka, Daniel Goleman, George Gurdjieff, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Stephen Levine, P, D. Ouspensky, Charles Tart, Chogyam Trungpa and many, many others for detailed explanation of how to Observe and Notice the input of the senses.)
I went to the looney bin because I was trying to follow meditation practices in order to reach the end of suffering, which is the ultimate goal of meditation. I spent the consequent 12 years after my first hospitalization trying to understand Krishnamurti. To no avail. He says there are no methods of meditation and to accept authority of no one not even ourselves, which I find extremely difficult.
Then this year I bought a book called “Lives in the Shadow with J. Krishnamurti” and read it. It tells facts about Krishnamurti’s life that are in conflict with what he preached.
I developed a distaste for meditation and although I liked K’s talks very much at the time I found them very unrealistic.
I’ve dropped his stuff altogether as well as “traditional meditation techniques”.
When I’ve had to use Vicodin it’s done a great job of relaxing me but it is not a good bet for long term use.
I’m certain she won’t prescribe me Vicodin nor do I want something addictive.