Anxiety meds

Benzos made my anxiety far worse and caused a host of other nasty side effects. My anxiety is controlled by sertraline and chlorpramazine and therapy ;) i have found that these meds have given me more control over my anxiety.

Throughout my nearly 70 years of life, I have dealt with stress management through guided imagery, self-hypnosis and meditation.

At one point in my late 50's when the company I worked for was trying to get rid of workers in my age group, I consulted a psychiatrist who dealt primarily with veterans with PTSD. He told me I really didn't need him and suggested that I concentrate on exercise, healthy diet and stress management techniques I used in the past. (Some would keep you coming back.)
He never suggested meds.

Several of my friends have used meds on a short term basis to help them deal with life situations (death of spouse, divorce, etc.) but having UC or any chronic illness is not a "short term" problem.

You need to find a long-term solution. IMO the real key for lasting success is to accept the loss of perfect health and find non-medical ways to achieve inner peace.

I use downloaded free MP3 healing messages and free music from Amazon.com. Also copy library materials to my computer to create cds that I can listen to as I'm going to sleep.

I hope you appreciate that I'm trying to help you to find a way to achieve inner peace without the use of drugs.
You have the ability to treat yourself.

I have tried meditation and it helps overall but does not help my anxiety related issues from uc but more likely the ibs. I appreciate your thoughts and I'm not big on more meds but I feel desparate. Last night I freaked out in the car in traffic on the way to a show worried about having an accident. Every car ride makes me nervous and I fear that I will be agoraphobic if I don't do something. Or give in to surgery and hope that works out. I am much further along in dealing with psychological acceptance of uc than you give me credit (not that you could know from my post) but this is something else that's been building from some bad experiences.

nothing wrong with xanax once in awhile as needed as long as you don't get reliant on it.

You are right...I don't know much about where you are with stress issues. Things that worry me are the possibility of a negative interaction with other meds and dependency. To me, it's chilling when side effects on some meds include "thoughts of suicide".

Have you considered trying LDN? Taking it increases endorphins which could possibly help with your state of mind.
I experienced a real "high" when I first started using it.... after a fast walk on the treadmill. Exercise makes me feel good even when I have to force myself to go to the gym. There are several LDN websites like lowdosenaltrexone.org and ldnscience.org where a lot of info is available.

Have you read posts on the anxiety forum?
Take care.

I feel for you, anxiety is so uncomfortable and crummy.

The good thing about know the cause behind your anxiety is that it is easier to work on. Meds are a good help in the meantime.

I take klonopin for anxiety but I am on pristiq and I don't find that I need to take klonopin these days. I get nervous sometimes and it makes my UC worse. I always feel like I have to go when I am no where near a toilet. Parking garages are the worst. My GI has suggested that I may suffer from IBS on top of UC but she's done scopes and it's always showed inflammation when I have symptoms so it looks like a text book case of IBD from what I've seen.

Petah said...
Meds are short term. Look into meditation and breathing Techniques

I beg to disagree. There is enough evidence that if IBD subjects take antidepressants, they end up getting less number of IBD flares. So in an attempt to treat mood/anxiety disorder, you get 2 birds in one stone.

On experimental basis, I started Nortryptyline, very low dose but I will see how things go in 3 months before upping the dose. I am trying to target migraine and mood issues (low end depression), plus UC flare.