Has anybody’s teen been prescribed Beta Blockers with Fluoxetine?

[K0umac]

My 16 has found Fluoxetine has helped depression a little but not the crippling anxiety. More Fluoxetine or Beta Blockers have been mentioned in order to access talking therapy.

On reading it appears BB only treat physical symptoms so wondering what the point is and if they do anything.

They do work on the physical effects, racing heart, breathing etc.
So you feel more in control.
I don't understand why you think that is pointless?
The physical symptoms can be crippling.

Dealing with anxiety involves managing the crippling physical manifestations, which is no mean feat. Those of us who are practiced at it can take ourselves away from the situation, go somewhere to calm down, bring that heart rate back down. But that takes discipline and experience.

Beta blockers do that for you, so she won’t feel as anxious, and she’s unlikely to get herself into that snowballing situation. It’s worth a go, because while talking therapy does work (I am a big fan), you have to be in the right place to do the work.

But if they don’t sort the head will they help you be in the right place?

They also mentioned upping the Fluoxetine.

A friend suggested Sertoline would be better. I’m really not keen on jumping meds so soon( been on F 6 weeks, full dose 4 I think) and willing to give anything a try but the anxiety and obsessional thoughts are massive and the main part to the depression.

With a teen I guess it’s best to try to keep to the F if at all poss and BB worth a try.

Beta blockers work by reducing the effect of adrenaline on the body - they act like a circuit breaker that can be enormously helpful.

Anxiety is a vicious cycle - your fight/flight system is highly sensitised to any perceived threat - you make anxious predictions for example, which trigger physical symptoms, which validate the predictions and ramp up the anxious thoughts, which increase the physical symptoms.

Beta blockers can help to dampen the physical symptoms and create a bit of space for calmer thinking.

Ah ok. Do you take them when you feel anxious( all day for Ds) or same time every day?

I used to take them occasionally in advance of stressful events. But now (going through a bit of a MH relapse) I take 1 every morning and another 2 later on if needed. I’m also on sertraline.

How has the doctor prescribed them?

Sorry I realise in my sleep deprived state I misread that you were talking about your DD and you’re not.

I don’t know the answer about the meds dosage because I mainly learnt to control my anxiety through therapy, but I do know that medications can be helpful. Other things that help me are exercise, and eating well. Also generally being ‘looked after’ - I’m the matriarch, but being looked after and relieved of the responsibility of looking after everyone else is helpful to me.

Hasn’t prescribed them yet. Just suggested them. Speaking again in a week and a half a time. I’m trying to find out a bit more about them.

I take beta blockers and they're really helpful. Right now I only take one in the morning. I really struggled with the physical symptoms of anxiety. I'd stay on the fluoxetine for now as they're really still waiting on the full effects kicking in and anxiety tends to increase for the first 6-8 weeks when taking any SSRI.

Like others I just took them when I thought I might have a difficult day. They don't need to be taken regularly to get into your system.
They have very few side affects and are very safe for most people.