Beta blockers for anxiety

[donutqueen11]

My 15 yr d DD suffers from anxiety normally when going out somewhere different, travelling or school. It always happens first thing in the morning and she gets really shaky and feels really sick and some mornings she is sick.

She eats very little on school days because she feels so sick. The holidays she has stayed in most of the time and eaten as normal and literally no anxiety at all, however the couple of times I have got her out the house she has been sick. I know that back to school tomorrow will set the no eating regime again because she will feel so ill.

She has a GP appointment tomorrow and she suggested on the phone maybe trying beta blockers. Does anyone else's teen take these for anxiety and do they work??

As an adult I have taken these before. They work very well. From the point I take one it takes 45-1 hour 30 to feel the effects. I would take in the morning up until about 3pm but no later as they inhibit melatonin production and interfere with sleep. So only comment is to avoid taking at night.
Effects last for around 6-8 hours for me.

The anxiety is surrounding only school? You should take a look at emotionally based school avoidance (also called school refusal). Do you suspect she has ADHD or autism? Should a referral to CAHMS be explored? I think you need to look a little deeper than medication at this point.

They do work very well on physical symptoms yes but not on the actual mental aspect of anxiety which in my opinion is where the problem lies. BBS calm the body but not the mind.

It isn't just school it is anywhere out the house really. It all started with travelling several years ago when she started feeling sick, and then she was always sick before going on holiday but that was literally the only time she was anxious. Then as she started becoming more independent it was whenever she was away from me ie out with friends/sleepovers.

She used to be fine at school but felt anxious going back after lockdown and then she had a panic attack in a mock exam in year 10 and now school completely stresses her out and the reason being she literally feels sick and shakes all day. It has got to the point now that unless she is at home she feels sick and will not eat.

They're probably worth trying. Yes, they focus on the body symptoms of panic/ anxiety rather than the mental aspect directly, but as these tend to feed into each other (the mind interprets the body's adrenaline arousal response as a further reason/ justification to feel anxious) they usually do indirectly help in this respect too.

But what she is experiencing does sound fairly severe and generalised now so talking therapies would ideally feature too.

(Beta blockers tend to work best for specific situations - eg the panic experience during a mock exam. Speak to the school about arrangements for exams too - she may benefit from separate accommodation / extra time)

I think you also need to look at how you can help with the underlying causes of her anxiety. I cannot comment on the beta blockers, apart from saying that the root cause of her anxiety needs to be addressed.

Oh @donutqueen11 your poor DD it must be so hard for you to see her struggling like that. I agree with PP that talking therapy as well as medication to help her anxiety 💐

She is down to have counselling at school and I am going to book her in for some private counselling/CBT.

Looking back to when she was tiny she has always been sick when stressed. When I used to leave her in a creche at the gym she used to scream and make herself sick and I always had to pick her up. When she started nursery and I left her she was sick so there was so much stop and start it because they wouldn't keep her there because she was sick. I then swapped to a child minder and although she was often sick when I left her the CM knew this and dealt with it. Eventually she was fine. By the time she started school she had grown out of it and between about 4 and 9 she was fine going anywhere and doing anything even without me.

When she was about 10 she began getting scared of the big wide world and when playdates started to change to sleepovers and school residential started the sickness crept back in along with being sick when travelling not all the time but sometimes. She hated being away from me just like when she was a baby.

Year 7 and part of year 8 were not too bad apart from the travelling which we limited and she then saw a therapist for and it did make a bit of difference but then lockdown hit.

When other children started going to town etc without adults she couldn't do it as she was scared in case something bad happened and there was no one to save her.

She liked lockdown as she felt safe and she didn't have to worry about anything and then when she went back to school and this is when the anxiety became more general.

Op, might be worth looking into how autism presents in girls and see if it rings any alarm bells for you. Not saying that she is autistic, but some of what you mention does make me wonder.

@imip

Op, might be worth looking into how autism presents in girls and see if it rings any alarm bells for you. Not saying that she is autistic, but some of what you mention does make me wonder.

Interestingly my son and DH are autistic. I have wondered before and she did a online quiz the other day which brought her out high for autism. There are never meltdowns, no obsessions or special interests - she just seems very scared of interacting with others because she doesn't feel safe - which is quite irrational. She is watching the Christine McGuiness documentary at the moment and she has just called me up to her room to say that she IS Christine so maybe I will explore this avenue more!

I can relate to your daughter!

If she's had a panic attack at school, she's probably really scared of having another one. That can lead you to feeling extra scared, as you're scanning your body watching for signs of an attack coming.

The beta blockers are great for that because they're strong enough to stop a panic attack straight away. My GP gave me some and advised me to think of them as "a pill in the pocket", and just treat them as a safety net. It REALLY WORKS. I don't take them but I carry them everywhere.

Also what about working with your daughter to create strategies for safety when she's out and about? Practical things she can do? Self-defence classes, etc? I live in my head and "what if?" thoughts are my downfall. When I KNOW I can cope with stuff, when I have actual, practical, doable things to keep myself safe, all the fear goes.

@legohurts16 if you are the OP, please do seek an ASD assessment for your daughter, it will be this - as you can see, it is genetic. You don’t need to melt down to be autistic.

@suggestionsplease1

They're probably worth trying. Yes, they focus on the body symptoms of panic/ anxiety rather than the mental aspect directly, but as these tend to feed into each other (the mind interprets the body's adrenaline arousal response as a further reason/ justification to feel anxious) they usually do indirectly help in this respect too.

But what she is experiencing does sound fairly severe and generalised now so talking therapies would ideally feature too.

(Beta blockers tend to work best for specific situations - eg the panic experience during a mock exam. Speak to the school about arrangements for exams too - she may benefit from separate accommodation / extra time)

My Dd is having similar problems with panic and anxiety. How much support should I expect from her school? Can I really ask for a separate room or extra time for exams? I didn't know this

Thanks

@imip

I think you also need to look at how you can help with the underlying causes of her anxiety. I cannot comment on the beta blockers, apart from saying that the root cause of her anxiety needs to be addressed.

My Dd has similar problems with anxiety. How do we find the root cause? Which talking therapies help the most? I'm stuck atm. She has had 4 of 6 counselling sessions at school which I organised myself, no progress at all yet. She had 1 session with private psychologist who said it would be short course 4-5 for CBT) but I just can't see her being better after only 4-5 sessions. Idk whether private counselling would be better but I thought she needed CBT, so confused 🤔

I think 4-5 sessions could definitely help (CBT) but in my experience therapy takes time to get to root cause and work through issues. My situation is very different of course but it took me a year to have my lightbulb moments. That's not to say I didn't make progress from the start though, I did and just the talking therapy itself helped. I do private counselling.

I think SouthBucks must have slow release tablets, because DD has beta blockers for anxiety and they work within around 15 mins.

I would agree though you could do with addressing the underlying reason as well as the physical signs too.