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While nothing is a magic fix, medication can be a vital component in managing anxiety (Picture: Liberty Antonia Sadler for Metro.co.uk)

If you live with chronic anxiety, you’ll be used to people giving you well-meaning solutions.

Are you permanently anxious? Then you need to learn to think more positively.

Lying awake all night, crippled with unnamed dread? Just go for a walk in the woods.

thumbnail for post ID 6851239 How to cope with mental health issues when it feels like the world is going mad

All the solutions are thrown at us – be at one with nature, eat clean, get a dog. We’ve heard them all and believe us, we’ve tried.

I walk miles some days, but it never manages to silence the panicky voices in the back of my head that tell me I’ll never be good enough, never make anything of myself, what is the point of it all anyway when everything I do is rubbish – on and on until I’m sitting paralysed on the sofa, wondering how other people ever make it through the day without turning into a gibbering wreck.

I have an anxiety disorder and people need to stop saying these things to me
(Picture: Mmuffin for Metro.co.uk)

Funnily enough, the one thing that people rarely suggest is the one that can really help – medication.

Given how well some medications can manage anxiety, why the reluctance?

If someone is diagnosed with diabetes, no one would suggest that they should do without their insulin and just get out more, so why is it seen as acceptable to say such things to those of us who suffer with anxiety?

And ‘suffer’ is the right word – anxiety can be downright awful.

I can be fine for weeks, then I’ll get up one morning and find myself barely able to move for worrying about how I’m going to get through the day without having a full throttle screeching fit in Sainsbury’s.

I find myself unable to make any decisions, because what if they’re the wrong decisions?

If I have to drive somewhere and there are two possible routes, it can paralyse me completely – I worry that there might be an accident on the route I’m taking, but what if I change my mind and then the accident happens on the new route?

It feels as though life is constantly waiting to trip me up and I have to think through all the possibilities and plan for all eventualities.

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(Picture: Mmuffin for Metro.co.uk)

So yes – I’ll take any solution that’s on offer, thank you very much.

Medication isn’t the easy option that so many people seem to think it is.

The popular view is that you rock up at the GP surgery, tell them you feel ‘a bit stressed’ and leave clutching a prescription for happy pills. But it’s rarely that simple.

Firstly, most good doctors will recommend the sleeping / walking / eating better methods before they suggest the medication option. And even when they do suggest meds, you have to find the drug that works for you.

A professional view

Dr Tarlochan Toor, Medical Director & Co-Founder of MedicSpot suggests a combination of therapies for anxiety.

Anxiety can be very distressing and have a significant impact on your life.

People suffering with anxiety often experience a sense of impending doom, often not being able to stop worrying about lots of small things or worrying that something awful may happen.

This is often accompanied by a flurry of physical symptoms, which includes sweating, shaking, tingling, chest tightness, pounding in the chest and faster breathing.

Treatments include various non-medication treatments to start with, including learning relaxation techniques, distraction techniques, counselling and talking therapy known as cognitive behavioural therapy.

When these are alone are not enough, it is important to consider medication [such as] SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors).

Although these medications are commonly used to treat depression, they also help reduce the symptoms of anxiety, even if you are not depressed. They work by interfering with brain chemicals such as serotonin, which may be involved in causing anxiety symptoms.

Beta-blocker medications such as propranolol target the physical symptoms, including a fast heart rate, sweating and other physical symptoms of anxiety.

As a result of these being better controlled, people can feel more relaxed and less anxious as their physical symptoms are better managed.

In most cases, anxiety treatment involves a combination of both medication and non-medication measures, such as cognitive behavioural therapy.

I have spent years – quite literally, it’s more than two decades – trying out different drugs.

Starting on a low dose, wondering whether I could live with seemingly random but still awful side effects (sweat pouring down your face at all hours of the day and night, anyone? No, me neither), realising I couldn’t and having to slowly wean myself back off again in order to start the next candidate.

At the last count, I’ve tried 10 different drugs, all with varying degrees of success.

Eventually, I found one that managed to take the edge off things and had minimal side effects, so I thought my quest was over.

But then it got discontinued and I’m now facing the stress of having to start the whole tiresome journey again.

(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

In the meantime, I’m on no medication whatsoever, my head is apparently full of angry bees and the stress of simply getting through each day is enough to remind me why it is safer for the world in general if I do not go drug-free if I can ever possibly help it.

Regardless of the arguments for and against antidepressants, when you have exhausted all the holi stic options they are sometimes the only solution – and they can be a very good one.

In her recent article about how some people feel the need to tell others that it’s somehow ‘bad’ to take antidepressants, Ellen Scott made the point that what’s needed isn’t shouty ‘advice’ about why drugs are bad, but more discussion about all the options – including medication.

And yes, that includes any possible downsides and how to cope with them.

Almost every drug has side effects of some kind, which is why they shouldn’t be taken lightly – but sometimes the benefits are worth it.

How do anti-anxiety drugs work?

How do anti-anxiety drugs work?

I asked Dr Balu Pitchiah, consultant psychiatrist at The London Psychiatry Centre, about how anti-anxiety drugs actually work.

Anxiety symptoms may vary from person to person. However, the body reacts in a very specific way to anxiety.

When one feels anxious, their body goes on high alert, looking for possible dangers and activating their fight or flight response.

Anti-anxiety medications work quicker than psychotherapy or other forms of alternative treatments. Hence they are a popular choice of treatment among both doctors and patients.

Not all anti-anxiety medications are the same. It is important to make a distinction between the different classes of medications used to treat anxiety, because the risks and benefits associated with each medication class can vary dramatically.

The most prominent of anti-anxiety drugs for the purpose of immediate relief are those known as benzodiazepines.

Some of the commonly used ones are alprazolam (Xanax), clonazepam (Klonopin), chlordiazepoxide (Librium), diazepam (Valium), and lorazepam (Ativan).

Although benzodiazepines are prescribed frequently for anxiety, they are no longer considered to be a first-line treatment for these conditions.

They reduce anxiety quickly, but they can be addictive when taken in the long-term and should be used with caution.

SSRIs are one of the most commonly used types of medication for anxiety.

SSRIs have been proven to be very effective for anxiety, are non-addictive, don’t cause memory impairment or interfere with psychotherapy, and have minimal side-effects.

SSRIs work by increasing the amount of signalling between neurons that use a chemical called serotonin to communicate with each other.

Some of the most commonly used SSRIs are fluoxetine, citalopram, escitalopram, sertraline and paroxetine.

In my view, it really doesn’t even matter why drugs work, just that they do.

Even the diagnosis itself isn’t necessarily the most important thing.

My own very lovely GP works on the principle that we ‘treat the symptoms rather than worrying about labelling the problem’ – my own personal version of anxiety involves being manic at times, so I am prescribed drugs that also help hyperactivity, rather than more commonplace drugs which might only work on the depressive side of things.

If medication means that I’m capable of getting out of bed in the morning and spending the day productively rather than sitting in a corner weeping quietly with the curtains closed, what gives anyone the right to tell me I shouldn’t take them?

However strongly you feel that the drugs are a health risk, the biggest risk to my wellbeing is from the desolation caused by not being able to function as a ‘proper’ adult.

Despite what others occasionally like to imply, sometimes the drugs really do work.

It would be foolish – and dangerous – to pretend otherwise.

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