Posted 18 December 2012 - 11:00 PM
Let me break it down for you a little bit OP. While there are many drugs that will ease the anxiety associated with social interaction, none of them will be permanent. It is highly unlikely that you will ever find a permanent pharmacological solution. Some drugs I can think of that are GREAT for reducing anxiety include: Alcohol, Xanax, other benzos, cocaine, as well as SSRIs, and a few others. Some supplements I can think of: Bacopa, Picamilon, L-theanine... there are many.
The only problem with using a supplement or drug to reduce your anxiety, is that more often than not, there is an INITIAL reduction of anxiety, however after prolonged use the anxiety comes back. Perhaps the best examples of this are Cannabis (probably the absolute best, at least in my personal opinion) and benzos. The reason this is, is because your brain is still trained to think a certain way. Your brain is still *trained* to be anxious. That first time you take xanax and feel completely at ease and free to talk to anyone and do anything, that only lasts a little bit. If you keep taking xanax, you won't retain the same feeling as you did. This is because your reaction has almost a rubber-band effect. You're stretched to the far side of anxiolysis, however you're still being PULLED back to anxiety. This is, as I said before, because your brain is **trained and wired** to be anxious. The ONLY way to achieve permanent anxiety reduction is to change how your mind works, specifically how your thoughts work.
It is necessary to identify the anxious thoughts, and understand them. Approach the thoughts as if you're approaching a wild animal that you're observing. You initially approach it from far away, simply observing, not wanting to directly interact with it. You observe your thoughts' habits, seeing their source and how long these anxious thoughts last. You objectively THINK about whether or not your anxious thoughts are rational or not. As someone who deals with/dealt with anxiety, it's important to separate the two pieces of it:
There's the physical sensation of anxiety, and then the mental thought processes that accompany it. The mind and body are completely connected, and particularly with anxiety, one sensation is not often felt without the other. That said, if you're able to take a step back mentally and look at the situation that has made you physically anxious, try and identify whether or not it is rational. E.g, thinking "that person isn't going to like me because I'm weird, I don't have things to say, etc." Look at that statement. This statement will divide people into different categories. There are some that really do not have much capacity for social functioning, in which this would require different training. For the vast majority of us though, this is simply an anxious statement that holds no -real- value. We've all had awkward moments, that's simply part of life. However, if you're able to hold a conversation and you have in the past, if you have friends and you can recall a time when you've had a conversation without anxiety, then this is simply an anxious statement without real basis. It's particularly important to look at your past history to show yourself that you're more capable than you tell yourself.
So, you've proven to yourself that this statement is baseless. Great! But the anxiety is still there...You still can't talk to that girl, you still can't initiate the conversation. That's okay. Simply realizing this statement isn't going to suddenly make you Don Juan. However, it starts your mind down the path of change. This is the first step to changing your actual thought processes. It takes practice, as practice makes perfect. It may even help to use supplements to achieve a state of lack of anxiety, temporarily, so you can look at how you feel and say "hey, this is how I should really be feeling. This is how it feels to not be anxious." By simply realizing and understanding a non-anxious state, it will make it almost a goal. You think to yourself, "man that felt really good to not be anxious...now I understand what it feels like, I'm going to work on feeling that way all the time."
It takes quite a bit of practice and work to change the way your brain thinks, but it's the only way to actually kill or really reduce your anxiety. Drugs and supplements are really temporary things. I think of SSRIs as a way of showing you how it feels to not be anxious, and why you shouldn't be anxious, from which you work on other changes in your life that--with your lack of anxiety--establish CONFIDENCE in yourself and your life. This way, once you've established these things, you can get off of your SSRI and continue to be anxiety-free. This is why SSRIs WITH a therapist are far more effective than simply one or the other. It's all about REALIZING your logical fallacies, and then working to change them. Drugs won't change your thoughts so much as you can yourself.
One of the greatest aids to this would be meditation. Meditation helps more than almost anything for taking a step back to observe your thoughts and understand them. Meditation also quickens the rate of synaptic plasticity in your brain, quickening the rate at which you can actually physically change your brain and your thoughts. I would consider meditation to be very, very essential in observing and understanding your thoughts, so that you may change them. You cannot change what you don't understand.
Last note I would like to make, is that Cerebrolysin is of great help on the pharmacological end. Unlike all other drugs, which mostly just modify your neurological conditions for a brief period of time (while the drug is in your body), Cerebrolysin is a neuropeptide solution containing BDNF, NGF, GDNF, IGF-1 and IGF-2, as well as a whole host of amino acids (18 different ones from what I remember) necessary for the construction of new neural pathways, and the furthering of synaptic plasticity. Cerebrolysin also greatly helps in "righting the wrongs" so-to-speak, in your brain. I would highly recommend stopping Adderall entirely before you start Cerebrolysin though, as Adderall is neurotoxic and long-term use is far, far more detrimental than helpful.
TL;DR
The only way you can change your anxiety is by realizing you need to change your thoughts. Drugs can only do so much, and they will never, ever, ever actually fully fix your problem.
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