Opinions - Going to a shrink (social anxiety)

NCK2500 · #1 19-09-2007, 01:17

Swim has had social anxiety his whole life. Swim is 23 years old and has finally decided that it is time to get help. Swim is nervous in all social situations and acts wierd. After swim turned 21 he started drinking and noticed that he acts normal after a few drinks and can actually enjoy social interaction. When swim is not drinking he is just ready to get the social interaction over with as soon as possible. When swim is not drinking he peeps out his apartment window to see if anyone is outside, if someone is outside he will wait for them to leave. The only time swim enjoys talking to people is when drinking.

Swim has taking xanax only twice in his whole life. Swim has trouble getting it. When swim takes it he feels like a load has been lifted off of him. Swim's main question is what should he tell the psych. to better his chances of getting a benzo. Swim has been researching and has noticed that they don't prescribe benzos at first usually, they usually start out with SSRI. Also if anyone would like to give swim advice on his social anxiety it would be appreciated. thanks

Morph-fiene60 · #2 19-09-2007, 01:24

I believe the rules on the site prohibit these kind of questions, If you have true social anxiety disorder, tell the Pdoc the truth and they will help you and get you on the right medication.

BobTheGreat · #3 19-09-2007, 07:21

"Ive taken xanax a couple times and it really has helped in social situations"

fwiw swim was first diagnosed with GAD and started on lexapro and xanax. just depends on the doc....

also your labrat be better off with clonazepam(klonopin) if he plans on taking it on a daily basis.

EDIT: Docs give crap meds that have no to low abuse potential first to discourage drug addicts. It's one giant pain in the ass for those of us who really need the good stuff (ie works in >3% of patients). Also if doc does give the benzo first he will prob just not give refills w/o a visit until he figures swiy is legit. GL if swiy really has social anxiety.

GreatWonder · #4 19-09-2007, 07:53

SWIG has suffered from severe social anxiety for over 7 years and went down the usual route: Doctor visits, Doctor referral to Counsellor, refusal of SSRI's. This resulted in a 'script for 2mg Diazepam, which as SWIG expected did fuck all.

SWIG does not condone seeking Xanax (Alprazolam) from non-legit sources but this is the choice SWIG took and now SWIG's social anxiety has decreased a hell of a lot. This is not from taking the Xanax (Alprazolam) on a daily basis, but only as needed (which is probably no more than 1mg a fortnight). Now SWIG has experienced social situations in a relaxed state he remembers how non-threatening they are so next time he's in one he feels fine and doesn't even need the Xanax. Except new situations - SWIG is flying for the first time next month and will definitely be prepping beforehand.

Point of this reply? Possible options your Doctor will take and SWIG agreeing (though not recommending) that Xanax can provide relief and a breakthrough if taken cautiously regardless of how obtained. But give the Doctor / counsellor a chance - SWIG lives in the benzo aware UK so could never have got Alprazolam on a prescription, as SWIG has recently found out.

GreatWonder · #5 19-09-2007, 07:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by NCK2500

After swim turned 21 he started drinking and noticed that he acts normal after a few drinks and can actually enjoy social interaction. When swim is not drinking he is just ready to get the social interaction over with as soon as possible.

Oh yeah, SWIG was into the whole drinking thing to get over his social anxiety and it works but isn't good for your long-term health, and SWIG would never know when to stop so would arrive at an occasion greatly relaxed / talkative and end the night making a complete ass of himself due to being twice as pissed as the rest of the room. And the hangovers led to SWIGs panic attacks / GAD. Not recommended.

Nagognog2 · #6 19-09-2007, 09:57

If the "doc" were to prescribe a benzodiazepine like Xanax (alprazolam) as a "take as needed" medication - run for your life. It's incredibly physically addictive and the withdrawl can kill a person if not handled properly. Even medically handled - one is looking at weeks to months of an anxiety attack that will require new wallpaper in the house. The last batch would be under one's fingernails. Yech!

GreatWonder · #7 19-09-2007, 12:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nagognog2

If the "doc" were to prescribe a benzodiazepine like Xanax (alprazolam) as a "take as needed" medication - run for your life. It's incredibly physically addictive and the withdrawl can kill a person if not handled properly. Even medically handled - one is looking at weeks to months of an anxiety attack that will require new wallpaper in the house. The last batch would be under one's fingernails. Yech!

SWIG agrees that it's incredibly addictive (not from personal experience thankfully), SWIY doesn't have to search far to read some bad bad stuff about it - and it's all true.

Given the choice SWIG would prefer not to ever have to take it. His sense and willpower have prevented any abuse apart from the one occasion that SWIG remembers too little about to report, though it very easily and commonly turns into a problem many people don't know they've got until it's far, far too late.

