I Need Some Help (Anxiety Med Recommendations)

Hey guys,

This is a weird question. I need some legit help and don’t know where else to ask for such a specific question.

So I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, and I feel like I need medicine because I am tired of the omnipresent DREAD/sinking feeling. I was told I might be depressed —- but I don’t think. I will say that I feel like I have 0 energy, all the time. And take naps even after sleeping 8 hours.

I was given Prozac (specifically Fluoxetine).

I have been taking this medicine for a few days now and it makes me feel super _WEIRD_. Like I feel like I’m floating and disoriented. I an a student and concerned this medicine might inhibit my ability to focus…

Does anyone know of an anxiety medicine I could ask my healthcare provider of that will fix anxiety and won’t cause weird side effects?

Ty~

I eat Zoloft and Abilify. Ask about Xanax I guess?

second the zoloft (sertraline) and abilify (aripiprazole). they have made a difference where dozens of others have not. just try to remember you are not alone in this, there are others out there that have gone through the same thing.

I am not sure. Like doctors said exactly what caused a mental health problem is unknown.

For me when I had an anxiety disorder, medicine was never needed.

What I did:

-Stop overthinking
-Drink more water
-Spend time with family
-Eat healthy food
-Relax
-Exercise: ride a bike

I got a lot better after all the list above.

I was on fluoxetine for a year and a half or so and it proved quite helpful. Keep in mind that fluoxetine has a long halflife in comparison to other antidepressants, so it typically takes weeks for its full effect to be noticed. You likely will not be able to evaluate its antidepressant effect for some time, even if you are noticing its side effects already. The side effects might change in the coming weeks. Changing the time you take it (morning/night) can help with feelings of fatigue.

we play video games. we are NOT the crowd one should be asking for any kind of medical or social advice. Go talk to those who willingly spend a lifetime thinking about such decisions and are best equipped to give you the best decision for you. What works great for me might make Negan batshit and make you commit a manifesto to ink. I know there's a proper fear sometimes we're only getting recommended meds that our docs have a pay arrangement with the pharmaceutical companies, but we've gotta have some faith because our friends sure aren't equipped to make these suggestions for us.

Ive worked at an inpatient psych hospital for 6 years so here's my expert recommendation:

Smoke meth.

Honest opinion: my mother is a nurse for over 30 years and she told me why would I want any medicine for my mental health. It can ruin my mind.

Apparently the entire field of mental health science is entirely invalid and medicine actually ruins your mind.

Don't get medical advice from video game forums and please don't tell your doctor what to prescribe to you. Talk about medical problems with medical professionals

Medicines always a give and take effect if used long term, especially ones that are used for anxiety/depression and such, and should be used after you've exhausted all your other options unless its really bad.


You would be surprised how much gets improved by those simple things, lotta emotional/mental stress can be caused by just eating/drinking poorly and not exercising regularly

sound advice, but sometimes you begin anywhere you can to get some help. don't take the word of anyone here as a replacement for qualified medical persons, but also don't discount their experiences. sometimes it feels good to hear it from someone other than a doctor.

Ya this is basically the situation.

I could have asked Reddit I guess. Just overall ppl are more mature here, so thought I’d get some good inputs.

I appreciate all of you that contributed btw. <3

Saying Reddit is more mature than us is like slapping our face with a dagger in flame: its blunt piercing slashing magic dmg with added effect of burn.

I'm surprised no one has said this so far, but: Lexapro and Wellbutrin works wonders. (I only know this anecdotally from some friends and from my brother).

His first doctor recommended Prozac and it helped, but the side effects were too much.

Be careful with some doctors, because they get stuck in a pattern of prescribing meds and some tend to stay in their lane, so to speak.

When my brother found a new doctor, switched to Lexapro (3-6 months at first), then Lexapro + Wellbutrin, he was like a different person (better, capable, functioning).

Also, keep in mind when evaluating these drugs and other people's opinions too: if you drink or smoke with any of these meds, it can reduce their effectiveness or make side effects worse

oh, another thing to look into that isn't meds is CBT, cognitive behavior therapy. stuff you can do on your own to understand the connection between thoughts > feelings > behaviors.

Definitely no shame in finding out what may have worked for those you know- I've been on my fair share and every one took longer than I wanted to know if it was right or wrong for me, can't get around that. And yeah, side effects gonna show a LOT sooner than benefits, its just something we gotta ride out if committed to the process.

The only reason for my comments is I've sadly seen folk who are seeking help hear one thing from a social world friend and then shut out educated therapists and doctors versus using the additional information to add to the overall package. Gladly get extra commentary- just always be sure to rank where you're getting your info from :)

And keep up that good fight for getting to enjoy each day's sunrise!

