Social anxiety

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I am 17 years old and I have Aspergers syndrome and I also have social anxiety, it's not too severe but I avoid a lot of things that make me feel anxious, and I am tossing up whether I should start taking anti anxiety medication, has anyone here been on anti anxiety medication? Does it work for you? What is your experience? Thank you

Hi, Neens,

What have you tried to help you with your social anxiety? I must be honest and state that I am not big on kids being medicated. However, my son was medicated for his ADHD and it really did help. So sometimes it is necessary. But we did try other things first.

Some people find cognitive behavioral therapy helpful. This kind of therapy does not involve sitting down to "share your deepest thoughts" to "uncover the root of your anxiety." It is more focused on teaching you coping skills for dealing with your anxiety. I have used CBT myself and can tell you that it worked very well for me. It is surprising how much learning to gain control over some of your thoughts can help to control outcomes like anxiety.

Best of luck to you!

Welcome, neens! Aspie here, too (but undiagnosed), and I have diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). I avoid situations which increase any anxiety, too. I was prescribed Paxil for several years, but decided it didn't really help that much. For me, at least, I feel much better without it.

What are your special interests? Mine are genealogy, history, law and politics. Yeah, I know; not very fun stuff. Hehe.

I also think you should try non-medication methods first, mainly b/c there are side-effects. Is it mainly about trying new things or are there other sources of anxiety that give you problems?

Do everything you can to avoid taking drugs (that includes medication). You can never be sure what they are going to do to your body. If you truly need to do the things that make you anxious, work on not being anxious (therapy, herbal treatments, etc.). Once you leave the situation, the anxiety will stop, but side-effects from medication can last for a long time.

If the situations are not that important, don't do them. Sometimes it's best to just deal with who we are rather than trying to medicate ourselves into normality.

When you say the problem isn't too severe, most of us will take that literally and tell you to try counseling, meditation, exercise, anything else.

But it occurs to me that "not too severe" covers a lot of territory. And in the end, we each get one life to live with no retakes for years spent feeling miserably suicidal. Or just plain miserable. If you've been suffering awhile and nothing helps, of course it's worth thinking about. If you're shy and someone else suggested it, but you're generally happy except a few days around oral presentations in school a couple times a year, that would seem like overkill.

If you would want to give more detail about why you're thinking about taking medication, I think you'd get more specific and relevant responses.

i used to take xanax for social anxiety. i was told to take half a pill if anticipating anxiety and a whole pill if i was in a situation that was causing significant problems. it helped. i didn't take it often enough to get addicted. there are many meds in that family: ativan, valium, tranxene, klonopin, centrax to name a few. your doc will have those s/he is most comfortable with and want to use them. buspar isn't addictive, but one must take it all the time whether needed or not and it's not horribly effective. didn't work for me. i've never tried inderal (propranolol) which is also a blood pressure drug that can take the edge off anxiety. not addictive. can make you tired.

Hi thanks for your replies, I really appreciate it and it's really good that I can finally be myself around other people here, with what waterfalls said about being more specific, it's not too severe in the way that I don't feel anxious all the time coz I avoid lots of things. I don't want to avoid things coz it will make my life smaller and I want to be able to the things I want to do

In that situation, I would try working with a therapist first to gradually do more. But if I was stuck on medication as an option and really drawn to it, then I'd ask to try it if you feel like your parents would be receptive. This isn't something you should have to agonize about. If you're feeling strongly and this is what you want, I feel you should be able to change your mind and stop if you don't like it. The only regret being some time and money. Really bad effects are very unusual. And with you and your parents watching out for any problems and not feeling stuck and continuing a long time if it isn't agreeing with you, it might be worth it.