Medical means to reduce approach anxiety?

[speakeasy]

I was just talking to a guy that says he is scared of flying and that when he takes Lorazepam, he's alright. I wonder if anti-anxiety drugs are effective for guys that have really bad approach anxiety that stunts their ability to have a spontaneous free-flowing conversation. I've never heard of drugs being used in this arena.

I read the wikipedia entry on Lorazepam and it said that suicide is sometimes a side-effect of using it for depressed patients. Not because it makes them more depressed, but because it inhibits their fear so much that they no longer fear death that may have been keeping them from attempting suicide. Really interesting.

 

[premierxxx]

I was one of those anxious guys, stuck up in my shell, afraid to talk to people. What did it for me was marijuana. I didn't get high to go out, instead I got high at home, alone, for introspection, meditation, and just plain thinking. Then I got into nnDMT, that's the stuff your brain produces when you go into deep rem sleep. It's cooked from same ingredients as one of those methoamerican brews shamans use to enter the spirit world.

I know what you thinking, drugs, bad. But face it my friends, the anti anxiety drug suggested here probably has more side effects than marijuana and DMT have combined. You certainly don't want to off yourself after using either one. Nor are they addictive, nor your mind gets ****ed up as reported with lsd. For all practical purposes it's all natural herbal treatment, shamans use it in the jungle to this day.

Anyway, DMT, and especially the visual drug called nnDMT is some cool stuff. You don't just trip, you enter a world, in your head of course, which is like God's control room. There are intelligent creatures there. You can enter and fix your problems, discover new things, etc.


My word of advice if you want to use either marijuana or nnDMT, don't abuse them. Because just like with any other drug you get immune to effects, and begin chasing the dragon, using drug more and more often. That's dangerous, because you withdraw from the world and focus entirely on chasing the dragon. It happened to me with marijuana. The proper way to use weed is to buy half oz of crippi, and one hitter pipe. Smoke it once or twice a week, no more than that. And while at it do something useful, meditate, read book, watch a movie. Use your high time to better yourself. DMT should be used once a week at most. The idea is not to get high and go out, but to use the extra insight you gain from modified state of mind for introspection.

In other words, these natural drugs are used to help you discover yourself.



The prescription anti anxiety drug you described, just like any other pharmaceutical, is what's really bad for your mind body and soul. If you don't end up killing yourself, most likely you'll kill your organs, and get addicted to prescription drugs. I stay away from anything but aspirin and prefer herbal treatment instead. I suggest all do herbal medicine. There is nothing but money, sales people, competition, and evil at the pharmacy. They don't care about you as much as they care about their profits.

 

[Fuglydude]

I was just talking to a guy that says he is scared of flying and that when he takes Lorazepam, he's alright. I wonder if anti-anxiety drugs are effective for guys that have really bad approach anxiety that stunts their ability to have a spontaneous free-flowing conversation. I've never heard of drugs being used in this arena.

I read the wikipedia entry on Lorazepam and it said that suicide is sometimes a side-effect of using it for depressed patients. Not because it makes them more depressed, but because it inhibits their fear so much that they no longer fear death that may have been keeping them from attempting suicide. Really interesting.

Lorazepam is classified as a sedative, anxiolytic, and can have many other effects such potentiating the effects of narcotics. It increases the affinity of GABA, which is the most common inhibitory neurotransmitter in us, to its corresponding ionotropic receptor (GABA-A). This basically means that although it doesn't actually activate this receptor, it helps existing GABA bind to it and enhances activity. This is why its really tough to OD on benzodiazepines (like lorazepam). They're a significant upgrade from barbituates, which are the class of drugs that I think Maryln Monroe ODed on.

Interestingly, alcohol also acts at GABA-A but directly activates the receptor. At lower doses alcohol can inhibit inhibitory circuits in our higher brain centers. This is why many of us are most social, have reduced approach anxiety after downing a few shots.

If you can't be bothered to go the doc to get a script for lorazepam, some vodka will probably be better for approach anxiety, not to mention cheaper.

 

[Aenigma]

Just use alcohol. That's what the rest of male America does- this is not complicated.

 

[STR8UP]

If you can't be bothered to go the doc to get a script for lorazepam, some vodka will probably be better for approach anxiety, not to mention cheaper.

