Buspar

Hi.  I have suffered from GAD and mitral valve prolapse most of my life, mostly health anxiety.  I have been on remeron, klonopin, and toprol for several years now.  During the past year and 1/2, I was slowly tapering off the klonopin and doing fine.  Then I was diagnosed with cancer and had several surgeries.  Am now cancer free because it was caught very early.  Due to the stress/worrying and surgeries all in one year, my anxiety level has gone way up and I had to go back up on my klonopin to control the anxiety.  I went to my Dr. today and expressed my concerns about having to increase my klonopin and wanting to start weaning again even though I am still not really stable with  my anxiety.  He gave me a prescription for buspar and said to start at 5 mg twice a day and see how I do.  Will it help me at this point?  I am VERY sensitive to any meds that have any stimulating affects and have read buspar can cause nervousness and some anxiety before it actually works.  Have also read alot of negatives on the med not working at all.  I don't want to start a new med and it mess me up again with my anxiety and then it NOT even help at all!  

What are your thoughts on this?  How would this med help me at this point?  If it helps with the breakthrough anxiety I am having, will it help my anxiety when I start to withdraw off the klonopin again?  Does it help longterm for GAD patients? If it indeed will help, how soon will I be able to tell?

I have also been through talk therapy which has helped but I guess with everything I have been through, I haven't been able to control the anxiety very well lately.

Any help and advice would be very helpful.

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

You are right about buspar.  Sometimes it is very effective and can easily replace klonopin for long term solution. But it doesn't always work as well as klonopin, so if you are looking for more certain reliability, you might want to stay on klonopin until you feel stable enough to stop,then experiment with buspar when it won't be so critical.

[ABCMomof3]

I'm sorry to hear about all that you have been through and I'm sorry you had cancer too. I'm happy you are getting better and that your surgeries went well. I don't have any advice for you, but I wanted to let you know that I think you are very brave and courageous and I hope you find the answers you are looking for. God Bless you.

[Baby123]

Thanks so much for the encouragement.  I was diagnosed with Stage 0 breast cancer Jan 05 and it has been a long year.  I had my last reconstruction surgery this past Jan 06 and that is when all the anxiety hit.  My Dr. keeps telling me that I actually have done very well considering all I have gone through.  I guess being told you have cancer at 44 years old with no family history is such a shock though.  I made it through the first two surgeries very well but the last one did me in as far as anxiety.  I give all the Glory to God to have made it as far as I have and thank Him all the time that it was caught early and I am now considered cured.  I'm trying to just take it one day at a time now as far as the anxiety goes.  I can make it about 2 weeks feeling really good and then "BAM" I just wake up one day and that old anxiety is there again but luckily it only last a day or two.  I'll get there eventually.

But thanks again for caring enough to write and encourage me.

[enaj]

Is your doctor a psychologist or psychiatrist? If not, you might want to consult with one. Sometimes, other doctors think they know what they're doing with anxiety patients when they really don't. Considering all you've been through, weaning off medication at this point doesn't seem like that great an idea. If you need it, you need it. I don't know that much about buspar. I don't think many people use it these days; it is a pretty old medication. Have you thought about anti-depressants? They also work for anxiety.

[Baby123]

My Dr. is a pshychiatrist (sp?).  He is very knowledgeable of anxiety.  The remeron I take is an antidepressant.  You probably are right, I shouldn't try to wean off anything right now.  My Dr. actually told me to let my body stabilize and wait awhile before weaning the klonopin. I probably will not take the buspar if I can handle the anxiety without it.  I really don't want to add another med.  I think in time my body will stabilize.  I've got to remember 3 major surgeries in one year is a lot.  Also, the scare of being diagnosed with cancer is also very stressful.  Also, my daughter graduated from high school the other night.  So there has been a lot going on in my life not to mention that my biggest anxiety issue is fear of anxiety and health anxiety.  So my anxiety kind of feeds off my fear.  I just hate when I feel so anxious because it seems like nothing helps when I feel like that.  I don't eat sugar or caffeine and  exercise regularly.  I feel like I am doing all the right things and then I can just wake up and there it is again.  I used to meditate and I probably need to start that again.  I think it helped before.

[spiderbaby]

I just wanted to say that I wish you well.  Please know you are not alone in this.  I have not had cancer but I have certainly had "health anxiety" and it is like being in the depths of hell.  I cannot even watch a television program because my mind wanders constantly about my health.  I worry I won't ever be better and that I won'd be able to keep my job.  I worry that my family will get sick of me always being sick.  My daughter said the other day "Oh mom, you'll never feel better".  

So many people are sick and they don't know why.  We have to hang in there together and encourage each other because sometimes people in our own families don't get it.

Spiderbaby