I would be very cautious about taking this approach. There's a lot of potential downside to many of these meds, often making tinnitus worse, and leaving a person addicted to a drug that's difficult to withdraw from. There are many non-drug alternatives that often work far better, with very little to no risk--my preference.
I respect your opinion and preference Lane, and when I say. "Ask the doctors..." it is because meds must be prescribed and supervised by a doctor. And I believe that a period of anxiety, obsessiveness and depression out of control, may lead to much more dangerous actions (like alcoholism, smoking, taking other drugs, suicidal tendencies, etc.) than side effects of certain meds.
For many years I tried acupuncture, yoga, meditation, melatonin, ginkgo, passiflora, valerian, melisa, san juan herb... in my case, except for the meditation and melatonin, the rest didn´t provide much help. I never wanted to take artificial meds, I used to refuse them, believing that they caused more harm than good.
Until I went through hell. I remember walking at night in Europe, feeling noises everywhere (my tinnitus, obsessive thoughts that felt like repetitive sounds, anxiety, insomnia, my heart racing...). At that point, death to me was something of a liberator. I have never suffered so much in my life like those days. I lost weight, even drinking water was hard. I used to walk, walk, and walk. Drink alcohol to anesthetize my mind, and smoke like a chimney. One night I said to myself; I can´t stand it anymore. Before making something insane, I went to see my doc and she said: "Fernando, you need help right away. You can´t process everything that is going on. There is no time to lose. Psychotherapy helps, but you have other kind of problems that must be taken care of by different approaches.
So, she prescribed me: Clonazepam 0.5 mg three times a day and Fluoxetine starting with 10 mg every morning.
I used to see her 2 times a week to control my evolution. After some days, I started taking 20 mg of Fluoxetine. In the fourth week, things got better. I began to feel more relaxed, obsessive thoughts were less intense, sleeping improved and I felt hungry for the first time in 5 months. I remember the doc saying: do not stop psychotherapy and walk or run daily.
I was on Fluoxetine for 2 complete years, and even though the pill is not magic and I had some bad days, it helped me to focus on work, my therapy and nice things that life has. At the second month of Fluoxetine, I tapered off Clonazepam. I could sleep, think, work, travel... I could function in a normal way. When chemistry in your brain is not working, you need something that works at that level, immediately. Of course I had some hard days, but nothing compared to what I used to have until I decided to give the treatment a try.
Right now, I quit Fluoxetine like 4 months ago. With my doc, we wanted to see how things works without it. Maybe I have to take it again, maybe not, we are evaluating how I feel... One thing is for sure, and is that I am crystal clear that I will if I need it. Psychotherapy has helped me to learn some techniques, to distract and if i am feeling funny, go walking, cycling or running.
I met some people from different places, gender, life history and ages that follows a life treatment for chronic disorders. Not only meds for GAD, depression, OCD or bipolarity. Also lupus, diabetes, colon disease and others.
They need them to reduce symptoms and live better.
So; ¿ In what way is your situation so different from them ?
In many cases, GAD and OCD are chronic, like tinnitus... so, meds are needed to help with the symptoms.
I want to emphasize again, that treatments and medications must be prescribed and supervised by relevant professionals.
Summarizing (I gotta go to work) with my psychiatrist and psychologist, I arrived to the following conclusion.
Life is short. Death is 100% sure. You only can live the present moment. Tomorrow who knows what happens.
So, I have to become a pragmatist:
someone who is practical and focused on reaching a GOAL. A
pragmatist usually has a straightforward, matter-of-fact approach and doesn't let emotion distract her.
And my goal, in this short journey called life, is to live in peace without bothering others.
And peace begins in me.
Member
