Hello All,
I am new to the program and have posted a couple times under the "general" topic. I am into week 6 of the AA&D program and find it to be of some help. I have chronic anxiety, that is for the most part anticipatory with some panic attacks. I would rate my depression as mild-moderate. I should also mention that I am perimenopausal, which adds fuel to the fire. My doctor started me on a birth control pill, that has helped some and he also prescribed Sarafem (10mg), which I have not started. I have to tell you, I am TERRIFIED of what I hear about the side effects of these drugs. I fear that they will make me feel like I am going to go crazy etc, cause more anxiety etc. My therapist tells me that they have helped many more people then harmed them and my pharmacist told me that Prozac is the number one drug on the market today. He also told me that at 10 mg. I would have very little side effects and to not be afraid of it. I hate feeling the way I do and I try to cope the best that I can. Some days are not too bad and others are more difficult. I have been walking every day and that helps a little and I take 5mg. of Xanax for emergencies. I am married and have two children and I really want to live a life without anxiety and panic. Please, could anyone offer some insight about the SSRI (antidepressant drugs) on the market and if they have helped or caused more misery. I am afraid of what I might read, but I really need to research this. It is possible that therapy and the 15 week program might be able to help me and perhaps, I will not have to resort to taking anything. Thank you so much.

Oh Sunny!!!!

Relax!! You are creating more anxiety than necessary over this issue.

Your doctors know what they are talking about!! In fact, more people are on Prozac than you realize. We hear so much negativity about the SSRI drugs because of the media, yet they are SAFER and have less side effects than the old kinds.

I am taking 5mg of Paxil which is an SSRI. The most I felt from this drug was that "unrealty" feeling and it lasted for about a week. It wasn't severe. In fact, I am not sure it was the medicine at all since anxiety produces some of those same feelings. I did however, have a few sleepless nights but that all went away.

They wanted me to take 20mg of Paxil but I chose to only take 5mg and it's working out just fine for me. I was nervous at first because I didn't know what it was going to do to me but I am just fine.

I would suggest listening to your doctors! If you are afraid of taking the dose they told you to take, then take 1/2. You will however, have to wait 1-4 weeks to feel results.

good luck with your decision making.

Sunnysmile,

Welcome to the forum and the journey!

If a pill was truly the answer to any of this, don�t you think we�d all be taking it?

The Life Extension Foundation reports: "Pills are not the panaceas we've been led to believe they are. Studies have shown that drugs are of no value in treating about 33% of depression cases. In another 33% of cases, the drugs were only a little more effective than placebos (sugar pills.)" What kind of written proof of effectiveness has your own licensed drug-pusher offered you to back up any claims they may make?

The good news is: Mostly all of us sooner or later may find The Midwest Center Program, and others like it, offers more hope for feeling better nowadays than mistreatment at the hands of licensed drug-pushers.

The key to my own successes with The Midwest Center Program came directly from my own willingness to take responsibility and begin seeing this whole thing differently from what the licensed drug-pushers had been trying to sell me on.

Patience and compassion for my self was key while taking that first step of completing the program and being introduced to new tools and techniques that only much later I would come to more fully understand and master. As lesson fifteen describes, going through the program is just a beginning, and completing the program is not an end, but a beginning of a life long practice of the skills and techniques introduced in the program to better manage becoming freer of any anxiety-panic-depression.

I've personally experienced how supplements, drugs and relaxation techniques are only TEMPORARY ways to run from SYMPTOMS that our true self creates so not living authentically becomes a less secure option. I�ve learned my true self didn�t create these symptoms just so some licensed drug dealer could enable me to stay where I am in life: Some words of wisdom I wish someone with the experience I have now would have passed along to me in the beginning.

It is the stated objective for lesson eleven of The Midwest Center Program, �to honestly look at your use of alcohol or other substances that mask reality,� which includes �anti-anxiety� medication and �anti-depressants.� Lesson eleven further states �medication will not change your perfectionist, negative, overly-sensitive personality; your way of thinking and behaving is what causes the problem.�

I understand all the forces at play that make it seem �impossible� to change what�s not working in our professions, relationships, living conditions, etc. when �inconveniently� prompted by anxiety-panic-depression. Back when it seemed inconvenient for me to make changes in my life, I finally caved-in to getting drugs from a �doctor� on the advice of a �therapist� employed by an �HMO.� I believed I was paying them to work for me and thought I was ultimately making the best decisions. But, I now understand this is a much more unique relationship by the simple fact that patients, by their very condition, are not usually in their healthiest state to make decisions: Hence all the successful lawsuits pertaining to their �care�. In addition, it would be a lie to say I was truly capable of making the most SOBER decisions while drugged. So, now in a healthier state, I am aware of how it is I had entrusted my care to nothing more than a licensed drug-pusher on the advice of a lazy-therapist employed by a cheap insurer that now more than ever is allowed to define the ethics of the medical community in our modern society.

