Anxiety attacks that won't respond to medication?

[crowmedicus]

I have had daily attacks of hot flashes, heart palpitations, dizziness, breathing difficulty, PVC's, chest pain, nausea and many other symptoms for the past four years. My doctor insists that I have a sever panic disorder; but none of the medications help prevent or even slightly ease my symptoms during the attacks. I have tried xanax .5mg-1mg 3x daily for six months and the only effect I experienced was feeling extremely tired on top of my attacks. I have also tried ativan 2mg 3x daily for six months and experienced no relief of symptoms; but I wasn't nearly as tired on the ativan. Why doesn't the medication help me, is it normal for someone to have to try many different anti-anxiety medications before they find one that works?

[remar]

I agree with Paxiled. It sounds like you need to have some testing done. He mentioned some physical problems that may be causing your anxiety. Do think about having your thyroid, blood sugar, hormone levels and heart checked. I'm not sure of your age and that's why I mentioned having your heart checked.
If everything comes back fine then it is most likely anxiety. Some Drs will put their patients on a combo of meds because we're all so different and respond to these meds differently. When you took antidepressants were you also on an anti anxiety med?

[crowmedicus]

Thanks for your response Paxiled

I have tried lots of other medications, but those two are the 'anti-anxiety' specific medications. The other I have tried are lexapro, paxil, celexa, prozac and wellbutrin, but all of those were intended to be long acting to reduced the incidence of attacks, they had no effect on the attacks and only caused worse insomnia and mild erectile dysfunction; except for the wellbutrin; that only caused insomnia. I was more referring to 'anti-anxiety' specific medications, which I have only tried two. I think I just need to find a new doctor.

[Paxiled]

First of all, you only mention two benzos, not a whole bunch of medications.  Second, there could be a physiological cause for this, such as thyroid.  Until you find someone who will do a thorough physiological analysis eliminating hormones, sugar imbalances, and hidden causes, which might explain the lack of effects of your meds, you won't know where to go on this.  There are psychiatrists who call themselves functional physicians who will do this, but they are expensive, hard to find, and generally don't take insurance.