Posted by Racer on August 29, 2006, at 15:04:08
In reply to Re: Help with anxiety, posted by mattye on August 29, 2006, at 14:15:56
> Thanks for the tip, but buspar did nothing for me. Also, I fogot to mention that I was diagnosed with ADD years ago with the TOVA test. I didn't mention this because my ADD symptoms don't really bother me, its mostly the anxiety.
>Funny you should mention this...
Aside from Buspar, which did help me, I was going to suggest you look into Strattera, which is marketted for ADD, but was developed for depression. I took it for some time, and it didn't exacerbate my anxiety as much as Wellbutrin does. It's not a bad drug, pretty friendly to me, and I think it was probably helping me -- situational factors were involved in me stopping it.
My thinking is that the sort of anxiety you described, "I feel like the volume in my head is just turned up too high and I want to quiet it down a notch," is very much how I would describe what my T swears is the ADHD, more than anxiety per se. She says that's cognitive hyperactivity, and it's absolutely true that Ritalin quietens that for me a lot, which in turn lowers my anxiety.
Other than Strattera -- which I think would be a better first choice for you than a stimulant, because of your history of abuse -- my only other suggestion is a very low dose of something like propranalol.
Or maybe trying Effexor? It's a good drug, and lowers anxiety for a lot of people. It's also not an SSRI, although it does have sexual side effects for some people. (Periactin helped me with that, by the way. Doesn't help everyone, but totally countered the SSRI sexual dysfunction for me.)
Good luck. I hope that helped.
poster:Racer
thread:681177
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060825/msgs/681218.html