Do you carry anxiety medication with you at all times?

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My doctor, a Clinical Psychologist, has advised me to always carry Valium in my pocket, in case of acute anxiety.

I am following his advice.

How about you?

If I had some, yes I would carry it with me.

A lot more people voting than posting on this thread...

I used to carry xanax with me at all times, and take it daily, for nearly a decade. Fortunately, I've gotten a better handle on my anxiety. I've had to find alternative methods of relieving my anxiety without taking medication because I discovered it increased my depression.

Last edited by leozelig on 14 Nov 2011, 2:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm not going to lie, I kinda wish I did have a prescription for Xanax........sedation>anxiety attack.

I don't have an anxiety disorder and I don't experience clinical anxiety or pretty much any anxiety for that matter, so naturally I don't get prescribed meds for anxiety and don't carry any with me.

My doctor does not want to perscribe me anxiety meds due to the obscene amount of hear and blood pressure pills I am on. No telling how they would all interact with one another. I have heart, blood pressure, and kidney problems so he is afraid to give me anything. But he did say he wish he could perscribe me marijuana. So if they ever legalize it he will perscribe it for me.

Valium is too nice for me to carry around. I would end up not going anywhere.

I'd carry it with me if I had some.

I used to have times when my heart would skip beats and taking half a valium would make it stop skipping. I also have a lot of anxiety and panic attacks.

I was prescribed Ativan & Zanax my sophomore year in high school for Panic Disorder. After a year or two on them, I became completely mentally and physically dependent on my anxiety meds. The shear thought of going without them for a day made me freak . I would put some in my little pill-container-key-chain-thingy, and I always had to have it along with my keys. Whether or not I had my pills would determine if I could: chill with friends, go to school, spend time with family, hook-up with a girl... I pretty much HAD to have them or I would lay in bed under the covers waiting for the day to end.

The pills stopped working when I started building up a tolerance to all benzos. Even though they were not working anymore, I had an extremely hard time quitting them. First I had to detox at a hospital for a week then I had to go to a residential treatment center for a month to recover from my drug addiction. I had horrible withdrawals, and rebound anxiety.

I haven't used benzos in over 5 months and my anxiety is still very unmanageable. It is far worse now then it ever was in my entire life. Probably because when I was on my med's, I didn't have teach myself any self-help strategies. Because I didn't have to do anything other then swallow a couple pills to make it all better. Now I'm being forced into all these situations that scare the living hell out of me, with no safety net to catch me when I panic. Still I would rather find healthier coping skills, than becoming a slave to a pill bottle all over again.

I think benzodiazepines can be terrific for managing bouts of anxiety, that would otherwise be debilitating. They are not so good for managing frequent panic attacks or chronic anxiety, where you would take the medicine regularly. You can only take this stuff so-often for so-long before it looses it's effectiveness and you'll have to increase the dose. Once you start having take more and more, you're already, in a sense, beginning to develop an addiction.

Ativan worked with me for about a month or so, it tuned out the noise very well.

Then it started freaking me out!

It began to feel like the Ativan was acting like a pressure cooker, containing and intensifying my anxiety rather than neutralizing it.
- If I took it before going to bed, I would wake up in the morning feeling really down
- I stopped taking it as soon as I noticed the change in my mood

Although I have been advised to carry Valium with me at all times, it is definitely for acute anxiety attacks only.
- To avoid dependency
- To ensure it remains effective (by not building up a tolerance)

I plan to start CBT early next year and hope to gradually reduce the need for medication in managing my anxiety.

I carry around Xanax all the time.. Have it within reach of my bed so I can take one in the early hours without having to get up..... I use it as a last resort - was getting chest and arm pains from anxiety at 2am the other night......