Medication is probably the most popular and widely used anxiety treatment out there at the moment with a huge variety of pills available. The problem is of course that although medication can certainly work if prescribed carefully it doesn’t come without its drawbacks.
Here are 10 reasons why medication is not the long term solution for beating anxiety:
1. They only mask the symptoms.
Although anxiety medication may appear to work and be effective against anxiety, it is only ever really masking the symptoms of anxiety as there is no such thing at the moment as a drug to cure it completely
2. You need to take them forever.
As the medication is only really hiding the symptoms of anxiety and never really cures the disorder itself, then this means the medication will need to be taken forever to keep the symptoms down.
3. Tolerance can build.
When you take any medication for a prolonged period of time, the body becomes used to the medication and builds up a tolerance to it. This means that to keep masking the symptoms and stay anxiety symptom free you must use more and more medication over time.
4. Expensive
As you can imagine, taking a medication for the rest of your life with the dosages getting increasingly large over the years can become extremely expensive over time. Of course this is what the pharmaceutical companies want.
5. Side effects
Most medication has side effects. The trick is finding the medication that works the best with the least negative side effects. Side effects can be as benign as tiredness or cloudy mind, or as strong as massive headaches or vomiting. Just remember that you will have these side effects for the rest of your life.
6. Addictive
If you did want to stop taking the drugs at any time it might not be as easy as you think as many of the anxiety medications (not all) are addictive and make it very difficult to quit.
7. Make testing other anxiety therapies difficult
If you decide to undergo a therapy or treatment that could cure you completely of your anxiety, being on medication can make it very difficult to gauge the success of the new therapy as the symptoms are already being masked by the drugs
8. The first resort of the clueless doctor
I don’t want to be hard on the medical profession here, but a lot of doctors (again, not all) just don’t know how to deal with anxiety. They will reach for their drug manual and start prescribing the drugs in the list from 1 to 100 until they find one that sticks. Sure you may find one eventually that kind of works with minimal side effects, but you might well go through hell to get there.
9. You might need a cocktail
Many people find a drug that will ease their anxiety a bit, but only one set of symptoms. If they want another set of symptoms eased, they need to take a different pill. From the recent survey I did of my Facebook page it is clear that many people are on two, three, and even four or more anxiety medications every day. This of course increases both the cost and the potential side effects.
10. Doctors paid to prescribe
You may think your doctor is very good at his job and knows what he is talking about with regards to anxiety, but do you know for sure if he is giving you the medicine you need because he believes it will help you? Many doctors these days are given incentives and bonuses for prescribing certain medications to their clients. They may have been given quotas that they have to fill in order for them to get paid. If your doctor is getting paid to prescribe your anxiety medication then there is little chance that he is giving you what he believes is the best choice for you. If this surprises you then watch the video at the bottom of this page for more information.
Don’t get me wrong I am not completely anti-medication. I believe medication has its place in treating anxiety, but that place should be short-lived. Medication can be used to calm the anxiety symptoms while other steps are taken to cure the anxiety issue completely. I don’t think drugs are necessary, that’s for sure, but I think they are fine in small doses. I do not think they should ever be used as the only treatment for any kind of anxiety as the only person it really helps in the long run is the drug manufacturer.
Would you trust a doctor that is being paid to prescribe you a drug?
To find out if your doctor is being paid to prescribe you medication go to the government payment data website at https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/