Has anyone else ever had an extreme fear of medication and if so how did you overcome it? I’ve been prescribed Clonazepam, Lorazepam, Xanax, all the things for my anxiety to use as needed but I never take any of them due to the potential horrendous side effects I’ve read. I have this irrational fear that taking the med will cause me to become more anxious, or like black out or lose control or something ridiculous. I know it’s an irrational fear and that the point of them is to help, but I just always scare myself with a google search. My anxiety has been getting a million times better with meditation, mindfulness, CBT and ACT therapy but sometimes it would be nice to reset the sleep schedule with one of the meds I’m prescribed. I even now fear taking hydroxizine which is nothing more than a strong antihistamine but I read one bad article about it. Tips?

I was really afraid at first too. my therapist kept coaxing me and said don't read the black box warning and try to resist googling but I only remembered hearing about bad side effects. she was treating me for a while before she recommended medication because I wasn't making much progress. I was still scared but my OCD was so bad that I became willing to try about anything. much improved after facing my fears.

if you feel that you're improving well enough with other methods then that's fantastic! I still have most of my bottle of clonazepam which I take rarely as needed.

I am dealing with the same fear. Everyone is different when it comes to how medication works on them. It could go any way for you or myself. Anything could happen, and that includes feeling better. I want to take the chance to have a bit of relief, but I am terrified of the effects too. Mostly psychosis, or losing control. I’m not afraid of becoming “numb” or “zoned” or “have no libido” because I already have all those things anyway. Lol.

I had to exact opposite. I begged for tranquilizers because I was terrified I'd kill myself without them.

In the beginning I was in so much distress I wanted to be sedated 24/7.

that's the point when I was willing to try. in bed all the time and becoming suicidal, I didn't think it could get much worse, especially since I was already convinced I had schizophrenia.

Mine isn’t really that as much as the side effects scare me. Mine is more the anxiety that surrounds the med because I already have so much anxiety as is. I hope you have a good recovery. Welcome to the community!!!

Yeah I too was afraid of having something much worse or if I took a med it would cause some sort of a psychotic snap or episode. Which I know is a ridiculous fear. I’m doing great during the day overall it’s just some nights I wake up out of a dead sleep all panicked and those are the times it would be nice to feel comfortable taking a med if needed because in the middle of the night it’s hard to remember the breathing techniques etc