What is the most successful drug for social anxiety disorder?

Question

i am a 25 year old woman, I am having problems going out and seeing people in social situations. i am really anxious walking alone. is there a drug can can help me overcome this? i am taking up a course in a few weeks in a city i will be in these situation everyday so better to be prepared for the worse

Answer 1

I use to take alprazolam and dubopal it worked on me. ask your doctor about it. it is a prescription med.

Answer 2

The drug will NOT help you overcome the disorder, but it may be very useful for helping you get through the class via alleviating the symptoms temporarily.

Anxiety medications are like giving morphine to a cancer patient who's in pain. It doesn't cure the cancer... just the consequence of the cancer. Anxiety disorders aren't solved by medications. They're just blanketed.

Benzodiazepines are very effective classes of drugs that can be taken short-term. They are habit-forming and need to be gradually phased out due to the potential for withdrawal effects, but in order to make it through the class, you need relief from the SYMPTOMS, not necessarily the disorder. Your insurance policy will likely dictate what type of benzodiazepine you can take to get you through these classes.

For getting over the disorder, therapy will likely help better than anything else. The type of therapy I'm talking about is exposure therapy coupled with elements of cognitive-behavioral therapy and psychoeducation. You absolutely MUST be exposed to the situations that provoke your anxiety in order to eventually overcome it. You can't do this while you're taking the class or you'll be distracted and won't do well. Afterward, however, you may benefit from this type of therapy so that you can truly overcome the disorder, rather than simply the symptoms.

Answer 3

Social anxiety is really just shyness. The term social anxiety disorder used to be reserved for people with the most severe problems. After the drug companies marketed their antidepressants for this problem, the definition expanded, so now people who are just shy are taking pills for something folks used to LEARN how to deal with. my story My teachers thought I was mentally retarded in first grade, and again in 4th grade, because I never spoke., due to extreme shyness. Here's what I did to overcome shyness. I did a couple of plays in junior high school, debate and speech in high school, lectored at my very large catholic church in college, and ran a club of 200 people where I regularly had to get up in front of about 50 people at monthly meetings. I coached debate. I went to graduate school and was a TA for labs of about 20 students. I faked it until I made it - people can't tell I'm shy anymore, and in fact, I am much less shy. I MADE myself do these things, and just kept ramping it up. This is called "flooding" which is a form of dealing with phobias. So find some activities where you have to FORCE yourself to speak up, and then DO it, no matter how afraid you are. Truth is, most people are terrified of speaking up in groups. I was a high school debate coach - most of those kids of mine were terrified!! Also do some confidence building things. For me, a HUGE confidence builder was camping out under the stars in Minnesota in January - it was 20 below zero F. I froze my buns off & didn't get a lot of sleep, but hey! I did it! I feel like if I could do that, i could do anything. Competitive extracurriculars are big confidence builders too. "social anxiety" is a kind of phobia - and there are 2 ways to deal with a phobia - gradual desensitization, where you gradually expose yourself to more and more intense situations, but start off easy, or "flooding" where you jump right in with both feet, which is what I did. You can only be terrified for an hour or two, then you run out of adrenaline and calm down quite a bit. all the best to you! You have to screw up your courage and face your fear - that is what a phobia is, when a person avoids the situation or object that they are afraid of. COURAGE - that's the ticket, and then it will get easier as you keep practicing. It's ok to be afraid.

Answer 4

I have experienced general anxiety disorder before, and though it wasn't strictly social anxiety, I couldn't go out and interact in public either. I was in really, really bad shape for about a week before I called my doctor and made an immediate appointment.

He was able to help me right away with medication, and also arranged for me to see a psychologist to see if there was any underlying cause for my anxiousness.

I took clonezepam (Klonopil). It immediately helped and I was back to 'normal' ASAP. My doctor did warn me about, and I did experience, withdrawal symptoms. After 5 days, I felt like I no longer needed it, and had bad withdrawal symptoms (sadness, confusion, suicidal feeling, acute deep depression). My doctor advised me to ween myself off over a week or so by halving my dose every couple of days, and that worked perfectly.

I know someone that took it for 2 days and was in really bad shape afterwards, and I also have a friend that gets absolutely no withdrawal symptoms from clonezepam. Just talk to your doctor about withdrawal, risks, and side-effects of your medicine.

Counseling and/or medication can help immensely. See a doctor as soon as you can to decide what could help you. Anxiety disorders are very very common; you are NOT alone!

Answer 5

Paxil is quite effective in the treatment of social anxiety disorder, and does not carry a risk of addiction.

Answer 6

Maybe you don't need drugs. Maybe you just need to change your diet. If you have these symptoms, you have low blood sugar
Fatigue, insomnia, mental confusion, nervousness, mood swings, faintness, headaches, depression, anxiety, phobias, heart palpitations, a craving for sweets, cold hands and feet, forgetfulness, dizziness, blurred vision, inner trembling, outbursts of temper, sudden hunger , allergies, crying spells
http://hypoglycemia.org/hypo_test.asp

Answer 7

Christ why does everyone look for help in a pill. Get THERAPY. Why do people want to mess with their bodies, minds and lives by using these powerful drugs?

Answer 8

Paxil. It helps anxiety quite a bit. Talk to your doc.

Ignore "Atlas". That is HIS experience. I have come off Paxil with no problems.

Answer 9

lexapro works for me