Page 1 of 2 [ 19 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

endersdragon34
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 11 May 2015
Posts: 126
Location: Utah

19 Aug 2015, 10:21 pm

At my job (which is sorta my dream job) I have been having issues with anxiety. So far I have been fine at the job... but when I get home I turn into a stimmy mess. I have been thinking about this for a while (had some issues with anxiety attacks). So was just wondering if anyone knew effective drugs for this to ask a doctor about.



nurseangela
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 27 Nov 2014
Gender: Female
Posts: 8,017
Location: Kansas

20 Aug 2015, 12:21 am

They can put you on Xanax or Ativan, but those are very addictive. A mood stabilizer drug or antidepressant may be better. I had been put on Depakote (which was made for seizures) and that stabilized my moods, but that was 20 yrs ago. I'm sure they have other drugs they use now. I would probably just ask about the mood stabilizers and antidepressants first. Exercise might also help once you get home from work to decrease panic attacks.


_________________
Me grumpy?
I'm happiness challenged.

Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 83 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 153 of 200 You are very likely neurotypical
Darn, I flunked.


B19
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Jan 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 9,993
Location: New Zealand

20 Aug 2015, 4:22 am

Anything that raises levels of the neurotransmitter GABA in the brain will lower/attenuate anxiety. There are some old threads on this and you could also google that if you are interested.



goldfish21
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 17 Feb 2013
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Posts: 22,612
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada

20 Aug 2015, 10:10 pm

Epsom salts. On your skin. Especially the bottoms of your feet where you absorb them most. Lotion form is most convenient, but just in water will do. Even a foot soak for a few hours in the evening will likely yield a positive result. Seriously.

You'll absorb the magnesium sulphate, and in turn that will allow your body to detox acid buildups via urination (drink plenty of water, too.) and your anxiety levels will plummet. Mine did within the first 5 days of doing this back 2-3 years ago. I then learned and have done a LOT more to treat myself, but in terms of a quick solution for anxiety.. try it - it costs pennies and is infinitely healthier than pharmaceutical drugs.


_________________
No :heart: for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.


B19
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Jan 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 9,993
Location: New Zealand

21 Aug 2015, 4:38 pm

Here's some more information on raising the neurotransmitter GABA to alleviate anxiety:

http://www.vitalityandwellness.com.au/h ... -naturally



starfox
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Mar 2015
Posts: 1,012
Location: United states of Eurasia

21 Aug 2015, 4:48 pm

Valerian root? You don't need a prescription. Or try mindfulness or yoga


_________________
We become what we think about; since everything in the beginning is just an idea.

Destruction and creation are 2 sides of the same coin.


olympiadis
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 Jun 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,849
Location: Fairview Heights Illinois

21 Aug 2015, 10:49 pm

I recently started taking a GABA supplement and my anxiety is mostly gone now. It has been about ten days so far so I'll have to see how long this lasts.
I get my supplements from Vitacost.



B19
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Jan 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 9,993
Location: New Zealand

22 Aug 2015, 6:17 am

In my experience, the Gaba boost effect from taking clonazepam, continues to have an effect for up to 6 months, and then you may have to switch to another kind of booster (there are many, like brown rice, some amino acids and other things). Another important thing is that for us, low doses are effective but high doses are not. After about 6 months, I found the effect tailed off - apparently the brain gets lazy (habituates) and decides "Since I have a reliable source of GABA coming in for free, why go to the bother of making it myself?" So the total level in the brain actually falls at that point, even though you are taking the same thing in the same amount. A mistake people make at this point is to take more to try and get the effect back - that doesn't work at all. If you want to continue with clonazepam, you have to come off clonazepam for a while and after about two months, you can restart it with the same dramatic effect.

A book I found immensely useful was "The Edge Effect" by Eric Braverman - he provides very useful tests in it that you can do to assess the relative levels of all four transmitters (GABA, dopamine, acetylcholine and serotonin) so that you can measure which are dominant and which are deficient at any time - and he provides some comprehensive information on how to raise the deficiency levels by various means (amino acids, herbs, foods, vitamins, drugs like Gabapentin) and in what amounts to use the various neurotransmitter boosters. There is a wealth of information in it, though if it has a weakness, I think his knowledge of different amino acids and their uses for raising GABA is not as extensive as some other writers.

Clonazepam's advantage from my experience is that it works faster than any other substance (within half an hour). I use it spasmodically rather than everyday now, and there are no more habituation effects. Braverman sells a special GABA boost compound called BeCalm though I haven't tried it (unfortunately importing GABA without prescription is illegal in New Zealand). It is available in the USA and I would be interested in feedback from anyone who has used it. There are a lot of studies on GABA deficiency in autism and I wish this knowledge was more widely known; the deficiency seems to be innate in most people on the spectrum, and some scientists have even theorised that autism is, essentially, a GABA deficiency state. Everyone I know who has trialled raising their levels has noted the improvement to their anxiety, in each case the effect was fast and dramatic (as it was for me in the first few months). It made a tremendous difference by boosting my focus and motivation too. It may not work for everyone (we are all individuals) though it certainly made a huge difference to me.



Apple_in_my_Eye
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 7 May 2008
Gender: Male
Posts: 4,420
Location: in my brain

22 Aug 2015, 9:22 pm

I've had some good luck with gabapentin, though it has exacerbated my depression at times (have had to lower the dose at times). I seem to be unusually sensitive to depression as a side-effect, though.

