Medication

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Would like to know what medication people have found helpful with anxiety and OCD. My son has tried Mirtazapine and Citalapram but these don't seem to help.

Paradoxically, for me, I have found no medication to have been the most beneficial.

I have found the paleo diet to be most helpful, but I also:

Weaned myself off of Mirtazapine (vile drug that gave me nasty side effects and caused a lot of weight gain),
Stopped smoking (nearly a year ago)
Keep my intake of caffeine low,
Consume alcohol infrequently (if at all, booted that out of my diet about 4 weeks ago, just after new year, decided to spend my money on a digital piano and learn to play instead)

I also avoid any kind of illegal drug (they never were my thing) and avoid taking painkillers or any kind of medication where I can (basically I take nothing like that unless I have no other option, not even for acid reflux. I use natural methods only).

I don't presently use supplements either as I try to get all the vitamins and minerals I need via diet and getting fresh air outside in sunlight (Vitamin D) if possible (not too long you don't want to burn, which isn't an issue for me in the UK at the moment and the UK winter time is the only time I'd consider supplementing my diet with Vitamin D in artificial form).

And as part of my paleo lifestyle I stopped consuming foods with additives/preservatives/artificial sweeteners/msg and limited foods containing processed sugars to occasional treats only (ie ice cream on a Saturday) as well.

PN if you eat a lot of fish select varieties that are low in methylmercury as this is a neurotoxin and it's not really good for you, however, the Omega 3 oils they contain are essential!

My diet is based on FRESH meats, FRESH fish, FRESH fruits, FRESH nuts, seeds and FRESH vegetables with some limited goats dairy thrown in (excluding my saturday ice cream treat which is cows dairy or the occasional cappuccino if I am out). I drink mostly mineral water and decaffeinated coffee with the occasional fruit/herbal/peppermint tea or smoothie thrown in. Oh and I also drink Cocovita at weekends for a treat (only limited to weekends because it is not cheap but is incredibly nice...coconut water basically, yummy!! !! !!).

Emphasis there on FRESH!! !! !! !! !

It mostly works for generalised anxiety. Situational anxiety is a little different.

It has stopped most physical symptoms usually related to anxiety though.....no palpitations, pins and needles, hyperventilation or shortness of breath, no dizziness, less blurring of vision (do need glasses sometimes for a convergence insufficiency though), very few if any muscle spasms, no snapping band sensations under the skin or numb patches...etc

Improved healing speed especially if I lay off the grains, particularly wheat.

Less stomach pain, less acid reflux, less diarrhea.

Fewer headaches, less fatigue, more energy, improved sleep.

Took me two years to adjust my lifestyle though between coming off meds and quitting smoking and changing my diet etc. I am still tweaking now....

By the way mirtazapine gave me OCD like side effects that have gone away now. I like routines but not the kind where I have to stand there flicking light switches to counts of 4 until I get a blister on my finger. Nor do I get intrusive thoughts very often these days and they are weak when they do appear (fading out). The OCD type stuff drove me nuts as it was absolutely ridiculous. How in the hell flicking the light switch repeatedly to sets of 4 would prevent bad things from happening I will never know!! !! ! It left me feeling exasperated. If anything all it did was blow a lot of light bulbs!

I don't have those problems now. They went away when I came off all the chemicals. Yay.

PS I also exercise...weight lifting (sometimes), swimming (nearly daily), yoga (3 or so times a week depending on what else I have done), dancing etc.

For me it's the highest doze of fluoxetine, however it's very individual. I tried another one for awhile but it didn't affect me whatsoever and people I know with similar issues as mine have got completely different ones.

I have to second bumble, no meds is best for me.

meditation, yoga, learning breathing techniques so when tense situations occur and it seems like a panic is going to happen I know to sit and ride it out.

other anxieties and things I work through, OCD can be used to just keep my apartment REALLY clean

my life has gotten much better not eating processed foods and going gluten free. Being organic Vegan was also a real help.

can recommend diazepam for the anxiety,assuming its severe,doubt the doctors woud prescribe it for any other level of anxiety.
its fast acting so good for taking when the situation starts,but doesnt last to long.

its from the benzo group and for many people it is only a short term solution because of its dependancy qualities however am a long time user of it due to severe challenging behavior and anxiety from change.
mine is regular and PRN use, taken at morning and night every day and have got two to play around with throughout the day.

I am on an SSRI (zoloft) for mild depression and general anxiety. I also take Seroquel (at a very low dose) for sleep, to help slow my thoughts, not for psychosis. I also take melatonin to help me sleep.

If I have an anxiety attack I some xanax if needed. I rarely need it with the zoloft and regular sleep schedule.

My 14 yr old son takes Risperdal for meltdowns. Abilify for anger control. Clonidine for insomnia. Zoloft for depression. Valium to help fall asleep.

That seems like a lot, but each medication is a very small amount. (Like cutting the pills into 4 sections etc...)

We tinker with the meds all the time to get just the right combination for him to feel comfortable, be happy and be productive.

He has been on meds since age 8. Without the meds he would probably not be in school, and he would be miserable, crying, anxious etc... most of the time.

I found meditation to be the best way. Your anxiety is in your mind; you gotta spend time there, routinely, looking at where the problem is and allowing your attention (training your attention) to shift from the anxiety to some other thing. I found, ultimately, that Buddhist meditation classes (especially in the Tibetan tradition) were really practical, functional, useful and direct. (I leave out the whole 'religious' side of things that these Tibetan traditions are interested in - they're cool with that. There are less religious, and even secular, forms of meditation training, but I didn't find any of them were all that practical or hands on, and I didn't really like the people at them). It took about 6 weeks for me to notice a difference, and about 6 months for other people.

I also started taking buspirone around Christmas, and that's taken the edge off things a little more.

I take Valium for anxiety(diazepam), not even every day...but I did have to have my psychiatrist change the dosage a bit. I found sometimes 5mg isn't enough to calm me in a severe panic attack so now I can take 10mg if needed. I have also found cannabis useful for this purpose...but obviously its not legal some places but studies show it can help anxiety.

Then for some other herbal remedies Valerian has fairly strong anti-anxiety properties, and even though its just an herb caution still should be used it can interact with other drugs and it can be dangerous in too high of a dosage though to get a dangerous overdose you'd probably have to drink a whole tincture bottle of it or drink a crap load of very bitter tea that most people think tastes gross. There is also chamomile, passionflower, hops and lavender those aren't as strong as valarian but can certainly be helpful and as far as I know there are no side effects or anything with those too much is probably still bad for you except I don't know if there is a dangerous amount of chamomille or passionflower.

I find any anti-depressant I have tried doesn't help the depression and just makes me more anxious, so I am thinking anti-depressants make some people more anxious.