How effective anxiety meds suppose to be?

[lizzie]

Get some Xanax. That will stop your anxiety.

Pot helps, too. Though it does make a minority of people more anxious, so start with only a small amount.

I think it was pot that created my panic syndrome in the first place. Anything that has any chance of making a person worse should be avoided. It's not worth it.

Everything has some chance of making a person worse, so avoid all things.


But - since you have tried it, you thus have gained the right to knock it.

My experience as a young person who tried pot, was that it makes me extremely paranoid, and that's the last thing I would recommend to anyone having significant anxiety problems.

I don't use anything to treat any psychological problem except for problem-solving itself. If you are anxious, there is a reason for that anxiety, and it can be confronted head-on with adequate effort in the right direction. If you confront the problem and resolve the causes, the anxiety will dissipate. Same with depression. If you understand the basis, and not focus on the effects, you can eventually resolve the psychological issues which are causing the depression, thus alleviate it altogether. I'm not implying that it is easy, because the opposite is true. It's the most difficult undertaking of my life, and it took 12 years, but the cure is worth the effort.

 

[geauxtohell]

This post stands as a glaring example of why you shouldn't solicit medical advice from the internet.

OP: You should talk to an actual doctor (your actual doctor) for advice. Not ask a group of people who are going to tell you everything from "smoke pot" to "there's no such thing as mental illnesses".

Right on! I don't understand why they don't just contact their doctor and tell him "it's not working, I'm still anxious all day long!" and see what the doctor has to say. Who knows, maybe it takes a certain amount of time to kick in.

It takes SSRIs 2-4 weeks to work. Aside from that, I think the first SSRI a person tries is only effective 30% of the time. It takes a while to find one that works. Zoloft (sertraline) is the mainline SSRI for anxiety issues.

 

[geauxtohell]

I think it was pot that created my panic syndrome in the first place. Anything that has any chance of making a person worse should be avoided. It's not worth it.

Everything has some chance of making a person worse, so avoid all things.


But - since you have tried it, you thus have gained the right to knock it.

My experience as a young person who tried pot, was that it makes me extremely paranoid, and that's the last thing I would recommend to anyone having significant anxiety problems.

I don't use anything to treat any psychological problem except for problem-solving itself. If you are anxious, there is a reason for that anxiety, and it can be confronted head-on with adequate effort in the right direction. If you confront the problem and resolve the causes, the anxiety will dissipate. Same with depression. If you understand the basis, and not focus on the effects, you can eventually resolve the psychological issues which are causing the depression, thus alleviate it altogether. I'm not implying that it is easy, because the opposite is true. It's the most difficult undertaking of my life, and it took 12 years, but the cure is worth the effort.

You didn't hear? Pot is the magical cure-all drug. Just ask the proponents of the medical marijuana canard.

You know what else works well for anxiety? Booze. Though, there are obvious problems with walking around drunk (or otherwise impaired) to manage your anxiety. You are really just masking the problem and not treating it. The right approach is a combination of medication and therapy. That's not my opinion alone, it's the opinion of the medical establishment.

 

[lizzie]

This post stands as a glaring example of why you shouldn't solicit medical advice from the internet.

OP: You should talk to an actual doctor (your actual doctor) for advice. Not ask a group of people who are going to tell you everything from "smoke pot" to "there's no such thing as mental illnesses".

Right on! I don't understand why they don't just contact their doctor and tell him "it's not working, I'm still anxious all day long!" and see what the doctor has to say. Who knows, maybe it takes a certain amount of time to kick in.

It takes SSRIs 2-4 weeks to work. Aside from that, I think the first SSRI a person tries is only effective 30% of the time. It takes a while to find one that works. Zoloft (sertraline) is the mainline SSRI for anxiety issues.

There was a comprehensive study done within the past couple of years (sorry, but can't remember who did the study now), which implied that one of the problems for the failure rate with many anti-depressants is that they largely have a placebo effect, unless the patient is seriously depressed, as opposed to mildly depressed. Iow, most of the people who take them probably don't really need them. The ones who have a truly organic basis for their depression were more likely to benefit from them long-term.