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Has anybody been cured?

6K views 29 replies 25 participants last post by  RockiNToM 
#1 ·
I've havent posted here in a long time, and had made a similiar thread to this a long time ago, but i'm still wondering if anybody has actually been completely or close to completely cured of their social anxiety and panic attacks (or depression)? Last time, I got pretty bad answers because nobody had seemed to be cured of their symptoms, so it has led be to believe that no meds really work. This is my last attempt to go back on meds (have been med free for 2 years) and really need some insight. I know for the most part, if you are still coming to forums like these, you most likely still suffer from something, but any input on if you have been cured will be excellent. Thank you all in advance.
 
#2 ·
This is a strange comparison, but I think SA is like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia - it cannot be "cured" at this point in time. I think SA can only be treated and kept in check.
 
#4 ·
I've not been cured, but I'm a lot better than I was years ago.

IMO if you rely only on passive treatments like therapy and meds you won't come very far!

Your brain needs many positive emotional experiences from activities to erase or at least decrease negative emotions stored. Unfortunateley negative ones (especially those from childhood) dig in more quickly and take longer to decrease.

Drugs and therapy can help but only superficially, IMO.
 
#8 ·
IMO if you rely only on passive treatments like therapy and meds you won't come very far!

Your brain needs many positive emotional experiences from activities to erase or at least decrease negative emotions stored. Unfortunateley negative ones (especially those from childhood) dig in more quickly and take longer to decrease.

Drugs and therapy can help but only superficially, IMO.
yeah, i was reading in a book about the brain - the amygdala generates the anxiety based on pretty crude information, then the cortex (ie higher thought) can damp it down. but getting the amygdala to shut up is kind of a problem. having lots of positive experiences would probably help, like you say.

maybe nardil etc can get the amygdala to shut up by increasing dopamine? i dunno.

yeah i'm still dealing with sa - i'm doing psychodynamic therapy to try to fix the weird interaction patterns i learned in childhood, which i think were contributing a lot to the sa. i think it's helping. and i'm on paxil also. and i quit caffeine. and i think socializing on here has helped a lot also - more positive experiences.
 
#5 ·
Medication is step 1, learning to live with the great loss it has caused in our lifes is the next, and therapy might be useful there.

Although I am of the opinion that once you start medication, you might as well go for the superhuman state of being, and you'd not really have a need for therapy. Now tell me, what do I have to take to achieve that state? ;)
 
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#21 ·
Exactly, saying it's not curable is like giving up... I thought mine was going to stay forever and ever, I was hopeless until I did CBT and now I deliberately choose positive or neutral thoughts/emotions and it comes automatic to me. I am not cured totally yet, but if this is with a couple of months, I WILL be cured 120% in the future. With my calculations, it will take less than a year :)
It takes persistence and practice

And I'm genetically predisposed to being shy, both my parents and all of my siblings are, now I seem like I was adopted! That sounds wrong, but it sounds so right to me. yay
 
#12 ·
Obviously there's varying degrees but I think some people can certainly beat it or outgrow it. For example, some people might have major hangups about social situations but learn to cope simply by forcing themselves to go out more and become more extroverted.

Sometimes I get nervous about social situations but if I push myself often I'm ok. Something I get really, really nervous about is starting new jobs but if I stuck at it its ok eventually. My social anxiety is probably very minor compared to most on here though.
 
#15 ·
From my experience you have to keep trying different meds until you find something that works for you. This can take a looong time(possibly years). Nothing was really effective for me until I started on Effexor XR. This has had a very noticeable effect on my SA & the resultant physical symptoms(blushing, panic attacks, depression, etc). I'd estimate I'm about 95% improved.

Of course I still get anxious &/or panicky under certain conditions. But these are pretty extreme situations in which most of the general population would feel anxious(job changes, public speaking, dating, etc). Therapy helps alot IF you are willing to invest yourself and share everything with your therapist. Complete honesty is very important.

Ironically, I think a part of my personality really helped me out too. Years ago I had pretty extreme SA. But I am pretty strong willed and would just do things I was afraid to do. I had to go through massive amounts of anxiety, embarrasment, yadda, yadda, yadda. But I just decided to keep going & things gradually improved.

I still come here because there remain other issues to deal with having not really lived a "normal" life. I tend to post more in the "social" threads toward the southern periphery of the board. I consider this place less of a waste of time than other websites. :D
 
#16 ·
nope, were all doomed. Easier answer.
 
