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| telegraph.co.uk |
If nothing else has changed, you may
become anxious again. The reason is that most anxiety disorders are chronic and
wax and wane over time. You may feel better with the anxiety medication, and
then assume you are ready to stop your treatment, only to find that the anxiety
returns. Here are some important exceptions:
Sometimes, our anxiety is associated
with a life crisis—e.g., disaster, loss of a loved one—and will resolve on its
own whether or not we use medication to aid our adjustment. In these cases,
stopping the medications after a few months may not lead to increased anxiety.
If you have completed a successful
course of psychotherapy while on medication, you may not experience a return of
symptoms when you stop the medicine. Many factors contribute to the production
of anxiety symptoms, including past experiences, your defenses, avoidance
behaviors, and the way you think. These factors can often be identified in
psychotherapy and remedied accordingly.
If you decide to stop your
medications, talk to your physician about how to do so. As noted earlier, some
anxiety medications are dangerous to stop abruptly.
Source: The Anxiety Answer Book by: Laurie A. Helgoe, PhD, Laura R. Wilhelm, PhD, Martin J. Kommor, MD
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