Scared of meds for anxiety

@mwilhe02 Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. When your doctor switched your medications, did they talk to you about titrating off, lowering your dose slowly before starting the new medication? Is the new one Ativan? It could be that if you stopped one and just started on another, you were not able to give your system a chance to get used to a decreased dose. Have you spoken to your doctor about what you are experiencing?

Please call them today, and let me know what they say, okay?
Ginger

Ginger, Yes the new one is Ativan. No just a switch from one to another for a week. 0.5. I'm to take ½ as needed. Then he said only for a panic attack which I felt was happening every am. I was taking xanax .5 breaking it in half taking one in am and the other in pm and trying to build up on zoloft. Today stopping cold turkey after 1 month was terrible. Just had a meeting with a licensed counselor who told me this was withdrawls and to take half tonight and if need be I can wean off slowly. But not this fast. It is just causing me more anxiety and we r trying to reduce it. He is going to reach out to my doctor as well. Thx u 4 ur response!

I suffer with anxiety. I take a tiny dose of med to help, if necessary.

The slow reduction sounds reasonable. My experience was that just knowing I had the med and could take it, helped a lot. But, I never took the med regularly. I found talk therapy very helpful. I am now able to recognize anxiety episodes and talk myself into management of symptoms. I feel more in control. Some people manage with meds and that’s fine. I want to avoid that, if possible, but will take them if I need to.

That is how I am...but doctors keep telling me I wouldn't be on it that long and I could go off when the lexapro worked. Well it was that easy. Dr switched me after 2 weeks to zoloft, pharmacy made an error and gave 5 xs the dose I was told to have (that was a setback) and then Dr switched me from xanax to ativan (.5 or ½) a day. Here I am one month later now he says don't take every day. I tried this yesterday and clearly had withdrawl. Thank goodness I hav a wonderful counselor who knew what was happening. He instructed me to wean off. He is going to reach out to my dr (physchitrist) to inform himnI need to withdrawl.

Glad you’re on the right track now. Please post updates.

You might ask your provider to refer you for a stellate ganglion block. No side effects.

Ativan is very, very addictive and needs a doctor's care to titrate off. I cannot believe your doctor did not give you a schedule to do this. I take Ativan very successfully for years and it works for me but not with other meds at the same time. Please be careful. Let us know how you make out.

No he didn't. He said I hadn't been on it long enough (1 month). Just to take when I hav an anxiety attack. These attacks happen in the am and round 4 pm. 1st afternoon I haven't had one. I am thinking may be the Atavian wearing off and that's what I was feeling. I know tommorrow am if I wake up without one. 🙏 Still hav the tightness in the stomach a bit and I finally feel like I can eat something 2nite. Rough time. This is a great tool for anyone to use!

@celia16 my thoughts exactly!

Why try to wean off of to what exactly? It's doing you some good, and although there are alternatives to benzodiazepines, which your doctor could easily prescribe, stay on it until you can control your anxieties and get in touch with your doctor. That's what they are good for. For a longer acting benzo, try Clonazepam, like 0.5 mg, (only) if your doctor agrees.