**Jatelka** · #8 19-09-2007, 13:27

While benzodiazepines are exceedingly effective at reducing the symptoms of anxiety, they do nothing to treat the cause of the anxiety. SSRI's, although they seem to be increasingly prescribed for anxiety, actually increase it in many.

Talking therapies (such as CBT), and biofeedback techniques have been shown to be effective in anxiety disorders, including social anxiety, and SWIJ believes that this is the way that treatment for anxiety should be going. Time and again, new pharmacological treatments have been developed, and time and again problems with addiction and tolerance have been demonstrated.

She accepts that access to and waiting lists for such therapies are lengthy and vary widely, and may not (in certain parts of the world) be covered by insurance, or may be unacceptable/inappropriate for other reasons, but this does not mean that these options should be discounted completely.

Personally, she would run a mile from anyone who tried to give her pills without trying to address the root cause of her problems.

GreatWonder · #9 19-09-2007, 18:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jatelka

While benzodiazepines are exceedingly effective at reducing the symptoms of anxiety, they do nothing to treat the cause of the anxiety. SSRI's, although they seem to be increasingly prescribed for anxiety, actually increase it in many.

Talking therapies (such as CBT), and biofeedback techniques have been shown to be effective in anxiety disorders, including social anxiety, and SWIJ believes that this is the way that treatment for anxiety should be going. Time and again, new pharmacological treatments have been developed, and time and again problems with addiction and tolerance have been demonstrated.

She accepts that access to and waiting lists for such therapies are lengthy and vary widely, and may not (in certain parts of the world) be covered by insurance, or may be unacceptable/inappropriate for other reasons, but this does not mean that these options should be discounted completely.

Personally, she would run a mile from anyone who tried to give her pills without trying to address the root cause of her problems.

Great advice, forgot to mention the CBT route SWIGself - though SWIG doesn't know much about the therapy but understands it's built around re-training the brain to get out of anxiety loops, improving concentration and removing it away from negative thoughts. SWIG was recently directed to a site offering a comprehensive style CBT for free due to the website owners requiring feedback from how and if it worked. SWIG has not had the chance to sit down and tackle it yet, looked quite complicated so will be looking at setting some time aside for it soon. Not sure if I can post the link.

Only thing SWIG couldn't do was address the underlying cause of SWIGs anxiety. It literally just built, overnight. And SWIG would try as hard as he could to avoid the situations which he inappropriately feared which just goes to reinforce the unnecessary fear.

SWIG would concur that Benzodiazepine use is best suited to times when a normally reactive individual requires relief from temporary anxiety above what a Doctor or GP would class as normal (ie bereavement, change of job, etc. etc.) again, these will not take away the underlying cause but at least provide some immediate relief while alternative plans be made to tackle the cause - which in the examples mentioned is at least known.

SWIG agrees that Benzo use will not help GAD, social anxiety etc. etc. just mask the problem.

Laudaphun · #10 21-10-2007, 01:12

SWIM has tried many different meds for anxiety, and while anti-depressants were obviously the first thing tried... and they actually were effective in reducing anxiety a great deal. The problem was that they came with a whole bunch of other unpleasant side effects, including depression (as strange as it might sound). The anti-depressants helped SWIM's anxiety by just basically making him not give a fuck about anything, including getting out of bed. So obviously this was worse than the actualy anxiety itself. Every anti-depressant pretty much had a similar effect, and when they eventually ran out of anti-depressants, SWIM got buspar along with meager doses of librium with no refills. The buspar might help with anxiety VERY slightly, however on occasional random doses, it will trigger acute anxiety.... Most of the time it doesn't, but sometimes's it does. Around the time, SWIM was first prescribed buspar... klonopin was brought up a few times by the Dr. (on different visits). Currently SWIM gets buspar and 60 libriums a month... SWIM is afraid to ask for anything by name, even though the Dr. has already mentioned a stronger benzo. This whole process began about a year ago and the buspar/librium combo is still not controlling SWIM's anxiety effectively. The Librium is not real effective and SWIM isn't really sure he want's to be on klonopin...

Pino · #11 21-10-2007, 01:31

Benzo's are just suppressing the symptoms. They are not the solution. Swim had a friend, who had anxiety disorder. He was prescribed ssri's combined with just plain old therapy. The latter helped a lot, because he wasn't so talkative before and it seems to help to vent his feelings a bit and also gain a better insight in his problems . The ssri's he didn't like, so he was taken of them.

The 'funny' thing is that talking therapy is a lot more efficient for men than for women, because they aren't used to talk about feelings, but they are more prone to ask for a medicinal solution.

