You could possibly ask the person that prescribed it wether you can start at a lower dosage. I think they would understand your fear and will help you to get over it/start more progressively.

Anti-depressants act very differently from one person to the next and therefor it is very difficult to tell someone else what it is like. I can tell you from my own experiences that :

1. It takes a while to adjust to the medication
2. The first dosage will invariably be changed by the person prescribing it, a couple of times before it works the "right way".
3. The person that prescribed it would no doubt have told you that you should feel comfortable to contact them any time of the day/night if you feel adverse effects from the medication.
4. The medication takes a while to kick in and it is therefor very important not to miss a dosage or just "take them when you feel bad". In fact, once you start, you should not stop without consulting the person that prescribed it.
5. Return for a re-evaluation often so the dosage can be adjusted if needs be.

I'm on chronic medication for depression and am forced to be re-evaluated every time the prescription gets re-filled. I must admit that at the beginning you might feel strange and not truely your self, but that is more than likely because of the fact that you are not used to feeling "normal" if that makes sense.

I hope this helps and I wish you all of the best. The medication does help...not necissarily 100% @ 100% of the time but it definately softens the blow when you need it the most.

I wish you all of the best with the treatment!

thanks im so confused at the min im not feeling great but im still me if you know what i mean i dont want to change to much and get addicted to these tablets like so many people have i dont feel depresed at all its just the anxiety that i get in certain situations thats ruining my life but if i stay in my safe zone i feel totaly fine.

I can understand your fear.

Most Anti-Depressants, as any other medication has light, mild and severe side-effects as well as an addictive quality. The severe side affects only occur in very rare "special" cases or in cases of abuse. Given the right dosage and proper monitoring, a professional will more than likely catch any signs of problems before they become a problem. Where things turn ugly, is when people don't go back for periodic re-evaluation and or not taking the dosage as prescribed. Anti-depressants don't do well at all in a scenario of on/off.

If the medication were to be prescribed chronically, I wouldn't worry too much about the addiction side of it, as a chronic prescription's usually means that it is more of a physiological (i.e. brain-chemical) rather than a situational occurance which would require life long medication.

However, if it was only a situational/environmental occurance, I wouldn't want to take such a drug my self either.

If you don't mind me asking, what led you to seek help with your anxiety? Were you given a choice in taking the medication, i.e. "If you really feel like you need something I can prescribe..." or was it a case of "I really think you would benifit from medication so I'm going to subscribe..."

I have had depression/anxiety in the past about 6 years ago when my daughter was diagnosed with autism it was a really hard time for me and i went on fluexatine and did really well eventialy getting over the depression but have been left with the anxiety side of it meetings social situations things like that maybe 3 or 4 times a week which ive learned to sort of live with i feel like im always one bad experience away from being blown out of the water! anyway i had the flu and went to see gp and he tested my blood pressure it was borderline high sometimes on the high side he thinks this is to do with my anxiety and wants to treat this first to see if my bp comes down into normal ranges before he tryes bp meds! the problem i have is the devil or deep blue sea stay as i am struggling through life and take bp lowering meds or take a brain altering drug it could work great for me and improve my life and bp in on go but risking addiction and withdrawl problems and poss depression again which i really dont want at all depression is a serious scary thing to me i never want to feel like that again sorry for rambling hope that makes some sort of sense.

Not at all...you weren't rambling

Very sorry to hear about your daughter. I hope all is well with her.

Not to second guess a doctor, but it does seem like a bit of an overkill. Maybe because the Fluoxetine didn't work for the anxiety, he wants to try something stronger. I would aks about alternatives...

I would rather go with trying to deal with the physical rather than the mental. At least that way you don't have to worry about any mental side affects or addictions. But I can understand why the doc wants to try and sedate the anxiety as high bp is quite bad.

I did at one stage take meds for anxiety and didn't like it one bit. It made me feel like a zombie...uch...not that I tend to not feel that way some days mind you Strangely enough, I tend to swing other way around...and seeing as I have quite low bp as of late might just want to get an eval on my anxiety levels again.

It's strange how you start living "with" a problem and stop to really notice it after a while...

yeah i though it was overkill like cracking a nut with a sledge hammer! i guess im going to go back and see if i can try some thing else! i would try antidepresants but this particular one has had some serious bad press in america and here in england people are committing suicide and having serious trouble getting off the thing to the point were they have to come off it by chipping a tiny bit off the tablet each month over a period of up to a year and most get bad anxiety and depression and have to go back on it. really sounds bad ive looked into most other tabs and they have there problems but not this bad it tops the list of drugs that are the hardest to wthdraw from with 3x as many complaints as the number 2 drug im just not that bad to risk my health on this! its probably great for some people and saved many lives! but if your really bad you would easy consider it to help you but for me its to much of a risk i am going to feel stupid telling the doctor all this and he will probs say its my anxiety making me look into all the negative things of the drug but i know im not stupid i have looked at similar drugs in its class and nothing comes close to the down sides of this paroxetine also known as paxil in america. jesus i love a rant today sorry i just type as my 100mph mind thinks.

i just wan t say thanks for listening t me and talking it helps alot

It's my pleasure

It's the least I can do for having other people listen to my constant whinging Plus, I know what it feels like to be in the thick of it. Doctors sometimes scare you more than what the actual problem does.