• 💖 [Donate To Keep MyPTSD Online] 💖 Every contribution, no matter how small, fuels our mission and helps us continue to provide peer-to-peer services. Your generosity keeps us independent and available freely to the world. MyPTSD closes if we can't reach our annual goal.

PTSD Drugs and Specific Drugs for PTSD Symptoms

Status
Not open for further replies.

anthony

Founder
There are a wide and varied range of medications for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which consist mainly from the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI's) group, which are a class of anti-depressants. Doctors will generally prescribe one, or a combination of these drugs and others dependant upon each persons unique circumstances. What you need to be made aware off, is that many physicians prescribe drugs that they actually feel comfortable with and are experienced with, even if a better alternative is available. So just keep that in the back of your mind when talking meds with your doctor.

Note: At the end of the day, medication is only a bandaid and not a final solution, thus your body will eventually gain a natural immunity to each, hence why doctors change medications on you periodically.

I want to get an idea of exactly what drugs people are taking for PTSD itself, or related symptoms because of PTSD. Please post your drug type you are taking, and why you are taking it, ie. a symptom of PTSD, PTSD itself, etc etc. Basically, your doctor should have told you about the drug/s before prescribing them too you, thus the more information you can provide what they have told you, the better.

Each drug will then be researched independently and posted as a new thread.

I am aware of the following drugs that are primarily used and will be posted uniquely to outline their pro's and con's:
  • Ambien
  • Effexor
  • Lexapro
  • Paroxetine
  • Prozac
  • Seroquel
  • Zoloft
 
well my doc has tryed effexor, seroquel,zoloft, syprimal (proably spelt wrong),
and each one seemed to lower my blood pressure and after a few days
he would stop. he has said we need to stay away from them hence the xanax..
i mean i would callopse...
yet i have taken nothing for 10 days and r a total wreck..simply cause i don't know whether to take the xanax or the valium is one better than the other and i am so scared i mean chronic anxiety with episodes of panic attacks..and flash thoughts, dissociation blah blah you all know,,i mean cruel i did 5 weeks in hospital and look how i come home....
 
Doobie, talk to your doctor about Lexapro, as it is an anti-depressant and anxiety formula, with the least amount of chance having severe repercussions. It was designed specifically for such illnesses as PTSD, instead of singular symptoms.
 
Hi Guys,
I am on Zoloft and have been for a couple of years now on and off, apart from headache for the first few days and a headache for a few days after I come off, I find it quite calming.

The upside is it does help with the lowering of my blood pressure but the downside is I have problems with lets just say, maintaining my manhood.

Regards to all

Socks.
 
Thanks for that Socks... I think from all anti-depressants / anxiety drugs, most affect both male and female for sexual drive and/or stimulation. It seems to be quite common across most of them from what I have read.
 
I was on efexor...didn't help much....
but have been on remeron (mirtazapine) 9 months and it helps...around the edges, as one of my friends would say.....it helps me sleep, and helps me contain the worst of the symptoms.
I also take propranolol, a beta blocker, prn for the panic and anxiety.
 
I was originally treated with just xanax through my GP, he thought it would be a temporary problem. After a while the panic attacks stopped and did OK for some months med free. Self medicated again with alcohol.

Once again out of the blue they came back and he just continued to jack up the dose as it would not control them this time, he then added BuSpar,still not working. And said he thinks something else may be going on and I may have a deep seated issue. So off to the shrink, he told me he wanted me to see a female one not a man so I think he had an idea. I was diagnosed PD and PTSD then. At that point I was on 9 - 10 mg xanax a day and 30 mg buspar. I was taking 3 mg 3 times a day and 1mg on the nights I woke in panic, it caused very serious memory problems for me.

I am down to 4.5 mg a day xanax and still weaning off xanax. I cut .5 every week to ten days. I take a wean break during PMS, it is too much then. Goal is get it out completely! I am pretty anti-med now since I have been doing so well with CBT and he is a great threapist. He is good at what he does, putting me at ease. And the attacks are less frequent and not as hard as I faced them.

The shrink had added zoloft. I quit the buspar period, I could not handle the tiredness. We argue about the zoloft, she keeps me at 50 mg swearing it is a tiny dose I don't want to take it but I do. She says "I need to learn to walk again first" before pulling it claiming chemical imbalance. But the xanax is on the way out and I will never look back at it again! Withdrawls suck but I am improving despite that fact.
 
Good for you veiled... Obviously you have learnt for yourself, that meds are not the long term solution, because the impact they play with side effects, often outweights the benefits of just getting to the core of the issue. Some people try and live in denial, and remain medicated, increasing over the years, even changing meds as their bodies become used to them. But that statement is just a catch cry as far as I am concerned. Its not just your body that becomes used to the meds, but deeper than that, in that your trauma becomes used to the meds, thus fights its way through, so what do most doctors do? They change meds to try and "suppress" the trauma once again. Trauma is hard, it hurts, but it will always prevail over medication in the long term, thus you are just better off fighting the trauma head on, break down if required, go to absolute custard if needed, but things get so much better after it all, and very quickly too I might add.

I think you are discovering all of what I said veiled, as these are direct consequences of even my time walking the path. I congratulate you veiled, and you truly are an avid person too which others can look too for help to beat this illness, as you are doing the tough stuff head on, to reap the rewards on the other side.

Well done.
 
I've been lucky that I haven't been addicted much to anything. I respond terribly to alchohol (puke!) and never smoked, but when my GP gave me xanax, it was love. I felt so much better! But Anthony is right, it was a temporary drug for a live long struggle. When I went to a psychiatrist, she would not give me a refill. I was a bit upset, but when I ran out, I knew why! I missed it, terribly. I couldn't sleep without it, and I couldn't come down from a panic attack as fast. It sucked for a while, but eventually it got better. Switching around meds and dosages is really hard on the body and on our emotions. It plays with our minds... The only symptom that I have not conquered yet is depression. It still sneaks up at me and wham, I can't get out of bed, can't shower, can't do anything....so I still take Wellbutrin for it. So far, it's working.
 
Nam, think of it like this. For what you have conquered so far, honestly, depression is the easiest of them all. Many people suffer depression and get past it quickly. Not that many suffer what you have already conquered symptom wise... maybe use that for some quick strenght to beat depression.

Depression is about 99% mind. If you think you can't get out of bed, you won't. If you don't think you can go for your morning walk, you won't. One must force themselves past what their mind is telling them to quickly controll depression, because it will sufocate you otherwise. Just look what you have beat already Nam, then think about depression, then kick the shit out of it quickly.
 
I am on Lexapro...only 10mg but I surely know when I dont take it! And so does anyone else in my world.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top