Has anyone tried to treat anxiety with beta blockers? I have been on many different antidepressants and they only work for a few months and have too many side effects. My doctor put me on innopran, which is a long acting form of inderal. I think it makes me very tired but it has only been a few days. I was just wondering if anyone else has tried this or another beta blocker.
Posted by ChrisBtheLymie (Member # 8916) on :
Hi.
I took beta blockers when I was having terrible anxiety and panic attacks. They did help but also made me feel a little tired.
I think some people say xanax is very good for anxiety and helps keep them calm, have you tried this?
Posted by liz28 (Member # 4946) on :
I use Jarrow's theanine (the other brands haven't worked so well), provigil, and celebrex.
Posted by Dawn in VA (Member # 9693) on :
Hiya. Betablockers essentially slow -and can sometimes therefore help regulate- one's pulse. Sometimes they are given to anxiety sufferers because panic attacks and general anxiety can cause (or is a result of- i dunno, the chicken or the egg?) heart palpiations. They are not an anti-anxiety drug, just help with that particular association.
I used to have panic attacks and was put on one for about a year to help with the palpitations. Personally, a few months of ativan helped me with the anxiety and a wonderful program from the Midwest Center for Anxiety (I can't recall their website address, although I'm sure a google search would bring it up) really helped me to eliminate lots of it altogher. Albeit, thost panic attacks were not associated with lyme- that I know of anyway...
Hope you feel better. -Dawn
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
I think panic attacks ARE associated with Lyme & Co.!!
With treatment, your anxiety should decrease.
I take beta blockers for tachycardia, and yes, they do make me a bit tired. I take a very low dose of atenolol.
Posted by Carol B (Member # 9110) on :
me too me too lyme tutu !!! I take atenolol for tachychardia. They put me on it after they had to flatline me to regulate it-that was a trip ! Carol
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
Shall we party down, Carol??
Posted by LymeFighter (Member # 9354) on :
Hi, I just wanted to put my 2 cents in. In all honesty Xanax is a very addictive, dangerous, hard to get off of drug (at least for me)! I have had severe panic attacks for years (since I was infected with Lyme and it's co-infections). I have found that all anti-anxiety drugs are difficult to get off of, but I am taking Librium. It made me very tired in the beginning and then I got used to it. I am not recommending Librium as a long time drug, but it does help with the panic. I am trying to wean myself off of the Librium because I've been on it for so long now. But it is very difficult. It is with all meds I believe. Anyway, you might want to try talking to your doc about Librium...it may help a lot (but be careful not to get too addicted). I hope this post helps. Good luck and take care. Panic is a pain but it does pass and it will go away once you get the proper treatment. Best wishes, ~LF
Posted by Carol B (Member # 9110) on :
party on down with those party animal balloons -in slow motion ! Posted by DolphinLady (Member # 6275) on :
Treating babesia got rid of my anxiety attacks. I did mepron/zith standard dosage for 6 months. I added in artemisinin the last 3 months.
Best wishes.
Posted by TerryK (Member # 8552) on :
I take atenolol for tachycardia too. It did not help with anxiety. For that I've gotten a great deal of help with GABA and Pantothenic Acid. No side effects and works great. Took a few weeks on the GABA but now I rarely have anxiety. They are both over the counter.
Not sure if anyone else mentioned this but hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia can both cause anxiety. It might be worth changing your diet to see if it makes a difference. It can be hard to tell if you have hypoglycemia so a trail of low carb diet is sometimes helpful. I also believe that lyme can cause anxiety.
Hope you get relief soon. I know how miserable the anxiety can be. Terry
Posted by elley0531 (Member # 9434) on :
panic attacks and anxiety are very much a lyme symptom for me. They were one of the first symptoms that I got actually when my lyme came out of remission. Try explaining to your doc that you aren't having anxiety because you're anxious, that the physical symptoms come first (palps, odd breathing, shakes) and they make me anxious mentally...vicious cycle.
I ended up on Buspar for about a month. It is non habbit forming and helped quite alot with the anxiety, it allowed me to sleep anyway.
Once I started abx though and coming to this board on a regular basis I went off the buspar with no problem.
I will get anxiety still but it almost always is when I'm having a bad symptoms day in general.
Posted by elley0531 (Member # 9434) on :
quote:Originally posted by ChrisBtheLymie: Hi.
I took beta blockers when I was having terrible anxiety and panic attacks. They did help but also made me feel a little tired.
I think some people say xanax is very good for anxiety and helps keep them calm, have you tried this?
xanax is very good but very powerful and very addictive. i wouln't recommend this unless the problem is horribly severe because trying to get off of it will be quite tough.
An herb known to calm nerves is Kava extract. You may want to ask your doc about it and see if there would be any drug interactions with taking that. You can get it at any healthfood store.
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