In the last couple of years in my private practice I have gotten to know this wonderful drug a little better. As of recent, more and more psychiatrists are prescribing Lyrica, also known as Pregabalin for General Anxiety Disorders (GAD). (Brand name: Lyrica. Generic name: Pregabalin).
Lyrica is not your general SSRI which has commonly been prescribed until now and still is commonly prescribed for anxieties. Lyrica belongs to a group called anti-convulsant which really means that it is an anti-epileptic drug. But you don’t need to be suffering from epilepsy in order to take Lyrica. One of the effects that Lyrica has, is that it soothes the mind of anxieties.
Side effects?
In my experience, I have not seen people suffer from side-effects from Lyrica at all. In fact with SSRIs I have seen many side effects and I am very pleased to see that this is not the case with Lyrica. Of course, if you do think that you are having side effects from Lyrica, you must consult with your doctor immediately. Your doctor will always start you low on Lyrica and gradually build up the dosage.
Combining with psychotherapy
However, I do encourage you to get some psychological help in dealing with your anxiety and not just rely on medications. For a start, you do want to get off the medication at some point and research shows that the best way to get serious relief from your anxiety challenges is by combining both, psychotherapy and medication.
Often, people feel a relief from the meds and don’t bother with getting psychotherapeutic help, but that is a shame. If you can learn some tools such as CBT and mindfulness in order to cope with your anxieties than you have the absolute best chance of getting fully better.
The five major types of anxiety disorders
Generalized anxiety Disorder (GAD), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Panic Disorder, Post-traumatic-Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Social anxiety Disorder (SAD).
Generalized Anxiety Disorder – GAD
Generalized Anxiety Disorder – GAD: this anxiety disorder basically entails an ongoing sense of being anxious even when there is no specific trigger going on in your life. A person with GAD will often say ‘It’s as if I am constantly tensed up’. I’ve often seen that when these people get relief, they realise how they actually suffered. That is because they didn’t even know that much of their ongoing tension was ‘abnormal’.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) has recently been excluded from the group of anxiety disorders but clinicians still view it that way and treat it as an anxiety issue by which the sufferer has intrusive thoughts that keep coming and push the person to do specific behaviours in order to silence the intrusive thoughts.
The disturbing thoughts are the obsessions whilst the behaviours are the compulsions. Examples of OCD repetitively washing of hands, walking in a specific order, being obsessed with symmetry and order, obsessing over issues concerning hygiene and cleaning and checking. CBT has the best proven track record to help people with OCD and in severe cases, SSRIs are also very helpful. Going along with the compulsions is a bad idea as it keeps the OCD alive. Online CBT therapy is a great idea for OCD.
Panic Disorders
Panic disorders are primarily felt as physical and makes people believe that they are having a heart attack. Symptoms will include fast breathing, pain in the chest accompanied with fast palpitations. These symptoms often get people to the ER, only to be sent home with a Benzodiazepam to get short term relief from anxiety.
But these panic symptoms often re-occur which is why psychotherapy which is highly effective in this case, is strongly recommended. You can also follow this anxiety online course which has helped thousands of people get off their meds and overcome their panic and the panic of the panic.
Clicking on the image below will get you to an AMAZING program that has already helped over half a million people completely get rid of their panic by anxiety courses!
Post-Traumatic-Stress Disorder
This form of anxiety disorder occurs when something of a negative nature has happened. This event has to have been extremely scary to the point whereby it would be called a traumatic event. Whilst normally we would expect that time would heal and make you feel less intense about it whilst remembering the event (at least after a while), in PTSD that type of processing doesn’t happen automatically and people are ‘stuck’, as if the event had just occurred.
Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)
This Disorder is extremely prevalent and it’s a huge shame to see people suffering so badly when there is so much excellent help out there for this disorder. For those stuck with SAD, every meeting or encounter with other people can be tremendously challenging as the fear is of people itself.
The fear consists of ‘how will I be seen by the other’. For some people this occurs only in specific environments with specific people, but for others it can encompass pretty much any situation in which they meet up with other people. Here too CBT has an excellent track record in how to battle with this kind of disorder and if it is absolutely paralysing, ask your doctor to prescribe you an SSRI or Lyrica for your anxiety symptoms.
In future posts, I’ll be addressing each of these anxiety disorders separately and provide some coping tools on how to manage these symptoms, so you don’t have to continue suffering. But in the meantime, if you’d like to embark on getting some therapy, online help is one way in which to get assistance fast without having to shop around for a qualified therapist that is specialised in your specific challenge.
A word of encouragement
Hang in there! I know how paralysing anxiety symptoms can be. I’ve treated hundreds of people with them and I know that they are a huge pain to have to live with. But I assure you that there is effective relief for them which will really get you your life back. It’s well worth the investment in order to get your mental health back on track and enjoy peace of mind. You can get it and I hope that this post can be another step in creating that for yourself. Here is again the link to get started with CBT in the form online therapy.
If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch at support@getcopingtools.com
Take good care of yourself.
