This is from our American friend, Joe, that talks about his experience with medications. Love our guest posts. Thanks Joe.
This is a guest post by Joe from LivingWithAnxiety.net.
Knowing what medication is right for you is only the second step of finding temporary treatment for Social Anxiety Disorder. The first step is always the most important, which is the decision in deciding if medication is the right thing to try or not to treat social anxiety. Most often, in the most severe cases, medication can help a sufferer cope with their worst symptoms of social anxiety.
But once that sufferer becomes more used to social situations, talking to people and being in more and more social situations comfortably, medication is not really a feasible option anymore. Because once I made it to that level, I still had a decent level of social anxiety that haunted me, and even medication at that point was not something that worked for me.
It could even be in the worse conditions of social anxiety that medication may not work. So the best option is to just try it out, see a Psychiatrist and see what your options are, according to what your allergies are and such.
For me, during high school while going through social anxiety was basically the worst for me, I had the worst symptoms of social anxiety that I have ever had in my life. At that time I was not taking medication which I should have been at the time to help cope and to make it through school. But fortunately, I eventually did finish.
So only listen to yourself if you get asked by a Psychiatrist if you would like to consider trying medication. It all depends on how severe your situation is and level of social anxiety. If you think you could go without, don't go with any "suggestions" from anyone because they do not know what's best for you than you do for youself.
Also, the types of medications to be considered should be limited to SSRI's, and specifically the ones that are not addictive or narcotics. Also, make sure it's a medication that does not make you sleepy all the time, or simply drowsy. Oversleeping only limits your time in your life to live and be awake to experience your life. Also, make sure the medication is one that does not have horrible with drawal effects.
Ones I tried that had bad withdrawal effects is Paxil and Effexor (Effexor being the worst by far out of those two). Every other medication I had tried like Concerta, Mirtazapine, Celexa and Prozac had side effects that involved drowsiness, insomnia sometimes, and other side effects that simply made me stop taking the medication.
Other medications like SNRI's (Serotonin-Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors), Beta Blockers, Benzodiazepines, MAOI's (Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor), Atypical Antipsychotics and other stimulants all can be tested out for treatment for social anxiety. Though since I have not tried any of those, I cannot say if they are good or not. But what I've heard is they all have side effects pretty badly that SSRI's should be the only kinds of medications that should be worth looking at.
Everything I suggest in this article is based on opinion and not fact. You aren't required to take any sort of medication if you don't want to. But from my experience, it wasn't worth it for me, and it may or may not be worth it for you. Be prepared to feel slightly different if you have not taken medication before and your about to take some, side effects differ from person to person.
Joe is a blogger that writes all about Social Anxiety as he experienced it himself for almost ten years in his life, and still currently to a minimal degree. "Like" his blog on Facebook if you would like to subscribe to read more of his content.