The past year and a half have been particularly stressful for me. I have valium, but hubby doesn’t like me having to take it, because he’s afraid I might get dependent on it (I think he’s wrong about this; I’ve taken on the average of one 5mg. valium a month for the past year, but that’s not the point). If I could find an effective natural anti-anxiety drug, herb, whatever, I’d gladly switch to it. So, tell me what you use (or have used in the past), how fast it worked, how effective it was, how expensive it is, any side-effects? Do you have to take it every day, or only when you’re feeling really stressed? And tell me anything else about it you can think of. I’m eagerly awaiting your input.
In the past, I found SAM-e or St. Johns Wort to be moderately useful for stress and anxiety, but useless in the long run. I’m feeling much better on Paxil for about 2-1/2 years now. The other thing you need to be concerned about is that with unregulated herbals and the like, there is no actual guarantee that you’re really getting exactly what the label says, uncontaminated.