What Med to take for Anxiety Disorder

I don't have a specific med suggestion but I just thought you might want to check with your gynecologist on this issue.  I would guess that a gynecologist would have a lot of experience treating problems associated with menopause and might have a better idea than your onc of which specific anti-anxiety medication would be most helpful.

Hi Lovelyface...anxiety is so common and there are so many options to relieve it, there is no one exactly the same medication that will work the same for everyone - it is kinda like an experiment to find the right combination of med and dosage amount that will work for you.

I take Effexsor at a low dose along with Xanax.  The Effexsor is an anti-depressant and counters some of the side effects of the treatment as well so its kind of a dual purpose medication.  Xanax is strictly an anxiety relief med.  I have had anxiety issues for many years and tried many different meds and only the Xanax seemes to provide exactly the relief I need.  Adding the Effexsor was the perfect thing and having bone mets, I am on a regime of pain medication as well.  The biggest issue with the Effexsor is you step up in dosage until you get relief - wherever that may be and you have to step down when you are going to stop taking it.  It isn't the type of med you can just quit taking and expect to be fine.  For me, I will be taking it the rest of my life so I am not at all concerned about that issue.

You doctors will know best and be sure to let all of them know all of the medications you might be taking - be sure to check the list at the pharmacy too - as long as everyone is on the same page with meds and treatment, it can truly be better living through pharmaceuticals.

Hi there.  I was taking Zoloft prior to being diagnosed, but then started Tamoxifen and you can't take the two together.  My gyn prescribed Effexor, safe to take with Tamoxifen and it has been wonderful.  I've read that it helps with SE from Tamoxifeen and I really think it does.  Just wanted to let you know it's working great for me.

Take care of yourself.

I would suggest you to look for menopausal treatment, since you have said that you have tried once and had no betterment, please try it again. Once it get over then no need to worry about your anxiety.

Drug Rehab

Athena, excellent advice.  For anyone considering meds, I strongly advise consulting a good psychiatrist.  The reason you want a psychiatrist is to get the correct diagnosis--is it depression, panic disorder, anxiety disorder, bipolar.  A family doc or therapist has not had the extensive training that a psych has.  A family doc is good for 'vanilla' depression.  However, sometimes people can present with depressive symptons, and if it is bipolar depression  (as in bipolar II--which is much harder to diagnose) the meds for depression will not help bipolar II depression--it can exacerbate the depression and/or bring about mania.  BTW, buspar is on old 'workhorse' and takes about 2 weeks to kick in--Buspar is sometimes a better choice for someone who has had a history of addictive disease.

Dorothy, thinking good thoughts for you on the effexor.  Let us know how it goes.

I was on Zoloft and valium - worked wonders.  Then I started Tamoxifen and zoloft was out of the question.  Effexor was the next one I tried and it made me feel so weird that I gave up on the anti-depressants and went into weekly therapy instead and took valium for the anxiety attacks.

I now have a new GP as of yesterday as my other one left the practice.  He took me off the valium and put me on Ativan which is shorter acting.  Some of the ingredients of valium stay in your body for days whereas the ativan will excrete from your body quicker.  He also asked me to try lexapro as an anti-depressant.  Tomorrow I will get my new scripts filled and I know it will take a couple of weeks to see if the lexapro will work for me.  He was in communication with my oncologist about these prescription changes before he made the switch which I loved.  I like the fact that NOW I have a GP and an oncologist that will talk to one another.