My anxiety is totally spiraling; is an SSRI my only medication option?

[Anonymous]

Medically supervised ketamine therapy is not trading one problem for another and can be what ultimately helps patients who cannot tolerate the side effects or simply failed traditional medications. It is extremely safe, well tolerated, and has significant beneficial effects on neuroplasticity. The 6 infusion protocol was a life saver for a family member and she now goes in every few months for a booster. I highly recommend Capitol Ketamine & Wellness as the physician team is incredibly responsive, caring, knowledgeable, and stress your safety.

[Anonymous]

Do not crowdsource this. Get a recommendation from your PCP for a good psychiatrist and go to your appointment with all your questions and concerns.

[Anonymous]

It could be ADHD. Mine was that plus abusive sibling.

It could be a lack of estrogen if you’re a woman in the menopause years.

Or something else.

See a therapist or doctor. Even if a therapist can’t prescribe, they can help guide you for when you talk to your primary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stay far away from benzo s . They are horribly addictive, and have bad side effects. You need more and more over time for the same effect.

Cardio as long and hard as you can manage helps a lot of people.

Also, you could try an SSRI until you feel better and ween yourself off again. It doesn't have to be forever.

It is so so sad that Xanax and the like are addicting and high-risk for dementia. Exercise works for the day, but nothing takes the edge off of my evening ruminating and healthy anxiety descent into madness like Alprazolam. Breathing, distraction, meditation - all very poor substitutes. I have reduced to 0.5 mg nightly dose- pretty close to a placebo effect at this point.

+1 exercise, and every other thing listed here, I still ruminate. It's truly exhausting. I want to go back on an SSRI but I hate being chained to dr appointments and gatekeeping. Seriously thinking about the gummy route.

[Anonymous]

1. Get enough sleep - and use CBT to improve sleep if needed (my mom had terrible insomnia with anxiety and we followed a program in a book)
2. See a therapist
3. See a psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner for meds. Most likely an SSRI or SNRI would be the starting point and you may have to try different ones.
4. Get regular exercise

Sometimes one of these may work but often it takes all 4.

[Anonymous]

Kinda hard to answer this without some lifestyle information. Do you exercise? Do you drink caffeine? alcohol? Do you use cannabis (which can cause significant anxiety both during and after your trip) or other drugs? How are your relationships? Have you recently experienced a significant loss or life change?

Anxiety isn't a problem, it's a symptom. Your system is telling you there are tigers ready to attack. What are they? While meds (and, for a time, other drugs) can turn the volume down, eventually you'll need to address the underlying cause(s) of your anxiety, ideally changing what you can and developing new coping skills to help you handle what you can't change.

All anti-anxiety meds, including SSRIs, have their place and purpose, but it's not a one-size-fits-all situation. Someone with a habit of ruminating may need a longer course of treatment with SSRIs while they work on their self-regulation and deprogramming, whereas someone who is anxious because they recently experience a traumatic situation might just need a short course of low-dose benzos or sleep meds, with the expectation that other processes will kick in to support healing

If you want to provide more info, that would help us better answer your question.

[Anonymous]

Are you drinking alcohol or smoking pot? Both cause anxiety and heart palpitations.

[Anonymous]

didn't read the thread. No.
SSRI
SNRI
there's a combo of both.
There's "atypical" and "typical" anti depressents.
So many options.

[Anonymous]

Ketamine
MDMA therapy
Mushrooms Microdosing
Meditation
Journaling
Canna

[Anonymous]

Hydroxyzine is an antihistamine also prescribed for anxiety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kinda hard to answer this without some lifestyle information. Do you exercise? Do you drink caffeine? alcohol? Do you use cannabis (which can cause significant anxiety both during and after your trip) or other drugs? How are your relationships? Have you recently experienced a significant loss or life change?

Anxiety isn't a problem, it's a symptom. Your system is telling you there are tigers ready to attack. What are they? While meds (and, for a time, other drugs) can turn the volume down, eventually you'll need to address the underlying cause(s) of your anxiety, ideally changing what you can and developing new coping skills to help you handle what you can't change.

All anti-anxiety meds, including SSRIs, have their place and purpose, but it's not a one-size-fits-all situation. Someone with a habit of ruminating may need a longer course of treatment with SSRIs while they work on their self-regulation and deprogramming, whereas someone who is anxious because they recently experience a traumatic situation might just need a short course of low-dose benzos or sleep meds, with the expectation that other processes will kick in to support healing

If you want to provide more info, that would help us better answer your question.

Though I agree with this but it gets difficult for people to regularize all this by themselves and that's why they take help of SSRIs.

[Anonymous]

there is nothing wrong with SSRIs.