Actually this is probably incorrect. The cost thing anyway. I have a scrip for Clonazepam, and it cost me about $6 for 60 tabs. Even drinking at home probably costs about 5-10x that or more. Go to a bar and one $6 stoli (er, I mean, Van Gogh Rollo) and I can buy 30 days worth of benzo's.

Not that I advocate this or anything, but the times where I have *accidentally* forgotten that I had taken 1/2 mg of clonazepam and subsequently consumed three or four alcoholic beverages I was pretty damn loose. Any more than that (or a higher dose of clonazepam, actually ESPECIALLY a higher dose of a benzo) and the next day you won't remember half of the night. Definitely don't recommend that.

Actually, I would probably be better off doing 1.5mg of the clonie without any alcohol, but I like to have a couple of drinks when I go out, so I am careful with the anxiety meds.

Doc originally prescribed it to me to take the edge off before I started a course of Zoloft for social anxiety. I would avoid SSRI's due to the way they can fukk up your brain chemistry (they definitely help, but the side effects are a steep price to pay). She kept me on the benzo for anxiety and sleep. I mainly take it now for sleep, but if I ever do have the need to take the edge off, it works well.

 

[speakeasy]

She kept me on the benzo for anxiety and sleep. I mainly take it now for sleep, but if I ever do have the need to take the edge off, it works well.

I've never heard of benzo. I actually have a lot of sleep problems myself. I wonder if I need something like this...

 

[speakeasy]

Just use alcohol. That's what the rest of male America does- this is not complicated.

I don't know if alcohol is a fix for deep or biologically based anxiety. Otherwise everyone that's terrified of flying would just get piss drunk before they get on board. If someone is has a phobia of water, I doubt you can give them a few shots of vodka and they'd ready to swim in the ocean. I think alcohol and anti-anxiety meds address 2 different things.

 

[SmoothTalker]

Depends how drunk we're talking. I am pretty sure even somebody with a strong fear of flying will stop worrying around the time they can't even realize they're on a plane, if not earlier.

Of course being that drunk has other problems.

This anxiety drug may actually work quite well as it would reduce anxiety without impairing other thinking like alcohol does.

However, taking drugs just to enable basic social functioning is a very bad idea. Even if they are not physically addictive I can see a lot of people forming very strong emotional addictions, very quickly.

 

[AlexTheGreat]

You guys are lame.

Stop hiding from your problems behind drugs and alcohol. Face them. Get out there and approach. If you can't do it by yourself, then get a job that will force you to do it. Become a waiter, a salesman, whatever.

Try sitting on a street corner and simply saying 'Hi' to people passing by. You'll feel like a dumbass at first: and that's the idea. You'll see that even if you feel like a retard, nothing bad will happen to you. You'll get over your anxiety WITHOUT artificial help

 

[Bible_Belt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMLSyOMiYd4

 

[Fuglydude]

Speakeasy, he's talking about benzodiazepines... benzo's for short. They're a very common group of drugs that generally have an inhibitory effect on the nervous system. Most drugs (chemical not trade names) ending with -epam are usually benzos.

Lorazepam, Diazepam (Valium), Clonazepam, etc.

I've basically stopped smoking weed, but will indulge occasionally in alcohol. I don't drink beer as when you have my genetics abs and beer don't mix... But a few shots of vodka before getting on stage is fantastic for loosening up and having an awesome time.

 

[premierxxx]

You guys are lame.

Dependency seems to be a cool thing these days. Not that they don't have human abilities to do what they desire without the drug, it's the desire to do they lack. Society has tough them that. A society which they embrace with arms wide open and protected till death.

Then there is an old junkie tune, denial. I AM NOT DEPENDENT TO A DRUG! I ONLY DO IT TO


You boys deserve to be led to patriotic march song and off a cliff.

 

[Truman181]

Lorazepam was one of the drugs MJ had in his system when he died. While it didn't kill him alone, it's just a shining example of what getting on to prescription drugs can do to a person. It is a slippery slope.

For the record I was on the drug a few years back for panic attacks. It seemed to work at the time BUT here I am a few years of not taking the drug and I don't get the panic attacks anyway. What really helped me was reducing the stimulus that was giving me the panic attacks (which in my case was contact with certain ex gfs who knew how to push my buttons).

Try things that are more natural to help your anxiety. Whether that be working on yourself so that social anxiety is no longer a stimulant to you or trying other methods that guys have mentioned....that's up to you.