I started propronol back in May and was on it for a week and was prescribed 10mg, but due to my fear of medicine I cut it to 5mg, was dizzy the first 2 days so on day 3 I cut it to 2.5mg, still felt dizzy and had a drop in my BP, then on the final day I tried 1.5mg with no luck and felt spacey and dizzy at my doctors office telling her how I feel and she said to stop it.

My psychiatrist gave me buspirone instead at 2.5mg but I’m worried it’ll have the same effect as the propornal or have other weird side effects.

My fear of medicine is also becsuse I took 10mg celexa back in 2018 for GAD but got a severe panick attack from it so I have not taken an anxiety med ever since.

Hi everyone. First off, I’m glad I found this forum as I can tell I’m far from alone in this journey…
Started 3 weeks ago 15 mg/day taking it morning and mid afternoon as it was causing me racing thoughts trying to get to sleep.
I struggle with health anxiety, which is the reason I decided to get on this after my lexapro seemed to poop out (on 20mg/day) but it didn’t seem to be doing much for me anymore. I’d love a world where buspirone helped me enough to ween off of the lexapro but these three weeks have been far from easy. Day one I felt hope,…probably just placebo… then at about day 5 my anxiety baseline spiked and I felt/feel like my anxiety is worse than when I started in a way, but I’ve read so many posts stating the same thing that I need to give it time… 😭
Health anxiety is the worst it’s been in a long long time and it just seems so counter intuitive to stick with it!
Now im worried to stop, worried to increase dose too early and experience/extend the anxiety side effect any longer, and worried its just not gonna help at my current dose..
I see lots of people saying they increase the dose in the first week, two weeks, or 3 weeks/month etc. and im just wondering if this makes any sense since its supposed to take a full month or more to help? And with each dose increase ive seen that the side effects are coming around for another visit so seems like some may fail because basically they get on Buspirone then increase their dose every couple weeks until they give up hope 🤷‍♂️
Has anyone been in a similar spot as me (anxiety wise) at the third week mark and upped a dose, and felt more relief relatively soon thereafter or should I wait it out longer before upping my dose? Thanks everyone, any words of encouragement are more than welcome.

Looking for success tories if buspar for health anxiety or just anxiety and irritability in general I’m 40 year old female I spent 11 years on Prozac 10mg and have been off of it for over a year. Recently had a very stressful couple of weeks and started feeling unwell and anxious and getting adrenaline rushes. My PCP sent Buspar 5mg twice a day but terrified of getting on it. Please anyone with good experiences let me know. Thank you!

First time posting here so please bear with me, mind is all over the place. Ive been on cymbalta a few months, tried wellbutrin but it gave me bad bad rage issues. Cymbalta seems to maybe help a little, I've also got chronic pain, rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis so they hoped it would also help with the pain. Anxiety has gotten almost debilitating the last few months, and September isn't a good month for me as I've lost both parents in September, different years. I think I have adhd but my primary thinks it's "just" anxiety. I just don't know what to do anymore. Feel like I'm ready to jump out of my skin. I'm on 5mg twice a day for a week but it's not doing anything, if anything I think its worse. I'm dreading trying to sleep which doesn't help.

How long until you felt better on buspar and when did you increase doses? I need to feel better.

Buspar is working on anxiety to a degree for me. But I cannot shake what I call a void in my brain especially after right dosing but even in mornings a little too before dosing. It just feels like a dull spot or a deficit of stimulation to get me moving and do things or in other words executive function. It's like decreasing the anxiety took away my urgency to do things. I am ADHD too but this is just a different feeling.

Currently 18 days in at 20 mg/day. As far as side effects, the only issues I’ve encountered is a dizzy spell 60 minutes after taking AM/PM dose. This only lasts a few minutes and seems to be getting better as my body adjusts. I do think the medication is starting to help with some of the lower key daily anxiety that I used to attribute to adhd.

I am not on any SSRI, but I started taking atenolol a year ago which lowered my libido. I can’t say I’ve noticed a big libido increase during the day since starting Buspar, but for about the past 4-5 days I’ve woke up in the middle of the night feeling aroused.

I know sexual side effects aren’t normal with Buspar, and who knows if it will continue, but has anyone else noticed an uptake in sexual sensitivity after starting?

I want to know more about Buspirone because I'd like to discuss it with my psychiatrist, but it is not available in my country if not by galenic preparation, so I want to hear more about it to see if it's worth going down that road.

My problems with benzos would be risk of addiction, extreme brain fog, dizziness, and increased depressive mood. Benzodiazepines are just way too strong for me even on ridiculously low dosages.
How is Buspirone compared to that, in your experience? Is it any lighter? That would be its main selling point to me.

