Darn you, anxiolytics!

[nalgas]

I have Issues with anxiety. Since realizing to what extent it interferes in my life, my doctor and I have been attempting to find something to do about it (well, on and off, since seizure crap took priority for a while). So far, Klonopin didn't work at all, but it made me tired, clumsy, and forgetful, even at a low dose. Xanax XR worked quite well (and is the only thing that has), but every amount I tried either didn't work for anxiety and made me tired or did work for anxiety and made me exhausted (14-18 hours sleep a day exhausted). I just started Ativan now to see what that'll do. I have .5mg pills and split them in half. The first .25mg I took made me sleep for over 12 hours straight. I am not encouraged, but I'll give it another week and see if it gets any better.

I am starting to think benzos might not be for me. They mostly seem to completely knock me on my ass, even at the lowest possible doses. There's still the possibility that Ativan will improve if I give it more time, and there's always stuff like Valium and whatnot, but I haven't had a ton of luck so far. Even so, Xanax was the only med that's ever touched my anxiety. SSRIs did absolutely nothing for it and made me worse in several other ways. Neurontin made it worse.

I guess I'm wondering if I should keep throwing benzos at my brain and see if something sticks, based on Xanax being the only thing that's worked so far. My doctor and I are trying to each come up with a plan for what things to try next, and then we'll compare notes. So far, there are other benzos, Lyrica, and Buspar. Maybe something like Seroquel (my brain passionately hated Abilify, but it was completely indifferent to Risperdal; who knows what a different AP would do?). The couple SSRIs I haven't tried are pretty much off the list based on past experience, as well as all the SNRIs, and probably the tricyclics if avoidable.

Any bright ideas? The only other stuff I'm on right now is Keppra and Rozerem (which is totally ineffective at combatting the various benzos' sleep schedule-altering effects but sort of worked before that...), as I have a long and glorious history of being very difficult to find meds for that do more good than harm. It's kind of a pain in the ass.

[resonance]

I have a similar problem with benzos but not to the same degree. I take klonopin prn at a half-of-a-normal-small-person dose and occasionally go up to a full normal small person dose.

I take Seroquel normally and it's been wonderful for anxiety. I'd previously tried Risperdal (whee agitation), Abilify (whee waking up repeatedly every five minutes all night), and Geodon (whee walking in circles in my apartment having repetitive daydreams). But Seroquel was magic.

I was also prescribed Lyrica for migraines and it turned out to be awesome for sleep and anxiety too. I'd previously tried gabapentin which had no side effects (at least until I got to higher doses) but also didn't do anything.

[AirMarshall]

Seroquel work good for anxiety but I was on it a short time only, long ago. Cymbalta has been a godsend for me. Just fabulous. I told my pdoc she would have to pry it from my hand if she tried to discontinue. Just like the commmercials Cymbalta also eased the muscular tension in my whole body, and resultant aches. I'm relaxed and feel sooo much better.

I'm not quite clear. Is your dilemma that benzos either knock you out or don't work?

There are old school anxiolytics from the 50's 60's that people don't think of much anymore like Librium, Miltown, Valium.

a.m.

[Velvet Elvis]

Since nobody has mentioned them, clonidine and tenex could be worth a look. I like them both quite a bit.

Keep in mind that APs can drop your seizure threshold. Since you have seizure issues to begin with, using an AC for anxiety would not be a bad idea.

[nalgas]

Keep in mind that APs can drop your seizure threshold. Since you have seizure issues to begin with, using an AC for anxiety would not be a bad idea.

Some of the APs do that quite a bit, and others not so much (or at all), like this says. On the plus side, my neurologist thinks it's fine to try stuff like that now, since Keppra seems to be working well enough and should give me some protection against anything that might happen.

[chella]

My first post!! Dr put me on buspar for anxiety--I'm doing ECT so I can't take benzos--buspar caused my first ever full blown anxiety attack. Thought I was having a heart attack. Now I'm upping my seroquel to help control anxiety. So just be careful with that buspar.

[ChemistryExperiment]

See, benzos work for me, and nothing else seems to, but doctors won't prescribe them for me. Even though i have no chemical dependence/abuse history. hmm.

Anyways. I'm sorry to hear that nothing is really doing the trick. Meds are so tricky. I wish they were a lot easier. Maybe Lyrica would do the trick?