We all can have a long discussion of conventional medication for Generalized Anxiety Disorder here. There are three categories of medications that medical practitioners are prescribing to people with GAD presently. These are antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and azapirones.

Since depression goes side by side with anxiety, prescribing antidepressants seems like a good idea. You all probably have heard of them. Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft, Buspar, and Anafranil are some of those antidepressants. Most antidepressants cause sedation and sexual side effects. Some might cause cardiac problems. I used some of those antidepressants. Perhaps, I used Zoloft for longer periods of time. I did not get tired immediately when I used Zoloft as I did not have much energy to begin with. However, I did experience sexual side effects, and I constantly had stomach cramps. There was a significant weight gain. Once I stopped the medication routine, the weight did not easily come off.

Perhaps, I worried more about not feeling right and feeling out of place while I was medicated than I did about other side effects. There was a positive effect of these drugs on my anxiety level. That is, my anxiety along with other benefits was lowered significantly. However, I constantly thought about stopping my routine. I could not afford using medications anyway. My routine ended up costing me more than $ 200 US dollars each week. I did not have any medical insurance. I could not continue paying for these medicines. Conventional medication routine for any anxiety disorder, including Generalized Anxiety Disorder is expensive. You need to be either wealthy or to have a great medical insurance to use medications in USA.

Let’s discuss each of three categories briefly. Benzodiazepines mainly treat panic attacks and phobic behavior. They are particularly effective in treating anticipatory phase of panic attacks. Klonopin and Xanax are the most well-known drugs that belong to benzodiazepines. I do not have any experiences with them. Therefore, I could not speculate about their effectiveness. Several studies reported various side effects, such as memory loss.

We already discussed antidepressants. Buspar belongs to azapirones. As I did read about this drug, people with alcohol or drug abuse problem should not use it. Many people with obsessive-compulsive disorder use Buspar.

Now, I just briefly wanted to discuss all generalizations that I made about all these medicines. For one, the number of pills that is necessary to produce improvements in symptoms directly seems to correlate to one’s weight. For example, the more weight you carry, the more pills you will need to take to notice the difference. For instance, I was taking 3-4 pills of Zoloft daily because I carried much weight.

Secondly, all medications have side effects that relate to your stomach region. In another words, diarrhea and irregular bowel movement often accompany administration of these medications.

Some medications literally produce “explosive” action in one’s body. This medication routine for Generalized Anxiety Disorder needs constant evaluation. People who use these drugs do see their psychiatrist once every three weeks or so. It is done to make sure your routine remains effective. Also, the psychiatrists need to know about side effects you experience from taking medications.

Lastly, I believe any medication routine for Generalized Anxiety Disorder has to be carefully constructed to make sure you get more benefits from drugs than you get side effects. You should generally avoid any medical practitioner who does not take interest in your condition.