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Propranolol advise please.

Posted , 7 users are following.

alison49177
alison49177

I am proffessional 39 year woman who has for the first time been signed off work and been prescribed propranolol for anxiety. 10mg to take as and when I need to. I was prescibed this on friday last week. I have yet to pluck up the courage to take these tablets as Im worried they will make me feel strange and so trigger another anxiety attack. I am constantly feeling sick and cannot function with normal everyday tasks anymore.I have read so many positive things about these tablets...why cant I just take one??? please help. advice.

0 likes, 35 replies

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  • morgan35312
    morgan35312 alison49177

    Posted

    Hi there, I had severe anxiety after my first child and I was prescribed propranolol. It was a miracle pill. I don't take medicine. I am a lite weight when it comes to drugs. I don't even take Tylenol for a headache. Propranolol just takes the edge off. You won't feel weird or drugged, just calmer. I take 20 mg twice a day and that is considered a very low dose. Just take it. You will be so glad you did.
    • morgan35312
      morgan35312 alison49177

      Posted

      Takes about an hour to start to slowly feel yourself calm down. If you just get busy doing something else you won't even notice it doing anything. It doesn't hit you hard, it's just a gradual calming. You won't feel drugged or weird or "out of it". You'll just feel more like you did before the anxiety.
    • morgan35312
      morgan35312 alison49177

      Posted

      I'm 35 and a working mom. If if were not for the propranolol I wouldn't have been able to come back to work after my baby was born.
    • morgan35312
      morgan35312 alison49177

      Posted

      It will absolutely NOT cause you to have more anxiety. I have anxiety about taking medicine and this one doesn't bother me at all. I took a decongestant for a cold a few weeks ago and that caused me anxiety because of the way it made me feel. You won't feel strange on propranolol. 10 mg is a VERY VERY low dose.
    • alison49177
      alison49177 morgan35312

      Posted

      morgan, A huge thankyou. After reading your replies I plucked up the courage to take a pill. I went round to my mums with the kids and took the pill while I was there. My anxiety levels were huge after taking it but after about 20 mins i felt myself getting calmer. Its now been about five hours and i still feel a lot calmer than I have done in ages.Iplan to wake up early and take the next one while my partner is still here in the morning before he goes to work.The fact that its not made me worse is truely amazing!! Thankyou for taking the time to respond to me, you may just be responsible for changing mylife. I would like to keep this thread going if possible just till im fighting fit, how ever long that takes. Thankyou thankyou thankyou Ali xxxx
    • morgan35312
      morgan35312 alison49177

      Posted

      Great! So glad you're feeling better!

      If 10 mg doesn't completely bring you back to normal ask if you can go to 20. 20 is still a very low dose.

      It's really easy to feel alone in severe anxiety, because the people around you can't understand why you can't control it. My daughter's pediatrician told me about propranolol when I took her for her 1 month checkup. I believe they would have committed me into a looney bin if I hadn't found this medicine. I'm scheduled to start weening myself off of it in February.

      Good luck and let me know if you have any more questions.

      Morgan

    • alison49177
      alison49177 morgan35312

      Posted

      Hiya Morgan. This is now day three. I took 10mg the first day at my mums and felt better but I woke up in the morning unable to get my head off the pillow. I took another 10mg that day (yesterday) and felt better all day. I even went to bed feeling well and that's not happened in ages. I've woke up this morning feeling sluggish but nowhere near as bad as yesterday. I've just took another 10mg and I'm waiting for it to kick in. Here's my question. I'm waiting till I feel anxious to consider taking another pill. After taking one yesterday at 10.15am that's all I needed as the anxiety didn't return till this morning. I could have taken two more yesterday if I had done what the packet says, three per day. The doctor told me to take as and when I need them. I worried sick about building up some kind of reliance on these tablets and you have said in your reply that you are about to start 'weeing' yourself off these on Feb. The thought of that terrifies me. The factor told me they are not dependent and 'as and when' is ok??
    • morgan35312
      morgan35312 alison49177

      Posted

      They are not addictive. There is more I want to tell you but I need to feed the baby. I'll get back to you as soon as I'm done.

      Morgan

    • morgan35312
      morgan35312 alison49177

      Posted

      HI there,

      A few things....

