skygazer629

Hi, This is my first time posting on this board. I wondered if anyone could give me advice on what really works for them for anxiety that's taking or taken stuff similar to me.


Im 25 and currently take Xanax XR 2MG in the morning. I've done that for about a year. It drops my level of anxiety to the point Im not freaking out the entire day. I'm usually less stressed evening hours, so the 6-8 hours of effectiveness i seem to get from it, seem to be enough most of time.

I also take short acting .5mg tablets. Oddly sometimes I'll just take .25mg or .5mg of those and that feels like it has such a more pronounced effect than the XR 2 MG, and calms me down enough that I can function, go outside, and do stressful things. Some days i don't take any short acting tablets, some days i'll take up to 2. I also take Toprol ER 25mg.

This combination of drugs is the only thing that's ever really helped me. I've gone to counselling for many months, which was barely if helpful at all. I've taken SSRIs in the past, like paxil for a year, and lexapro for a year. Paxil might have helped me a tiny bit (plus a weight gain of 80 pounds which took me forever to lose). Lexapro felt like it did nothing. I've also taken Welbutrin. That's made me feel even worse.

Lately I went to a doctor, not a psychiatrist, to get my toprol refilled and she went off on me on how I take way too much Xanax and its not healthy and that I should start taking Zoloft and wrote me a prescription for that. I don't think I'm going to, considering ive had nothing but bad side effects and virtually no help from previous SSRIs in the past. Plus she's not a psychiatrist.


My current level of functioning is such that I'd say I'm marginally agoraphobic. It's a struggle for me to go out and do things and I usually only accomplish that because of taking xanax. I haven't worked in about a year now and the idea of working freaks me out and often makes me not perform well in a job interview or not pursue many things because I think I wouldn't be able to handle it. I get dizzy, light headed, feel like I'm freaking out, and need to get out of the situation i'm in, etc, etc. I got a jobcall this week regarding a job I didn't think I would perform well in, and rather than turn the guy down on the phone, I had to email him back, while on extra xanax, to turn him down because I was so anxious and uncomfortable about it.

I don't think I'm depressed at all except for depression resulting from this anxiety. I think that's why something like Welbutrin made me feel worse. It made me feel more active and into things (which is less-depressed), but that resulted in my anxiety level sky-rocketing.

Okay that was a long post.
This scenario sound familiar to anyone else and would they recommend any other medications? Or maybe something to add in? I'd go to a psychiatrist and ask, but it'd be a struggle to really afford that right now. Im not against taking something else like Zoloft or some other type of anti-anxiety med, but Im hesitant to take another SSRI when I feel like they've never done anything productive for me. Sometimes I think I should just take extra xanax a lot more than I do, because it really does help in my level of functioning, but I worry about getting addicted to it and taking too much.

Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks.