Hello all! I'm a 17 year old female that's been dealing with anxiety since elementary school, I get depressed from time time as well. I mainly struggle with social anxiety, I would've thought it would be gone by now I'm in 11th grade. I get mini panic attacks when I have to speak or walk around in class, group projects anything that involves people basically. I also always think people are talking about me, etc. it's really affecting my everyday life. I done some research and came across the pill xanax. I read that it's like an instant relief once you take it, only problem is I'm scared of getting addicted to them. I have a cousin who is like me and she's addicted to all other sorts of drugs now, she started off taking prescription xanax for anxiety as well. I really don't want to depend on the pills to keep me happy and let it be a gateway to other serious drugs. What should I do? Thanks
Hi hun, my only advice to you is to talk to your gp, they may suggest sometype of therapy in the first instant, but I really do think you would benefit from talking to somebody.
Try writing it all down so when you go you dont forget anything, good luck ....
Thanks
I had such bad anxiety in school I literally ran out of the room when I had to give a speech and failed.
I've had anxiety my whole life bad anxiety that got worse and worse. It eased up after high school but by the time I was 23 I got really bad.
My advice to you is to try a therapist try some sort of cognitive behavioral training where they can teach you healthy ways to manage you anxiety.
I advise you pursue Xanax as a last resort it can take away your anxiety but it's easy to get addicted to and easy to build a tolerance meaning if you take it regularly you'll have to keep increasing your dose.
Benzodiazepines like Xanax are not meant to be taken long term some people do but when you decide to stop taking them you can go through awful withdrawals so quitting should only be done under a doctors supervision.
I'm not trying to scare you I just want to to know the risks and to avoid that route if possible.
Remember anxiety can't kill you. My advice is don't fight anxiety invite it to do it's worse try to face it head on and it'll lose it's grip on you.
Good luck.
As a 17 year old girl I understand completely. I feel like it has isolated me from everyone else and it's so hard to feel normal and not like there's something wrong with you. As long as you have a parent and a doctor monitoring You on it, it should be ok. Even though medication has its side effects it's worth a shot as sometimes it's just silly to suffer when There's help. Best of luck, I promise ittll get better