Anxiety med that doesn't subdue

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I have noticed there are several kinds of anxiety. There's the traditional hyperventilating and jittery type of anxiety, and there's another kind that I appear to have more often that's kind of a combination of sleepiness and anxiety. I look very subdued, lethargic, and flat. I don't appear anxious at all, but that's what it is, and I can't focus. It's kind of a sleepy anxiety almost.

Taking some traditional anxiety meds just causes me to be more subdued and lethargic. But I've noticed three natural substances that help reduce my "subdued" anxiety. They reduce anxiety and energize me at the same time. The first two, especially, work wonders.

1. coffee

2. spicy food, esp cayenne pepper

3. proplanolol and other beta blockers (significantly reduced careless mistakes and helped me improve significantly on the LSAT)

4. Methamphetamines (only tried it once 3 years ago)

5. 5-hour energy drinks


Here are things that make my lethargic anxiety worse:

1. Lexapro and Zoloft

2. sweets (just makes me jittery and increases my focusing problems)

3. alcohol (sometimes or sometimes it actually helps)

4. Sleep deprivation

5. Pot

So which type of anxiety do I have, and how should I explain this to my doctor in terms of which kind of medication to take? At first glance, it sounds like adderall might work wonders.

Have you considered that you may have ADD, not ADHD? If so, medicines like Ritalin would be very appropriate. Your inability to focus suggests that you do.

And I agree, find a different doctor, one who may entertain the notion.

Don't depression and anxiety both hinder the ability to focus? And I have NLD, which overlaps with ADD. ADHD means having too much energy and no focus. I have no energy (normal tasks are 4x as hard for me) and no focusing, which is oddly mixed with fatigue.

If you give me a week with no obligations or responsibilities, I'm fine.

Anxiety and depression can be allergy symptoms. I've noticed caffeine helps my allergies (by stimulating my metabolism I'm guessing) as well as helps me sleep (although sleep is delayed, so it wouldn't be good to take if I had to be up early.)

Might seem out of left field but I would recommend trying an Anti Inflammatory diet (there are many books and online resources on this), or at least taking top of the line fish oil capsules (just read their labels, not all are as good as the other), to see if reducing arterial or other inflammation can help your circulation.

For some reason, fish oil, a good diet, and caffeine or jalapeno (chipotle and the like) or other spicy ingredients help a lot of my own symptoms. I think a lot of what is termed emotional is actually physical, with a lot of people.

I can only guess why that is but there is a lot about the body they don't understand fully. Or value as they should. For instance, a lot of serotonin is made in the intestinal tract but, no one stops to think about the effect on serotonin when over use of antibiotics in the population causes massive intestinal damage (kills the good flora etc.)

Since you mention both caffeine and peppers help you a lot, maybe there are some inflammatory issues or circulation issues or allergy issues that can be helped by focusing on that. I say listen to your body.

(PS if anyone's wondering we can talk now. )

I like Modafinil. If I take it at the beginning of the day I don't get the tired/irritable/depressed feeling in the afternoon and evening.

How do you determine that this experience is anxiety?

It feels like it? Otherwise, I don't know.

Coffee is a big help to get me kick started in the morning.