Few questions regarding anxiety symptoms

Hi, my name is Eric and I just joined this board and found it off of google basically. I have had anxiety since middle school and am now a Junior in college. about a year and a half ago I saw a therapist and also was prescribed several antidepressants. I was on Zoloft to the highest dosage, Celexa, Effexor, and was taking Klonopin for the past year. Klonopin helps reduce the anxiety a little bit but made me very tired and also seemed to cause anger but I'm not sure if that is a positive correlation. Anyways, I gave the antidepressants prescribed to me chances and after going to the highest dosage on all of them I saw absolutely no difference in my anxiety. So for the past month or so I actually have been taking no medication. My psychiatrist told me to give up on long term antidepressants or SSRI's for now, and I feel that there is really nothing left for me to take that could change the way I feel inside. I'm not looking for something to change just the physical symptoms, but I want something that will change the way I think and feel when I talk to people or sitting in a crowd. I can't explain it, but I think the longer I"ve had anxiety the more I think about having it and that just makes it worst because all day I'm thinking about myself reacting in these ways in various situations and expecting to act that way, so maybe that is a major reason why I do. I always get anxiety that I can hide pretty well when talking to strangers, or around large groups of people, but in the past year or so I have experienced nervousness, heart racing, shaking..etc when talking to people I KNOW. This is really disheartening and there are only a couple people I can actualy talk to and feel comfortable with for whatever reason. Even sometimes around my family or friends that I see occasionally my heart will beat really fast and I don't know what to say or talk about. I also try to restrain myself during the whole conversation so I don't anger them or anything. Because of these things, the best place to be where I am most comfortable is in my room alone where I don't have to worry about what I say or expressions I'm making, or anything. Due to me being alone a lot, depression has ensued and now I feel I have both depression and anxiety.
I have a few questions regarding anxiety to you all:

1. Besides Effexor, Celexa, Zoloft what other types of antidepressants do you reccommend. I know those 3 are in the same type of family. I tried Paxil for a few weeks at the lowest dosage but never really gave it a chance. I also heard some people were on Welbutrin and it worked for them.

2. Does anyone else have anxiety when talking to family that they have felt comfortable with all their lives, friends they see a decent amount or people they used to be comfortable with for no explained reason? I'm thinking that it's either increased by myself subconsciously or has to do with something caused by the medications because I never had anxiety around the house or anything like this before and now I find it hard to feel comfortable ANYWHERE.

3. When talking to people I sometimes have weird twitches or tingling sensations around my mouth or nose or I really notice the way my face moves. It's not easy to describe. Also, when I talk to people sometimes I don't really feel lightheaded but my head shakes a little bit. I never really gotten either of these before this year.

4. This is really important for me to know. There are things that I KNOW cause anxiety when I think about it, ie: heart racing, shaking and nervousness, but I STILL THINK about IT. These are things that I should be able to control not to think about. Occasionally I will think about myself breathing and have to think about how to continue breathing which is rather annoying or blinking my eyes, or swallowing. Also, when driving I have this new thing that if a car is in front of me I will think hard about it and pay closer attention and act all jumpy thinking I might bump the person in the rear of their car. There are times when I forget about these little things and when I do it makes me feel better, but it seems I go back to them a lot and it really annoys me. I can't just switch it off. Does anyone else have any of these problems?

Thanks everyone,
Eric

Eric

You are obviously not alone. You have a problem that you share with millions. Including those people on this forum. There is comfort in numbers.

You already see a Psychiatrist. That's a great start. Cognitive therapy is great. However, (and this is just me) I wouldn't give up on antidepressants. It is very hit and miss. I was fortunate. I took Prozac for my OCD (another anxiety disorder) and had great luck. It pooped out after 17 years and now I'm searching for the right replacement. Lexapro didn't work for me. I just started Luvox and have great hopes for it. If it doesn't work I will try Zoloft.

I am not a Doctor, however I have done a great deal of research in the field and discussed this with my Pdoc. People react differently to different drugs. It's a trial and error deal. If your side effects are not terrible go for it until you get the right one. Having said that, Wellbutrin is not a great choice for those of us with high anxiety. It's meant for depression or smoking cessation and weight loss. It "speeds you up" and may increase agitation. I would try Prozac, Paxil or possibly Lexapro although it's a cousin of Celexa.

I had my first symptoms while in college. I can say things have improved ever since. Things a cyclical, but you can beat it.

Best,

David

Hi Eric,

        I had to reply to your post as a lot of the things that you described, ESPECIALLY the bit about talking to people were thing thatiwent through. I can remember the day my anxiety started as clear as crystal.I was at school about 13 yrs old and I was in an english lesson and we were taking it in turns to read out of a book. I had NEVER  had a problem with this but this day we had to read with a stupid accent.I started off ok, but as I went on I felt soooo stupid.My heart started beating real fast,I was burning up and could feel myself going redder and redder.But the thing that really freaked me out was the fact that my mouth started feeling really wierd and twitchy.I was in full blown panic mode...Basically from that day on I was in fear of this happening again.i used to get my mum to write notes in to say I had a sore throat and could not read that day!..I did ANYTHING possible to avoid that happening again. The fear of it stopped me going to college because at one point or another I would of had to read aloud and I would of rather died than have that panic feeling again..I avoided any kind of situation like that. After school I was fine ,got a job which I loved,and was there many years. But then one day, a few weeks before I was due to go on maternity leave to have my daughter,I was talking to my supervisor,who for years I had talked to hours at a time during the day,whilst talking to her all those feelingsI had when I was reading in my english lesson came flooding back and it was AWFUL,I swear to God.My face felt like it was tensing up again, my heart felt like it was gonna pop out and I was burning up. I made my excuses and left. I did go back to work after having my daughter but it was in the back of my mind all the time. Eventually I left . I carried on for a few more weeks..but then went to the doctors and he put me on prozac,which I have to say...works VERY well. i have had a couple of set-backs but nothing that  I dont think I cant handle.CBT has worked wonders for me aswell as finding this site where there are many others who are going through the same thing. I can advise you to TRY and not avoid situations where you think this may happen.And like you said this has happened to me with family members and close friends too. I even thought of cutting off my friends because of this..but I fought it and am very glad I didnt now. You WILL get through it. sorry for droaning on a bit..  jayne xx