I went to the doc today to talk about my medications and she suggested that I might do well on Buspar for my chronic anxiety. Currently I am on 400 mg. of Wellbutrin a day and 1 mg. Klonopin as needed, which lately has been every day.
I have always been prone to anxiety and occasional panic attacks. Sometimes I have this overwhelming feeling of it and I can’t pinpoint exactly why I am feeling that way. It seems to settle right into my chest and radiates from there. I do worry a lot, and I have a lot of stress in my life. Part of the treatment my doctor wants me to have is therapy, which I am open to. But I think that medication will always be a part of my life. I have fought anxiety and depression my entire life.
The research I’ve done all seems like it has low side effects, but I am searching for some personal opinions from people who have taken the drug. If you have taken it and respond, please tell me what your symptoms were like prior to taking it and how the Buspar helped or didn’t help.
You might want to rethink the Wellbutrin. Wellbutrin is known to have anxiety as a common effect, and you are taking a high dose. In fact, anxiety/agitation was the reason I stopped taking it myself.
I took Buspar once for about a month, as part of a quit-smoking tactic. I didn’t quit smoking that time, and if the meds had any effect at all on me I couldn’t tell it.
Actually, the Wellbutrin has been the only anti-depressant that I can comfortably take without any side effects. My anxiety levels are no higher while I’m on the Wellbutrin than they were before I began taking it.
I am considering sticking to my 300 mg. dose of Wellbutrin and giving the Buspar a try. When she upped my Wellbutrin it occurred to me that if that’s the highest dose of it I would have nowhere left to go if I ever reeeally needed more of it. I think I will call her tomorrow about this.
Buspar has helped quite a bit with my anxiety. I used to feel, pretty much all the time, like someone waiting to hear back from the doctor about whether the test says it’s cancer. I was always afraid that something bad would happen out of the clear blue sky.
The Buspar got rid of that. I still feel anxiety, but it’s generally only in situations that actually provoke anxiety (such as job interviews) in normal people.
The one side effect I’ve had from it was a bit of nausea at first, and the pills taste terrible if they get stuck in your throat. Oh, and you can’t eat grapefruit or drink grapefruit juice while taking Buspar- not a problem for me, since I don’t like grapefruit, but might be a problem if you do.
I’m on a maintenance level doseage of Wellbutrin, I used to take Xanax for panic attacks. A coworker was/is taking buspar and ti was working for him. My wife is on a higher doseage of wellbutrin.
I guess the one thing I’ve taken away from this is: Everybody’s different. You and your doctor need to home in on the specific cocktail that works for you…and then you need to stick to it. It always seems to take twice as long as you think it’ll take and scraping bottom early sure hurts.
Do go to the therapy, and make sure it is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (very effective for anxiety). Also try to find a self-help/support group for anxiety in your area. It is within your own power to feel much better than you do now. Feel free to email me if you like (that goes for anyone suffering from anxiety).
I’ll second featherlou’s recommendations. The wife and I went to two different therapists, me to a CBT and her to the ‘other’ kind. I don’t recall the official classification, but it consisted of: “why did you say that? how does that make you feel? Why do you suppose that is?”
I have only been to one therapist but I gave up because I went in with a specific problem and the only thing she would say to me and my husband was “and then what do you think you should do” and i kept saying that I didn’t know, that’s why we were there.
Are you saying that if I specifically look for CBT that the methods are different, and (in your experience) better?
Also, are you guys going to a GP for the meds or a psychiatrist?
CBT is different from traditional talk therapy. You’ll have homework, for one thing. CBT teaches you to interrupt your distorted thoughts and replace them with healthy ones. CBT is basically a do-it-yourself project, Feeling Good by David Burns being one of the classics, but working with a therapist and/or group is useful and can keep you on track. The meds, of course, help clear your mind so that you *can * think rationally, which isn’t always possible when you’re anxious all the time.
Shellibean, for work on a specific problem, there are therapists who specialize in short-term therapy or specific problems, say couples communication or eating disorders or what have you. And sometimes the therapist’s style just doesn’t work for you, so you move on. Interviewing potential therapists can be a pain, but saves you wasting time and money on someone you can’t work with (or is a complete idiot and/or has bizarre pet theories, but that’s another thread).
That reminds me of another effect I got from the Buspar. Before I went on it, I’d start being anxious about something, and couldn’t stop thinking and worrying about it. The Buspar has made me able to tell my brain to stop those thoughts, and now it actually works.
Thanks for the info - and quick too! yes, I went because of some specific marital problems that caused quite a bit of anxiety on my part and I was asking “how do I make these thoughts stop because I can’t do it alone” and the answers she gave me were along the line of “you’re fine, you just need to try harder and not dwell on the past” - aaahhh!
So the book and advice about CBT seems to be spot on for me. Thanks again!
That’s a great description of CBT. In my opinion as someone who has recovered from an anxiety disorder and co-facilitates a weekly self-help support group for anxiety sufferers, a doctor who gives endless prescription for anxiety meds without insisting that you go to a CBT therapist is not doing his job properly. Never-ending meds for anxiety is not the complete answer.
This is a wonderful explanation of what I feel. I have a hard time explaining it to people, but this really puts it into words that people can understand.
I called my doc and said I am willing to try the Buspar. I also have an appointment with a counselor tomorrow. So, I’m looking at this from all angles.
If the Buspar doesn’t work, stick with finding something that does. The crappy thing about this is it can take a couple of weeks to take hold…and then if it doesn’t work, you have to wean off one to get on another. Plus, you’re looking at 6-18 months of treatment, it’s not a quick fix. If you find the right combo of meds and therapy, things get a WHOLE lot better.
Moon Unit (10 years old) is on Buspar. She’s got an assortment of behavioral/focusing/ADHD-like issues and though she “looks” pure ADHD to many untrained eyes, the therapists all suggested that anxiety would be the first thing to address if we decided to go the pharmaceutical route (something we held off on for quite a while, in favor of behavioral work and neurofeedback). Buspar seemed like the safest choice also - as we’d rather put up with the anxiety issues than risk anything with addiction potential.
Although the change in her is not dramatic, we do think it takes just enough of the edge off for her that she is more “reachable”. It’s been quite a while since she’s had a major meltdown, for example.
It did take a few weeks, IIRC, before it started really kicking in. We did up the dose once.
Sometimes if she’s missed her morning dose (we put it in a pill organizer and remind her to take it and she says she has but…) we can tell by mid-afternoon, other times, not so much (like this last weekend - saw no problems at all). That may be an artifact of what other stressors are going on - this weekend she had a fun party in the afternoon, while other times she was dealing with tutoring which she hated.
Usually I roll my eyes at the whole cutesy DoperHubby/DoperKid/DoperDog naming convention some members use for their family, but this one was pretty clever.
