Medication for social anxiety.

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So yesterday, I was forced to sit with and converse with some college students I've never met before. I was terrible company. It made me realise something, though. My social anxiety used to be emotion based, but now I'm just mostly afraid of the physical symptoms I get. I wouldn't mind the stuttering too bad. As long as I didn't shake so hard, turn red, and fricken twitch! My neck actually gets a mini seizure it seems, and people DO notice it. It is so embarassing. I've refused to present anything in the longest time. I really can't handle it. And these physical symptoms hinder my social interactions to such an extent.
Would medication be my best bet? My mom refuses to let me, but I really think I should. If I could get over the physical pain of it, the emotional stuff would be easier to overcome.
I'm basically scared of the symptoms I get. Is this a better or worse situation to take meds?

a useful link:
anxiety meds

i had the shaking, "intentional tremor" and sweats in social situations before. i also had hypertension so my doc scripted me some beta blockers [atenolol] which cured both the high blood pressure and the shakes. Beta blockers work by blocking the effects of norepinephrine, a stress hormone involved in the fight-or-flight response. This helps control the physical symptoms of anxiety such as rapid heart rate, a trembling voice, sweating, dizziness, and shaky hands.
you could ask your doc about an "off-label" sub-clinical dose to start, only he would know how high a dose is prudent. but low doses have a benign side fx profile. the drug will affect the physical things but not the emotional worry, for that cognitive therapy would be something to consider, as some folk can't handle the side fx of the other meds. btw, you should be able to see a doc as an adult, and your mother should respect yours and the doc's considered opinion on the subject. it is YOUR life and your body, after all.

take care

What you described is likely a panic attack, which is a step above anxiety. I had them really bad for years, and my symptoms were almost the same(especially the "turning red" part. God I hate that). I was on a few different meds, but I'm 95% sure that the one that did the job, was Seroquel. I have to warn ya, it makes you sorta drowsy and in a haze. But, it did drastically reduce the anxiety/panics attacks,(panic attacks rarely happen anymore, and are pretty mild, when they do) which was worth the trade off, to me. After 2 months or so, you'll become tolerant to the med and won't notice any of the haziness anymore, so it might be worth a shot. I'm sure there are other effective meds too, but, of the ones I've tried, that's the only one that I can say "worked".

I've had a full blown panic attack, this is milder.
Are you still hazy, just dont realise it?

Hi there. Check your PM box

I can see the attraction - I've been having a heavy day at work today - not social anxiety but too many complicated surprises in my work for the day, which is threatening my inalienable human right to go home at 5pm and just generally making me very shaky. Having shaky hands is not good for microbiology......I have to use loads of teeny weeny test tubes and by Jupiter you need a steady hand for that stuff. So the shaking becomes part of a vicious circle - the more I shake, the harder it gets to work to the exacting standards required in a reasonable time, so I shake more, etc.

I know, I should complain or something, but yesterday some a**hole was shouting, and that wound me up and I went and dropped a box of precious samples - they rolled all over the danmed floor and one got lost - my wonderful boss told me not to worry and he's had to do the extra work himself to re-create the missing sample. So my guilt circuit is now in overdrive and I just can't bring myself to stand up for my rights. Also I seem to be the only person in the world who feels strongly that a 9-5 contract is a 9-5 contract.....everybody else seems to take it in their stride when they get forced to work late for no extra pay through no fault of their own. And I'm suspicious that I'm just stuck in rigid thinking mode, i.e. I feel threatened, abused and angry but I can't justify it to a bunch of neurotypicals. Can't even justify it to myself.

So there seems to be no way out via the preferred means of solving the problem using behavioural changes......I've racked my brains to think of clever ways of making the job easier, and I've found a few good ones, but it's not enough to allow me to work in a relaxed way.

Therefore, a drug sounds like a good idea. But beta blockers don't work on me (and I don't like the idea of impotence as a side effect). And I feel that giving in to the bad way the world is treating me, to take scary drugs just so I can cope with a situation I shouldn't damn well have to cope with in the first place.

For social anxiety, I just wouldn't bother, but unlike you I don't get forced into any really frightening social situations, so I've always got the option of avoiding it. If it got so bad that my body started to complain that much, I'd just make for the exit door and suffer nothing worse than a bit of loneliness, which sucks, but I've had worse.

Why do I have to be such a basket case?

Nah, I don't even take the stuff anymore. Once I was convinced that they can be controlled, I was able to control them myself, after awhile. Eventually, I started tapering off the meds, and realized that they weren't necessary anymore, now that i had re-programmed myself to react differently(subconsciously) in those anxious situations.

I was on the same boat with you, Spazzergasm, but I was hiding it before my relatives. I bought some herbal tea and pills without a prescription. During college I discovered, that the less I slept, the less I was scared in social situations. Once before some stupid presentation I forced myself to stay up whole night. Now am married, stay-at-home-mother and have less social situations what makes me better.
I think sometimes you can do it without medication. Time passining may make it easier to bear...