Anti-anxiety or Anti-depressants

[Speak_no_evil]

Has anyone had any success with either in helping to alleviate the depression and anxiety?

The anxiety is getting the best of me, and this makes me even more depressed. I can't stand close to someone with out experiencing extreme perspiration, heart palpitations and the like.

[thf]

Hi Speak,

I went through that and still once in a while. I did go to therapy and it helped for a while until my therapist flipped on me, and after going for six months told me my problem was "all in my head". She claims she never smelled my breath.

But I will say the time that I was actually treated did help me. I have to dig really deep to got over my anixety. I don't get close to anyone, I've learned to back away or cover my mouth when speaking. It doesn't freak me out as much as it use to.

I fight my depression everyday, the belief that I'm going to get better is stronger than the depression. I keep focused on healing my body and getting rid of my bb.

[Snobuni]

I was considering asking my doctor for antidepressants recently as my depression has been very bad the past few months, but then I researched the side effects and these include bad breath caused by low saliva flow which is caused by the medication!!

So now I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to ask for antidepressants, if they'll just end up aggrevating the one thing that is making me depressed in the first place!!

Has anyone in this forum ever taken antidepressants without the side effects?

I've taken an 'alternative' antidepressant in the past, St Johns Wort, which works quite well for mild depression, but isn't too helpful for anything worse, plus it could always just be the placebo effect with this sort of thing...

[thf]

Have you considered acupuncture? I've used it for other problems but I've heard it can help with depression.

[wnaysha]

hi speak,

one thing related to depression here is that as the level of depression goes up the amount of serotnin produced in body decrease.

95 % of Serotonin produced in body is in GI tract.

Serotonin is the chemical that keeps us happy, and when there is an imbalance in the amount of serotonin in our GI tract it leads to IBS problems.

[asd]

antidepressants will ***k you up. stay away.

[Speak_no_evil]

Thanks everyone for your replies. Not sure what I'll do as of yet.

[ElGrizzle]

Hey there, I went on anti-anxiety for about a month, I did about two weeks of Celexa, and then two weeks of Effexor. I found that although they are great social drugs, and they allowed me to write some excellent poetry, lol, they balanced out the highs and the lows. This means that you can't feel super happy while on them(you also can't feel super bad), because they block the way you feel. If you are into attaining ultimate health(or enlightenment for that matter), and want to permanently rid of fear and anxiety, and transform your brain by climbing the ladder of mental excellence, anti-depressants are not the way to go.

Yoga, Meditation, Exercise, Positive Thinking, Self Help Books, Herbs and Diet, Cleaning and Organizing Your Living Space/Life is the way to go, trust me, it works.

Ive been doing the above and ive never felt better in my life. In fact, I swear the positive thinking alone gets rid of the bad breath. (pleasant thoughts produce a pleasant smell).

[seeviper]

I used to take Xanax , Klonopin all the time before work. It made things a lot easier, even though I knew my breath was just the same. I'll admit I liked the slight euphoria from them. I'd definitely choose it over anti-depressants, my anatomy teacher made me not want to try those ever (something about them forcing your brain cells to become excited i cant quite remember anymore). The only thing with anti-anxiety med. is some brands make you much sleepier than others, one time I actually fell asleep in a stock room at work. I guess those are the kind I should have been taking before bed! I felt really emotionless while on them as well. And another thing is when I stopped popping those pills , my anxiety came back with a vengeance if you know what I mean.

[christyxxx]

hey guys, just wanted to know, for those of you that are on/have been on anti-anxiety and anti-depressant meds, did you get prescriptions from your doctors or did you just order them online?

[Ash]

hey guys, just wanted to know, for those of you that are on/have been on anti-anxiety and anti-depressant meds, did you get prescriptions from your doctors or did you just order them online?

Be aware that it's illegal to posess anti-anxiety medication like benzodiazepines and barbiturates without a doctors pescription in the UK, they are a class C drug, they are also highly addictive, if you use them a few times a week you will become tolerant of them and dependant on them. Like other depressants, withdrawing from them can result in seizeures and even death.

Anti depressant medication like ssri's, snri's and maoi's are also dependance forming and will often cause withdrawl symptoms if you stop using them depending on which medication it is. They can also have bad side effects like sexual dysfunction, which is why I avoid them. For anxiety the ssri's and snri's generally have poor efficacy, while maoi's have dietary restrictions which must be followed at risk of death.

I take clonazepam (klonopin) a few times a month for social anxiety disorder along with other anxiolytic drugs like GHB and phenobarbital, and that is about as often I would reccomend taking them to avoid tolerance. Alprazolam (xanax) is one drug to avoid due to it's short half life which results in cravings.

Speak_no_evil, you may find the beta blocker propanaolol helpful, it stops blushing/tremors/sweating/palpitations, I use 40mg every 4 hours in social situations, it doesn't help the anxiety directly but it stops the symptoms and isn't addictive.

[Snobuni]

I've always found that when I cut out carbs from my diet, my depression gets a lot worse, and I've never been sure why.

I did some searching and found out that carbs help produce serotonin in the brain, so obviously when you cut them out serotonin levels drop, particularly in women.

This link: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/carbs.html also suggests that eating carbs with a protein cancels out the serotonin enhancing abilities of the carb, so it's best if it's eaten on it's own.

I was intending to cut out carbs from my diet but because I suffer a lot from depression I'll still be including stuff like brown rice. I just thought this might be of interest to anyone who's following a restricted diet and who suffers with depression.