Finally...relief of sorts! Oxazepam. Prozac?

[Timmy92]

Hey guys & gals,

Since my psychiatrist appointment is still a couple of weeks away, I decided to go to my doctor for some immediate releif of my worsening anxiety. He was very understanding and prescribed Oxazepam 15mg (brand name alepam) half a tablet twice a day, and asked to see me in 7 days to see if it has helped. He also said that he would probably prescribe me fluoxetine (prozac); I'm guessing he just wants to see how I react to this treatment first.

Today was my second day using oxazepam and the results have been generally positive so far. Although, my doc's recommendation of half a tablet twice a day simply isn't enough to control my anxiety. And by researching common dosages for it's use treating anxiety (typically 15mg 3-4 times/day) I think that his recommendation was very conservative.

Today I took 1.5 tablets this morning before school (we had an assembly and had to get up on stage ). During the assembly, I had much less anxiety than usual and getting up on stage (albeit with the rest of my class) was quite manageable. So far so good. Despite this, during another class when I messed up a hit during a volleyball game (pathetic trigger, I know), the anxiety, paranoia, sweating and palpitations all came back to about 90% of their usual levels. So it seems ok to treat mild anxiety but pretty useless for anything more severe, at least at this dosage anyway. I took a total of 3.5 tablets today.

Has anyone had experience with oxazepam treating social anxiety? Some more opinions would be great!

And lastly, my doctor said he would only be able to prescribe me prozac out of the SSRI class because I'm under 18. If you have had an experience with prozac treating SA then your opinion on that would be much appreciated too.

cheers,

Tim.

[arth67]

I would add a beta blocker rather than prozac, dont take too much of the benzo as you probably will be helped less by it later

you need to learn CBT, relaxation, deep slow breathing, etc also

[Timmy92]

Originally Posted by arth67

I would add a beta blocker rather than prozac, dont take too much of the benzo as you probably will be helped less by it later

you need to learn CBT, relaxation, deep slow breathing, etc also

Thanks. I don't want to be using a benzo everyday due to tolerance/dependance issues, but rather for symptomatic or preventative relief. Thats why I like the idea of using an SSRI as the 'everyday' treatment; less addictive etc and would also help with OCD. Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't beta blockers just relieve the physical symptoms like palpitations, shaking etc? From what I've read they would probably be useful for situations when my physical symptoms are severe (public speaking) but not much else.

I'm guessing that CBT will be part of what the psychiatrist will have me do. And yes, slow breathing does work to help me relax in some situations. For instance, if I can't stop replaying the social events of the day in my head, slow breathing helps me relax.

Thanks for taking the time to the reply.

Has anyone found the SSRI/benzo combination effective?

[arth67]

I and many others have been helped by what you mention but finding an AD that works for you and has early side effects you can tollerate is sometimes a slow, painful and frustrating thing

an AD can often make you quite sick, yes beta blockers are for physical anxiety problems only