I've also heard of clonidine being used for anxiety. It's not addictive, so if a doc doesn't want to prescribe a benzo or whatever that could be an option. It made me tired, but YMMV.

I've used Kava Kava (an herb which affects GABAA receptors) at times, but for me it's not very strong, even when combined with GABA. There was a scare years ago about it causing liver problems, but I'm not sure what the final verdict was.

An interesting substance I found recently is d-phenylalanine (NOT L-phenylalanine <-- that can *cause* anxiety!). It's an over-the-counter supplement in the USA. It basically magnifies the effects opioids -- including the ones that your brain naturally produces from exercise (and other, erm, activities that lead to the release of beta-endorphin). The feeling is a calm, blissful sort of one. It can stretch that "runner's high." ^*

Someone mentioned transdermal magnesium -- the strength of that has surprised me. I've used Magnesium Chloride (saturated solution on the skin) rather than Epsom Salts, but the direct effects of the magnesium ions should be the same. (Mg ions act sorta-kinda like a natural version of ketamine at NMDA receptors. Though it probably does other things as well.) The only drawback is that it's kind of messy.

As far as the addictiveness of Xanax I think it depends a lot on your individual brain. I've read horror stories about people finding it impossible to stop, but I didn't have a hard time stopping from a fairly high dose (6mg/d). Not that I'm saying that the risk isn't there, but addictiveness seems to depend on the person as much as the drug.

---

^* For the pharmacology nerds: it is thought to inhibit enkephalinase(?), enkephalin being the natural ligand for the opioid delta receptor. When that receptor is activated it increases and prolongs the effects of mu-opioid-activating drugs. (Delta receptor stimulation by itself also has some modest pain relieving effects, but it is limited.) There was some research into this, but for some reason it abruptly stopped. My conspiracy-theory-loving brain thinks that the pharmaceutical companies were behind that. Why have a free substance that someone could take instead of more Oxycontin when you can sell them more Oxycontin?

Proglumide is another fascinating story in that same vein. It was an old ulcer-treating drug that was later found to *prevent the development of opioid tolerance*! You'd think it'd be used all the time, but no one even manufactures it now. So much human misery from people developing sky-high tolerances (both for legitimate and illegitimate reasons) could be prevented with the this old, out-out-patent drug, but the only way to get it is to synthesize it yourself. There must be some pharmaceutical industry collusion involved in that.



Crazyfool
Velociraptor
Velociraptor

User avatar

Joined: 29 Mar 2015
Posts: 470
Location: Bottom of the Abyss

22 Aug 2015, 9:52 pm

I've been on every thing imagineable for my anxiety, the only thing that has really given me any measurable results would be different benzos. Xanax didn't do much for me, I just tried taking some again and 4mg would hardly phase me. Clonazepam and Ativan did wonder though.

Right now I'm on gabapentin, propropanol, hydroxizine and mirtazepine for my anxiety and depression....great combo for depression hardly does a thing to stop panic attacks though.



BrainPower101
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 18 Apr 2015
Posts: 200
Location: West Orange NJ

22 Aug 2015, 10:52 pm

For me only strong prescription drugs worked like Paxil and Effexor XR. And of course the instant relief Benzos Ativan Klonopin that work within minutes..

You should probably use a combination; one approved for social anxiety and a benzo..

Last resort you can try and ask for an MAOI they're super potent and require a strict diet. It's the closest thing you can get to almost Ecstascy/MDMA.. but most doctors won't prescribe them



olympiadis
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 Jun 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,849
Location: Fairview Heights Illinois

22 Aug 2015, 10:59 pm

I noticed that GABA is helping me sleep better. It makes me dream a lot more.
I take it after dinner and before bed.



Ukguy
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 12 Jan 2015
Gender: Male
Posts: 63

23 Aug 2015, 1:59 am

I've tried a lot of medications and found very few work.
I think it depends what your issue is, if it is a combination of depression and anxiety then maybe an antidepressant like Effexor can help. If it is more about the anxiety and feeling socially overwhelmed then maybe something just for anxiety is better.

Ativan is effective for anxiety but has to be used sparingly or it stops working as good. Also some people may get dependent on it..... although I've not found it addictive in the 2 years I've used it.

Doctors love to prescribe mood stabilizers and antipsychotics for ASD and anxiety these days. If you go near a DR there is a good chance you walk away with a prescription for Seroquel or Abilify. I wouldn't touch them myself.



Crazyfool
Velociraptor
Velociraptor

User avatar

Joined: 29 Mar 2015
Posts: 470
Location: Bottom of the Abyss

23 Aug 2015, 7:59 am

Ukguy wrote:

Doctors love to prescribe mood stabilizers and antipsychotics for ASD and anxiety these days. If you go near a DR there is a good chance you walk away with a prescription for Seroquel or Abilify. I wouldn't touch them myself.


Right! I've noticed that too. One doctor had me so pumped up with drugs while I was inpatient, I was like a walking zombie. The antipscychotics are nasty stuff iIMO



Waterfalls
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Jun 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,075

23 Aug 2015, 8:45 am

Yes, I get trying to calm agitated people with heavy hitting expensive drugs. I don't get using them to push for fake normality.



pcuser
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Dec 2014
Age: 74
Gender: Male
Posts: 913

23 Aug 2015, 12:48 pm

olympiadis wrote:
I recently started taking a GABA supplement and my anxiety is mostly gone now. It has been about ten days so far so I'll have to see how long this lasts.
I get my supplements from Vitacost.

I see that this can be purchased online. Please tell us which product you used. I would like to try that. Thanks in advance.