I'm currently taking Paxil. It seemed to take quite a while to kick in all the way, but it does seem to help greatly with general anxiety. I also take Klonopin, though, but a very small dose at night (and as needed if my anxiety spikes). Good luck in finding a med that works for you!

Wow! Someone else who enjoys old posts too!

My doctor wanted to put me on Prozac. After the shock, I told him my big fear was weight gain. He suggested another medication he said wouldn't cause weight gain. Well, maybe that is what he believed from the salesman's pitch, but I put on 10 pounds in just 6 months and woke up with a chipped tooth in March from grinding. I made the decision on my own to quit meds. It was strictly a personal decision, and I'm still not quite sure it was the wisest move but I did think about it and put all my ducks in a row with yoga and meditation among other things. Meds are great for pain control and curing insomnia -- the problems I went to the doctor for originally. But I decided that the medication was only trading one stress for another. I hope in the future, there are meds that won't put patients in such a quandary.

Alannakitty and I have talked about the meds quite a bit and while she has had quite a bit of success with Effexor XR it drove me looney and it didn''t do anything for my anxiety. There are some differences though I am already on a couple of meds for depression wellbutron for one and I take valllium for the episodes, which I have had a nasty side effect of Right brain shut down. Mathematical equations etc are undecipherable for me. MY doc thought putting me on 75mg of Effexor would eliminate the need for the vallium and I would be good to go. Well that stuff gave me the heebie jeebie, and I had terrible short term memory loss still had the Right brain issue and it's been everything I can do to titrate off the stuff and I wasn't even at the theraputic dose. I was just taking a low dose strickly for anxiety to get off the diazapam (vallium). I swear I couldn't sleep I had wthe wierdest dreams and hullicinations during the day, but even with all that the worst part abut it was I felt like I wanted to sleep all day long and I did take it at night (early evening). It was starting to get me in trouble at work again. I have one more day and I am off of it for good. My take your millleage may vary. From everything I could get my hands on to read there are lots of people that have Allankitty'e experience and there are jist as many people that have symptoms ranging from mild to severe weird like me. I'm sl glad it works for some people , but it is one drug that is going on the do not ever prescribe that to me again list. brrrrrrrrrrgrrrrrrrr

I seem to have the same experience as AnanD0 with what I'm currently on. I, too, am glad this thread has been brought up again.

Since my last post in this thread I have switched from Paxil first to Wellbutrin, which I only took for a little while as it made me feel irrationally angry most of the time, then to Celexa (Kaiser wasn't even offering Lexapro which is what I had asked for, talk about being behind the times). I can't even recall when I made that switch now, it's probably been about a year.

The Celexa does help with the depression, but I had the Dr. lower my dose a while back. I'm on 20 mg now. The good news is I lost all the weight I had gained while on Paxil. The bad news is that I have been dealing with anxiety again for quite a while, and am getting completely fed up with it. The Klonopin helps but I take such a small amount (half a pill) and yet it still makes me sleepy, especially when I'm sitting at work all day. I usually balance it out with some caffeine, but I know that's not the way to do things. Sometimes you just have to do what works at the time, though.

I'm trying to institute positive health changes in my life currently...I've started working out at the gym and doing yoga occasionally, taking a daily vitamin, plus B-complex and omega-3 fish oil supplements, drinking less coffee/tea, and trying to eat more fish in general. I still need to make myself get more sleep, eat more protein (cooked at home vs. eating out to save $ and be healthier) as I agree it helps me to feel calmer, do yoga more often, slow down my nicotine intake, focus on deep breathing and relaxation every day, and just work on the whole thought awareness thing that's part of CBT.

It's hard to make so many big changes at once, especially when I feel like doing nothing most of the time ;), but I know it takes about a month to turn an activity or process into a habit. I'm hoping I can just keep building on what I'm doing now until I'm where I want to be.

I'm sick of anxiety impacting my life to the point where I can't work on accomplishing what I want or even do something so simple as eat in public or in front of friends. Just needed to get that out, I'm hopeful that these changes I'm making will help. :)

I hadn't heard that Effexor could stop working over time for depression. I mean, I guess I assumed it could. Interesting... as my depression has been getting worse lately but I'm not feeling terribly anxious.

yes ssri's definetly stop working after awhile... i've experienced it as have friends ...

one should be eating a high protein diet, doing lots of yoga and staying busy in general as a better means of treatment ...