how have meds affected your social phobia?

[Ehsan]

just say how have meds affected your social phobia.
you can use LSAS to find your improvement

http:
//www.socialanxietysupport.com/disorder/liebowitz/

improvement = ( B-A)/(B-50)*100
A=your score after using meds
B=your score before using meds

scores under 50 are considered as normal

use other choices if you haven't used them for least recommended period that they would begin to work.

 

[Joolin]

The one I tried was Celexa - an antidepressant. It did exactly what I expected it to do, not what I hoped it would do - it glossed over all my emotions and made me completely dull.

On one hand, it did make me less anxious in that I didn't care as much about all the obsessive crap that goes on in my head, but on the other hand, it made me even more depressed. Because of that, I had less motivation to go out, and since my reclusiveness is what causes my social phobia in the first place, Celexa ended up doing more harm than good. It is also fairly hard to get off of.

 

[sabbath9]

voted useless - they are also dangerous

 

[dottie]

agree with sabbath and joolin.

most psychiatric drugs are nothing but pharma business trying to make money off of you. they give you a drug that you have to be on for life, not to cure you, so that they can continue to make money off of you. all they do is dull you down. as soon as you go off the meds you are the same as before.

 

[Ehsan]

The one I tried was Celexa - an antidepressant. It did exactly what I expected it to do, not what I hoped it would do - it glossed over all my emotions and made me completely dull.

On one hand, it did make me less anxious in that I didn't care as much about all the obsessive crap that goes on in my head, but on the other hand, it made me even more depressed. Because of that, I had less motivation to go out, and since my reclusiveness is what causes my social phobia in the first place, Celexa ended up doing more harm than good. It is also fairly hard to get off of.

SSRIs make me extremely happy without any real reason this is partly good and partly bad
good because makes me much less anexious and more chatty
bad because i forget all of my problems and waste all of day on computer very easily while time is running out

 

[Ehsan]

Number of participants: 90
Results show an average 20% improvement could be expected from meds.
People who haven't used any type of meds for SP are however excluded.
An average of 26% improvement has been seen in SSRI's controlled trials which is compatible with results.
35% of participants claim that meds are useless for SP. However we don't know if they have used suitable meds for enough time or not.
And about 47% of social phobia sufferers haven't used any type of meds for SP.

I think suitable meds for SP are worth a try after however ignoring the side effects.

 

[SammyT]

agree with sabbath and joolin.

most psychiatric drugs are nothing but pharma business trying to make money off of you. they give you a drug that you have to be on for life, not to cure you, so that they can continue to make money off of you. all they do is dull you down. as soon as you go off the meds you are the same as before.

You want to be cured, like by a miracle or something?

In most cases you can't take a pill and be cured of depression for the rest of your life. Many people who are depressed have an innate tendancy towards it. Anti-depressants treat the depression and make life better for ALOT of people. I for one wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them, and my therapist.

Pharma creates drugs to treat illnesses which exist otherwise they lose alot of money due to years and years of research. The fact that medication may cost alot for you (it doesn't in the UK) may be causing you and other people to regard phsychiatric drugs with this conspiracy mentality. Don't get me wrong i'm sure pharmecutical companies like to "big up" their drugs, and no doubt its a different environment in the U.S with regards to drug advertising and medical insurance but I see that as a poroblem with the system there rather than the companies - obviously they are gonna take advantage of those oppurtunities.

 

[Noca]

agree with sabbath and joolin.

most psychiatric drugs are nothing but pharma business trying to make money off of you. they give you a drug that you have to be on for life, not to cure you, so that they can continue to make money off of you. all they do is dull you down. as soon as you go off the meds you are the same as before.

That's why you just use generics, where drugs cost maybe $2-5 a month. Hardly are they making big bucks off someone on most generics where the cost to fill the drug costs more than the drug itself.

As for curing, many illnesses including SA CAN'T be cured and can only be treated, none of my illnesses in my dx line have a cure.

 

[Ehsan]

because I always heard that anti-depressants are addictive, can make you "crazy", or suicidal.

only obsolete myths.
me and my father have been on high doses of various SSRIs,Beta Blockers, Anticonvulsants , Benzos, ... in last three years.
any serious side effects i've not had.

 

[Quiet Angel]

Those type of medications allowed me to feel less anxious.
However, speaking was challenging & I still remained quiet.
I never reached out, and I realized, I can't be completely
dependent on medications because there are areas that I
have to make an effort aswell in order for change to occur.

 

[chola]

The only experience I have with meds was with prozaac when I was a teenager. I had a very bad doctor who either didn't listen or didn't seem to believe me when I told her I thought being on prozaac was hurting me. My grades slipped, I became disconnected from friends, etc, and for the first time in my life I had suicidal thoughts. Nothing seemed to matter anymore because I felt like the only way for me to feel good was to feel good for no reason. I eventually stopped taking them on my own because I felt desperate to get out of that terrible way of thinking. I think that antidepressants could help me now, but because of this bad experience, although it was ten years ago, I am still scared to try them. I think that I may have made the wrong choice. What I should have done was switch doctors. I was too anxious to tell my mom that this was what I wanted to do. (She's a scary lady! lol)

 

[chola]

oops, lost my train of thought...I was going to add that maybe I should have been on a different med. I don't want to scare anyone away from taking meds!

 

[lunarla]

The med that I took for a while wasn't for SA, but for bipolar disorder. Though when the psychiatrist prescribed it to me, he said that it would make me feel less self conscious or something. I'm pretty sure it didn't do that, but I wasn't really out in public to test that theory out. I was mostly just in my room, staring at my ceiling for the first week. Feeling kinda out of it. Then once that interesting symptom went away, I didn't really feel any difference in my SA or depression/hypomania.