What do you think - anxiety meds for all?

I think every SZ patient should have been prescribed some anti anxiety meds, cause even when the illness is controlled there are a lot of worries about stigma, about hiding the illness, about recurrence of the illness and about side effects of meds and unknown future which all of these make us semi paralyzed, after years of struggling I used Xanax by myself and the quality of my life changed dramatically so why psychiatrists don’t prescribe anti anxiety meds for all of schizophrenics?

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I’ve talked to psychologists who work with people who have schizophrenia and they say that the most common problem they see is “anxiety” - so I think you are probably right.

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I think a big factor is the risk of abuse. Many schizophrenics abuse drugs, and anti-anxiety meds are habit-forming if taken for a period of time.

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Only certain medications - xanax, etc. - are addictive. Others - like Gabapentin - are not.

Neurontin (gabapentin) is not an anti-anxiety drug:

BuSpar is an alternative, but its success is limited.

My son is on Neurontin. For whatever reason he does get anxiety relief with it. Unfortunately it also intensifies weed and alcohol affects.

Since I have been using Lamictal, I drastically reduced my intake of Klonopin down to a speck a day - but I am hooked on it, when I skip a dose I get awful withdrawal symptoms

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Great post. Well the books all say that we have high rates of comorbid disorders, anxiety disorders being common, but so is substance abuse. I myself am on xanax, just took a mg an hour ago. I used to be an alcoholic, big time alky. I’ve never popped a handful of xanax to get high, I actually take less than I am prescribed and have a lot left over every month. I only go through 2/3 of my monthly bottle. I have a lot saved up. Yes, college kids offer to buy it from me. No, I dont sell it. I might need it for when I become a xanny junkie and pop handfuls at a time.

My docs only gave me a benzo because my schizophrenia was cleared away and stress was making me relapse. I also had difficulty socializing due to anxiety. I clearly have two distinct disorders, I was an anxious teenager but I was a fitness junkie and got a natural high from exercising 3 hours a day 5 days a week.

sorry I just talked about myself again. Yeah screw it, were all bonkers give us all a minor tranquilizer in addition to our major tranquilizers (most antipsychotics are actually major tranquilizers just fyi)

Buspar is an anti anxiety but not a benzo but I dunno man, if you truly freakout the docs give you a benzo, buspar takes like a month to work and benzos will just make you not freakout and stay calm and clear minded in 30mins.

When I wake up, I can tell I am in withdrawal from xanax, I worry about random things right when I quit dreaming. I keep my xanax on the nightstand and pop my morning dose and just analyze my dreams as best as I can. Im into dream symbolism, my meds have me experiencing vivid, sometimes lucid dreams.

I for one like your stories Mortimer. Message boards can get boring with out personal details.

This is also true with my son. They will not prescribe anything for him because of his past drug abuse. He was on neurontin for a short period-but his tolerance went up quickly and he had to take more and more to feel better.
I am always trying to get his doc to give him clonazapaem.
I know if he didn`t have this anxiety all the time, he would feel SO much better. I believe this feeling is what drove him to self-medicate in the first place.

I’m on Xanax, given my history, that is probably an odd thing, but it works for me. I do feel sort of high strung when the dose is running out. The seroquel is also sedating so between the two it’s probably why my dose is still working.