Anxiety in a 17 - 18 year old? is Propranolol good, ?

[chocolatelife]

because GP prescribed this to dd.
I was hoping she would perhaps be given some sort of relaxation exercises or a referral to CAMHS
but the GP has prescribed this medication.

Anyone any experience of this?

My dd was put on sertraline at 17 and its made a huge difference to her life.
She had CBT for years but it didn't make much difference

I found propanolol very good indeed. It can be taken daily or as and when. I think it will help a lot - I've never had any success with antidepressants. It's a very low level drug in comparison. My gp said people take it for driving tests or music exams, stage fright, speeches etc. I found I needed it to help the CBT work.

oh thanks to both of you

Sertaline did help with low mood though confused my thyroid medication a bit too much.

I think it's worth trying before trying ads.

i hadnt even considered ADs, I just thought some sort of relaxation method would be suggested.

This is an excellent resource for CBT by the way.

www.getselfhelp.co.uk

oh great,
thank you

Anxiety can be very chemical inducing (adrenaline etc) and things like adrenaline can remain in the body for a day or so once triggered. beta blockers help within minutes if they are right for the patient. Then she could try to learn other methods on top, then slowly try not taking the beta blockers. The best thing is she can try one for a day (is it slow release sort?) and see how she feels, without taking any more. I think it's then out of your system the next day.

And the overcoming books are used by nhs therapists. Usually in local libraries too.
www.overcoming.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=4795

I find my slow release propanel very good. It was given to me for racing heartbeat. It does often give me very vivid dreams of a sometimes disturbing nature but it's still worth it.

Suffering from anxiety for years I've found group cbt (nhs) useful, plus reading books on anxiety (some really good) and also you can find lots of music/sounds of a relaxing nature on YouTube and also hypnosis downloads online. It might be a matter of trial and error as to what clicks. Just finding out I was not alone, crazy or abnormal suffering from anxiety also helped more than you might imagine. However, forums and chat rooms can make you feel worse putting more worries into your head.

Sorry spelt propranolol wrong.

My DD17 has been prescribed Propanalol - it's definitely helped her.
She's had anxiety since starting A levels and feels 'trapped' at college with everyone 'annoying' her. She was having too much time off college, her workload was getting on top of her and her behaviour swung between angry and tearful a lot of the time.
She started taking Propanalol once a day, but now just takes them as & when needed.
She's also had acupuncture and 'tapping therapy, along with stomach and cranial massage at a local Traditional Chinese Medicine practice - that's worked absolute wonders!

I was recently prescribed propranolol by my GP for high anxiety - my heart was constantly pounding out of my chest obviously caused by adrenaline. After 3 doses of 40mg of propranolol I could no longer feel my heart pounding & it has really helped. Unfortunately it doesn't take away the anxiety cause but it does help relieve the symptoms. I'm going to pay for private CBT as it takes months on our NHS waiting lists.

I personally found slow release 80mg once a day very good for general ongoing anxiety, rather than only when I needed it. It just meant I could live more normally which boosted confidence which eased anxiety!