Panic Disorder/General Anxiety
 

Anyone else here suffer from one or both? :raises hand: I am 23 and have been suffering from both lovely little things since the age of 16. Currently on no medication (although I have been on everything under the sun - Paxil made me gain 30 lbs... YAYYYY - not!!) except .5mg Klonopin as needed. I find that caffeine exacerbates my anxiety & daily exercise helps.

I have anxiety and depression and am currently on Zoloft, wellbutrin, and 1 mg Clonazepam
2X a day.... The doc hasnt changed or adjusted my dose in MONTHs.... i feel like she is not listening, or only hears a former drug addict when i tell her my anxiety is getting WORSE AGAIN.... along with the depression.. the clonazepam n longer works (ive been on the same dose since like february.... so Duh...) but she wont up it... i need something for "breakthrough anxiety" i dont know what else to call it...... those moments or times when all of a sudden you feel so OVERWHELMED and panicked and anxious...... you know what im talking about.... ive only had 2 panic attacks in my life... but OMG, they are awful... the most awful experience anyone could have

I have really good results using propranolol for situational social anxiety. It makes my hands stop shaking and my heart slows and my chest loosens. BUT I should add I don't have generalized anxiety, I have very specific things which cause panic (crowds, people I don't know touching me) so I can usually plan ahead and only take the medicine when I know I'm going to need it.

@mkroyer: i definitely know what you're talking about. i had a horrible panic attack this AM. at work at that... it lasted a good hour. hit me like a freight train too. dizzy... couldn't breathe. blurry vision. the works. almost had to leave the office! took a klonopin and it finally dwindled down a bit. i too feel like when i tell doctors my issues, or the medicine really is not strong enough, that they assume i have a problem or just look at me like, oh she's young and dumb and just trying to get fk'ed up. it really irritates me. but what can ya do!

@snaplet: propranolol. BP med right? i have tried that as well. just made me dizzy and tired. i guess the fatigue isn't bad if you're at home w/ nothing you need to be doing. but the dizziness i cannot handle because it makes my anxiety worse. :(

i have been on (mostly at diff times!) paxil, prozac, lexapro, wellbutrin, propranolol, celexa, topomax (as an experimental sort of drug), and xanax/klonopin/valium. nothing has worked with the exception of the benzodiazepines. and i find they work more effectively if i take as needed rather than day to day.

I have moderate to severe panic disorder (Severe is reserved for particular triggers...moderate is fairly free-floating and crops up all the time), and episodic depression (meaning I'm not depressed all the time, but every year or so, go into a deep 3-4 month depression with almost no warning).

Nothing works for me other than very hard exercise. I keep a Xanax prescription for my biggest panic triggers (flying, in particular) and manage all the rest of my symptoms by burning out all of my anxious energy on the treadmill and with my weights.

I have social anxiety disorder and suffer from panic attacks on a pretty regular basis. Exercise helps moderately, but I also find I need to avoid caffeine. I used to be a lot heavier than I am now, close to 300 pounds twice, because of being put on paxil and prozac--neither helped at all. I was at what my current goal weight is for a long time before I reluctantly agreed to try another anti-anxiety medication and ended up putting on 40 pounds. And even though it's frustrating, I'm SO thankful it wasn't any more than that.