Medication

Most medications have side effects but with your anti-depressent/antianxiety med you need to take them for awhile and then they will help as far as addiction, you can get addicted to aspirin. Their are herbal naturopathic meds that can help too but even sometimes they can have side effects. You should never take someone elses medications!
Good luck to you

Hello mitch, my name is justina. I suffer from gad and panic attacks. I have been taking celexa 20mg for about 3 months. I was taking ativan 1mg prn (when needed) but I haven't needed that since the beginning of december. My celexa is working, I feel normal again. At first it was a little weird but now everything is going good. I still experience slight anxiety but a little is normal. I am thankful that I am not in the mess I was in november of last year. I couldn't do anything, eat, sleep, work, my relationships were going bad with my family and husband but I am back on track now. I never got addicted to ativan and I was taking it everyday and somedays 2 times a day. I stopped taking it on my own.
I wonder sometimes if I am better and whether I need to continue the celexa but I dare not discontinue it because I do not want to go back to the way I was before.
I hope this gives you some reassurance. It is difficult I know, I was worried about becoming addicted too. But I didn't.

Take care mitch,

justy24

No one who comes here besides justyn has dealt with medication..I find it hard to imagine since I hear medication and therapie is how to fix this...

Hey justy how long did it take before yuo started getting benefits from the meds?

It took about three weeks I will say before the medications kicked in.
Your body has to adjust, you will have side effects at first like you do with all medication but they eventually go away. Sometimes you have to try a couple different medications before you find the one that is right for you. I tried therapy, I tried different things but nothing was helping me so I finally decided that I couldn't go on any longer the way I was. My family and husband could not handle seeing me the way I was. So, I agreed to give medications a try and they started seeing a difference within the first 2 weeks. After three weeks they were working well, and I was back to normal (well what I considered normal for me)

i am not pushing pills at people, this is what worked for me. I did not want to take medication at all. I hated the thought of having to rely on a pill to make me better. I wanted to do it myself. But I couldn't. So, here I am three months later, feeling pretty good.

Justy24

Yea it takes a while to kick int dosent it.I tried taking effexor but I woke uup in the middle of the night feeling like I was goign crazy,hot flashes and just plain sick I stopped after 2 days...She had given me ativan as wellbut I never touched it now I have no choice ive been taking 0.5 a day but im scared to get addcited....
Thanks for the reply tho im gonna check fr other meds cause like u I cant keep going like this I barely go out anymore...

Hello

i have been taking citalopram (20mg - started on 10mg for the first month because I was freaking out about possible side effects etc...) and i'm into my 7th month on them now. I tried other types of meds before (didn't want to use anti-depressants because, as you said, i'd heard so many scare stories).
I have to say my life has improved 10fold because of them. I was having panic attacks several times daily and ended up staying inside most of the time but I haven't had a panic attack for about a month and, even then, I could handle it and it was ok!

Medication was a last resort for me, i'd tried various therapists for three years before hand. The side effects lasted for about a week and a half and it was a few weeks before I noticed the difference but they have helped me alot

Hello mitch, I was started on effexor too. That really freaked me out. I was feeling even more anxious, my heart rate kept rising it went up to 141bpm at one point. I had to go to outpatients/er one night, actually the third day I was taking effexor. It was immediately discontinued and I was given 1 mg of ativan and celexa 10mg at first then up to 20mg a few weeks later also propranolol to slow my heart rate down. It was beginning to go into the dangerous zone. I was on ativan for about a month and a half and I stopped taking it on my own because I didn't need it. The celexa kicked in and I was feeling fine with just that.
So, I do not think that you have to worry about getting addicted but it is good that you are aware of that possibility. I was and I never got addicted. I hope that you find something that works for you.

I also have been put on effexor. I have been put on many different types of anti's. But this one made me feel like I was way to hyper basically bouncing off the walls. I will admit you could tell I was happier. When I took it before I went to school I would be okay then about an hour later my pupils were hugh people would ask me if I was on cocaine or esctasy because of how big my pupils got. I was suppose to take these atleast three times a day and they were 25mg. I felt like I was very dizzy and got to where I felt like I was going to black out. I would start feeling sick too, and so I would eat some crackers to settle my stomach. I only took this medicine for about 3 weeks. Because I started having strange dreams and feeling like my nerves were shacking. My body <hands & feet> would start shacking badly too. And I was in school so teachers were thinking I was on some type of drugs. I am glad I am not the only who felt different while taking these pills. :d

I know you wanted positive but I thought my post may be useful too, I personally didnt get on with celexa/citalopram started on 20mg which was ok for a while seemed to help at 1st then was on 10mg for last few mths 6 mths in total and had some weird side effects, lightheadedness,feelings of detatchment, anxiety, feelings like I might pass out at any minute, loss of appetite, so I came of them and felt better for it altho im still having anxiety probs now more so becoz it effects my pattern of breathing but im seeking help from a physio instead now hoping that will get rid of the anxiety.