Propranolol Vs Slow Release Propranolol

[Lonely girl]

I@ve been taking Propanalol for over a year now in small doses daily but am having a really really bad health anxiety spiral atm and wondered if anyone has taken high doses and does it help? The sad thing about health anxiety is it stops you from being able to take anything to help you!

[panic_down_under]

I@ve been taking Propanalol for over a year now in small doses daily but am having a really really bad health anxiety spiral atm and wondered if anyone has taken high doses and does it help?

Increasing the dose may help if you're having adrenaline surges. You'd have to try it to see what effect it will have on the anxiety ruminations.

The sad thing about health anxiety is it stops you from being able to take anything to help you!

True. If therapy is an option that would probably be your best bet. Or you could try starting on a very low antidepressant (AD) dose and ramping it up by small amounts which should greatly reduce if not completely eliminate the initial side-effects. Unlike, propranolol, both therapy and antidepressants can reverse the brain changes which manifest anxiety symptoms.

Health anxiety is on the OCD spectrum and one of the most effective OCD ADs is the Tricyclic Class Antidepressant (TCA) clomipramine (Anafranil). TCAs tend to produce less severe initial side-effects than SSRIs and SNRIs and they are available in very low dose tablets compared to their therapeutic dose range. Most take 100-150mg for optimum results, but the med is available in 25mg tablets which can be easily cut in half. You're unlikely to have much in the way of med side-effects when starting on 12.5mg for the first week and then ramping the dose up by 12.5mg every week or so.

I suggest you discuss your current situation with your GP asap. Unfortunately, doing nothing can be worse in the longer term than treating the disorder for unrelieved anxiety/stress can be far more harmful physically and emotionally.

[Sparkling_Fairy]

I@ve been taking Propanalol for over a year now in small doses daily but am having a really really bad health anxiety spiral atm and wondered if anyone has taken high doses and does it help? The sad thing about health anxiety is it stops you from being able to take anything to help you!

I take the 80mg slow release for 4 weeks now and it really helps me! Not so much mentally, I still have a lot of work to do. But it keeps me physically calm.
Last night I had what I would classify as my first anxiety attack in 4 weeks. I felt a few hot flashes going through me, and a bit like I was going to pass out. But my heart never reached 100 (high 90s, and being used to 60's now that freaked me out for a second until I realized I used to think 90's was slow. So get a grip!) And the other symptoms were also much less than before, and the whole thing lasted about 20 minutes and was over.
So it does really help with keeping my body calm. And that itself is worth it's weight in gold!