Laudaphun · #12 24-10-2007, 02:06

I do see a Ph.D counselor every week about my GAD, social anxiety, anxiety attacks, etc, etc. He's a Dr. however he is not able to prescribe medicine...a ctually he's someone against meds. It's nto a quick fix... just like the drugs aren't a quick fix. But the combination can really help a person. There are other techniques you will learn such as Diaphram or D-Breathing. Everyone is different and may respond to different therapies differently, however I think people was to just get a pill to fix things (and that was me), but then my Dr. wanted me to see a counselor which I did just to appease her. Now I'm greatful to have someone to talk to about my issues as opposed to just meds. It's a long process.

roserjoe · #13 12-11-2007, 09:47

SWIM is on 20mg of lexapro a day and has been seeing a psych since he started the medication and it has diminished his social anxiety greatly. He has not yet reached the full effects of the medication or gotten very far with his psych yet, so is expecting even better resultes over the next couple of weeks.

preacherreacher · #14 19-11-2007, 22:12

SWIM has taken 10mg of Valium for Social anxiety and the results were quite startling - all his inhibitions had disappeared, he became talkative and conversant in many subjects and best of all, didn't care if he was liked or not, but just happy to be himself, something that SWIM hasn't felt in a very long time.

He also felt that his intelligence improved as well - well, not exactly, but social anxiety did get interfere with his language ability, making it very hard to come with something to say in a social situation and usually just resorted to short sentences or even just clauses. With valium SWIM was very boring.

However valium did come at a cost - too much of the stuff makes one really drowsy, unresponsive and forgetful. SWIM had one weird experience when he made himself a cup of coffee only to return to his bedroom to find a freshly made and still very warm cup waiting for him by his computer and to this day he still has no recollection of ever making that cup - speak about retrograde amnesia! Another time he lost about 45 minutes from his life - even though he was fully conscious throughout, it was just that his perception of time had somehow altered and what seemed like only a few minutes turned out to be a much longer period, another very weird and bizaare effect that SWIM has experienced from taking too much valium.

Even stranger to SWIM is how his perception of not only time had changed on occassion but also space - after taking about 15mg he went to the supermarket, when he noticed that his visual field had opened and he had become more aware of the people around him - not in a self conscious way but as though he increased depth of field but also more aware of what was around him - food, cars, trolleys. It was a weird experience and very hard to describe or explain to somebody that hasn't been through the same thing.

SWIMS only answer is that his social anxiety had made him so self obsessed, so consumed by his own world that it had somehow hindered his perception of the world around, giving him a sort of tunnel vision that neglected everything in its periphery vision and when he took diazapam this somehow people him at ease with himself and increased his level up his perception, allowing SWIM to take in more of the world around him.

But SWIM is also concerned that the effects of valium are self limiting and not something he can take forever so he is trying to limit himself to occassions when he requires it the most. Why does the body have to build up a tolerance to the good things in life SWIM will never completely understand?

preacherreacher · #15 19-11-2007, 22:31

What SWIM was trying to say was that without Valium SWIM was very boring, very unsure of himself. The transformation has been remarkable but for how long. He is well aware of the book the Awakenings, the autobiographical story which was related by Oliver Sacks himself, the neurologist who had adminstered patients with sleepy sickness a very powerful drug, called L-Dopa, a miracle drug in one sense of the world, a pharmaceutical wonder that had brought them out of their statue like states of existence by replenishing the supplie of dopamine that had destroyed the substantia nigra part of the brain and in doing so had given them a new lease of life but the postive effects were short lived, for sure enough, one by one, each patient started displaying severe side effects, everything from their personality to their body movements had been severely effected by this drug - some developed lightening fast tics, maniac or aggressive behaviour, etc

Please continue this post - a very important subject because social anxiety effects so many people in this world!!!

killagorilla187 · #16 14-12-2007, 19:08

Swim suffers this condition and does his best to deal with it.

Lately, Swim has been experimenting with various benzos. Swim or Rambo, Chuck norris thinks klonopin works the best since it has a long half life. The next day swim will feel good, outgoing, more productive. Swim does not recommend short acting benzos for this condition, unless bruce lee needs instant anxiety relief. Also Social anxiety disorder could be from underlying physical condition. Maybe, MS, lyme disease(which can infect central nervous system) Swim may have this and am getting tested again soon.

Swim Knows of the deliberating effects of anxiety, Swim avoids certain situations and restricts swims self from many things because of the condition. Sometimes you just have to put one foot in front of the other and go and do it, the anxiety will be there but it will help immensely with coping with similar situations. I could go on and on, heres swims post for now.