These are the best answers from a science-backed standpoint, unironically.

Yes, please worship the 'professionals' that googled their way through school[or graduated 4 decades ago and didn't keep up with any advances since]. They know absolutely everything, and the sum of all research backing their decisions isn't available online or anything like that.
Edit: There are absolutely amazing doctors who take pride in their work and want to understand every aspect of the care they are providing. However, psychiatrists' entire undergrad is standard premed. Afterwards, they get 3 years of education regarding psychiatric health, and the primary focus is medication and the way it works. A typical psychiatry program has only a couple of classes regarding treatment that doesn't involve medication. A typical psychiatry practice isn't expected to provide treatment that doesn't involve medication. They do what they're trained to do; prescribe pills, and only the very few who are legitimately interested in other aspects of their job will make any effort to explore other avenues.

...really though, please read the peer-reviewed studies regarding efficacy of these drugs. Almost all are funded by the companies bringing them to market, and if you read the actual methodology and results an intelligent person will often make the opposite conclusion of the one stated in the study.

SSRIs do not consistantly beat placebo, even after hundreds of studies. Benzos are incredibly subject to addiction and have severe long term side effects. Beta-blockers are altering your cardiovascular performance to change your mental state indirectly, which is obviously bad for many reasons.

A lot of people[mostly mental health drug users] would like you to believe that the level of anxiety and depression commonplace now always existed and we just didn't know how to diagnose it. There is zero actual evidence to support this conclusion; the more likely explanation is environmental triggers.

Some thoughts:
-Anxiety is a hunter-gatherer leftover that urges you to do something when you have excess energy. This was beneficial, because the most active hunter-gatherers would be the most successful. If you had energy leftover after a successful meal, using that to acquire your next meal is very beneficial from an evolutionary standpoint. Anxiety drove you to do that. Because modern society doesn't always provide something beneficial for you to do, it becomes a harmful outlet. You can prevent that by avoiding the initial trigger state of excess energy.

-Inconsistant blood sugar levels cause mood disregulation. As such, a high carb diet and inconsistant meal times are a major contributor. Eat better to stabilize blood sugar, which stabilizes energy levels.
Peer reviewed study indicating very strong correlation between high dietary sugar and depression: https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-024-05531-7

-Exercising reduces anxiety. This is common sense to anyone who has owned a trouble dog. You tire the dog out, it's not going to be barking at everything any more. Pretty simple, but here's a peer reviewed study:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6048763/

Mental health drugs may have a place[they honestly might not]. A drug as a bridge to healthy lifestyle changes and actual improvement of the underlying triggers is certainly feasible. But, if you're looking for a drug to solve the problem while being completely unwilling to address any of the causes.. you're just lazy and the results are likely to reflect that.

You need to figure out what the underlying problem is, that is making you feel this way and address it. Are you struggling with your college work and feeling snowed under, money problems, too much social media etc. Try address those things, talk to your teachers, try sort out your spending better and try save a little, cut back on social media use.

Most of these drugs have side effects, that go away as your body gets used to them. However unless it's a last resort you should try other natural methods first. Even something as simple as doing exercises every morning can make you feel so much better for the rest of the day, going out a little more for walks, getting a dog (or offering to walk the dog for a family member daily). Again though, addressing the actual issue is the best way to fix the problem.

Drugs are if you know what is causing the problem, you can't fix it and it's the last resort to live a normal life.

This is also a major contributor, as are all other sources of un-earned dopamine. If you can release dopamine effortlessly, then you eventually suffer dopamine depletion and the lows lead to depression and anxiety.

First off, random internet person is not who you should ask for medical advice.

Please, talk to your doctor. Explain your concerns and ask questions.

As a random internet person... No matter what you end taking or doing, it will take time, likely at least weeks. Anything that is immediate in effect is likely not something you will take ever day or over long periods of time.

Explain your expectations to your doctor so they can set more realistic expectations.

I hope whatever you do ends up making you feel better. Please listen to a doctor over rando's on the web.

Yes, absolutely ask as many questions as possible. The problem is, you need to be taken seriously, which requires you to be able to understand the answers.

If you have sufficient reading comprehension and take the time to read the relevant literature and studies, you're going to find that your doctor isn't actually prescribing things based on anything besides what has worked for them in the past and what the current accepted consensus is[neither of which is actually scientific].

I ask my doctors questions, citing specific studies and literature. You know how they respond? They sound like Biden last Thursday. They aren't memorizing every study on every drug they hand out. They aren't researching every drug they hand out. They're doing their job day to day, putting in bare minimum of effort like everyone else.

