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did ANYONE OUT THERE get positive effects from SSRI's for social anxiety?!

11K views 45 replies 33 participants last post by  weebeastiebaby 
#1 ·
Don't reply if you say your Depression got better. I want to know if it helped anyone with their Social Anxiety.. I mean. did it help you feel better at all?

Doctor prescribed me Prozac today and now i'm reading on websites that SSRI's can't help with Social Anxiety. (yes i know i can take MAOIS and benzos and stuff, but doctors dont want me to, and i dont want to. I'm still a teen). Did anyone get cured from Prozac? :(

Anyway. If any SSRI, like Prozac or Zoloft, helped you with your Social Anxiety, please post and tell me your experiences.
 
#2 ·
Yes without a doubt. Paroxetine first and by far the most effective for Social Anxiety for me. Then sertraline. Paroxetine was very smooth, chill, fun loving, easy going, layed back, and promoted confidence without worrying about a hitch, while sertraline created some more general anxiety but at the same time more energy and an outgoing/extroverted type of confidence while still getting rid of the worry of things. I have a handful of long posts I have made about both if you are definitely interested in detailed info at least from my experiences you can def search em out if you want. ;)

Add caffeine to paroxetine and you get the best of both worlds.
 
#4 ·
Took different types of them for more than 7 years and usually the upped me towards the max dosage because I seem to be rather chemical resistant.

Never helped at ALL with my Social Anxiety.

They, did however CAUSE at times, psychosis, depression, somnolence and other unpleasantries.

So unless people are seriously depressed and simply need something to numb their feelings and mood or have OCD, SSRIs aren't going to help you, period. Unless you're lucky enough to experience some placebo effects...
 
#6 ·
They, did however CAUSE at times, psychosis, depression, somnolence and other unpleasantries.
I'd question whether the SSRIs caused your psychosis. People often link certain drugs and psychosis (such as cannabis and stimulants) but there's a big difference between correlation and causation. I do not believe they are capable of causing disorders like schizophrenia, but merely exacerbate symptoms in people already halfway there.

Of course this is 100% anecdotal, but there have been times lasting several weeks when I smoked weed heavily (~1/4 oz a week), took dopaminergic stimulants (Ritalin, Nardil) and did over a gram of ketamine a day, but never once developed even the slightest psychosis once it wore off. Even when on the stuff, nothing but a near-anaesthetic dose of K would separate me from reality.

It's probably wise to avoid these types of drugs if you already show early predictors of psychosis, like paranoia, superstition, hearing voices or other schizotypal stuff.

Speaking of schizophrenia, check these articles out:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/6l75t50w6537w1k0/
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=17154743
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15268640

They now think it's caused by an infection at birth. Soon I think D2 antagonists will be replaced by glycine agonists or some sort of kyunerine synthesis inhibitor (maybe COX-2 inhibitors too), and this whole misinformed psychosis reason for banning cannabis will be irrelevant.

Another ill-informed idea in schizophrenia is the milk-restricted diet, which apparently works by reducing casomorphin, the evil opioid in milk. Of course, there is the small fact that opioids aren't known to worsen symptoms, and that milk contains a large amount of tryptophan, the precursor to kynurenic acid (thought to be the primary cause of psychotic symptoms). Another case of correlation being presented as causation, in this case to demonise opioids.
 
#5 ·
Helped with physical symptoms like histamine reactions, stomach aches, teeth clenching and hyperventilating. I still need to use strategies and it's not a magic bullet, but it helps a bit. You may need to try different drugs and doses, but it helps too. I'm on 40mg Celexa right now, and it seems to work for me. I say give it a shot. But still use your strategies. Good luck!
 
#7 ·
They, did however CAUSE at times, psychosis, depression, somnolence and other unpleasantries.
Psychosis? Come on? You never had any symptoms of schizoaffective disorder, took an SSRI and got psychotic? Did you have to stay in a psychiatric ward or a hospital for some days? Did they give you antipsychotics and the symptoms resolved? I would belive it if the drug was a dopaminergic / dopamine agonist, but why should an SSRI make non-psychotic guys "real weird". ;)
 
#8 ·
I am on Celexa and it is helping with my Social Phobia. Basically, it makes me more calm and seems to help me think more rationally.

