Drugs to relieve anxiety internal consumption

Currently, there is no drug globally approved specifically for “relieving daily anxiety and internal consumption.” The only relevant drugs are for clinically diagnosed anxiety disorders, depressive disorders and other pathological mental illnesses, and must be used strictly in compliance with medical instructions.； More than 90% of ordinary people encounter anxiety and internal consumption that does not reach a pathological level. Taking medicine is not only useless, but may cause unnecessary side effects and is extremely cost-effective.

When I was an intern at a psychiatric clinic last year, I met a 26-year-old Internet operation girl. When she entered the clinic, her eyes were swollen like walnuts. She said that she was fired from the company last week because she wrote wrong activity budget data for three consecutive days. She was so groggy that she couldn't concentrate at all. When I asked, I found out that she felt that she had been internally consumed in the past six months, and her boss casually said, "We will change this plan." She could think about it over and over all night. Someone on the Internet said, "Fluoxetine is the savior of anxiety."

Don't tell me, there are quite a few people like this. If you search for "what medicine to take for anxiety and internal constipation" on the Internet, you will find a bunch of so-called "experiences of people who have lived there", saying that you feel instantly happy after taking something, and that internal constraint disappears. It makes it seem like just taking two pills can solve all emotional problems. This is not the case at all.

From the perspective of clinical psychiatry, some situations do require medication intervention - if you are depressed every day for more than two weeks, restless, unable to eat or sleep, or even have physical reactions such as hand shaking, palpitation, and breathlessness, and go to the hospital for a GAD-7 anxiety screening score of more than 10 points, which means you have reached the diagnostic criteria for generalized anxiety disorder, then the doctor will most likely prescribe related drugs for you. Commonly used SSRIs, such as sertraline and escitalopram oxalate, are long-term regulators of neurotransmitters. They usually take 2-4 weeks to take effect. Most of the side effects are mild nausea and drowsiness in the early stage, which most people can tolerate in about a week. ； There are also non-benzodiazepine anti-anxiety drugs like buspirone, which have low addiction and are suitable for long-term adjustment of mild anxiety. ； If you encounter an acute anxiety attack, such as a sudden sense of near-death or out of breath, you may also be prescribed benzodiazepines such as alprazolam and lorazepam for a short period of time, which can take effect in ten minutes, but they must not be taken for a long time because they are highly addictive and may cause withdrawal reactions when the drugs are stopped.

However, many clinical psychological counselors are very resistant to "prescribing medicines for internal friction at will". A consultant I know who has been doing CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) for 12 years said that what many people call internal friction is essentially a problem of cognition and behavior. Taking medicine only presses the emotional switch, and does not touch the root problem at all. He once had a visitor who was a class teacher at a key middle school. He was under great pressure leading the graduating class and was so anxious that he suffered from insomnia every day. He went to the hospital and was prescribed Sertraline for more than half a year. His mood was indeed stable. However, he still couldn't help but stay up all night long when the school year and mock exam season came. Later, he came to him for consultation. It took him three months to slowly loosen the obsession that "the class I lead must be ranked first in grade, otherwise I will be a failed teacher." Later, he even stopped taking the medicine and could sleep on the pillow when school started.

It's interesting to say that I was chatting with the deputy director of the psychiatry department who consulted the little girl. He usually didn't take medicine when he had to rush for a paper or was under great pressure to do a project. He took his racket and went to the park to play badminton for half an hour. After sweating all over, his anxiety disappeared. He said, "We doctors never persuade people to take medicine casually. Medicines are prepared for people who are really sick. For ordinary emotional problems, taking action is better than anything else."

I almost fell into a trap when I was rushing to write an industry report two years ago. At that time, there was only one week left on the deadline, and I had written less than a third of it. Every day I opened my eyes and thought, "If I fail in writing, I will never get any cooperation again." I lay in bed scrolling through my phone until three or four in the morning. I knew I should get up to write, but I couldn't move. At that time, I thought about getting some medicine, but then I thought it would be troublesome to go to the hospital to register, so I tried a stupid method that a friend told me: I would run around the community for 20 minutes every morning. While running, I would not think about anything, but count the shared bicycles parked on the roadside. When I counted to 100, I would walk back. When I came back, I would write a 50-word report no matter what, and not write an extra word. I persisted like this for 5 days, and I actually finished writing the report without knowing it. The thoughts of "it's over" that I had been thinking over and over again disappeared at some point, and of course I didn't take the medicine.

By the way, I would like to remind you that the so-called "student drugs" and "anti-anxiety miracle drugs" that many people on the Internet are talking about, such as Adela and Modafinil, are the first type of psychotropic drugs in China. It is illegal to buy and sell them without a doctor's prescription. They also have serious side effects. Taking too much can lead to palpitations, hallucinations, and serious addiction. Don't buy them blindly when your brain gets hot.

In fact, the internal friction most of us encounter on a daily basis is essentially "thinking too much and doing too little", either because we are tied down by perfectionism, or because we put future difficulties in advance and put them on today. If you really feel that you can't handle it anymore, go to a regular hospital to see a doctor for an evaluation first, and don't just look for medicine on your own. After all, what can pull you out of the mire of internal friction is never that small piece of white pill, but that little action of your willingness to lift your foot first.