Stopping/Controlling Anxiety by Any Method

I still don’t understand this. I’ve read on some forums that dopaminergic meds may be useful but I found narcotics kinda made my performance anxiety worse unless augmented with benzos and despite what I have seen on here I’ve always thought that drugs effective for SAD like benzos actually decrease DA because of GABAergic effects:

http://www.jneu rosci.org/cgi/r … /12/10/3773.pdf

Look at fig. 1, in particular.

Also the evidence that bupropion is more effective than SSRIs for anxiety disorders is next to nil. In fact, I would say the opposite is true.

I think, both forms of therapy work, just with contradictory premises. People with social anxiety disorder particularly benefit from increased d1/d2 dopamine levels. Most negative reports pertaining to bupropion stem from its structural similarity to cathinones and thus stimulant profile; for this reason it produces an initial un-inhibitation linked anxiety response in a number of patients upon introduction.

For me an analogy I would use (from experience) would be:

Serotonin/GABA modulating therapies limit anxiety via sedatory/numbing mechanisms, dopamine/norepinephrine are therapeutic due to their ability to induce a more driven, aggressive and confrontational state of mind. Thus:

Somebody breaks into your house; a patient suffering from anxiety disorder, without treatment sits in the corner in terror, a patient being treated with a Serotonin/GABA modulating pharmaceutical would watch it all occur with a detached and calm state of mind. The dopamine/norepinephrine patient would reach for the nearest heavy object and proceed to beat the intruder’s head in with wild abandon.

I’ve been using L-Depreynl and Piracetam to deal with my social phobia, so far so good, my only complaint is: increased dopamine contention across the BBB leaves me a little low on serotonin, and thus my mood slightly lower than normal. I’ve found an 800mg dose of L-Tryptophan mid-afternoon alleviates the issue.

I thought I would talk a little bit about the history of my anxiety and panic attacks. I have always experienced minor social anxiety since I was young, but it was never disabling me. As a teen, I used to smoke lots of marijuana and also experimented with alcohol. This helped me cope with the social anxiety at the time. At 18 years old, I started to experiment with Ecstasy (MDMA). The stuff was like a miracle drug for me because it just turned me into a social butterfly. After I started partying once in a while, I noticed that I started to get general anxiety and also I would get paranoid when smoking pot. The general anxiety I was able to treat with exercise and healthy eating, and the previous minor social anxiety I would treat by drinking alcohol before facing social situations. As my party career continued, I realised the MDMA was really contributing to the anxiety in my life. I pretty much cut down to partying only a couple of time a year.

All was fine and dandy until my ex girlfriend and I, decided that while we are young (22) we should pay a visit to the infamous party island, Ibiza. During this trip we drank excessively and did lots of MDMA. This pretty much set of my first panic attack ever. I thought that I was loosing my mind, it was very frightening. Later, I realised that it was a panic attack. This was two summers ago, and since then I have completely stopped doing E. That year I had pretty severe anxiety and panic attacks but I was not ready to get professional help. My panic attacks would mostly happen in lectures at school. After running away from class a few times, I learned to cope with them. I also learned to go out and party with my friends without the help of anything, not even alcohol. Then I got back into drinking again, which was ok because I was drinking to enjoy myself and not to curb my anxiety.

All was going pretty good, until my anxiety started coming back this summer. There could be several causes for it. One, I had an MDMA session in May, first time in 2 years. Two, I rode a motorcycle all summer 1 hour each way to work (in rush hour traffic through the downtown core of a major Canadian city), this could have fried my nerves a little bit. Three, I had a motorcycle accident which might have also contributed to my anxiety in the form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The thing is that I got back on my bike after two weeks and had no problem to continue riding to work.

I am now finished school and working a full time job. I really don’t like this job because it is absolutely boring and not intellectually stimulating but I am sticking around because there is good opportunity to advance to a high paying sales role. Anyway, after having a panic attack at work, I decided that it was time to stop drinking. This was over two months ago. I do not really feel general anxiety, but I do get panic attacks which are not that severe. Since there is no more alcohol to make me calm in social environments I get very anxious before social gatherings, so anxious that I get physical symptoms.

I was dealing my always emerging panic attacks at work by breathing, music, and going for walks every break. This was definitely not an enjoyable couple of months as the entire time I was looking forward to the weekend to relax and not be stressed. Then last week I had another full blown panic attack at work which made me go home half way through my shift.

At this point, I decided that it is time to face the music and get some professional help for my anxiety issues so that I can function as a normal 24 year old and live life to the fullest without any stupid irrational fears. So as the doctor directed me, I had my last 50 mg of Zoloft on Monday night. Skipped yesterday and I am planning to start the Cipralex tomorrow morning. Here is the thing though, for the 5 days that I was using Zoloft, I felt terrible general anxiety. Last night and today, I am feeling great. Damn it feels good to be normal, but tomorrow I will still stick with the treatment that was prescribed to me.

