Posted , 6 users are following.
I have severe anxiety and panic attacks. Am on 40mg citalopram for 4 month with no improvement. Doc just gave me diazepam. Its not helping and is making me have more attacks.. Anyone else experienced this...
1 like, 17 replies
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lucy1969 sarah94324
Posted
Hi Sarah
I'm sorry you are experiencing this. It could be worth trying a different antidepressant for your anxiety before trying benzos. Some antidepressants are particularly good at helping with anxiety. I believe fluoxetine is good for anxiety as is venlafaxine.
There are also other meds you could try if you haven't already - propranolol is a beta blocker which is commonly used for anxiety.
As you will be aware, benzos are serious drugs and highly addictive. BUT sometimes our anxiety can be extreme enough to warrant their use, particularly if you have tried everything else. If you are struggling with diazepam it would probably be worth trying a different one such as alprazolam (Xanax) or lorazepam (Ativan).
Only you know how badly your anxiety is affecting you so please don't feel bullied into any decision, you need to weigh up the pros and cons against your current situation.
Are you also receiving some kind of therapy or counselling? If not, please do look into this to try to get to the bottom of why you are feeling like this rather than just treating the symptoms. Mindfulness and breathing techniques can also really help and there are many good phone apps to help with this - I use one called Insight Timer which is great (and free!)
Good luck, let us know how you get on.
blu70789 sarah94324
Posted
I have problems with MRIs and have had diazepam increase my anxiety so much that I began crawling out of the MRI tube. So the next attempt I was given lorazepam and along with not helping my anxiety one iota, I also began convulsing in both arms and legs once in the tube. So I'm not sure why this happens to me on benzos but I always thought I was the only one. I wonder if I need a higher dose but haven't tried that yet.