Yes, I agree. In my experience they would rather give a person dangerous mind altering anti-psychotic medications than anti-anxiety medications. The side effects for antidepressants are 10 times scarier (like sudden death, suicide and seizure) but they are more concerned about possible abuse. It makes me furious.skins said: ↑
now I just take Xanax on and off on an as needed basis, funnily though my doc said I should just take the Lexapro as it is "safer" then Xanax as Xanax is said to cause loss of concentration, but i'm guessing this is because Xanax is a drug which is more likely to be abused and taken in higher dosses then the SSRI so it gets a bad rap.
From the research I have done, antidepressants/anti-psychotics work directly in your brain, where as anti-anxiety meds only block negative stress hormones from effecting your body. Seems like antianxiety meds are a safer solution to me. And as far as dependence is concerned, anti-anxiety meds are at least as hard to discontinue, if not more so IMO.
Anti-depressants made me suicidal and irrational. In my case, I totally agree with you.Earthcircle said: ↑I am not medicated, but I know from past experience that if I explain why I'm not medicated some people will become very angry. But I might as well, because it is the truth. Speaking from my own experience, and my own experience only, I have found that psychiatric medication causes mental illness. With the possible exception of minor tranquilizers such as Valium, I have found that every psych drug I have taken causes frightening symptoms of mental illness. What is equally frightening is that psychiatrists often don't recognize the drug as the source of the symptoms, so one has to risk appearing paranoid or otherwise delusional in discontinuing the medication. Anyway, I don't dare touch the stuff. I occasionally take Ambien for sleeplessness, but I don't use it more than once a week, and I don't think it counts as a psych med. The real psych meds I don't touch with a ten-foot pole.
I think you could be right on all three counts.Kiwong said: ↑Well it is interesting that so many who have responded on this thread aren't taking medication. Does it mean a lot of people who take SSRIs are helped by them and don't feel the need to seek help from internet forums? Or is it that SSRIs are more helpful in treating depression and not anxiety? Or are drugs not as helpful as the drug companies would like us to think they are?
