New to my anxiety disorder

So first let me introduce myself. I'm 32 married and have to beautiful little girls age 2 and 8. My anxiety started about 3 months ago. I used to be a heavy energy drink drinker, when I mean heavy I mean 5 hour in the morning 3 energy drinks during my 8 hour shift and 1 or 2 at home. It started with an anxiety attack at work. So bad I went to the hospital. They released me saying it was just the energy drinks. I quit drinking them and about a week later had anothe really bad anxiety attack, so bad I called 911 thinking I was having a heart attack. MDs diagnosed me with dehydration and gave me Klonopin 2 mg to call me down. Follow up with my MD put me on a Halter Monitor and did a Stress Echo with no findings in each. So now here I am 3 months later, I am currently on Buspar 10 mg and Xanax 0.25 PRN.nI felt good for about a month no attacks little bit of anxiety but manageable. The past 2 days I've had to resort to my Xanax on multiple occasions. I'm constantly worried I may have some disease that I'm looking up be aide of symptoms (WebMD is he name of my existence lol). My real quesion is should I get a med increase or try something else. I have yet to go to a psychiatrist and was thinking of doing that as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Post Edited (MurseChris) : 8/28/2013 4:06:43 PM (GMT-6)

Hi MurseChris!

You're not alone. I have been there, where you are. That was about 7 years ago. My first couple of bad episodes with chest pain, went to the ER thinking it was a heart attack. Tests came back fine, only to find out it was anxiety and panic attack (GERD or reflux was another component of that, too). Luckily I was prescribed Ativan 0.5 mg as needed (it's a benzodiazepine in the same family as Xanax).

My personal feeling, Chris, is try to avoid med dosage increases if you can. The deal with these benzos is that if you keep taking them regularly, over time you may build a tolerance to them and need more or increased dosage. Plus, if you get too dependent on them and when you want to stop taking them, you may have to taper off safely otherwise you might experience rebound anxiety with withdrawal symptoms. Of course, talk to your physician. Maybe increases are going to be right for you in your case, just be warned that used long term *may* come with a price.

It's definitely worthwhile to check out the resources that SC pointed out. The breathing exercises are pretty important. Also, you can do other lifestyle changes. It's good that you cut out the energy drinks! Try to cut out or at least limit coffee or other caffeine (me, I switched to decaf coffee). Limit your alcohol and keep it within moderation (for me, overdoing the drinking would make my body pay dearly, later). Eating a bit healthier: only good things can happen when you do that.

Good luck and again, feel better!

Ruhr

Ruhr said...
The deal with these benzos is that if you keep taking them regularly, over time you may build a tolerance to them and need more or increased dosage.This could be why I am having a harder time with anxiety/panic attacks these days?  I've been taking Klonopin(or generic) 3mg daily for the past 25yrs. 

This can be the reason why I am having more anxiety/panic issues these days?  I've been taking Klonopin (or generic) 3mgs daily for the past 25 yrs.  Something to look into?

MC, I never took anything except xanax as needed, in the early stages I was on the blue one's but over
time I wanted to see if I could tough it out without taking the xanax, it took several attempts but I
finally rode one out without the Benzo, it wasnt over but I had one foot up on the ladder, now days I
carry it for back up but have been two years without it. My point is I never had even the slightest addiction to xanax, I think thats because I only used it as a last resort. I don't think its a good idea to
take Benzos like two or three times a day, that could cause a problem. Peace

Larry ***