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.
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.