Honest truth for honest help

[Lancebar123321]

Ok so ill start by saying I along with my GF used mollies the drug for about a year, maybe once a week sometimes we would skip a week. We were young and stupid well on top of that i was also using a pre workout that can cause high levels of stress. the stress from the pre woekout would leave after about a couple of hours after my workout. Well we did the drug one last around over a year ago and i stopped using the pre workout but now im anxious as hell when we go out like its bad i feel dizzy and i feel like heart racing and i feel bad. I have to remind myself hey you will be ok and sometimes it goes away others its to hard. On top of this for the last year even before i felt bad in public i would get pains in my stomach and sides and nothing has been found so maybe it the stress and anxiety. i went to my doc and he gave me lorazepam .5 and i started taking them for about two months and eveything was going grand until i started getting bad headaches and felt like i needed to take two to feel good. So i went to my doc before this happend actually and i told him im scared about long term anxiety as this isnt solving the root of the issue. well he prescribed .5 of the generic zolaft and on the third day i couldnt do it i felt terrible and worse. I quickly called him and he told me to stop taking it. Ive read that the first couple of weeks in cn do that but he told me to stop. the problem is now ive stopped taking the anti axienty cold turkey because I dont want to wait 4-6 months and then its a bigger or harder to stop it was giving me migraines. Now i have headaches and im stress out again but even worse cuz now im stressed at home. so many things i want to know. A. is it possible that this goes away alone without medication or seeing a therapist. B. why would a doc prescribe me a short term highly addictive solution without a long term plan in place.C. how long till i dont feel worse from the lorazepam .5 MG if i took it for about 2 months. D. why did my doc prescribe a damn anti depressant and then tell me to stop, i get it i had side effcts but now im seeing its not that uncommon at first, but why not prescribe me anything else. Is it me or do i have to find another doctor ?Anyone can possibly help. Is it possible to go cold turkey wait a while and just take serotonin once these drugs are out of my system i feel like these drugs have a big chance of making me dependent on something plus they have made things worse, i keep reading about horror stories about people trying to leave them

[Lancebar123321]

There were times i would go with my girlfriend and feel fine and other times like the dinner or with a friend to have a drink and i would geta  rush of axienty or panic attack. Yea my doctor took my blood exam and blood pressure thats all he did and then prescribed me the meds. I have been off the anti anxiety now for like three days, should i get back on them or should i continue to try without it. You mention that i could possibly take the b6 and 5htp, can these be bought in pill or capsules or should i find them in foods, should i wait to take them now since i was on anti anxiety or is it ok to start taking those, i know your not a health professional. I have been looking into buying tea or some sort, I heard it helps with anxiety and sleep which for the last 8 months i have also had trouble doing going to sleep and mainly staying asleep.

[Paxiled]

By the way, your general doc can do one thing that should have been done -- rule out any possible physiological causes for your anxiety.  Examples are irregular heart rhythms, blood sugar problems, hormonal problems (thyroid and testosterone, for example), hidden diseases, etc.  I don't know if the drug you took is the cause of the problem, but that particular drug could be.  Quitting benzos abruptly isn't a good idea -- it can cause withdrawals and just make your problem worse.  You really just need to see a better professional if you can find one.

[Paxiled]

This is why it's better to see a psychiatrist than a regular doc, and better to make sure even the psychiatrist knows about the difficulties of medication.  Most doctors, including psychiatrists, are in a hurry, they have a lot of patients, and their education in medication is very basic -- they're taught what drugs are used for what symptoms, and they're further taught mostly by pharmaceutical company reps once they're in practice.  As with any other profession, some are just better at it than others.  Psychiatrists at least have the advantage of working solely with these meds, while regular docs treat so many things they know a little about a lot but not a lot about much.  That's why they send us to specialists so often.  As to why they would prescribe a benzo for anxiety, that's the class of drugs sold for that purpose.  The fact they are classified as an addictive drug and are very hard to stop taking means they need to be taken properly and only when necessary, but for a lot of people they are the only things that help.  Antidepressants are also hard to stop taking, but when they work they work all the time, whereas benzos wear off after a period of time.  It is possible this goes away, but it's unlikely.  Therapy really should have been your first stop, for two reasons:  psychologists study a lot more psychology than any other mental health professional including psychiatrists, so they are good at diagnosing your problem and telling you if you can solve it without medication.  Second, they're the only ones who can solve it without medication if that's possible.  Your doc told you to stop the Zoloft because you complained -- a psychiatrist might have told you it takes 4-6 weeks to start working instead.  As to a long-term plan, only therapy is a long-term plan.  Drugs were never tested long-term and were always meant to be used as a short-term bridge until therapy worked.  Unfortunately, therapy doesn't have a guarantee to work, so many of use end up on drugs long-term.  You can't take serotonin really -- you can take the nutrients that make serotonin in the brain as supplements (5-HTP and B6 mostly) but the drugs work differently than that -- they don't make more serotonin, they redirect how the brain uses and breaks down serotonin already being made.  The natural approach and the medication approach are therefore quite different.  The problem with the medical approach, whether it's targeting GABA (your benzo) or serotonin (your antidepressant) is two-fold:  they don't treat the source of the problem because we don't know what the physiological source of the problem is yet, and they alter the way your brain naturally works, which presents problems.  But sometimes that's the best you can do, you just want to do it the safest way.  Good luck.