Anyone ever regretted medication for anxiety

[Amkotbj]

Anxiety and other mental health runs in my family but rather than medicating it we always just lived with it. It’s getting to a pint when I feel it might be worth trying out medication to see if my quality of life would improve. Is it dangerous starting it as in do we get addicted to it?
Long time sufferer

I take medication for anxiety and depression. I also did CBT. It’s not dangerous to take medication you need. I’m no more addicted to anti depressants than I am to my asthma inhaler.

Thank uou my worry with time you are having to take more and more to achieve same effect?

That’s the anxiety talking!! I am on the same dose I started on. Some people do CBT etc then come off them again.

Personally l think you need to change your way of thinking. Our minds can work against us. l suffered anxiety and panic, anxiety is all to do with future thinking and the future is only ever imagined. I try to go against the grain and think of the best case scenario, it does makes a difference. l am much more aware of my negative thoughts now.
Medication will only offer relief not a cure. l am not against it, it can be valuable for a much needed restbite, but l know of friends that are on high doses, have been for many years and it 's not doing much for them.
Its true when they say "The battlefield is in the mind" T. d Jakes does a good speech on this on youtube.

It very much depends on the medication. In the last people were often given benzodiazepines and more recently pregabalin and these are addictive and offer only short term symptomatic relief. Using certain antidepressants that help for anxiety does not cause dependence and can very very helpful alongside CBT.

Thank you. My issue (along with a lot of others) not only worry about things but I’m actually physically very unsettled and struggle to relax so simple things like just sitting watching tv with kids is difficult as I just want to be up doing things as
my mind just races which makes me go manic and do a 100 things all at once to a point when my body can’t match the energy and I have a huge meltdown. Will definitely look into thank you

Do you think you could have ADHD? Have a look at the symptoms online and see if they resonate with you. It might also explain how it runs in the family.

Thanks it’s funny you say that as I’m 40 and struggled with this all my life affecting a lot of my relationships. I have 4 boys and one of them is very much like me. His school recently asked me to get him assessed for ADHD so I have a few threads on this. I’m going to wait to see what they say and go from there but actually makes me feel it’s time to get to the bottom of this

My partner is on sertraline and it changed his life. He had severe anxiety which was starting to cause depression and it really has worked like a miracle for him. He might taper down gently eventually or he may not. Sometimes you have a chemical imbalance and there is no shame on medicating that like you would with a physical ailment.

On the other side of the coin I went on Citalopram after a traumatic event that caused anxiety. I was on it for around 9 months and came off naturally and have been fine ever since. It saved my life for a while though.

That’s good to know. It seems these days it’s still quite a taboo talking about anxiety medication

I worried about the same thing and ultimately put it off until I was suicidal, wish I hadn’t because sertraline was absolutely amazing for me!

I weaned myself off pretty easily after 6 months and I felt more balanced. Have been great without for almost a year but anxiety has reared its ugly head again (mine is health anxiety and has been triggered by a lump - nothing to worry about says GP), so considering going back on it x