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Medicine for social anxiety that wont increase my HPPD symptoms


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Dear readers,

 

First of all; I'm not going to start benzos yet because it's not worth it for me at this moment

 

Is there any medicine or a combination of medicines availble to treat social anxiety without increasing my hppd symtpoms?

I've heard that wellbutrin makes anxiety worser.

So any experiences would be great!

 

 

I'd like to see someone that can help me out because I'm going to the familiy doctor tomorrow and I'd like to have my answer ready on which medicine(s) I want to start on.

 

- Luuk

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I would definitely try Keppra. It has essentially "cured" many HPPD sufferers of their symptoms. I tried it for about 10 days but it eventually made my depression much worse, but that's just how my body reacted to it, others have had much better success. I currently take a benzo called Lorazepam or Ativan, and i know you said you didnt want to start benzos but if the keppra fails, you should ask your doc about ativan or even klonopin. I am also on a liquid form of lexapro in which i take 1 mL (1 mg) per day and will start to increase by 2 mL everyweek starting this next week. My doc has told me it should help with my social anxiety and depression. The ativan really helps me at school and i am waiting for the Lexapro positive affects to eventually kick in. I hope everything goes well for you, stay hopeful, no matter how hard is to do, and a silver lining will come. 

 

Richard

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I have the med combo of Concerta + Wellbutrin + Keppra + Zolpidem.

Concerta and Wellbutrin alleviates my ADHD, making me less nervous and restless, more focused and much calmer.

Keppra keeps the HPPD in better check, has given a 10% improvement of symptoms and halts the infamous HPPD worsening caused by Methylphenidate (Concerta). It also provides me with better sleep, almost no wake-ups during the night. Which in turn makes my mood better (feel more rested).

It has also worked miracles against my generalized anxiety, which also lowers the risk for panic anxiety. DP/DR is almost gone also, hell the DR+agoraphobia+panic attacks made me a social recluse in the end.. Now it's gone! :-D

My memory and cognition is a lot better from Keppra, it has dissipated a lot of the "brain fog".

In the first month of Keppra usage, you'll surely get the "Keppra Rage", which includes; rage, irratable mood, depression etc. This completely disappears after the first month, after that the beneficial effects comes on more and more. Patience..

I've had Lorazepam, which is a good benzo for quick relief, but I got addicted to it and suffered a hellish withdrawal. It could be an emergency help, but the prescription has to be very limited, like one package at 3-6 months spacing. Otherwise it'll do more harm than good..

I've had Wellbutrin since september 2011, Keppra since January 2013, and Concerta since May 2014. All used daily according to directions.

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I would try keppra to see if that dissappates the social anxiety. I'm started on it last night of which I take 1 500 MG keppra tablet every night. I also have terrible social anxiety and I hope both of us can overcome and emancipate ourselves from it through Keppra. Hope Everything Goes Well.

Richard

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Yes, it helps against that type of "itchy" anxiety as social and generalized anxiety is.

This is because of the unique type of mechanism Keppra has; it's a calcium channel blocker, but at the same time it acts as an specialized MAOI on GABA!

It reduces some of the brain-blood barrier blocking of GABA, leading to increased transmission.

Kind of like a reversed benzo, instead of increasing the synaptic firing, Keppra clears the path for the GABA signaling.

Therefore, the effect is persisting and even, with no tolerance build-up and no addiction! Quite amazing actually!

Luukzorika, try it.

Richard, you should take two doses a day, since the duration of action is 12 hours on the spot. Onset is 1.5 hours, time it well to avoid dips in the effects.

This is if you have the standard release Keppra, if you have the XR version only one dose per day is needed.

Also, both of you keep in mind, Keppra is a great medicine, but it's not a miracle cure for neither HPPD or anxiety.

It does help a lot by itself, but the rest is up to you. You'll find it easier to analyze and control the anxiety, which helps the work to get rid of the causes.

It pulls your head above the water, so to speak, but getting the rest up, takes effort from you.

Myself, I found it less frightening to be around people or in crowds with Keppra, due to less DP/DR, better cognition, and a minor decrease in visuals.

Since I'm a political activist, I need to speak in front of crowds and have discussions with strangers. Keppra took me over the first threshold (to begin), then I gradually became less anxious the more I dared to challenge the anxiety. Now I almost never feel uncomfortable anymore, I'm in control!

Almost my whole life before, I had severe social anxiety and agoraphobia. The period from 2007-2013, I spent most of the time avoiding people entirely, to avoid anxiety.

Now I'm doing things which I could never imagine myself doing, thanks to Keppra (and my other meds). But most of it is because with these meds, it became easier to struggle against my problems and overcome quite a few of them!

Hope any of my ramblings make any sense.. ;-)

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Is this keppra solving your social anxiety directly? Or is it solving your social aniexity by reducing your hppd symptoms so you're more fomfortable so that results in less aniexity?

 

I'm asking this because my hppd isn't disturbing me at all.

So if the keppra reduces your hppd symptoms and if that's the reason that your social aniexity is getting reduced it probably don't work for me

 

Your suggestion?

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Well..

1: it lifts the MAO barrier for GABA, think of it like a unwavering mild benzo effect. So it will calm down milder anxiety, which in turn can stop panic anxiety from occuring. It can therefore be efficient against social anxiety, which for most is at the shallow end on the anxiety scale.

2: with HPPD, there are more bothering coexisting disorders than the visuals which can make it uncomfortable to be around other people. Such as brain fog, DP/DR etc. which can make the surroundings or yourself feel surreal, disorientation, degradation in cognitive function (ex. slow thinking, slurry speech). These comorbid disorders can clearly make the social anxiety a lot worse.

Keppra is particulary efficient against these issues, much more than it is against the HPPD visuals.

So yes the Keppra might work for you, it's generally well tolerated, give it a try maybe?

The therapeutic methods of CBT/CPT are the best methods against actually resolving any anxiety, since it quite literally reprograms the hippocampus, where your most central phobias are memorized.

Try both, doctors can be very reluctant to prescribe either Keppra or CBT, but they're both more efficient than the standard "one pill solves everything" prescription of SSRI/SNRI they're so damn fond of..

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  • 3 weeks later...

Moclobemide is a really good anti-depressant for social anxiety. its an MAOI, they're the oldest kind so they don't really prescribe them anymore but they're good. Lexapro is good for anxiety too. well for me anyway. I think Lexapro/Moclobemide and a low strength benzodiazepine would be beneficial, like a small dose of Xanax or Valium :)

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