Quote from: Shantel on September 25, 2013, 12:54:11 PM
I had to ramp down off of them and opted for talk therapy to work out PTSD and anxiety issues, it was like peeling a new layer off of an onion each session complete with tears until it was all uncovered and exposed, then I learned about those things that cause anxiety and sudden extreme anger and how to recognize them from afar when they are just coming up on the horizon and was given the tools via other options for sidestepping it. It took a long time but has proven to be much better than becoming dependent on chemicals that alter my brain's hardwiring. That's not to say that some with clinical depression should stop their medication. My situation was different.
For a thread that can't be derailed, we sure have been staying on the tracks, lol...
I'm still going through some of this, though not as much as when I first started it.
What a weird mix of gender and CPTSD issues it's been.
I still need to carry anxiety meds with me, just knowing I have them with me is really more important than using them.
They're different than the Wellbutrin I take for depression. It's not your standard SSRI antidepressant. Those ramped up the anxiety.
Being able to see anxiety coming around the corner is from a lot of talk therapy, and it took a few therapists to find the right one.
Everyone has a different story, different journey, but some things remain the same regardless.
When I need to calm down, sometimes the situation calls for meds, but not on any kind of regular basis.
It's weird the triggers that happen. They don't seem to have anything to do with my past, but might.
I talk to my therapist about them, and if they don't seem to relate, we try to figure them out.
I think some of them are never going to reveal anything new, anything to work on.
But even that is something in itself. Just knowing nothing about them makes me step back from the situation.
Which is not in my nature to usually do. I tend to step into things rather than walk away.
But I'm learning new tactics for avoiding those kinds of things. Better than depending on something thats not me.
Which is what anxiety meds really are. They intentionally disrupt your wiring.
But they do nothing for my depression, if anything, they make it worse.
Unfortunately, some of us are wired wrong, and it takes specific meds to make us the same normal as most people are.
It's hell trying to navigate through life in a constant state of depression. I get nowhere without my antidepressant.
It's not addictive, you don't get any kind of a high from them, you just get to function like everyone else.
If you don't need them, they do nothing for you. They might give you a little boost of serotonin or norepinephrine.
Wellbutrin also boosts your uptake of dopamine somewhat. But it's not a kind of thing that you get right away, like anxiety meds.
Antidepressants can take up to a month before the receptors adjust in your brain.
Coffee has a larger effect than antidepressants do in the short term. But caffeine does little to adjust your chemical balance for depression.
Antidepressants just allow your receptors to function like they should.
Anxiety meds work far differently and can become very addictive and when they do, their effectiveness wears down.
So you need more to get the same effects.
That's when they start to affect your wiring in a kind of semi permanent way.
Which is harder to fix than the anxiety itself. Opiates used for painkillers work almost the same way.
Even though I'm one of those people who just doesn't get addicted to things, I still dislike the effects from them.
Going through life wearing rose colored glasses isn't any way to live.
A person needs to be able to withstand things when they go wrong, and it takes practice.
Without a doubt, talk therapy is far more effective in the long run than med therapy when it comes to anxiety.
I still have a prescription for Ativan, but I really don't know when it was the last time I had to get a refill.
Life is much better this way, even if I am still learning to deal with some things.
Ativan
