gender dysphoria vs anxiety medication

[Torn1990]

  I am certain that my constant social anxiety is caused by my discomfort in my male body. If someone speaks to me, the anxiety begins.. If I anticipate someone may speak to me, the panic begins. Every day (approximately) atleast 4-6 times I have intensified anxiety 1-3 times a day I will have a panic attack. I work in a very social place..plus wherever I go when i'm off work I tend to be surrounded by people whether im in college or even going out to a coffee shop to study/read or be with my boyfriend. I am introverted but I do wish I could communicate without having hot flashes. Do you feel that medication will help with gender dysphoria anxiety?      I've started to take Catemine. I've been taking it for a week and a half now and haven't noticed any difference. Can anyone recommend medication that has worked for them with the consideration of gender dysphoria?
My goals are to have someone speak to me without recieving anxiety symptoms, and to think about my appearance less would be good for me. I know I should talk to a therapist but right now i just cant bring myself to start that again. I haven't been suicidal for about 3 weeks now for the first time in forever and I just want to maintain this certain contentment and i could really due without the panic attacks.
I'm not trying to load my question.. You all have been wonderful in the past and i'm just hoping for some medication recommendations from people who understand this type of anxiety.
-Erin

[tekla]

You need professional help, but you know that.

[Mister]

Medication can be one of many factors that can hopefully make your anxiety manageable.  Taking a pill is not a cure-all, nor is transition. 

[tekla]

Transition may help somewhat, but not much.  Social skills are just that, skills.  Like all skills they are build on practice which creates habits.  You have a lifetime worth of habits to reverse.

[Miss_Anthropic]

I personally find your post very interesting, I'm not sure it will help, but I'll share my story anyway.

I have never really been what I would call a social person my entire life, but for the past 2 years my social anxiety got worse and worse. It started off where I just a little nervous going places and by the end I constantly felt like people were staring at me, anytime I went into a public place (even if it was empty) I would get so nervous, start sweating like mad and have a panic attack.

I had some horrible panic attacks, thought I was having a heart attack, had 3 EKGs, a stress test and a nuclear heart scan but my heart checked out fine. My doctor finally figured out they were panic attacks and put me on Buspar and got me into therapy sessions. When I started therapy, I had no plans or thoughts of dealing with any gender issues; despite an earlier failed transition, at the time I was occasionally crossdressing and I was OK with that (or so I  thought).

The deeper we got into therapy the more clear it became that the gender issues were actually causing most of my anxiety. Although I was completely unaware of it, the negative view and thoughts I thought everyone else had of me were really my own thoughts.

I know it sounds comepletely crazy, it still does to me sometimes, but as soon as I started dealing with my gender issues and rolling with transition, I'd say 95% of my anxiety went away.

Things might not be the same at all in your case, but before I got into therapy I would have never imagined how much my GID influenced my social anxiety. Anyway, get going with therapy, it may take a couple tries with meds to help, I feel that medication was very helpful in my case, but at best it only helped to take the edge off enough to be able to see things a little clearer. I have been very happy with the Buspar though, took about 3 weeks for me to feel anything from it.

Hope there is something helpful in there, I ramble.

~Sara

[regan]

Catemine is an herbal remedy, not a "prescription".

Someone else has already said it, but you need to see a therapist.  Depending on your age, you can probably see a counselor for free or low cost (aka sliding scale) at a local LGBT clinic.  Unlike HRT, there's no waiting period and true anti-anxiety medications can help while you work on strategies to reduce your anxiety.  HRT probably won't resolve all your anxiety issues either, but it will help also.

But not taking the first step is not going to help you at all.

[Cindy Stephens]

I have General anxiety disorder, as well as Social Anxiety disorder, as well as a mild case of tourettes syndrome.  Suffered major panic attacks in public or crowded places, being touched physically (except exremely close family and wife), etc.  Hiding out most of your life can do that to you.  It is really a form of post traumatic stress disorder.  Get help.  I took effexer er for several years and it helped immensely.  I was able to do everything, I just felt better.  It does NOT cure the dysphoria, but decreases those waves of pain and dispair that keeps you from moving ahead.  It allows you to concentrate on those actions that will allow you to integrate your different sides.  After several years, I asked to go off it, I was monitored, and now I have few of those "I want to die" moments and have transitioned enough to make me happy with how I look in the mirror.

[VeronikaFTH]

It does NOT cure the dysphoria, but decreases those waves of pain and dispair that keeps you from moving ahead.  It allows you to concentrate on those actions that will allow you to integrate your different sides. 

This is absolutely true in my experience. I started taking meds for anxiety and depression, and they cleared my head enough for me to sort out my feelings and move ahead with my transition. If I hadn't taken them, I'd probably be dead now. But no, it definitely does not cure the dysphoria.

[Miss_Anthropic]

^^^^ Agree 100% with these two statements.

[Torn1990]

 I may have aspergers, apparently..


Thank you for the encouragement to goto therapy. That's nice.
Miss_Anthropic, that story you told me reassured me on my reasoning for posting to susans. Thank you.
I'll look into the drugs mentioned.

[regan]

I may have aspergers, apparently..

Aspergers is on the autism spectrum.  Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities are on one end (mild), Aspergers in the middle (moderate) and Autism at the other end (severe).  NVLD kids and aspies have difficulty with social situations since they are often unable to intrepret body languange and other non-verbal social cues and/or they communicate in ways that contradict their body language, etc.

[Torn1990]

Aspergers is on the autism spectrum.  Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities are on one end (mild), Aspergers in the middle (moderate) and Autism at the other end (severe).  NVLD kids and aspies have difficulty with social situations since they are often unable to intrepret body languange and other non-verbal social cues and/or they communicate in ways that contradict their body language, etc.

      I actually think I can pick up social cues quite well. But apparently that may not be as true as I thought. I've always been insecure about the way people may perceive me. I had this mentioned to me. Which actually, offended me. Because it was from someone close. When I read into the symptoms for aspergers i'm not entirely opposed to the relation.. I shed some tears over this, I hope to not have aspergers.. I have enough going on.

[regan]

 
      I actually think I can pick up social cues quite well. But apparently that may not be as true as I thought. I've always been insecure about the way people my perceive me. I had this mentioned to me. Which actually, offended me. Because it was from someone close. I guess it's a possibility and i'm not sure what it will mean yet. I'm going to try and get evaluated correctly first. When I read into the symptoms for aspergers i'm not entirely opposed to the relation.. Kind of upsets me. I shed some tears over this, I hope it isn't true.. I have enough going on.

If you read about it in a book, probably not.  I took abnormal psych and diagnosed myself with a Narcissistic personality disorder, but I'm just an attention whore.    You really need to talk to a professional, and there's some pretty extensive testing for aspergers, before you can be sure.

[Miss_Anthropic]

I may have aspergers, apparently..


Thank you for the encouragement to goto therapy. That's nice.
Miss_Anthropic, that story you told me reassured me on my reasoning for posting to susans. Thank you.
I'll look into the drugs mentioned.

Glad my mess of a story could be of some help to someone!

~Sara