I have tried Paxil, Lexapro, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, Seroquel, Ativan, Klonopin, and Xanax as well. The Celexa is by far the most helpful med of all of these for daily chronic Social Anxiety.

The benzo's help but I wouldnt really recommend them for long term/high dose treatment. Benzo's are invaluable for anxiety but it seems they end up causing more problems with long term high dose treatment.
 
#9 ·
Everybody will respond differently to different drugs - there's no need to assume that any positive effect is just due to placebo affect.

Paroxetine definitely helps quiet down all the negative thoughts for me - I notice if I skip it accidentally or on purpose, the next day or two I'll start feeling more self-conscious, and it gets harder for me to go out of my apartment. I think I look uglier, and all my clothes look worse, and it's harder to pass people on the street.

As for social anxiety, it does seem to help with staying calmer in social situations, though overall I still have social anxiety - I still have a lot of issues in dealing with people - I'm introverted, and learned all these weird ways of interacting with people that I'm working on unlearning, so I still avoid getting to know people on a long-term basis.
 
#11 ·
...there's no need to assume that any positive effect is just due to placebo affect.
Of course, SSRIs can & do work for some people, but there is a huge placebo effect. Look at any study done by drug companies (who have clear incentive to publish the best studies and bury the rest) and even they show a huge placebo effect. Typically you'll see things like 60-70% improving on the SSRI, but then 30-35% on a sugar pill reported improvement. "Twice the efficacy of nothing" isn't a very compelling ad slogan.

I've also many times pointed out that there is no such thing as a "double blind" trial. When you take a mystery capusule for 10 days and then find that you can't orgasm at all when you previously could it's not real hard to figure out that you got the real drug in that clinical trial, so it's hardly blind to you or to the doctor when you report this blatantly obvious side effect. A trial can only truly close to blind if you're dealing with a drug that has very few & very mild side effects such that it's not obvious.
 
#10 ·
Yeah the only things that ever gave me psycho symptoms were things that messed with dopamine. Antipsychotics especially made me an aggressive maniac. where i am naturally an easy going fun loving person. go figure. maybe that's why though actually.

maybe he just meant was the ssri made him feel like he was goin out of his mind from all the numbness and side effects.
 
#13 ·
when i first started citalopram (on only a 10mg dose), the next day i felt a serious bout of hypomania. to be fair, i've theorised i may be bipolar for quite some time, if that has anything to do with it? but i personally found that a good thing.
i'm uncertain as to the positive effects of taking this drug (now on 40mg), but i think that the stresses i'm feeling at work are hindering my progress. not that they give a toss. they only care about themselves there. when i have time off, i do seem to be a little better than what i used to. still waiting to go to town on my own again to find out. so in short, i'm really not sure. or something. i'm sorrry
 
#20 · (Edited)
I made a temporary switch to Prozac after being on Zoloft for ages. My anxiety started to come back. So now I'm back on Zoloft. Hooray! :boogie

(I only switched because my depression started getting worse and my doctor thought I was developing a tolerance. A short break fixed everything.)

Of course, I've been going to therapy for several years. Medication can't cure SA alone.


ETA: I should probably mention that before meds, I was a major wreck that could only talk to a few people openly- this caused a lot of pain for several family members... It was hard for me to go to school some days.

Now I can fake my way through small talk, go out and meet new people if I at least kinda know one person there, and am capable of going to the mall by myself on a good day.
 
#21 ·
I was taking Paxil, but my doc thought I should stop because of the SE I was experiencing. I didn't think the SE were too too bad as it could've been worse and it did help with my anxiety (unless that was the placebo effect) but it made me dizzy, sleepy, and tired all the time. I almost fell in the tub and in the street so that is dangerous. Now I'm taking Zoloft and I've only been taking it for almost a week so I don't know whether this will work for me or not.
 
#22 ·
I was taking 15 mg of lexapro for about 2 months and it did help my SA a little bit but made me extremely tired also. My pdoc added Wellbutrin to help offset the sleepiness and after about a week of starting Wellbutrin my SA got much much better and I have my energy back as well. I have been taking the combination for about 6 weeks now and have made incredible progress in that time. I have met dozens of new people and made 1 pretty good friend (female).

It is odd because Wellbutrin is typically not prescribed for SA and is said to cause anxiety in some people, but for me the combination of lexapro and wellbutrin has been a wonder drug.

