I wouldn’t worry so much about side effects unless you actually experience that side effect.
Thing is, if I start balding, I'm just going to blow my head off. Or, I will -REALLY- want to. So yeah. f*ck that. Not worth risking it.
From my reading, it was common enough for me to find it not worth the risk. You need to understand - I am like OVERLY caring about some aspects of my appearance. I refuse SSRIs and stuff because I don't want to get fat (among other reasons). I refuse all sorts of drugs for all sorts of very vain reasons - but for me, -extreme- negative self image has been plaguing me for most of my life. Legitimate lowering of my self-image, really can make me do extreme things.
So I like, have very abnormally strong fear of looking like shit. Yeah, it would be great to try it and have it work. Problem is though - I can't make myself unafraid enough to try the drug (like, if I -do- take it, life will become a constant paranoid struggle to ensure I am not balding, and I know that's going to be stressful as F*CK!!!), and it even working is a f*cking gamble. I think it would probably be helpful to me. I really liked the idea of taking it. But, once I read into the balding side-effect, it killed it - I am too afraid to try it.
I told my pdoc/counselor that, and she didn't even try to argue against me at all - she just looked it up herself, on her phone to make sure I was right, that it's something that happens with propranolol - and just accepted that I don't want to take it and didn't even try to convince me otherwise, not even the tiniest little bit. I was kinda hoping she was going to try talking me into it but, how the f*ck is she gonna argue against facts? It _DOES_ cause some people to start balding. _IF_ that happened, I would feel so horrible I'd be at a high risk of suicide and self harm - it would be crushing - it would set me back immensely. Is it even worth the risk, if I am going to be a paranoid wreck -regardless- of whether it works on my anxiety or not? I can't see myself -NOT- obsessing about the chance of balding, if I take it. I -WANTED- to take it really badly, on the chance that it works and lowers anxiety/panic symptoms. But once I read about the chance of balding, my stomach dropped - it became too scary to try. I wish I could try it. I wish I could be secure in myself to the point that I didn't care about the risk - but like, f*ck, I do not know what to do.
I also have this expectation that if something can go wrong, or can go badly, it WILL go badly for -me-, even if it goes right for 99.9999999975% of people, it will go wrong for me. That is my expectation. I have had too much shit go wrong - it's too hard to -not- expect everything to go f*cking horribly wrong.
