Posted by jboud24 on October 25, 2004, at 22:36:16
In reply to Re: Hope you feel better soon, posted by TheOutsider on October 25, 2004, at 13:52:01
This has been what has and has not helped my social anxiety disorder (SAD) in the past. Prescription only:
Has not helped:
1. Anti-depressants:
Paxil--Got up to 40mg/day. COMPLETE sexual disfunction from loss of libido to loss of ability to get an erection. Did nothing for SAD.
Celexa--Fewest side effects of the SSRI's I've taken. Very little sexual malfunction. Did nothing for SAD. Up to 80mg/day.
Lexapro--Whoa! Everytime I took my pill for 1and 1/2 years I felt like I was coming up on LSD. Very, very bad for social anxiety. In fact, I'd say this negatively impacted my social anxiety, whereas the others were at least neutral for it, but at least somewhat helpful for depression. Up to 60mg/day.
Zoloft--Actually experienced some relief from SAD and depression. Unfortunately, I also felt relief from every emotion from joy to hate. Complete apathy. Mild loss of libido. No loss of erection function. Up to 300mg/day. Unacceptable side-effects in my book.
BuSpar--Nothing. If you take like 10 though, you feel somewhat like you are withdrawing from an SSRI anti-depressant. A worthless drug for me. Up to 30mg/day.
Remeron--Currently taking 30-45mg/day. Fixing to stop. Greatest med ever for insomnia and nausea. Unfortunately if your not nauseated, you will eat everything in your house, maybe even your house. Gained 25 pounds in a little over a year. Really pretty good for anxiety, probably the best anti-depressant I've yet tried, in doses at or below 30mgs/day. Weight loss unacceptable. I must quit taking this drug soon.
2. Benzodiazepines
I only really have long-term experience with 2, although I've taken many more when I could get them.Ativan--I took this when I started Paxil. I thought it was a miracle drug, as it was the first benzodiazepine I ever took. I only took 2mgs/day. At that dose, it worked well, but I could have used a dosage increase after a year, which my pdoc was unwilling to relent to.
Xanax--The best I ever took bar none for social anxiety. Took it for almost 2 years at up to 5mgs/day. It literally helped save my life from inexplicable panic attacks related to my SAD. Very potent anti-panic/pro-social effect, but I had to dose it every 3.5-4 hours to really get relief after 1.5 years on it. My pdoc refused to push the dose up, and that's when I started drinking 1/2 a fifth of whiskey/night, and that's what landed my butt in a rehab hospital. Xanax is really good though. I had about 2 solid social years on it.
That's been my experiences with drugs for SAD/GAD/Depression. I've found that dexedrine is one of the stimulants that really helped me as well. It definitely has a pro-social effect to it. Unfortunately I have yet to get a pdoc to prescribe it to me for social anxiety. One day though, one day..
Now, I have appointments in the next 3 weeks to see 2 new pdocs. One is private pay (expensive) one is on my insurance (cheap). I am looking to try either Nardil or Parnate and Valium or Klonopin as a benzodiazepine. I'm leaning towards Valium, but I wish more people would submit their experiences to my thread 'Valium vs. Klonopin so I could make up my mind on which to push for. I guess it doesn't matter since I have no real long-term experience with either. But my advice to you would be something like this:
Find a pdoc who is not a benzophobe, and get on xanax or klonopin or valium, and avoid the SSRI's like the plague. Go with an MAO inhibitor like Nardil or Parnate. Judging by the responses from people like ace and King Vultan who have been on them and posted a goodly number of times as to their effectiveness, I'd say they should be first-line treatment for social phobics.
Good luck Matt,
Justin
poster:jboud24
thread:406926
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041024/msgs/407243.html