Poll on anxiety medicine

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Hello all, this poll is to check how many people have been really helped by anxiety medicine. My son is anxious all the time these days (and stressed) and my husband wants to consider medicines. I am not yet convinced if it will be helpful or put us on another roller coaster.

My son has been doing quite well taking 5-hydroxytryptophan, we've noticed less meltdowns at school and at home, maybe that something to look into?

I'm interested in hearing responses to this as well. My son's anxiety significantly interferes with his life. I'm deeply afraid of medicated him though. I have mixed feelings from being over medicated as a child and from taking more helpful medications as an adult.

I, an adult, take both klonopin and propranolol for anxiety. Klonopin helps a lot, but makes me sleepy and lessens my cognitive ability. Every time I try to get off of it, it's a nightmare. Propranolol helps me avoid shutting down by keeping me at *just before* shutdown mode. Propranolol is very short lasting and I only take it when the embarrassment of shutting down will be worse than shutting down (does that make sense?). Shutting down serves it's purpose and completely avoiding it will only make things worse in the long run. I use it as needed to get through specific social events.

I give my son Valerian root or Chamomile at his request and melatonin to sleep at night. Allowing him ample time to spin helps him reduce anxiety significantly.