Experiences of medication for anxiety

[SuziSecondLaw]

I'm just curious of your experiences taking medication for anxiety. What has worked for you etc.

I've suffered with various mental health problems since I was a teenager, and have tried cbt, counselling, I eat well, exercise regularly, tried meditation etc and nothing ever helped. Though I do think a good deal of my problems were because of some difficult life experiences I had to deal with. However, pretty much everything in my life is brilliant now, wonderful kids, lovely home, amazing dp etc etc, and yet.. I'm still so anxious. I get overwhelmed extremely quickly. I stress and obsess about things that shouldn't matter. So I've finally decided it's time to try some medication (have always had a big fear of side effects especially).
I quite like the sound of Amitriptyline.. Just because the side effects sound bearable, has good reviews etc. Any experiences on that?

Very similar set of circumstances here. Good life but fairly traumatic childhood. Anxiety is crippling. I’ve been on citalopram in the past and found that helped and no side effects. I’ve just started back on it

i take citrolapram i can now work because of it if i dont take it i am a mess

I never take any depression or anixiety medicine for reduce my depression. Few people are more belive in medicine, but it will gives only results for short time. Natural remedies always gives long term results without makes any side effects.

I've spent my entire life like this after serious child Hood sexual abuse and then domestic violence etc. I am bipolar. Tried everything under the sun. The one thing that has totally transformed my anxiety and depression is growing my own magic mushrooms and starting off microdosing. Psilocybin has been proven in multiple clinical trials to help massively and I am fully hoping that this country decriminalised or legalises them so is easier for universities etc to study them.

But I get not everybody is paid to do something like that- even though the only ingredients used to grow them is an organic grain, water and coir.

So. Things that helped me from the pharma shelf . For daily anxiety amitryptalline helped but left me feeling groggy. For serious short term panic/anxious episodes then phenergan helped ( no more than 7 tablets in 28 days due to brain twitches) . Staying away from the internet helped me even more. Quetiapinelet me with long term neuro damage and 8 years on my sleep cycle is still destroyed

But nothing has worked as well as psilocybin.

This is my experience, and I know others who have had entirely different experiences, but amitriptyline was not good for me at all. I became very depressed, not at all in control of my emotions, and I slept 16 hours a day. I've got a complete gap in my memory of one Christmas when I was on it, and my mum was terrified that I was going to try to kill myself. That said, I know people for whom it has been a lifesaver, and my experience should factor in that I was only 21, and on the pill, which I later realised badly affects my mental health, and my amitriptyline dose was titrated quite rapidly to 100mg. This was over 20 years ago so it may be managed a lot better now.

For me, citalopram and sertraline have worked best with fewest side-effects (save for the first 10 days when my anxiety sky-rocketed and I begged for some diazepam to see me through it). It really is different strokes for different folks though.