Medications for Anxiety and Panic Attacks

A lot of people think that if they just found the right medications for anxiety and panic attacks their problems would be over. While medications can be helpful, I think they’re only part of the answer.

Let me get my bias out of the way now. I think too many of us take too many medications. It seems as if the response to any health issue - mental, emotional or physical - is to look for the answer in a bottle of pills.

It’s become the cultural norm. I don’t think doctors start off wanting to push pills, but people come to their offices expecting them. They prefer the quick fix to the work of making the changes they really need.

For example, many (most) people would rather take pills for their high blood pressure instead of losing weight, exercising, changing their diet, dealing with stress better and making all the other changes that would not only lower their blood pressure but also improve their health over-all.

It’s much easier for the doctor to just prescribe the pills than to convince people to change. It becomes a vicious cycle of people expecting prescriptions and doctors finding it easy to do.

Meanwhile, the drug companies are happily promoting their products as the solution to all problems, encouraging the cycle to continue.

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The same thing goes on with anxiety and panic attacks – people look for the answer in a pill while there are other treatments that are better and safer in the long run.

Excuse my rant.

While I obviously think we overuse drugs, don’t get me wrong – I think they can be useful, even crucial, in the successful management of anxiety and panic attacks. It’s just that I don’t want people to think they can just take a pill and everything will be fine.

Below I list some of the types of medications used to treat anxiety and panic attacks. On Panic Attacks and Antidepressants I give a lot more information about those particular drugs because, in my non-medical opinion, they’re the most useful.

The following is a summary of the types of meds used to treat anxiety and panic attacks.

Sedatives

As the name implies, these drugs sedate the person taking them. They don’t deal with the underlying problem, they just sedate you to the point where the anxiety response isn’t as dramatic or noticeable.

The most common type of sedatives used are from a group of drugs called benzodiazepines. Years ago, barbiturates were used.

Valium was the first of the benzodiazepine group. Today there are many others. Xanax, Serax, Antivan and Librium are a few of the many brands prescribed. They vary mainly in how quickly they work and low long they last.

These drugs work quickly. If a person is in extreme distress in the mist of a panic attack, they can help calm them down and bring some relief.

Some therapists prescribe low doses of a quick acting drug for people to take if they think feel a panic attack coming on or if they have to go into a situation where they’ve had a panic attack before.

The problem with these drugs is that they tend to cause physical dependence. The last thing someone with a panic problem is drug dependency on top of it.

Another problem is that people taking the medication will give it credit instead of themselves if they notice improvement. Instead of thinking “I’m really learning how to take control of my responses” they might think “Wow, those pills really work”.

This mental dependency can be as much as a problem as physical dependence. A person might be tempted to stop other treatments such as meditation or cognitive therapy and just use the pills.

Sedatives can be very helpful, but undertake their usage with caution. They should only be one part of the treatment plan, and used only as necessary under the guidance of an experienced therapist.

Antidepressants

Antidepressants are among the most prescribed medications for anxiety disorders.

I describe the overall effectiveness of antidepressants on Panic Attacks and Antidepressants. I list the different types of antidepressants on Types of Antidepressants Used to Treat Panic and Anxiety Disorders.

Here I want to make a few general statements.

The main one is that antidepressants take a few weeks to work. They aren’t something you can start taking in the middle of an attack and expect relief. That situation is where the Valium-type drugs can help.

Antidepressants help over time, usually a few weeks, as they build up in your system.

By the same token, you shouldn’t suddenly stop taking antidepressants if you start to feel better. Your body has gotten used to them and problems come up if you stop suddenly.

Again, the medication should only be one part of an overall treatment plan. If you’re taking medication, you obviously have a therapist who’s prescribing them and you should work with them to determine how long you’ll take them and how you taper off them. As I discuss on Side Effects of Antidepressants Used to Treat Panic Disorder page, suddenly stopping an anitdepressant can cause some unpleasant side effects.

To find out about a drug-free way of dealing with anxiety and panic attacks, click on the image or link below. If you're already taking medications under the doctor's guidance, you can use this approach and following your doctor's advice you'll be able to wean your self off the medication. Click now to find out more:

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