I’ve been through very difficult things in life because of these problems. I’ve had it very bad for a about 2-3 years, especially anxiety in the past 2 years. I’ve tried to be patient with everything, and I’ve been in therapy for a long time. I’ve taken prozac, zoloft at max doses, 3 other antipsychotics (zyprexa, risperdal, seroquel), klonopin, ativan ,and a very high dose of an antipsychotic (flaunoxal 20 mg), with little sucess. I’m now on zoloft at 175mg, with seroquel at 150mg, and ativan at 0.5mg (when needed), and I’ve been taking these meds for a long time now with no real benefit. My psychyatrist says she cant help me anyone, and even crisislines and everything , because I say I want want my anxiety/ depression and other mental health problems to be addressed as well as suicidal thoughts, and no one can help me. Thats even when I’m suicidal. I know that’s not the answer, and I very likely wont do it, but no one can help me. I’ve even taken mixtures of my old meds with tylenol and a other stuff all at once with little effect. I even think about self medicating with drugs like heroin and stuff alot, but its not something i want to do. What should i do? I wouldnt want to go to a hospital unless someone really addresses the problems I have. last time I went, I came out much worse, and was denied I had OCD anxiety, depression, so thats why. But if Id go to a hospital, it would be a different one. The first one I went to was far away from my home like 30- 40mins. This one is 5 mins or less by car. What do you think? I’ve been pushed to the edge so many times, and I dotn know what to do anymore. I’ve suffered a lot of trauma from anxiety and everything else. Its a lot to explain, but lets just say, its pretty bad. What should i do?

Unfortunately, medications are a hit-or-miss proposition. It can literally take years to find a medication that addresses your problems. If your psychiatrist has "given up" on you, you need to find another one. Explain to the doctor, in detail, as you have done here, what medications you have taken and for how long. I know that it is very upsetting to try medication after medication and have them not help, sometimes even making symptoms worse. I hope that you can find a psychiatrist that really knows his medications and can get you on the right track soon.
Best of luck.

used this medication if so did it work for you?Thankyou

It is not so new having been approved for US sale in 2005. It is an anti-convulsant. Look it up by entering "pregabalin" in a Yahoo! web search; wikipedia has a good summary.

Unlikely, in this day and age. If you are under age, your parents will need to approve your therapy. Therefore they’ll need to know about it.

However, don’t get too upset about that thought! Try to find some online resources and people to talk to you directly, through the internet, now, before you reach your 18th birthday and can do it all on your own. That is, if you just can’t stomach having your parents in on the situation. Okay?

Get in touch with the community services which are available for the treatment of mental disorders. These community services would entail psychiatric sessions, nursing sessions and medication at no cost to yourself. There is no reason to not have treatment for social anxiety disorder and not have treatment for the same.

As far as medication goes; if you stop taking your dosage do you relapse?

If you stop your meds, you probably will relapse, because the meds did not cure you, they only covered up your problems.

If you get counseling to learn to get over your shyness, you will be CURED. I cured myself, by forcing myself to do theater, debate and speech in school. I am no longer shy, and I’m in my 40’s now. I used to be so shy in school that my teachers thought I was mentally retarded.

Even if you get so sick that you are about to puke, take a public speaking course and do it again and again and again and you will get over your shyness.

Stop calling it social anxiety disorder. I read a lot of psychiatry blogs, and most psychaitrists agree that drug companies made that disorder up so they could sell more pills. Call it shyness, which is FAR less threatening.

If you don’t think you can do the public speaking (that technique is called "flooding" when dealing with this and other phobias) then see a therapist and do "gradual desensitization" which is starting out slowly and gradually ratcheting up the exposure to your feared thing, which in your case is talking to other people. for other folks, it is snakes or flying on an airplane, or heights etc.

You have to suck up your courage and just DO it, over and over again, and you will CURE yourself. It’s ok to be afraid, true courage is facing what you fear, not the absence of fear.

*********

people thumbs me down, but. .. .

my therapist and social worker agree with this information. People who run away from their fears end up being more afraid. Shyness is a PHOBIA, and must be treated as a phobia, which requires exposure to the feared thing, which in your case is social interaction. If you don’t face social interacations, and feel the fear while you face the interaction, you will NEVER be cured. Pills that sedate you, they delay the process.

It is also true that on many psychiatry blogs, psychiatrists say that social anxiety disorder was completely fabricated by drug companies so they could sell antidepressants to shy people.

I have anxiety. REALLY bad. I don’t use treatment, Because i’ve learnt to tame it a bit better on my own. Chewing gum gets me through it, As well as drinking water, Drinking juice, Deep breaths.

Seredyn is a natural calming powder, Made from herbs and such.
It helps ALOT.
http://www.seredyn.com/
( I don’t use it often, But when I do, It really helps. )

I am almost 18 years old and a month ago I developed some sort of anxiety disorder out of nowhere. I was previously about as mentally healthy as one can be. What is the best treatment option? I don’t want to go on pills but sometimes it is just unbearable and its ruining my life. Has anyone heard about The Linden Method? His website makes some big claims, and his fans on facebook seem to confirm them. Any help would be great.

A couple of quick things that might help you get over your depression.

If you’re in school, which I assume you are based on your age, see if your school as an assistance program.

If you have insurance that covers therapy (check with your insurance provider), try to see a therapist (do a web search for therapist + your city name) or look at doing online counseling sessions (you can find some online therapists at http://breakthrough.com).

Look at doing more exercise. Numerous studies have shown that exercise can be extremely effective in alleviating depression symptoms.

How can it be possible for one to reduce and live mostly normal without professional assistance with professionals? I swear medication makes it totally worse for me. The worst was Paxil, it only helped with the compulsuions and obsessions. I’ve been finding that participating in my hobbies and pursuing things I enjoy/want to do keeps me much calmer, satisfied, and happier. I don’t nearly obsess or have compulsions like I had, but am not so sure about the Effexor. There’s too many side effects and the headaches really get to me. I’m considering going off the medication.

With any disorder, open communication is the first step in recovery. Be honest with your doctor.
Do not stop taking your medication without talking to your doctor first. Tell him or her what you are concerned about(ie, the headaches and the side effects).
There are things that can be done to minimize the side effects, and if they continue to bother you, there are other meds to try that are often very helpful.
If you don’t like what your doctor has to say after you tell them how you feel, don’t just go off your meds. Tell the doctor that you disagree with them and tell them why. Then, go get a second opinion from another doctor.
Often there are many different therapies available and another doctor’s approach may work better for you. It’s your treatment, and you are in charge.
Work with a doctor that will listen to you and respect your decisions about therapy and medication.
I hope you are feeling better soon!

I am a psychologist specializing in the treatment of anxiety disorders. I would like to use driving games in the treatment of driving anxious patients. To do that well, I would like a game with free driving through different environments (city, highway, mountain, etc.), and ability to predetermine different conditions: lighting and weather conditions and traffic density. Do you know any game that might fulfill all or some of these requirements?

Most all of the games on the market today have something of these types of programming. (Sony, X-box, Nintendo, etc) The best thing for you to do is to go into a store that sells these different game systems and just look at the discriptions of the different games and select one that you think is appropriate. Your idea sounds great. I hope it works for your patients.

Psychotherapy. Antidepressants are important but usually there is no use of taking antidepressants on their own. For severe depression and anxiety it’s usually best to have a combination of antidepressant + psychotherapy treatments. The medication will relieve your symptoms while psychotherapy will help you get to the roots of your anxiety and depression and to resolve the problems. One thing that most conventional doctors don’t pay attention to is the overall health of your body. Try to improve your health using natural medicine like homeopathy and chiropractic.