ok....heres the deal I'm 20 years old I've had panic attacks for the past few months and they get worse and worse. My biggest problem with them is the werid, spacey, drugged feeling I get. Now I barely leave the house because of this feeling and I find it hard to really work the program because I'm so consentrated on this feeling I'm freaked out all the time. I have tried and tried to stop myself from freaking out but I think I need some reinforcement with the werid feeling before I can really participate in the program. My mom has given me all kinds of crap for wanting medication but my dad has the same problems with stress and anxiety and he said it really helps him. He takes these pills everytime hes anxious and it calms him down I don't know the name but he doesn't have to take them everyday. Does anyone have the same problem or did and let me know what they did or which med's really helped them deal. Please let me know as soon as possible.

quote:

Originally posted by ashleyh:
[qb]ok....heres the deal I'm 20 years old I've had panic attacks for the past few months and they get worse and worse. My biggest problem with them is the werid, spacey, drugged feeling I get. Now I barely leave the house because of this feeling and I find it hard to really work the program because I'm so consentrated on this feeling I'm freaked out all the time. I have tried and tried to stop myself from freaking out but I think I need some reinforcement with the werid feeling before I can really participate in the program. My mom has given me all kinds of crap for wanting medication but my dad has the same problems with stress and anxiety and he said it really helps him. He takes these pills everytime hes anxious and it calms him down I don't know the name but he doesn't have to take them everyday. Does anyone have the same problem or did and let me know what they did or which med's really helped them deal. Please let me know as soon as possible.

[/qb]

\

Hello,

All I can say is that anxiety meds are extremely affective like Ativan.

What I would do is talk to your Dad since he will understand it better.

Hey Ash,

Well what's worked for me is Paxil CR and I take a small dosage of Xanax. I was in a deep, deep hole a few months ago and that really helped me out. I also took small baby steps to get myself out. But like Jimp said, talk to your dad and maybe he can give you some guidance and advise. I hope this helps. Oh yeah, don't think too deep about the spaced out feelings, I have those too. Your not alone. But just see it as just anxiety. Also what helped me was changing my attitude. That was the biggest step for me. I'm sure you will be fine once you have some guidance and possibly some meds. But please do the program because it does make a big difference. Any help, e-mail me @ y_damas@hotmail.com. Hang in there!!!

-uknee33

Hi Ashley,
I would like to encourage you to perhaps talk to your parents about looking into a natural route of supplements. I encourage you to read the book Breaking the Grip of Dangerous Emotions by Dr. Janet Maccarro. Which by the way Lucinda Bassett wrote the foreword in this book highly recommending it.
Supplements such as GABA, L-Theanine, and a good multi vitamin, plus a calcium/magnesium supplement have helped me greatly. This along with the program and taking better care of myself of course.
If you decide on trying medication make sure your doctor is monitoring you very closely. I just watched the program PrimeTime and concerned professionals were saying that it is extremely important that anyone under 30 yrs old taking antidepression medications should be monitored very closely by their physicians who prescribed them.
Hope this is helpful and wishing you the best as you continue to seek help and hope.

Ashley,

I know that Grateful suggested Vitamins and other natural remedies which is all good and well,
but even these can have drawbacks and affects that are not good.
I tried some of them on my son and they made him worse, much worse.EVERYONE is different and we all appear to have different chemical makeups to some degree. Sometimes a certain ingrediant in a vitamin can shift the balance from bad to worse EVEN THOUGH the vitamin would be good under normal circumstances.

Ashley,

Also, I would recommend a small dose of Ativan if your symptoms are so bad that you cannot leave the house , as an example.

My son takes Ativan and it is truly a Godsend with anxiety or panic attacks.

Hi Jimp,
I agree that we should closely monitor anything that we begin to try. Even supplements. I do encourage those that try new supplements to begin taking one at a time and monitor how one is doing with each one before moving onto another. Different supplements can contain different ingredients that may not agree with us for different reasons. Though on a whole I believe natural supplements are safer than meds.
I do have a question for you that I'm quite curious about. Could you please tell me what supplements you introduced to your son and which ones didn't agree with him and how? I welcome all the information I can get on supplements and medications, the pros and cons. So if you wouldn't mind sharing I'd really appreciate it.

Please, help! I was experiencing severe anxiety last week and in an attempt to feel better quickly the only dr. that would help me quickly was my gynocologist...sounds crazy but I trust him and have been experiencing more severe PMS symptoms. He prescribed Sarafem (prozac active ingredient). I also followed up with my regular MD and he said that it would help with my anxiety. My question is, will this medication help my anxiety? In the reading that I have been doing it sounds like there are better ones out there. Fortunately, I have an appointment with a therapist and MD who specializes in behavioral medicine next week. But that's next week...not what will get me through tonight. Please help....

Thanks guys for your comments and advice. I have tried alot of natural suppliments and they really didn't help. I have a appointment with a M.D. tomorrow so I will be able to get some med's. I'll let you know how it goes.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimp:
[qb]Ashley,

Also, I would recommend a small dose of Ativan if your symptoms are so bad that you cannot leave the house...
[/qb]

Please, please, please do not attempt to recommend medication over the internet. Only a doctor can prescribe medication. First they do a complete physical and evaluation. No doctor worth his/her sheepskin would even suggest medication over the internet and we shouldn't either. You're likely to get yourself into a peck of trouble saying stuff like this. All we can do to help people is to say whether or not a medication worked for us. We can share our side effects or the lack thereof. We can be supportive of their decisions with medication whatever they may be, but we can't coerce them into a decision one way or the other. This kind of talk really upsets me. I think medications can be wonderful and it's just really great that they are there to help us if we need and/or choose them but we have to watch what we say to others on here, otherwise we're not helping, we're hurting.