I insisted on the brand name because when I quit smoking once using wellbutrin, it made it quite easy to quit and made me feel quite good. The next time I quit smoking 5 years later I used the generic and it didnt help with my smoking urges at all and made me feel like crap. Now, 2 years later I am again using the brand name wellbutrin and have effects similar to the first time I took it. IMO the generic wellbutrin is nothing like the brand name. I use many other generic drugs without any problem but the generic wellbutrin made me feel sick and depressed.

I don't know if this helps you other than to say that meds can definately work very well for some people.
 
#23 ·
I know when I was about 16 and on Paxil it helped my sa and depression alot (so i think!). But I also had alot of friends back then too unlike now and my sa is horrible now. The negative effects of SSRI's are just too much anyway in my opinion (the sexual side effects are just WTF!) even though I've actually considered going back on a SSRI recently but went with Nardil instead. I'd say if you've never taken a anti-anxiety med before a SSRI WILL actually help your SA (and depression). Its just the side effects that I can't stand.
 
#25 ·
I'm on 20mg of Citalopram and it's helped me, i'm still anxious and can't go out alone but i'm not as anxious as I was.
 
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#29 ·
I've tried lexapro and paxil. Lexapro actually helped quite a bit with my anxiety and I was generally a happier person. I took it for about a year and if I remember correctly I stopped bcuz I felt it wasnt working anymore and I didnt sleep very well while on it. I quit that cold turkey and I felt like I got really bad rebound anxiety. Paxil was awful for me, as I felt my anxiety went through the roof. At the moment im not on anything and havent been for 6 months but I might try zoloft or another one cuz my anxiety is pretty bad right now.
 
#30 ·
SSRI's are a joke, truth is to many suffer from anxiety. And they all want a cure, but you can't hand out everyone controlled substances that have street value. So what do you do? You charge them $25 for a bottle of pills that sort of work on a "hit or miss" logic.. what minor changes you have, may not be the same for someone else.

After spending years digging through different anti-depressrants you might find something that mildly changes your mood to make the sun look brighter but nothing compared to amphetamine's and such.
 
#31 ·
SSRI's are a joke, truth is to many suffer from anxiety. And they all want a cure, but you can't hand out everyone controlled substances that have street value. So what do you do? You charge them $25 for a bottle of pills that sort of work on a "hit or miss" logic.. what minor changes you have, may not be the same for someone else.

After spending years digging through different anti-depressrants you might find something that mildly changes your mood to make the sun look brighter but nothing compared to amphetamine's and such.
Parnate has an amphetamine-like effect, or so I've heard. Nardil too is pretty sweet. I read about someone taking moclobemide and spending an entire night cleaning their house (sounds kinda like amphetamine, no?).

There are also dopamine agonists (e.g. Mirapex) which are (in my opinion) better than amphetamine due to their lack of adrenergic stimulation, and/or amisulpride 50mg to block autoreceptors. You could easily get more euphoric effects than from amphetamine with those.
 
#32 ·
Ive been taking Zoloft now for about a year and a half. I have noticed a moderate improvement with my SA. SSRI's do take a long time to take effect, so don't expect an instant improvement overnight. But to be quite honest with you I still suffered a panic attack a couple of days ago when I discovered that in a few months time I have to do a formal presentation and I will be the centre of attention. Although I feel that I will get through it somehow with a lot of positive self talk, I still feel that I need something extra to get me completely relaxed on that day, as I haven't done anything like this for years. It is freaking me out to the point that I am thinking of it a lot, but I still feel the positiveness that I will get through it somehow. That's as far as Zoloft goes for me.
 
#35 ·
Don't reply if you say your Depression got better. I want to know if it helped anyone with their Social Anxiety.. I mean. did it help you feel better at all?

Doctor prescribed me Prozac today and now i'm reading on websites that SSRI's can't help with Social Anxiety. (yes i know i can take MAOIS and benzos and stuff, but doctors dont want me to, and i dont want to. I'm still a teen). Did anyone get cured from Prozac? :(

Anyway. If any SSRI, like Prozac or Zoloft, helped you with your Social Anxiety, please post and tell me your experiences.
i take zoloft specifically for anxiety and it has had a noticeable positive affect with my sa. ive been on it for about one year. though i didnt see any improvement until around the 6-8 week mark. after that every week got a little better and better.
 
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