Trying to find new med for relieving anxiety

I'm trying to find a new med that will help in relieving anxiety. I'm currently on clonazepam and lorazepam but I end up taking like 4mg of each a day which I know is way to much. I know that antidepressants are really good at relieving anxiety so I was wondering whether anyone had any reccommendations. What your experiences were with your treatment with an antidepressant and how it helped you. I've been on cipralex(lexapro), celexa, zoloft and effexor. Effexor worked really well but caused an awful side effect and had to come off of it immediatly. Besides that the others either didn't do anything or had bad side effects to them as well. So I'm just wondering are there any alternatives out there to treat anxiety besides benzodiazepines and beta blockers. I tried propanolol and it caused orthostatic hypotension.

One thing I always tell people who suffer from anxiety is that there is NO medication that wll relieve your anxiety 100%.
They can help with symptoms of anxiety yes, but they will not get rid of it for you.
The best thing you can do is to expose yourself to situations that make you anxious and panic and learn to cope with them.
(easier said then done) I've suffered with anxiety all my life and I'm 29 now. I've just last year or so figured out how to control my anxiety so it no longer affects me or rarely does. And when it does I can talk myself out of it before the symptoms get worse.

I'm currently on Effexor XR and have been for over 4 yrs, it's helped me but all medication works differently for everyone else and all medication will have horrible side effects, however they don't last forever you almost just have to buck up and deal with them for awhile until your body gets used to the medication....

I find alcohol tends to work well.

I don't know, but have you ever considered staying off drugs and getting some counseling (assuming you can find decent therapists)?

The drugs could make anxiety worse, and besides, do you really want to go through on medication for the rest of your life?

I'm on counselling. Doing CBT.

Alcohol is something that does not help anxiety lol that's not the best advice there morning star.

If you can do it med free then that's the route you should go. I'd like to do it med free, but the medication i'm on is also for depression.

How do you find the CBT working ?

Ben18 wrote:I'm on counselling. Doing CBT.

Well see how that goes. I mean, it's your life, take what you want to take, but you're taking too much medication IMO.

And another thing about all these pills. Has there been a liflong study on the side-effects? I don't think there has, as most of these pills only came out in the last 20-25 years.

All medication is overrated. It works for some to a certain extent, but maybe that's just a mental thing. If you think somethings making you better, you'll feel better.

Butterfly Faerie wrote:Alcohol is something that does not help anxiety lol that's not the best advice there morning star.

It sort of does when you're drunk. Or it has for me.

But I rarely drink much now. Sort of got bored of it.

morning star wrote:

Butterfly Faerie wrote:Alcohol is something that does not help anxiety lol that's not the best advice there morning star.

It sort of does when you're drunk. Or it has for me.

But I rarely drink much now. Sort of got bored of it.

Well because your brain isn't functioning really that well, I don't think it helps in the long run though, because when you're not drinking you're still anxious.

Butterfly Faerie wrote:

morning star wrote:

Butterfly Faerie wrote:Alcohol is something that does not help anxiety lol that's not the best advice there morning star.

It sort of does when you're drunk. Or it has for me.

But I rarely drink much now. Sort of got bored of it.

Well because your brain isn't functioning really that well, I don't think it helps in the long run though, because when you're not drinking you're still anxious.

Aye.

Best just to drink a bottle of JD a day.

Alcohol is never a good thing to have when your on medications. What I'd personally like to do is get on an antidepressant and slowly cut back on the benzos. For I'm taking way to much but from background knowledge I know that benzos aren't something that you can just stop cold turkey.