Anyone here been diagnosed with anxiety that can discuss their

There's lots of different kinds of medications you can try. Benzos work wonderfully but you can get addicted. Beta-blockers (blood pressure medicine) helps too but can start to make you fat after a while. All the other psych meds are a mess that left me with a bunch of random symptoms even after I stopped them. Anxiety sucks. A lot. A lot a lot. I've thrown up from it. I've had my face and hands go pins and needles because I wasn't breathing right. The brain fog is because you are using so much adrenaline being worried about yourself that you're wearing yourself out. You need a small amount of adrenaline to do normal every day things but if you're constantly squeezing your brain for every last drop by freaking out all the time you're gonna feel tired. My throat also gets tight and I get veritgo. It sounds like you might have health anxiety. I'd ask for medication if I were you, unless they try to give you antidepressants, don't get involved with those. I'm not taking any medication right now. I smoke pot occasionally (ONLY INDICAS!!!) and I also take CBD oil which helps a lot with anxiety but can be expensive. Take an every day vitamin and go to sleep at a reasonable time even if you have to knock yourself out with over the counter sleeping pills. I've been doing shit like yoga and meditation. It feels fucking retarded at first but there's aspects of it that I like.

Get a second opinion from a psychologist or therapist, then discuss meds with a psychiatrist. Make sure all of them have contact info with each other so you can all make an informed decision. You will most definitely need to experiment with different meds over a few months, and Lexapro might not be the best to start out on. Citalopram is dirt cheap and used to be quite effective on me. I now use Buspirone and I pretty much only have to take it on an as-needed basis.

Very few GPs know what they're talking about when it comes to mental health. What infomercials do they want you to watch?

>>18652966
Were you on SSRIs? Because that sounds a lot like when I was on Effexor. Doctors prescribe them pretty often but they can be expensive and basically cause withdrawal symptoms.

>>18652967
It's called Attacking Anxiety. It looks really fucking retarded... The way my personality is, it would only make me angry if I tried it.

>>18652975
Yes. I tried 12 different ones over the course of 6 years and it fucked me up good. I even tried a couple antipsychotic's because after trying all of those they thought I could possibly be bipolar. Nope. Now I'm stuck with a twitch in my arm. The SSRIs destroyed my sex drive completely. I had horrible stomach issues from the pills and gained a shit ton of weight. The list goes on. I wouldn't ever recommend them to anyone but when I mention how bad they fucked me up people get upset with me. I lost the ability to cry and feel empathy or fear when I was on them and didn't even notice until I'd been a zombie for years. Maybe that sounds appealing to some people but not to me.

>>18652990
That sounds fucking awful Anon, but I'm really at a point in my life where I'm not sure what to try. Medication seems like the only solution. Should I keep trying other methods first?

>>18652991
Prozac and Lexapro were the ones that seemed to work the best. I might just be an unlucky person who experiences all the side effects. If you just have anxiety and not depression I would recommend trying CBD oil first. It's legal to buy it. It helps me so much. If you don't want to try that I'd try benzos or a beta blocker before an SSRI. Square breathing is also a good technique. (Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold it in for 4 seconds. Breathe out for 4 seconds, repeat this 4 times.)

>>18652977
If you go into it thinking it's going to be a waste of time, then it's going to be a waste of time. That's just how it works.

Do something fun beforehand, take notes during, at least attempt something before medication (that, therapy, anxiety exercises, etc). Going down the medication path immediately is usually a bad idea.

>>18652990
2 different meds every year is fucked, no wonder it didn't go well.
Pro-tip if an illness isn't controlled after 3-4 meds, and it isn't life threatening, then don't worry about it for a minimum of 1-3 years.

>>18653019
I was severely suicidal. The meds were barely holding me together but the side effects were so horrendous they kept switching me to different things. I stopped all the meds and became a homeless junky and now years later I'm sober and barely holding my life together. But I'd like to think the whole thing gave me a... different appreciation for life.