How do I know if I'm taking too much anti-anxiety medication?
You may be taking too much anti-anxiety medication if you find you need it more often, and if your anxiety starts to seem unmanageable. In this Ask the Experts video, psychiatrist Sue Varma, MD, explains how to talk to your doctor about your dosage.
Transcript
When you find that you start to need it more frequently-- perhaps more than once a week-- and you find that your day-to-day anxiety seems unmanageable,
then you might be taking your anti-anxiety medication too much.
A lot of times, people will find that they start out taking anti-anxiety medication for brief situations, perhaps
a flight, or a performance, or a presentation. But when you find that you start to need it
more frequently-- perhaps more than once a week-- and you find that your day-to-day anxiety seems unmanageable, then you might be taking
your anti-anxiety medication too much. Also, sometimes, people will say that I took the pill, and now after four to six hours, I'm
getting what's called "rebound anxiety." So as soon as the medications wear off, the anxiety comes back. And the anxiety now, perhaps, is more severe than perhaps
before taking the pill. And then, you want to be concerned that you might be taking too much medication because you have now suppressed your own ability to cope
with the anxiety, and you're relying too much on the pill to help you out. A lot of times people, don't have the conversations
with their doctors to find out how much is too much and how many pills should I be taking. And what ends up happening is people might get prescribed,
perhaps, a higher dose than they really need. And they find that very quickly, they become tolerant so the same medication no longer produces the same effect.
And they need more. And perhaps even before their prescription has run out, they're running back to their doctor asking for more pills.
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