Hello all,
I'm new to this board and I'm hoping I can get support and it's good to be around people that suffer from similar problems as mine. I have severe anxiety and I worry ALL the time about pretty much anything. I am a hopeless hypochondriac. Every little ache and pain is imagined to be a serious fatal illness. I just recently turned 45 and I've been worrying ever since my birthday about getting old, sick and dying. I'm currently on 2 mg of xanax per day. Most of the time I only take 1 mg because I'm terrified of addiction and withdrawal stuff in case I ever have to stop. My doc wants to try me on paxil, but I've heard bad horror stories about the withdrawal, so I doubt if I'll try that. Do you guys have any other suggestions of anything you've tried that helped to calm things down without a lot of horrid side effects and extra worry ? Thanks for listening, and thanks for being here so that we can all help each other !!

Cathy

Hi Cathy, there was an earlier topic about a week ago or so about someone having terrible fears about dying. I do understand that it can be a real problem for some people though I can usually avoid those thoughts myself. Yes, death can be a terrifying thing to think about, but there could be a great outcome too if you know what I mean. I tend to have a lot of fear, but it's general, mainly dealing with people, which is bad enough.

At least you have access to an anxiety med such as Xanax. I personally prefer Klonopin (Clonazepam). Only from what I've read and heard from others is that Xanax may be more addicting. I've taken Clonaxepam several times in the past and never had any side effects to speak of when going off of it. Of course I took about a week of cutting down gradually until I finally quit and at the end was only taking 1/4mg. So cutting down gradually is the only way to go.

As for your hypochondriac thoughts have you perhaps considered therapy? Maybe you have already. Sounds like you have a pretty serious issue with that and you may consider therapy to help give yourself some peace of mind, take away your worrying. I know it won't be easy, but you have to try and start somewhere. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Good luck whatever you decide. MV


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"So complicated it is to escape fate that you can never understand what I'm going through till we trade places." - 2Pac Shakur

Hi Zlady,

valium type meds will calm you for a while but should only be taken when needed

paxil type meds often help but can have early side effects, wirhdrawl from them is seldom a problem, there are many others similar to paxil, prozac, lexapro that arent known for paxil's withdrawl problems

books on overcoming worry have much useful advice, try amazon or the local library
people can and do worry themselves sick!