Have you been prescribed beta blockers for anxiety?

Hi. As I said previously, I'm on 0.50 mg Ativan for 10 years. One of my Doctor friends told me today that I can taper Ativan by halving 0.50 for a week and then half that dosage for another week and half it further for another week and then I can stop. I'm 63 years old. What is your input on this. I am really surprised but also very cautious to go this route.

@penelope5678 I too have been on . 5 Ativan for a long time. 9 months ago I suffered a brain injury and my anxiety is through the roof. My dr wants me off Ativan but what do I do now

@diverdown1 I'm really happy for you that you were able to get sober. It makes such a huge difference. I suspect you've noticed.

I went through a three year period of extreme depression that nearly cost me my life. It turned out to be mediation-driven (I flipped on Effexor, an uncommon but not unknown reaction). During the worst of it I self-medicated nightly with heavy alcohol and weed consumption ( I live in a legal state). I'm quite confident that the combination furthered my already severe depression substantially.

Getting off the Effexor pretty much immediately ended my self-harm spiral. A medication change (Lamotrigine) essentially erased lifelong depressive cycles (I was diagnosed bipolar 2 in the hospital and it tracks so well with my history that I feel it's accurate). But stopping weed altogether and reducing alcohol down to all but nothing rather than guzzling vodka nightly has also, in my view, been key. I don't wake up feeling physically awful. When I was drinking heavily my days started out in an amplified depressive state just from that.

I'm really glad I was able to quit without treatment. I feel like I dodged a bullet given the amount of alcohol I was putting down. Vodka at up to half a bottle a night is kind of a one-way ticket to alcoholism. And I was using cannabis sodas for mixer. Self-abuse like that doesn't make things better. And then there's the nagging guilt about it to add to the mental struggle.

So congratulations for your success at getting sober. You're mental and physical well-being will only be served by it. I hope you're able to stay on track. It takes resolve. Alcohol permeates our society. Stick with friends who don't depend on it. It means it won't be there for easy access anymore, and won't be as strong of a temptation.

@depressedbutnotdead It is difficult to find the right "medication cocktail," as I (and I have heard others) refer to it. Thank you for such a kind reply. I have battled with anxiety, depression and addiction since adolescence. I am now 55 yrs old and got sober, for the last time (I hope) at 47 yrs old. I do have ADHD and I also tried Lamotrigine and it made me worse, so I got off of that. I was slowly killing myself with alcohol and drugs. Alcohol has always been my go to and I smoked marijuana for decades. I do not miss any of it, except that instant gratification piece of relief, but as you know, (I think) and I know, that it only lasts for a few hours. I do not have an "off" button, so when I drink or use, I can't stop. I do not even use mouthwash or medications that contain alcohol for fear of it clicking that alcoholic part of my brain.

I am so glad to know that you have found some relief and have quit the substances. You are correct, our society is permeated with alcohol. I do not know the answer to that. I do know that a majority of people incarcerated are in due to substance use/abuse and/or mental health issues. I have worked in the field of addiction and I noticed that people using Delta 8 and Delta 9 seemed to have more psychotic episodes. Meth is also a terrible problem. It is so sad to me as these folks are prisoners to that drug and the life that it leads is terrible.

I have a few very close friends who do not use. I utilize the 12 steps and therapy. Learning to live the "real" world is baby steps, for sure. I try so hard to just focus on what I need to do in the day I am in. I do still have a lot of anxiety and my LPN and therapist are very helpful.

@penelope5678 I too have been on . 5 Ativan for a long time. 9 months ago I suffered a brain injury and my anxiety is through the roof. My dr wants me off Ativan but what do I do now

Has anyone added beta blockers to their antidepressants and anti anxiety meds?

@margaretallen was it a physical brain injury or due to medication? I'm sorry to hear about the injury and anxiety.

@penelope5678a physical injury that led to constant anxiety

@diverdown1

"I do know that a majority of people incarcerated are in due to substance use/abuse and/or mental health issues. I have worked in the field of addiction and I noticed that people using Delta 8 and Delta 9 seemed to have more psychotic episodes. Meth is also a terrible problem. It is so sad to me as these folks are prisoners to that drug and the life that it leads is terrible. "

I've said for decades, America's system for mental health and substance abuse is to leave the person alone until the cops have to get involved. Then they either get incarcerated or killed. Neither is a good option. And sometimes an innocent person is harmed or killed in the process.

We are dealing with someone in our neighborhood who has severe mental illness and major substance abuse issues. I've dealt with him for decades, and there's been a huge escalation in the past couple of years. And despite having his license revoked permanently due to two vehicular felonies and dozens of reports to the troopers of aberrant behavior on his part, the state recently returned it to him. They weaponized him.

Myself and others are now slapping protective orders on him, but the last time he violated one the court just told him not to do it again and let him go. So what's the use?

He cannot control his behavior. He goes after people, often random people, and frequently women out running or walking alone, and subjects them to relentless verbal abuse. That's not illegal, so the troopers can do nothing. He uses his large van that he shouldn't be driving as a means of intimidation. But witnesses or video evidence are required for an arrest.

The troopers do want to get him. He recently went after the wife of one of them when she was resting alone by her car after a run. So they're mad now. I'm hoping this will be the act that finally gets something done. He's either inadvertently or deliberately going to badly injure or kill someone. Even the troopers know this. But so far he remains free because he knows how to skirt the very edge of what he can get away with.

He's not stupid. In fact he was a brilliant student at the local university in the 80s. Student of the year. His slide began around 1989. Now he lives in a filthy cargo container with no windows on a small chunk of unmaintained land near the end of our road. And because we're in a rural area with no codes, he can do this.

He is psychopathic however.

He belongs in a psychiatric facility. Instead we're left living with it. Knowing that one of us will probably be the victim when he finally pops. And unable to do anything. After the event finally happens – and it will at the rate he's going – everyone will say, "We've been warning about this for years."

I'm a particular target of his. He's been weirdly obsessed with me since the early aughts. When I do something as simple as take my dog for a walk I have to be armed and prepared to shoot first because he's come after me so many times. And if I do, I'll have then have to deal with the legalities and hope that it's considered justified and I'm not the one arrested. But despite being a three time felon and thus banned from carrying a firearm, he was recently seen with one. When we recently put our second protective order on him, I told my wife, "I just painted a target on my back."

I shouldn't have to carry a gun when I walk my dog on the street I live on. But that's the situation I'm in because there is no viable mental health system in my country. And because he lives on the same street as I do and has no other road to reach his residence, I cannot block him from driving by my house daily. And he knows where I live.

You can imagine what this does to your mental health. And all because we have no system of intervention. Despite even the troopers and everyone else knowing he desperately needs to be institutionalized.

That's what mental health and substance abuse treatment is in America.

@penelope5678a physical injury that led to constant anxiety