Getting the thread back on track – how are you doing Kathleen? I think the difficulty with the discussion has been because although your thread title asks for experience with anti-anxiety meds, you seem to be actually asking for their use in menopause ie for hormonal anxiety. This is clearly an emotional issue but there are views from those with long-standing emotional or mental health problems, some who by their own admission have sadly felt suicidal, and those who have experienced menopausal depression and/or menopausal anxiety not to mention other forms of reproductive depression like PND and extreme PMS. It's no wonder there is such a diverse range of opinions and very strong views. It could be easy to get caught up into feeling that you fall into this category - and only you know whether you do, whether you can cope, are seriously depressed, and really could not function without medical intervention ( ie drug treatment) or could be a danger to yourself.
Racjen and Conolly have given some helpful links and have made valid points about hormonal/menopausal depression and anxiety being different and requiring different treatment. The NICE Guidelines are clear about this.
If not, then as per the link Conolly gave – if it is a menopausal/hormonal symptom then a drug solution should be a last resort. I hadn't realised you were already taking anti-depressants and I hope you don't mind my asking but was this after you started HRT or for life events and feelings in your life unconnected to menopause or hormones, or pre-dating HRT and menopause? If you were given these since taking HRT for hormonal anxiety – this is perhaps a pity (especially as it doesn't seem to have worked!) – only in that it makes it difficult to sort out the HRT treatment that works best for you – because as you said in your earlier posts – the ADs themselves have side effects so how can you work out what's what? The thing that worries me for your sake is that say it was the continuous progestogen in the Evorel conti making you feel like this – then you end up taking medication for the side effects from another type of medication – in this case a synthetic progestogen (norethisterone). Of course it might not be that but as I've said many time and have others – if you try HRT on a cycle with the same or a different progestogen you would be able to work out if these feelings were due to the HRT – either the progestogen, or too low a dose of oestrogen – or nothing to do with any of this!!
I have no particular axe to grind here as I don't take ADs but have experienced the negative effects of some progestogens. And know that I feel well on a cyclical regime. I wouldn't want to see you go further down the medical route if there were a simpler solution that didn't entail more drugs long term. Not to mention as the others have said (according to the link) – being over 60 these drugs are not advised anyway (notwithstanding some members who have been taking them intermittently for several/many years and are over this age!) and behavioural solutions favoured.
Those who have suffered any form of reproductive depression such as PND may also find that a strictly hormone replacement treatment (with oestrogen) actually is very effective, without other medical intervention – as per Studd's regime. There is much information on his website about this.
None of this is to minimise the benefit that some members have obtained through drug intervention but I can understand the words of caution expressed and why.
I do hope you will let us know what you decide and how you get on Kathleen, and hope you find a way to resolve this which is best for you short and long term.
Hurdity x
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Topic: Any Experiences of Anti Anxiety Meds? (Read 12750 times)