Anxiety medication can relieve some of the symptoms of anxiety, but this does not necessarily cure the underlying conditions. More often than not, medications are used only for quick relief since these come with safety concerns and side-effects, often with the risk of addiction.
Pros And Cons Of Using Anxiety Medications
For you to know whether or not medications are good for you, it is very important that you are informed with the pros and cons of using them.
Anxiety medications work very well in reducing the symptoms of anxiety as well as in helping with symptoms prevention. But the effects of medications are not unlimited. These don’t address the underlying conditions and these don’t prevent the occurrence of any succeeding attacks. Once the effects of the drugs wear off, the symptoms often return in full force.
There are risks to using anxiety medications too. For one, these can cause a wide range of serious and dangerous side effects. There are also some types of medication that are habit-forming and addictive. The bottom line is, although medications are effective in staving off the symptoms, these aren’t necessarily designed for every patients.
What are your choices of medications
Tranquilizers
Tranquilizers help patients with anxiety disorder by relaxing the central nervous system. These are often components of the standard medications recommended to anxiety disorder sufferers.
Benzodiazepines
Another very popular group of anti-anxiety drug is benzodiazepine. These are Xanax or alprazolam, Klonopin or clonazepam, Ativan or Iorazepam, and Valium or diazepam. All these provide very fast, but temporary relief to anxiety symptoms. Since these work very fast to relive the patient of symptoms, these are often administered during an actual episode.
However, these come with side effects particularly targeting the brain activities. Usually, side effects of using this drug include feeling drowsy, confused, disoriented, foggy, dizzy, loss of memory, impaired thinking and judgment, blurry or double vision, and depression. Generally, patients who take this drug for a prolonged period of time look like they’re drunk.
Since this drug is metabolized slowly by the body, patients are often at risk of over sedation.
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)
SSRIs are, for the moment, the most favored anti-anxiety and anti-depression drugs. These are known for fewer side effects and general effectiveness towards symptoms of anxiety. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) include popular medications such as Prozac, Aropax and Luvox. These are taken on a daily basis and given at least a few weeks before significant effects appear. Side effects of SSRIs use include fatigue, increased sweating, sleep problems, and sexual dysfunction.
Serontoin & Noradrenaline Re-Uptake Inhibitors (SNRIs)
These are antidepressants that influence the levels of norepinephrine and serotonin in the brain. Common side effects of using SNRIs include sleep disturbance, sexual dysfunction, nausea, sleep tremors, increased sweating, and elevated blood pressure.
Another commonly used anxiety medication is the class called beta blockers. These target specific symptoms of anxiety such as blushing, sweating, trembling, and heart palpitations.
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