First…I am NOT an anti-meds person, but I don’t believe that everyone should just be on them. My friend has schizophrenia and absolutely needs her meds. It’s scary when she’s off them because of how negatively it impacts her life.
I called out of work one day due to having an issue and in desperation made a same day appointment with a psych NP. I was surprised at how immediate and quick she was to be like “hey sure yeah you can try meds if you want”. They diagnosed me with the generic “depression and anxiety” and when from there.
Well the NP immediately quit after that and they transferred me to a new NP, who has continued to prescribe different meds for me. I also recently started therapy.
With the first med I tried (an SSRI), I continued to have my episodes, so I initially thought it had zero effect. In retrospect, I do think it slightly lowered my anxiety (but not enough to really do anything). Coming off them was unpleasant and I had another episode that may have threatened my job. I’m not sure if the episode was related to the med reduction or not.
My NP specifically stated that I do NOT have bipolar disorder, but that she wanted to try lamotrigine with me. I have been slowly over many months titrating up to my therapeutic goal dose and reached it a couple weeks ago.
She also recently prescribed me PRN propranolol which I also don’t know if it has any effect. I very rarely get panic attacks. My NP’s idea was that if I have a stressful that happen that day to take it so I am theoretically less inclined to have an outburst of some sort later. Again, I’m not sure if this is really doing anything for me. I don’t notice an effect.
I know propranolol is preventative instead of used during or after, but I can’t always predict when a trigger may occur.
My episodes generally begin with a trigger. So if there are no triggers, I have minimal/no issues. The triggers are not 24/7 and there are sometimes many weeks in between. So how tf am I supposed to tell if the medication does anything???
My issue: extreme negative emotions/spiraling generally tied to a trigger; can cause me want to self harm or do dangerous things, can sometimes cause outbursts at work which threaten work interpersonal relationships and my job. For the most part, my episodes occur outside of work and I am usually (but obviously not always) able to keep it together). So it can be very distressing and unpleasant to live with…but again it’s not 24/7.
Sorry that was long!!!
Panic attacks are just an adrenal response you don’t want or isn’t really needed…
Proponal blocks adrenaline. But stays in your system like 36-48 hours. So your doc likely already talked to you about how you need to take it as directed and let it build up.
You’ll know proponal is working, by doing something that normally gets your adrenaline up, and realizing while you’re still enjoying it, it’s a calm enjoyment and you’re not all hyped up from adrenaline.
They would have started you on a very low dose, and it’s 100% normal to need to bump it up. Even if it works at first, you’ll probably need to bump it up as your body gets used to it. Everyone’s different, but think of it like 1mg blocks X% of your adrenal system, so dialing in your dose is just finding out how much to block to stop an adrenal response from crossing the threshold to a panic attack.
But there’s very few side effects, and long term it’s good for your heart.
Obviously you should be asking your doc, but this is America and doctors are expensive.
Edit:
If it’s just “as required” it’ll kick in within like 5-15 minutes, if you start freaking out, pop one.
And it’ll stop it because it literally stops (some, depending on dose) adrenaline from working in your brain
So I kind of uncommonly get mild panic attacks. They happen I guess, but not to the frequency that I would necessarily find the need to try them. By the time I am panicking, I already calm down on my own before the time it would take to take the med and for it to kick in. She isn’t necessarily prescribing it for panic attacks, but to help prevent a big reaction from me later when I am having a stressful day. Yeah it’s just as needed as opposed to daily. Supposedly it will take around 30 minutes to kick in.
What I will say is I have a very significant and predictable and prolonged stressor for several days out of the week that occurs in the evenings. One day, I took the propranolol in the morning and was still very on edge in the evening. But I noticed that today, I took it a bit later in the day and was a smidge less on edge in the evenings. But I was also very tired today which also just decreases my anxiety lol. But I will keep testing. I probably need to try taking it closer in time to the known stressor, but not too close such that it doesn’t have time to work.
Daily I am taking lamotrigine right now. Not sure if it is doing anything at all for me.