In our modern culture, there are probably more people than we are aware of who are on some type of anti anxiety medication prescribed by a doctor.
Some of these people suffer from severe social anxieties, some from very little anxiety at all, but are on these powerful medications anyway.
Although these medications are very common today, almost to the point of becoming trendy, they have the ability to pack some serious health and psychological risks for certain predisposed individuals.
Even though adverse reactions are more the exception than the rule, when they do occur they can threaten the patient's quality of life, and even worse have the ironic ability to cause the problem they have been prescribed to treat.
Most of the modern pills prescribed for anxiety symptoms fall into the category of antidepressants such as MAOIs and SSRIs, and benzodiazepines (think Xanax), with the benzodiazepines being more commonly given for anxiety.
Both of these classes of drugs are powerful, and have the potential to alter brain chemistry in a way that some may find unappealing.
Sadly, sometimes patients who suffer from circumstantial anxiety and depression with no neurological cause will be prescribed these drugs before exploring other treatment options (such as talk therapy) and become physically addicted.
Someone who is taking antidepressants and benzos can not come off of them whenever they like, something like that has to be carefully orchestrated by a medical professional in small increments of the daily dose.
The adverse effects of these two classes of drugs are a bit different, although they share some similarities.
Patients who do not react well to anti-depressants, may actually develop a temporary chemical depression based on the ways that MAOIs and SSRIs interact with their serotonin levels.
Typical signs of this would be an attitude of indifference or apathy, anger and frustration without an obvious cause, paranoia, and an increase in suicidal thoughts.
Benzodiazepines work differently on your physiology than the aforementioned class of drugs, by working as an enhancer of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid, resulting in a lethargic state.
Benzos are known in short, intermediate, and long acting forms with the long acting being mostly used for anxiety treatment.
The chemical effect that benzos have on your brain are very close to the effect that alcohol has.
This means that probably the most reported negative side effect is feeling overly sleepy and unmotivated.
One of the most noted and more serious effects of benzo use is the potential for addiction.
Benzodiazepines may be effective in the treatment of panic attacks and as an anti anxiety drug, but once a patient has started to use them regularly it is often very difficult to come off of them.
This can result in development of chemical depression and other complications like a general decrease in the quality of life, lack of libido, decreased appetite, general confusion or "mental fog", and agitation.
Alarmingly in some studies they have also been associated with the permanent loss of memory, and anterograde amnesia which does not improve even after the drug has been stopped.
Aside from the health concerns, there are still thousands who take strong anti anxiety drugs each day and manage to continue their lives in a productive way.
The medications talked about here should be taken very seriously, and when it comes down to it, the patient is the one who ultimately must decide whether or not these drugs should be a part of their lives.