Medication for the treatment of Phobia and Anxiety

[Jade]

I know medication can certainly help some sufferers of anxiety but I don’t think it could work for me.

I believe that reading the side effects of the medication, especially the severity of the very rare side effects would send me into a panic at the worry of this happening to me.

It would be interesting to know if this is the case for anyone else or if you do take medication and have managed to over come that problem or whether you find psychological counseling or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to be more useful in helping you cope with your anxiety or phobias.

 

[GH0STP03T]

During the early stages of my anxiety I resorted to anxiety medication (citalopram and Sertraline) and although it did calm a lot of the symptoms it also dulled my senses and made me incredibly numb as a person. I eventually came off the meds and tried CBT which I found fairly useful to be honest. In the end however I found travelling to be the best medicine for me (a very extreme measure I know),but at the end it's what best works for you.

I'd recommend that keeping an open mind about all the various treatments and options available and most of all never give up!

 

[Jade]

Yes your right it is all about not giving up. Experimenting with what works for you is great advice as each individual is unique and responds to various treatments differently. My personal approach comes down to finding the root cause of my phobias and trying to assure myself that situation that caused the phobia is behind me. I find understanding my phobias is key for me to try and over-come them. Although this isn't always possible I find trying to apply this method and re-assuring myself constantly is something that I find useful to do to help myself try and combat my irrational fears and worries.

 

[Mark]

Personally I dont think meds are the long term answer - for me it was CBT all the way and even today, many years after my panic attacks, I still remember the advice. There also needs to be a degree of understanding your phobias and how they work in order to combat them. Personally, I would try anything but meds but then some suffers may need short term medication to live a relatively normal life.

 

[Jade]

With medication you have a choice to make really. You can choose to live with the side effects of the medication or you could choose to find others ways to deal with your phobia and anxiety. There are pros and cons to both. If you chose not to go on medication you can try combat your phobia through other techniques and therapy as we mentioned. If you feel the quality of your life is severely jeopardised by your phobia and anxiety and other forms of therapy, professional and self help aren’t working you may need to consider the option of medication, even if its at a low dosage.

 

[Mark]

I think that the bottom line is there is no one cure fits all with regards to anxiety and phobias and we may need to try different approaches before finding the one which best suits us. There are certain medications which can "take the edge" of phobias and anxiety and as a short-term solution this may make life more bearable for many sufferers?

 

[GH0STP03T]

'Taking the edge off' is the perfect way to describe (in my opinion) how certain meds work in relation to phobias. The same could be said however about alcohol,but as we all know that's just a shorter and far more damaging band-aid. The key is finding whatever works for you and pushes you in a positive direction.

 

[Jade]

'Taking the edge off' is the perfect way to describe (in my opinion) how certain meds work in relation to phobias. The same could be said however about alcohol,but as we all know that's just a shorter and far more damaging band-aid. The key is finding whatever works for you and pushes you in a positive direction.

As you said Ghost alcohol is a damaging way to try and calm phobias and anxieties and it will cause you more problems in the long run.I would never recommend alcohol even as a quick solution to calm your nerves or to give you a bit of dutch courage. I myself have never been tempted to depend on alcohol regardless of how difficult my anxiety has got and the main reason for that if because I know when I’ve sobered up and stopped drinking my anxiety levels hit the roof!