My experiences taught me it�s self-defeating for me to use drugs to enable me to stay stuck in whatever�s not working in my life. Even though I started out highly motivated to work at changing things that weren�t working in my life, it was ultimately self-defeating because of the natural tendency to lose motivation to change once the drugs made things comfortable. What happened to me, like most others, is that when the drugs stopped, all of a sudden I found myself stuck in the same place, only ten years later, just as totally unprepared to make any inconvenient changes in my life. That�s why I highly recommend writing down on paper a kind of contracted understanding of goals, etc. with all those involved with the patient�s �care� especially when these drugs are used. If anyone refuses to do this with a patient, well that�s a HUGE warning sign to consider paying close attention to. I�m sorry to report that even taking the extraordinary precaution of putting together a contracted understanding to follow mostly fails. It fails because a drugged patient seems like a content patient and the contract gets tossed or forgotten.

Today, I would consider these drugs only as an alternative to being legally committed to a long-term care hospital. Hopefully I�ll never have such a decision, but even then the hospitalization would seem the better way!

There are lots of websites devoted entirely to sharing personal experiences with various drugs. One such site you may want to consider exploring is Dr. Bob�s

I�ve found �medication� most often may be described as only a DRUG HOLIDAY for those who want to escape from their SYMPTOMS. Working on the all important underlying life issues gets sacrificed when drugs destroy the sense of urgent motivation created for our self with our SYMPTOMS.

Lazy �therapists� especially in HMOs tend to perceive drugged patients as content patients, and may never again challenge you to address the underlying life issues that led to your SYMPTOMS in the first place. Most of us discover the worst possible relapses occur after coming off a drug holiday because our own SOBER coping skills have been allowed to deteriorate. You�ve got to ask: Where will you be when your drug holiday is over?

If you�re going to try to work on your underlying life issues while drugged, then at least go into it with a formal written detailed plan signed by a therapist and licensed drug-pusher: How are you going to be motivated to get something done about your underlying life issues while comfortably on a drug holiday from your SYMPTOMS? How will you consider Discerning the Intention of Anxiety-Panic-Depression? What FORMAL programs do the licensed drug-pushers and their insurers provide to see you through any physical and emotional pain when you need to become completely sober again?

DON�T BE FOOLED! GET IT ALL IN WRITING!!!

Then, enjoy a drug holiday if you want to run from your SYMPTOMS. I have no problem with addressing any life-threatening pain of symptoms, if at the same time the underlying truth is discerned, accepted and acted upon. Think about it: if you physically broke your arm, would you only take pain killers and leave the broken arm alone only to have it develop into some grotesque chronic condition?

Dr Fisher, M.D. of The Midwest Center in lesson eleven writes: �You can�t drink alcohol, smoke, eat sugar, guzzle caffeine and expect to feel like God meant you to feel.� Not having the bias of a doctor, I�d also include all of the other �prescription� drugs pushed on those experiencing the divine blessings of anxiety-panic-depression.

Others and myself discuss �The divine blessings of anxiety-panic-depression� among other things in the thread titled Discerning the Intention of Anxiety-Panic-Depression.

By the way, the following thread on the forum contains some of the most helpful information I�ve found about using and more fully enjoying this forum. While online click on this link here: Look What I Found on the Forum

In closing, let me say it�s my intention to share experiences I wish someone had shared with me in the beginning. I understand that all I may do is share those experiences, and then let go. It�s up to others what they choose to make of them.

Again, welcome to forum and the journey!

Thank you so much for the replies. I guess you could say that what I am really running from is the fear. I think of pending anxiety and scary thoughts all day long. What I really need to do is said in lesson's # 1 and 2, that is, I need to face my fears. I do not know if I can do this successfully without an antidepressant, but I know with certainty that I will never know unless I try. There is great pain in dealing with chronic anxiety. I have days that I don't think that much about it and then I have days that I am consumed by it.
Again, I thank you both for your words of wisdom.

Hi Sunny..hang in there...I too am in the same boat. But remember that we have professionals who will be there if the meds have undesirable side effects. My doctor suggests Effexor for me and with my research it seems to have fewer side effects than the others. Keep me informed and good luck...