About symptoms and medication

[Orange Lightning]

This just crossed my mind, so I'd like to hear as many opinions about it as possible. As we know, anxiety can cause maybe 100 and more symptoms of all types and severities. My question is, if you can treat a symptom with a non-anxiety-related drug, does that mean anxiety didn 't cause it?

Here's a couple of examples. Lots of people with stress get headaches or migraines. I do too, but a dose of 'Migraleve' gets rid of it, whereas Mirtazapine doesn't help. Also taking Gaviscon Advance or a H2 Blocker makes my reflux symptoms slightly better, again Mirtazapine does not help much here.

Does the fact that typical medications improve these very real symptoms probe they are NOT related to anxiety, or do they simply help relieve the stress of the anxiety symptoms? (I hope that made sense? :D)

[Rennie1989]

No. An anxiety disorder is a mental ill, but the effects of the illness cause the symptoms. I can control my breathing enough to start reducing my heart rate to a normal, resting rate but the anxiety is still there. If I have loose stools, caused by anxiety, then taking diarrhea tablets does not mean I've fixed the anxiety, it means I've fixed the symptom.

You can apply this to physical conditions too. I have a back condition that can (and did) give me horrendous pain. If I took my pain killers and the pain went the problem is still there, I've just made it less constricting on my day-to-day life.

It's an interesting theory, mind you.

[Orange Lightning]

Interesting angle, thank you for replying. It may not prove my symptoms are to do with anxiety, but nor does it disprove the theory. I guess only the right test can help, but I 'm having a fiasco about that right now. :p


No. An anxiety disorder is a mental ill, but the effects of the illness cause the symptoms. I can control my breathing enough to start reducing my heart rate to a normal, resting rate but the anxiety is still there. If I have loose stools, caused by anxiety, then taking diarrhea tablets does not mean I've fixed the anxiety, it means I've fixed the symptom.

You can apply this to physical conditions too. I have a back condition that can (and did) give me horrendous pain. If I took my pain killers and the pain went the problem is still there, I've just made it less constricting on my day-to-day life.

It's an interesting theory, mind you.