I also wanted to add that the Ativan that was prescribed to me, may not be the best idea as I do have a tendency to enjoy recreational drug use. Now that I have the Ativan in my house, I am actually quite curious about its effects. I am more mature now then before so I should be able to control myself. I will take the advise of others and keep it for emergency situations only.

If this is true then SSRI’s probably are no use to me. I take GABA supplements before I go to the gym and I end up with some pretty full on side effects (elevated resting heart rate ~120bpm up from ~75bpm, increased blood pressure, slight nausea and minor shakes.)

Milkman, your story (of anxiety and substance abuse) is a lot like mine.

I feel like my nervous system has a resting level way above the average. So the normal anxieties/excitement and sensory stuff that the average may experience makes me go overboard. I need numbing/sedatory agents just to bring me back down to normal. My resting heart rate is on the somewhat high side but it rises very quickly with the smallest stress. I really feel very much sympathetic to the “intense world” hypothesis of autism, even though I don’t have autism. I kinda feel like a squirrel trapped in a human’s body as the smallest noise, smell, thought, social stress, etc. makes me feel like my heart is going to come out of my chest. When I young and I wrestled, before each match, I thought I was going to faint. My body would be trembling. It was torture but I did it because I preferred it to team sports.

Bohm, I definitely wouldn’t recommend any kind of dopamine increasing agent then.

Have you looked into Gotu Kola and Bacopa? I find both of these herbs to be relaxing, both have proven mechanisms of actions, rather than just the say so of a woman in Africa with an oversized earlobe.

No, I’ve become very skeptical of most herbs. I have tried valerian and passionflower before though. Useless. Kava and passionflower have the most research evidence but I question a lot of the herb research. Not as useless as homeopathic stuff but pretty close.

So, I have been taking my cipralex for almost 30 days now. I really cannot tell if it is working or not since I am mostly home and not going to work, where I was getting my panic attacks originally. I am feeling quite cheery lately so it might be from the medications. Aside from the medication, I have been going to a therapy group which will hopefully have some benefits for me over the long run.

There is one issue that I am experiencing right now and that is a lack of sex drive. I used to have a very high sex drive, I would constantly be interested in sex. My girlfriend loved this because I would make her orgasm once or twice a day, every day. Now, I am simply not interested in sex anymore. The girlfriend initiates sex everyday (something that is amazing and has never happened to me before) but as we do foreplay I simply get bored of the whole thing. I feel like sex is a chore.

We have discussed this together but she is having a hard time excepting this, she is upset that my sex drive has dropped and that hers is peeking right now. I get extremely irritated every time we try to have sex because it is not fun for me. It makes me feel bad about myself. I really hope that my sex drive will comeback to normal.

What’s your dose of cipralex Ethemilkman? My current dose is 10 mg. Sex drive decrease is one of the side-effects of all SSRIs. I think it’s because of the emotional blunting some experience with SSRIs. I’m kinda lucky because I haven’t experienced any such sexual side-effects.

What’s your dose of cipralex Ethemilkman? My current dose is 10 mg. Sex drive decrease is one of the side-effects of all SSRIs. I think it’s because of the emotional blunting some experience with SSRIs. I’m kinda lucky because I haven’t experienced any such sexual side-effects.

Dose is 10mg

I have a big update to this thread. After my child was born my anxiety went through the roof. But my wife was off work, and I needed to work and make money. It was very easy to get an Rx for Celexa, and this time I stuck with it for a year.

I kept the job, even under stressful conditions, and I am sure I would have quit it if I didn’t have the SSRI taking the edge off.

Trouble is, it also led to:
1. inability to orgasm, or if I was able to orgasm after a herculean effort, the orgasms were only slightly more pleasurable than sneezing
2. general flattening of emotions; less anxiety, but no happiness and enjoyment, either
3. strength loss and weight gain, even while continuing to hit the gym 3x/week and not changing my diet
4. aggression/rage issues

I have been off the drugs for 2 years now, and it has taken me that long to lose the 40 pounds I gained. I still have work place anxiety, and generalizaed anxiety, and social phobia, but I told my wife I will never do SSRIs again. For me, the “cure” is worse than the disease.

That’s what studies seems to show lately actually.

Have you tried 5htp CB? I was skeptic but had some nice effects on many people suffering of anxiety that I know first hand.

I have a bottle of it, but haven’t really tried it except maybe a couple times. But I will read up on it and possibly give it a shot, if it looks promising.

RIght now I am at a lower stress job, but that contract will end in a week. But because the stress has been low, my anxiety is low, so I haven’t needed any immediate relief.

I am getting by now on going to the gym (huge stress relief for me), and deep, slow paced breathing for 8 minutes a day. No prescriptions at all, though I do take a ton of supplements for general health.

In a few days I have an appointment at a Mood Disorder Clinic, which should lead to some sort of therapy.