I'm not saying I know better than your doctor, I don't. I am also not saying that you know better than your doctor, you likely don't. Your symptoms are recorded in a computer system that will spit out the most likely causes and suggested treatments for them, and your care will only be as good as the prevailing opinions of those designing and populating the software they use.
Things are done this way not because they provide the best outcomes, but because reducing the level of autonomy provided to the doctor reduces the risk of a lawsuit. It doesn't matter if the drug is effective, it matters if it's seen as the most appropriate course of treatment by the regulatory bodies.

If you are of reasonable intelligence, and you take the time to research your own issues with a critical lens, you will gain a greater understanding of your own body and health and often find that your doctor(s) aren't as knowledgeable as you may have thought they were. You can't find a solution in 5 minutes like your doctor can, but you aren't on a strict time limit like they are. If you spend a few hours thoroughly looking through the options, you'll be much better prepared to talk to your doctor in a way that they'll engage with you and provide insight that may have been missed without both parties involved.

If you have a doctor who truly understands everything they prescribe, evaluates studies on their merits rather than their conclusions, and makes well-thought-out individually catered decisions.. they are an exception and you should do everything in your power to maintain a positive relationship with them. That is absolutely not the norm in the USA.

Sorry but I'm going to have to strongly disagree with the idea that any random shlub off the street can read and interpret the results of academic papers and come to different conclusions than the experts who wrote them and the peers that reviewed them.

Call it an appeal to authority if you want, but I just flat out do not believe that the entire field of medicine and all the experience, study, and understanding that an expert has gained in their field can be overridden by a few hours of research from a guy who knows absolutely nothing.

Apply this to every other professional job please, and see how it goes.

Add on to that the layers of foolishness involved with trying to self-diagnose. "A lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client" applies very well to this situation. It's well understood that psychiatrists, therapists, psychologists, etc. don't handle their own mental health problems, they see another professional because it's extremely easy to have blind spots and bias in your own view of your world.

Telling a person with anxiety or depression to "stop overthinking" is a joke. It's like skit...but as actual advice... "Oh, you're depressed? Have you tried, having more energy?"

Not a doctor or medical professional, but I'm a published academic. Most research is *** and a *** ton of psychology 'research' that gets published in top journals is completely faked. Check Retraction Watch website to see the tip of the iceberg.

I didn't say any random schlub, I said 'of reasonable intelligence'. This is a subjective term, but if I had to ballpark I'd say something like top 15% in intelligence and reading comprehension.

The bar isn't knowing more than an expert. You will absolutely not know more than an expert. But, when you go to the expert, you are getting a very limited amount of their time and giving a very limited amount of the information you possess on your own body. A wellness visit is 20-30 minutes on average. A psychiatric evaluation is less than an hour, and followups are half that. Both are limited by how effectively you communicate and the level of engagement your expert is displaying.

If you have the ability to read studies, and the willingness to take time, you don't have those constraints. You have all the time in the world to consider. Further, when you are prescribed a drug, you reach a much more narrow subject.. one specific substance or class of substances. Anyone with an understanding of statistics and comprehensive reading ability can look at the studies and evaluate potential flaws in the methodology and how strong the outcome appears.

Absolutely. But, consider flipping the argument. In the same way that you're biased as to what your potential issues are, your doctor is biased in terms of potential treatment. They have drug companies offering them kickbacks, they go to conferences, and they follow a licensing board's very specific recommendations. They don't need to critically evaluate the drugs, because there's a manufactured consensus that they're following. This is why you need to advocate for yourself, as well.

In a perfect world, we could trust that all of these institutions were solely interested in providing the best care and that manufactured consensus was for our own good. But, it's pretty well known that it isn't. The US uses the greatest amount of antidepressants per capita(over double many other advanced countries); do you think we have a unique societal mental health problem causing it? Or, is regulatory capture and social pressure leading to a drug-based approach instead of a holistic approach?

Again, time is the deciding factor here. There are plenty of software problems that I could solve in 20 minutes. But, given hours or days, an amateur of high intelligence could find a better solution I had overlooked.

>>>

@all
As someone going into academia, I know medical providers can be mistaken. But please don’t worry about ‘trusting internet first’ thing. I am just gathering insight of other people who might have experience on the matter —- even if anecdotal.

Truthfully, medicines are a trial and error with different individuals responding differently.

Perhaps my phrasing was too defeatist initially. I will confess yesterday when I posted I was super out of it due to an increase in dosage at that timeframe(as recommended by provider).

At the current stage of my life I absolutely need some form of medication for this issue, just this one might not be right for me idk.

Hit the gym bro