Antidepressants and anxiety

[PrincessBeat]

I have been on antidepressants for anxiety before, but didn't feel it made a huge difference. This was citalopram and sertraline.

I feel worse than ever with nerves, and thinking of speaking to the doctor about going back on them. Has anyone had any success with any other types?

Can you not try to practise relaxation techniques?

I feel anxious but I think my periods have fully stopped so it may be a reaction (I am 55 they stopped in January). I am also raising a teenage boy singlehandedly with only 4 weeks help a year from his df's father who live 100 miles away.

I do Buddhist chanting and go to a weekly meeting but the anxiety is really through the roof at the minute. I think it is my body reacting.

I have decided from today to only drink one caffeine daily and the rest of the day decaff whether it be decaff tea or decaff coffee. In addition I am using Clary Sage oil on my temples and heart chakra which seems to help somewhat.

Plain low fat yoghourt or fat free yoghourt can help also as can Valerian tea. Valerian tea tastes disgusting however!

Also allowing myself to have more rest I find helpful though easier said than done.

Hope this helps?

Fluoxetine has helped massively with my anxiety (severe OCD at one point, still there but liveable with now). So it might be worth going back to the Dr and trying something else.

Polly is right too, relaxation and other things can help as well. I needed the fluoxetine though too. I was too anxious to relax, not good enough at mindfulness and when I tried it just gave mental space for the anxiety to flood in - obviously I was a beginner and that shouldn't happen, but if you're in too much of a spin it's very hard to get yourself out of it without help. Now if I start to get anxious I'm better at recognising it, how it's affecting my body and focusing on breathing and relaxing, but I have the pills helping in the background too.