      Propranolol is not an addictive drug, however over time your body will get used to it if you take it every day and you'll need to ween off. Again you are on a VERY low dose. Some people take 80mg/day. I take 40mg/day. 1 tablet in the morning and 1 at night.

      Prop. can make you lathargic because it lowers your blood pressure which is usually a good thing because anxiety can cause your BP to rise. Has your BP been high during anxiety attacks?

      My BP was high after giving birth, so prop was a "two birds with one stone" situation. It lowered my BP and calmed the anxiety. My BP is anxiety driven.

      I'M NOT A DR, but if it were me this is what I would do. It takes about 12 hours for prop. to wear off...unless you're taking the slow release and I don't think that you are if they are 10 mg tablets. I would take one in the morning and take another at the same time at night for a while until you are calm around the clock. You would be surprised how much less anxiety you will have just simply because you haven't panicked in a while. It's a viscious cycle...get a little anxiety, then it ramps up because your anxious that your anxious and round and round you go.

      I would get a home BP cuff and take your BP a couple of hours after taking a pill. If your BP is normal or high then I would continue to take one in the morning and one in the evening until you feel calm around the clock.

      Again, you are on the lowest dose prescribable and this method of taking it is totally safe. When you've had a few weeks of being calm you can take the 10mg in the morning only for a few weeks and then nothing. I can't imagine your body having a difficult time with the weening as it is only 10 mg.

      If your BP is good then the sleepiness in the morning could just be that you are getting good rest for the first time in a while. The only sleeping issue I had was that I was have very weird dreams for the first couple of weeks of taking it. I have no sleeping or waking issues now. Just like any drug your body will take some time to get used to it. I would bet that in a couple of weeks you have no side effects at all.

      Hope this helps and let me know if you have more questions.

      Morgan

    • alison49177
      alison49177 morgan35312

      Posted

      Hiya Morgan. Thankyou for continuing to reply to me. I really really appreciate it. The way I feel today I would say the tablet I have taken at 10.40am simply hasn't worked. I just feel tired and weak and anxious. I have had my blood pressure taken only once throughout this situation and that was by the nurse who suggested I see the doctor who could prescribe the prop and at that point she put the very very slight elevation down to the fact I was sat with her having blood tests done etc.The doctor, which I saw two days later didn't take my blood pressure. So I have no idea if my blood pressure is up, normal, or down?? I think it's definitely a good idea to buy a blood pressure bracelet as you suggest and I will order on online this afternoon. Given the fact we don't know if my pressure is affected right now, would you still suggest taking morning and night? I think it's a good idea to regulate the amount. I'm seriously on the edge of despair right now. I have a big family to look after and a job interview on Thursday next week and my life has ground to a halt. My fella is currently doing everything which completely stresses me out and all I want to do is run and hide at my mums. How long have you been taking these? Are you functioning well? Is there a danger if reducing blood pressure, or heart rate too much? These are the things I'm panicking about.
  • anita32004
    anita32004 alison49177

    Posted

    Hi, Alison,

    Do not be frightened of taking this pill.  I was a mess mentally.  Second nervous breakdown, and first suicide attempt.  2014-2015 were not good years for me.  But, when I took the Propranolol (20 mg., 3x/day at first, now 2x/day), I finally felt calm.  My blood didn't feel like it was carbonated.  I couldn't believe the difference.  Please, do yourself a favor and try it.  You may be very surprised!  Good luck to you!

    • alison49177
      alison49177 anita32004

      Posted

      Anita, a million thanks for taking the time to reply to me, your words have really made a difference. I have taken the first pill. I was a nervous wreck but I knew I had to do something and your encouragement made the difference. Im so glad you seem to have found something thats working for you, it does sound like you have been through hell recently. But even after the first pill i feel alot better and the fact that It didnt kill me as I imagined it would prooves that sometimes you have to jump. You helped me jump. I hope that the relief I feel right now, five hours after taking the pill is the start of my recovery. A huge huge thankyou to you. This is also my first time on a forum thingy. I like it. With one question I have recieved to responses of encourage that have already made a difference to my life. Thankyou thankyou xxxxx
  • anita32004
    anita32004 alison49177

    Posted

    By the way, I felt the benefits of the drug in about a half hour!
    • alison49177
      alison49177 anita32004

      Posted

      thirty minutes for me too. I was proper panicking but yes after about thirty minutes my heart was no longer beating out of my chest. Thankyou. xxx
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