Please do remember that this program supports getting off medication when you no longer need it, not getting on it, since only a doctor can do that (and they don't do it over the internet!!!)

ashleyh, please let us know how your doc appt. went today!

Hi Grateful!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Craw:
[qb]

quote:

Originally posted by Jimp:
[qb]Ashley,

Also, I would recommend a small dose of Ativan if your symptoms are so bad that you cannot leave the house...
[/qb]

Please, please, please do not attempt to recommend medication over the internet. Only a doctor can prescribe medication. First they do a complete physical and evaluation. No doctor worth his/her sheepskin would even suggest medication over the internet and we shouldn't either. You're likely to get yourself into a peck of trouble saying stuff like this. All we can do to help people is to say whether or not a medication worked for us. We can share our side effects or the lack thereof. We can be supportive of their decisions with medication whatever they may be, but we can't coerce them into a decision one way or the other. This kind of talk really upsets me. I think medications can be wonderful and it's just really great that they are there to help us if we need and/or choose them but we have to watch what we say to others on here, otherwise we're not helping, we're hurting.

Please do remember that this program supports getting off medication when you no longer need it, not getting on it, since only a doctor can do that (and they don't do it over the internet!!!)

ashleyh, please let us know how your doc appt. went today!

Hi Grateful!!!![/qb]

Craw,

Apparently you did not read what Ashley was asking. She was asking for advice in her quote:

quote:

ASHLEY--Does anyone have the same problem or did and let me know what they did or which med's really helped them deal. Please let me know as soon as possible.

At which I responded with my quote:

quote:

Ashley,

Also, I would recommend a small dose of Ativan if your symptoms are so bad that you cannot leave the house , as an example.

My son takes Ativan and it is truly a Godsend with anxiety or panic attacks

Please note that I said "As an example" which you left out.
So you should calm down a little bit. No one will get in trouble for responding to a question nor will anyone be hurt.
For I cannot prescribe medication, nor did I coerce her.
You're going out on the deep end

quote:

Originally posted by grateful:
[qb]Hi Jimp,
I agree that we should closely monitor anything that we begin to try. Even supplements. I do encourage those that try new supplements to begin taking one at a time and monitor how one is doing with each one before moving onto another. Different supplements can contain different ingredients that may not agree with us for different reasons. Though on a whole I believe natural supplements are safer than meds.
I do have a question for you that I'm quite curious about. Could you please tell me what supplements you introduced to your son and which ones didn't agree with him and how? I welcome all the information I can get on supplements and medications, the pros and cons. So if you wouldn't mind sharing I'd really appreciate it. [/qb]

Grateful,

Yes, I tried Saint Johns Wort, for one. I am not saying that it isn't good but it threw him off BIG TIME.
When I asked his doctor about it he said,

quote:

"No one can know the affects of herbs on the mind"

Also we tried the "Good days vitamins" that came along with Lucindas course, again, within 1 week they threw him off again.

These things can be quite powerful. And when one has a chemical imbalance in the brain they can cause a variety of problems in some individuals.

Again, I cannot say that for all people, but in my son they didn't work well.
I also asked his Therapist about them and other people and she said that they appear to help other people such as the B vitamins but that is usually after a blood test is taken and one is considered to be low on them.

I , personally think that Tryptophan rich foods are a better answer, at least in sarotonin levels and that has been shown in studies by Johns Hopkins University and Mayo Clinic.

Ashley,

I am going to recommend trhat you talk to your father.
He should be able to help you.

I know that with my son, when he gets anxiety, he cannot leave the house, or if he does, he kind of "hugs" us shoulder to shoulder.
His schoolwork becomes difficult , if not impossible.

But with medication, like Ativan, he is literally transformed into a very confident young man, almost as if anxiety never existed.

I, as a parent, do not want my son to feel badly. I doubt that yours will as well.

Even Lucinda recommends medication, if needed badly enough, and even says "Don't be afraid to consider this alternative if you can't do it on your own." Page 10-15 in workbook.

Take care and let us know how all goes

Craw,

I have been looking through the search engine on this forum and you appear to be quite a controversial character in some instances.

Whats up? Or, what is bugging you?

It also looks as though we have some vitamin sellers perhaps?

Let me tell you something about vitamins. I personally think that vitamins and herbs can be very beneficial to alot of people. But, in my opinion they need to be vitamin or herb "light".

On the other hand my mother was a big believer in all kinds of vitamins and herbs. Shew took them a good part of her adult life, probably 30 years. She died at 73 with liver cancer.

So, you be the judge.

Ash,
Meds or supplements, only you know what you need. If you really feel as though you can't make any head way in recovery without help right now then do which ever you feel comfortable with. Anything that you take for anxiety "as needed" is just a band aid, it won't change you, or cure you. Such as Xanax or Ativan. But it sure can help get you through the rough spots. I have carried around Xanax for years, I have only used it a couple of times. Sometimes it's easier to face the tough times when you have a way out in your pocket. The anti depressants can sometimes actually "cure" you of your anxiety symptoms. I took Zoloft for a year and felt pretty good while I was on it. Not perfect, but much better. The problem I had is that as long as the meds were helping me I didn't have the motivation to help myself. When I came off I went right back to my old ways. No matter what you decide, make sure that it is an informed decission. Do your homework, look into all options. After all the meds and doctors and therepist that I have tried, I find that aromatherapy works great for me. I use the vanilla scent to calm me and lavander to help me sleep. Today that seems to get me through. Tomorrow may be different. I have been pondering trying Lexapro myself. I also just started a multi vitamin, calcium and ginger, all of which seem to help. Check out these two site www.remedyfind.com (look under anxiety, and all remedies) and check out www.wholehealthmd.com
I found these sites to be so helpful. Good luck. Let us know what the Dr, says.
Giselle