has trazodone alone helped anyone for anxiety, or do you need something else also?

I have had anxiety and horrible sleep problems since I was an infant.  My mind would never turn off at night and I could never get to sleep or stay asleep.  I spent my entire life unable to concentrate or keep focused on anything.   No Dr. ever gave me any type of medication for these problems my entire life, so I have been fighting this horibble sleep deprvation and anxiety until this year and I am now 59.  Now I have lunesta which is pretty much useless as I do not even get drowsy after taking it.  I have seen many posts on here about people taking both ataivan and trazodone and talking about them as if they were completely different medications.  Trazodone is the generic for Ativan, so they are exactly the same medication.  For the people that are taking both, which I can't imagine any Dr. would prescribe, you are just taking a larger dosage more often of the same med.   My Dr. started me on ativan/trazodone along with the lunesta and I still got no better results.  Back in May I developed a rash up and down both arems that was starting to spread to my whole body.  They misdiagnosed it at first and prescribed prednesone and benedryl shots which calmed it down but as soon as i lowered the dosage of prodnesone the rash would come back.  So i was sent to a dermetologist who diagnosed it as a stress rash.  So then back to my regular Dr. and he took me off if the trazodone and put me on 0.5 mg of Zanax or Alprazolam which is the generic for Zanax taking it three times a day.  It has done pretty well for the rash, but if i miss a dose even by an hour the rash starts to come back.  The Dr. also said it would help me sleep, but it has done nothing at all to help me sleep.  I have been thinking of trying to take both the Trazodone and the Zanax as i still have a few of the Trazodone leftover, but I have read that combiing them is a No NO.  I basically had to beg my dr. to increase the Zanax to three times a day for the rash as now there is some new policy about overprescribing Zanax and other such drugs.  And to add to my stress, i just got a letter that my Dr. is retireing.  So now I have to start completely over with a new Doctor which in my small town is hard to find as I am on Medicare.  Most Doctors in my area only take a very limited abount of Medicare patients as they lose money on them.  So just what i need.  More stress and anxiety in my life.  I tell you; after dealing with the constant stress, anxiety and being in horribly intense physical pain due to 8 spinal surgeries; I look at my bottles of zanax, ativan, lunesta, percocet and zanaflex and wonder how many it would take to just knock me out for good.  I am so sick of living like this.  It gets to the point that it just isn't worth it anymore.

I have had a very stressful two years. Caring for mom in home hospice then she passed away and I lost my job of 40+ years. Ended up moving 200 miles away from family and still no job after 7 mos. I have been on xanax .25 up to .5 and my new doc is about to prescribe 50 mg trazadone for anxiety. I do not do well on antidepressants, hate the way they make me feel. Does this med have the same feelings?%-)

 

DO you find that the lamictol works for you,also what reason did they put you on it?I am on 100mg/2x a day for my epilepsy.I have horrible depression/anxiety also which im on 150mg effexor and 2mg of xanax as needed. Just wondering if the lamictol works for whatever your on it for

Trazodone IS not generic Ativan! Do your research...

Actually my doctor finally took me of trazadone. I gained alot of weight from it. I was on 100 50 during the day and 50 at night. It was one of the worst meds i have used. Anyway i have chronic pain, fibromyalgia and ibs along with insomnia.  So my doctor suggested cymbalta.  At first I was not impressed, cause I heard lots of side effects about it.  The first 3 weeks I thought I was going nuts.  Withdrawling from trazadone and starting cymbalta.  I have a very sensitive immune system, but I have to say cymbalta is help my pain and its lifting my depression.  As for sleep he gave me ativan for now to help and then cut in half if it was too much.  So have hope and yes, my stomach is a little upset, but the pain and heaches were worse.  Once the depression lifing I was starting to be my old self again.  I have tried different medications for 20 years, after awhile they stop working.  Cymbalta actually is decreasing my appetite, so i'm eating less.  Which is good since trazadone made me gain weight.  The first month is the toughest.  But you can do it.  Finally found myself...Have hope and fath  and Thank God there is medication. Other countries do not have the privleage that we do.    

I have been taking trazodone for about 20 yrs.  I started with 25 mg.  I now take 150 - 200.  I never new it was supposed to help my anxiety because I still suffer terribly at times.  I also take 3 mg of xanax a day.  If I take the xaxax as prerscribed throughout the day and not wait until I'm about to have a panic attn axack it works well. I wouldn't recommend taking this much xanax because it is mentally addicting.  I'm trying to ween myself off but it is very difficult.  After this I don't know what I'm going to do about the anxiety.  Probably work through it in other ways.  Excercise  and journaling sometimes work well for me.  Hope that helped someone.

I've basically tried them all with horrible side effects... had a smart doctor put me on Trazodone and it didn't take a week before I pulled out of my depression, I'm talking deep dark depression and suicidal thought type depression. I've always self medicated with alcohol, but that always ruins my life, so I have to go sober up and get back on my Trazodone. And a good night sleep goes a very long way in making the world look and feel better the next day. I went off my Trazodone when I got laid off and didn't have health insurance, then I started drinking again, only to get depressed and suicidal. Ended up in a psych unit for a week as a guinea pig for the docs... it was a nightmare... when I finally went home, I threw away the anti-depressants, anti-convulsants, and a bunch of other meds and got back on my Trazodone and stayed sober. Life is definately much, much better. I'll never get off this med, just one pill at night takes care of my insomnia and wards off my depression.

I take trazedone, along with other medication, but from what I know, trazedone is a mood stabilizer and you're supposed to take it at night. From my experiance, I take it to help me sleep because of my insomnia. I started out at 50 mg and then it got upped to 100 mg. It helped me sleep for a while, but now I need to either get it upped or change medications. I've been taking it for around a year now, you should be okay.

"Alcohol may potentiate some of the pharmacologic effects of CNS-active agents (trazodone). Use in combination may result in additive central nervous system depression and/or impairment of judgment, thinking, and psychomotor skills." This is listed as a moderate interaction on one site, there seems to be a lack of evidence to your claim. Mixing with a drink or two will not kill you, mixing anything with a lot of alcohol can very well kill you. You seemed quite upset he was drinking, it was wine which is quite a low proof, and he didn't mention anything about mixing the two but that it simply helped with his withdrawals. I don't recommend drinking while on treatment but try use accurate information and spelling please, such as "tricyclic", when advising someone else. Also keep it neutral and just state the facts, you don't have to shove your opinion down their throat.

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Really you drink I for one use to be on the lovely clonzapam I abused it and was deadly hooked and have now been clean off it for over a year anyway I drank while on clonzapam and alcohol made my anxiety worse and still does to this day

Trazodone works much better than xanax, I have found. The effects of xanax only last a few hours, but the relaxation from Trazodone lasts 24 hours. If you are having anxiety still while on trazodone it means that it is not a high enough dose. I recommend increasing your dosage by 25 mg and see if it helps.

Jesus, always Jesus. Ask Him and ye shall receive. Seek only Him and Look upwards. Not all around. Not to the left or right and never the past. Upward, and forward focus. Focus on Jesus. With LOVE... :-)

I take trazadone. I was only prescribed it because ontop of my other medications for bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and social anxiety, I can't sleep. So it's basically just my sleeping pill and it works for that alone. Taking it at night is best imo, unless you want to be tired all day.

I don't know why I stopped at you to comment but I've taken only 10mg of Valium but I am drinking some alcohol. I am supposed to take trazadone at night. Should I skip it tonight?

Actually trazadone is fast-acting and has a short half-life (about 10 hours.) So it's not a "wait and see" SSRI type drug. It shares some of the properties, but its effects kick in within about 40-60 minutes.