Alternatives to meds for anxiety?

[BIGDREW]

I've recently started having several symptoms associated with Anxiety and went to see my Dr. I pretty much self diagnosed myself and he wrote me prescriptions for Zoloft and Ativan after talking to me for about ten minutes in his hurry to get out the door. After doing much research on both of these drugs I am not sure I want to take them. I hate the idea of pills in the first place, plus some of the side effects are very undesirable and I am worried about anything that messes with my head.

I have had the bouts in the past of waking up with accelerated heart rate and thinking that I am dying. I have had every test in the world done and Dr's have found nothing, so I can make myself calm down now from these episodes knowing that I am not having a heart attack.
My main problem is waking up in the night with trerabling sensations. Not a night goes by where I don't wake up multiple times with these sensations. I am sleepy during the day all the time now and am having trouble concentrating at work. Also I am extremely irratble all day long.

My main question is whether or not anything I have is severe enough to justify taking all these pills. I am working through the few stress problems I am having and I'm working hard to lose some extra weight. I have even contemplated talking to a therapist just to see what help they may offer. Any suggestions?

 

[idreamofsilence]

I think therapy can be a good thing. Sometimes people find a lot of help from therapy alone without the use of medication. There is something called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy which I heard is helpful. Sometimes therapy is also used in corabination with medication. There are also natural products you can buy at your local health food store that may benefit you. I would talk to a person in the Pharmacy or Apothecary section of the store to find out what may work. Sometimes people just opt for medication and dont go to therapy. It is all a personal choice. If you are not comfortable with medication and thought your doctor too fast to prescribe you something than I would talk to a psychiatrist/psychologist/therapist to see what other options are out there for you as an alternative to medication. Hope you find what you need! These boarRAB are also helpful if you have any other questions or want to feel like you can have a place to go and know others are going through the same things as you. They have been very helpful to me.