What anxiety meds worked for you?

[Sunflower318]

I have been dealing with anxiety for a long time. I think I'm going to give in and ask the dr for meds. I'm on birth control which I know makes my anxiety worse, but I dont want to go off the pill. I remember once I was on paxil but I only took it for a few days because it made me feel horrible. Like physically weird and fuzzy and I had really bad thoughts. Like stuff I would never think about doing. Are all anxiety meds like this?

[keta]

Hi Sunflower
not all meds’ are the same. I m on Citalopram for anxiety, have been on and off for years. All initial side effects are not very pleasant however with antidepressants you have to stick it out and it takes good 8 weeks for them to kick in properly.
if you really feel like meds is your only option speak to your doctor about what he would recommend.

[brucealmighty]

Hi sunflower, I was also on citalopram 40mg to start then 20mg for years. Hang on in there as keta says it takes 6-8 weeks to settle but after that you'll be ok.
I also had seroxat years ago but had awful reactions to it. Diazepam worked well if I was very uneasy too.
Hope you feel better soon and best wishes for Christmas 👍😊

[Sunflower318]

Like how bad is it to adjust to new meds? I have kids to take care of so I cant sit in bed feeling terrible for 8 weeks. Last time I took them I remember they made my body feel like it was super shaky and I always yawned. I could ever take them for more then a week and I gave up. But I do feel like my life could be better on them since my anxiety is a problem
It's just the adjustment period that I dont want.

[Limeslime]

I asked for recommendations on medications too but got no replies. I’ll tell you my experiences:

Sertraline (Zoloft) 50mg.
First week I had some headaches and tiredness, but bearable. (I had a 3yr old and was still able to look after him with no problems)
It wasn’t a quick fix, it was a slow burner...the longer I was on them, the better my anxiety was. I was on them for 10 months in total, and they probably saved my life as I was in such a terrible state when I started on them and had begin making dangerous decisions!
Anyway, I gained 2st on them, lost sex drive completely, and felt my emotions were very capped, so whilst they prevented me feeling too low, I also couldn’t feel very happy or excited etc. I was just capped at feeling ‘ok’.
I came off them cos of the side effects.

Citalopram (Celexa) 20mg
I went into these straight after sertraline, so I didn’t notice any initial side effects. It was milder on the anxiety than sertraline, but I liked that. I didn’t feel as numb, and felt more in control of my emotions, but still with some help from the medication, if that makes sense.
The weight gain stopped, but my sex drive was still at zero. The only new side effect I got was cystic acne.
But after only 3 months on these, I felt well enough to come off medication all together!!
Unfortunately I came off them cold turkey, instead of weaning off gradually and my HA came back!

Venlafaxine (Effexor) 75mg
A year later I’ve accepted I need help again, and my GP prescribed these.
However, I’ve had them for 2 weeks and haven’t taken one yet as the reviews are too scary!
Apparently the side effects are awful, and getting off this medication is comparable with getting off hard drugs!
So I think I’m gonna go back to my GP and ask to try something else!