can some people let me know about their positive experiences with medication for health anxiety... or i guess just anxiety in general. i've tried zoloft a long time ago and i felt like it helped a lot, but a few years back i didn't feel that it helped much at all (generic zoloft- sertraline). i'm nervous to try something again because i'm drug sensitive and just scared of medication in general. i actually think my anxiety levels soared because of a steroid nasal spray i was taking. now i'm just a mess. Anyway, positive experiences with meds?

Go read some of my posts... I was crazy not taking medication.. now I do getting better I think..

Yes, it does. Especially if the Anxiety has reached a point where you are experiencing depression, hopelessness etc.

The most important thing was having a trusting relationship with my doc, so that I was sure he was supporting me and being truthful with me and then I could really work on following his advice and believing he was helping. That was huge.

The meds helped relieve that dark, helpless, hopeless sense that nothing would ever change.

Therapy gave me the tools to keep going and learn how to change the ways I talked to myself, and interpreted the world.

Creative outlets - like painting, writing, crafting - gave me something positive to do and to focus on and kept me out of my head. It also produced some things I could use in meditation and visualization and that fed back into a new circle of recovery and care, rather than the old vicious circle of despair.

Good luck!

I consider them as saving my life from a dismal daily life to one of a greatly improved quality of life. So YES. They worked for me.

I couldn't tolerate SSRI's but I was able to take .25 mg of xanax and slowly built up to 3 times a day. After taking it 3 times a day, my life began to get better. I wasn't trembling all the time and I could feel myself relax. At this point I wasn't just experiencing panic attacks, I was recovering from an emotional breakdown. I would still feel trembling inside my veins but I could live with that. I don't know what I would've done if I had not been able to take xanax. It helped me sit still. That was in the latter part of 2003. In 2004, I took extra xanax with me and began a Bible study at my church. Then I did another and learned how to stay in a routine of reading the Bible every day and praying to God. In 2005, I learned to stop my panic attacks by praying Scripture, and later that year I realized I didn't need as much xanax and that internal vibration was gone. I give God the glory for that! Then I was forgetting the mid-day dose because I was feeling calm for longer periods of time. By the summer of 2005 I was off the xanax, but I kept it as an as needed basis. I still keep it in my cabinet. I am not ashamed to take it when a crisis hits or when I become anxious due to mood swings because of menopause. If I need it, I take it. Boy, I took a long time answering your question, didn't I? Hope this helps.

PS Anything with cortisone or prednisone sends my nerves into orbit. I cry nonstop and shake all over plus break out in hives.

I tried denying,ignoring,fighting my panic attacks for 10 long years before going to a specialist and getting medication. I now think back at all of the good times that i mised because of my ignorance and stubbornness. Like i alsways say, I am certainly not "cured" by any stretch of the imagination but i do indeed feel much better on a day to day basis. Still up and downs but much more controllable these days. Hope this helps!!!