is there any medication out there for soical anciety

[xshellyx]

hello i have lived with social anxiety since as long as i can remember probably from around 9 years old. It was anxiety at first now has turned into severe depression as well. I am currently on 20mg of citalopram which helped last year but i came off them for 6 months and back on them but are not helping this time around. I feel it hard to string a sentence together sometimes and jumble my words up. I cant get out of bed and feel shattered all the time. I have not saw my family since christmas and saw my friends about once since then. I live myself and house hold chores are just to much. I really need a better drug to make my social anxiety better and lift my mood please help. :weep:

Also i heard vitamins along with antidepressants can help? has anyone tried this? thanks you

[KDS79]

Hi Shelly

My doctor prescribed me sertaline for social anxiety and depression, I have always tried to stay away from meds but recently I felt I had no choice, I'm on day 10 at the moment and have felt no difference yet but I know they can take 2 weeks to start working

[xshellyx]

oh thats great hopefull they start working for you please let me no how you get on good luck xxxx

[KDS79]

I'm on day 18 of sertaline 50mg (lowest dose)

I wouldn't say I feel great and have no anxiety but I do certainly feel that it has taken the edge off, also I don't feel half as depressed as I did so that's good

[HalfJack]

I'm also on sertraline and it's really really helped me :)

[AnxietyDJ]

Hi Shelly, i'd personally say that with any sort of meds it can be a lot of trial and error and what works for one person, doesn't work so well for the next... The most important thing is finding something that is good for you, rather than thinking too much about what other people say.

Personally, the biggest thing that helped me in the longer term was having weekly CBT sessions... This allowed me to process and think about my anxiety more rationally whilst in the middle of an attack, or in a stressful situation. Meds are great and really help people, but on a longer term scale, I'd always say to try and work through things med-free if you can... The meds only mask the effects you are feeling after all, rather than actually working on making them more manageable. That's just my opinion of course - I was only on meds for around 12 months, so I can't comment too accurately on their longer-term effects, nor would I ever want to sound like I am saying meds are wrong... They are most definitely not and as I said right at the start of the post, you need to find what is best for YOU and you alone.

Hope you start to feel better soon :)

[Tims]

Hey Shelley
Clonazepam is really really effective for social anxiety,most helped me so many times over the years. Yes I've been on them a long time, but I keep my daily maintenance dose to just 0.5mg. If I had to do a presentation in front of 100 people then you can pretty much multiply that dose by 20, but it sure does do the trick unlike any other med out there.

Tims

[Hivenburs]

I have found Sertraline to be great for my social anxiety, I do things now that I have never been before in my life, I can actually speak to people now. I find when it comes to Benzodiazpines, it is not a chance I would ever like to take again

[georgewing]

I was had also good results with sertraline also not so much i work a lot on my mind to get better ,meditation hypnosys etc

[Penrith]

I've tried many drugs over the years, mostly antideppressants which are supposed to relieve anxiety as A 'by-product'. I can honestly say that none of them worked for me.

I have also done a 12 week CBT course, no effect.

I have suffered from social anxienty (phobia) since childhood, believing the that it was shyness and I'd grow out of it, but it got worse as I grew older.

The only drug that has truly freed me from this prison is Lorazepam. The benzodiazipes come with many names so I would imagine they would all alleviate to some degree. The downside to these drugs is that you can become dependant on them. Dependency is a strange word, I would say someone with a heart condition is dependant on his/her drugs but you wouldn't deny them to the patient.

I can honestly say that social anxiety has ruined my life in so many ways and still I cannot recieve enough of the drug that would help. My GP prescribes me 14 1mg tablets per month, 2 tablets free me completely so that means 7 days in a month I'm able to be normal. Sad isn't it?