There is no magic pill, magic supplement, magic therapy, exercise, anything that will kill your anxiety once and for all. Sorry.
I learned after decades on benzos that benzos kill anxiety quite well (but not the anxiety about thinking about taking them for anxiety) but in the end, your baseline anxiety level is higher and the benzos do dull and distort reality. They’re a temporary solution bringing bigger problems.
What about supplements? No supplement is going to do shit for you, especially if you’re popping benzos a couple times a day. Magnesium? I don’t notice anything. I don’t know. But nothing is going to give you the benzo feeling and relief but a benzo.
This is how I deal with anxiety now without benzos, and my overall baseline anxiety level is much lower, surprisingly, without them on board.
I sit with it. I try not to panic. Sometimes I panic. I feel it, I experience it, I live with it, and I move on.
This is not easy. This doesn’t come on fast. This can feel absolutely terrible sometimes, but you’re living with real feelings. Yes, I have a diagnosed anxiety disorder, so some of those feelings are irrational and disordered. But I use CBT techniques to attack those thoughts, and that helps with the anxiety, I use propranolol in low doses for the physical anxiety, and I walk myself through the anxiety itself.
I’m still anxious. I probably will always be. There is no magic bullet or solution. Anything that works (like a benzo) has side effects and possible long term consequences making anxiety harder to live with. Exercise? Sure, who wants to go for a run during a panic attack? (Honestly, sometimes that sounds like a better option and I’d love to run away!)
CBT is effective, reality testing the thoughts, making them manageable. But there is no cure. There is no magic, simple solution other than to live with it and manage it and get through it. It’s okay to feel. Sometimes you’re feelings are bad and that’s okay, they won’t be forever, and it’s fine to feel bad right now,
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