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#19 ·
I was cured with Xanax 2mg TID. I was first put on it at age 16. Eight years later my Psychiatrist pulled me off it now I am back to square one. (Was in the ICU for 2 weeks detoxing off it + hell) I have tried SSRI's/SNRI/TCA's. The only that is left to try is MAOI or ECT. I pray that Nardil works.
 
#20 ·
im almost cured. not cured but recovered. Im sure one day i will come back to visit this forum and post how i suceeded. Ive done that with another forum about one of my past problems and left that. I think once your on the right track, you lose intrest in these forums and want to socialize and get out.\
social anxiety is a combo of pyschological and brain. Alot of it is psychological, and meds can help, but rarely cure.
 
#26 ·
it depends on the definition each individual has as being cured, so i'd like to believe some people have come to peace with social anxiety disorder and have improved to the point where they no longer have to deal with the big negative impacts on life.

on the other hand, someone could have totally obliterated social anxiety with drugs and have such little social anxiety that they can say anything that comes to their mind without any regard to likely consequences, and they would probably be very annoying and possibly sociopathic. so i think possibly some social anxiety is a good thing (perhaps a personality trait), but when it is so severe and unrealistic based on reasonable outcomes that could occur for a particular social interaction, then it is a disorder.

certainly a person who's been "cured" would probably still have a little anxiety about meeting someone important or giving a big presentation (but not letting it cripple their decision-making), just like a little anxiety is good for motivating you to get to work on time when you are running a little behind schedule.

so for me i think it's a balance between setting realistic goals and not setting the bar too low. certainly the idea of a superhuman who doesn't really feel any anxiety about social interactions might be appealing (at least if it's balanced by rational evaluation of what not to say or do!), but all the suggestions seem like there's too much work involved in balancing the drugs and combinations of drugs that might help reach this goal, and then there might be too much hidden anxiety involved in keeping it all together (keeping the supply flowing or making adjustments) so it might all just be transferring the anxiety.

i think ultimately this is what turns people off from medications, but then balancing this with the major impact of social anxiety off medication is why it is usually a reasonable approach to rely on meds (without constantly trying to figure out how much dopamine reuptake you can squeeze out of amphetamines on selegiline!!). it's so individual and i don't think anyone really ever lives on the extreme of having no social anxiety so there's no model solution..
 
#27 ·
By meds no. I do not think it is possible to be "cured" using mostly meds. They simply control the symptoms until you can treat the problem. Overall yes. I'm not an outgoing, talkative person, who enjoys small talk and I never will be. I never want to be. I am me. I can function just fine in life and I can do pretty much all the things I want to do with little to no anxiety. I consider that pretty much cured because whatever remains is just part of my personality. I have my own house, most of a college degree, a fiance, and a best friend who I'm helping through a divorce. Far different from being one of those people who didn't leave the house unless forced, didn't hold a conversation with anyone, always stared at the ground, and contemplated suicide. Meds did help some but by themselves they'd have done nothing but made it more tolerable to sit around in my room on my computer refusing to interact with anyone and slipping out at 2am to get food from the fridge while no one was awake. Meds are not a cure. They only make things tolerable so you can find a cure.
 
#29 ·
they don't change the mental perception going on upstairs with SA.
i'm not sure i agree, the brain is making new connections all the time, and having positive experiences on meds is better than being stuck in fear at home, reinforcing the usual response. if you mean to say that these experiences might be worth less in changing mental perception in that they occured under the effects of the drug, well i can't argue with that _possibility_, but certainly the statement above is definitely false in that it assumes to have absolute proof.

i mean let's look at it from the opposite direction and say it's true and you're right. then i can take all the drugs i want, subject my brain to crazy stressors, and then i will suffer no long-term detriment (like developing new anxieties) because these were all "drug induced". sorry, wishful thinking there!

the idea that drugs can't help change long-term mental perception for the better is excessively pessimistic, the same way saying drug-induced negative experiences don't count for changing long-term perception is excessively optimistic. if the medication causes a long-term change in perception and you continue to reinforce it with more positive work when you're off the meds, then well it's effectively a permanent change, right?
 
#30 ·
Well what I mean is a lot of the meds available change your perception for a while, but it's more of a drug induced perception and over time it can become less effective or stops working when you stop taking it. At the end of the day, from my own experience, when you come off the meds it's just back to normal, unless you have another problem on top of that.

The only way I can agree with meds causing permanent changes are being more to with them being used with a type of therapy such as CBT - where once you have finished using the med, you can fall back on your skills with CBT and overcome any problems while off the meds.

If we're talking chemical based problems causing SA, then a medication will probably be constantly needed to rectify the problem.

I agree I wasn't very clear with what I meant before.
 
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