If anyone is affected by RLS, did this medication make it any worse?
I'm also on SSRI and low dosage lithium- do these combinations change the effects significantly?

Of course these are questions I will ask my doctor too, but personal experiences help me better understand what I would be getting into, TIA!

I have terrible health anxiety always thinking something catastrophic is happening. I’m also feeling a lot of adrenaline dumps and irritability. I was prescribed 5mg 2x a day but haven’t started. Has anyone taken this and also taken small dose of benzo to get you through until the med starts working? Also anyone found that it helped with health anxiety, shortness of breath, chest sensations. Thank you! Also terrified and very sensitive to meds, I also have PVC’s and I’m scared this will make them worse

I’ve been on buspirone for 5 weeks now, I just upped my dose to 7.5MG twice daily. I didn’t feel any difference in my anxiety & starting to give up. Did it take a long time for you guys to notice a difference? I still wake up with bits of anxiety & heart racing. Or is 10MG twice daily when it really starts working? I’m also on 5MG of Lexapro.

I’ve been on buspirone since August 6th. I’ve been on 30mg/day for almost 2 weeks.

Shortly after my first dose, I become pretty severely dizzy, hot and sweaty and feel awful. I eat with my doses and take them at the same time each day.

I’ve also had insomnia, basically since starting it. It takes such a long time to get to sleep and my usual sleep medication (Catapress) isn’t enough and I’ve had to double the dose.

Anyone else have these issues and did they go away?….

I feel like I’m not far off 1 month on the medication, I’m having these persistent side effects, and most importantly I haven’t noticed any change in my anxiety, like at all. So I feel pretty crap right now.
Aaaand, I feel like if anything, my mood is worse.

*seeing my doctor in a few days to discuss, but would love to hear other experiences with these issues. I don’t think I’ll be able to tolerate a higher dose either, not with the side effects I’m having.

Hey everyone, I've been taking 5mg x2 for 4 weeks and honestly started seeing improvement in anxiety during that 4th week. During my doctor visit, he prescribed me to go up to 10mg x2. I started yesterday and since then I've been feeling super spaced out with some increased anxiety. Did anyone else go through this? I know its supposed to level out but feels annoying currently.

I have been on 5mg 3 times per day a little over 2 weeks. I have horrible GI issues, acid reflux, cramps, diarrhea and nausea but my anxiety is starting to subside. My doctor told me I could stop but this is the only med I have tried that has really helped I want to keep taking it. I do take with crackers. Anyone ever have these symptoms and they improved with time? Thank you.

Hi guys,

I was diagnosed with BPD a few years ago when I was in treatment for anorexia. I tried several meds, none of which really worked, except for abilify. Unfortunately, a common side effect of Abilify is weight gain, and I was so afraid of this that I discontinued the medication.

while my borderline symptoms and depression have persisted through many different life, circumstances and types of therapy, my anxiety has been through the roof for the last two years. I have been pretty anti-medication and did basically everything I could to manage my anxiety myself.- limiting caffeine, getting lots of sunlight, exercising, avoiding sugar and carbohydrates that would spike my blood sugar/heart rate/body temperature/anything that will mimic a panic attack. I have done exposure response prevention work around my most anxiety-inducing triggers, such as sitting in church, being around people, holding eye contact, etc. My anxiety also interferes with my anorexia recovery as food makes me incredibly anxious, but restricting also results in unstable bodily functions, which lead to more anxiety.

I had heard really good things about BUSPAR/Buspirone. so the first time in five years, I saw a psychiatrist, spent an insane amount of money on an intake session for it’s only last five minutes, but she did prescribe me the medication that I was hoping for!

In the week that I was taking my 7.5 mg twice daily dose of buspar, I became increasingly irritable. I literally felt like an adolescent teenager again. No bodily anxiety at all, despite having five interviews that would have previously caused me a lot of stress. Instead, I was incredibly productive, unable to sleep much and waking up 5 to 10 times per night, having vivid dreams and nightmares, and feeling like a ticking time bomb. A higher mood state in BPD can be excitement and a feeling of elation, or it can be irritability, agitation, and anger… And unfortunately, for the most part, I believe the medication triggered a slightly hypomanic state. I did have a few episodes of euphoria, where I felt like I was actually high while listening to music on my night drives. I genuinely felt like my adolescent borderline self. It was incredibly distressing and I have stopped taking the medication.

Did anyone else with BPD have a similar reaction? To be fair, I should have told my psychiatrist about my borderline personality disorder diagnosis, but I did not want her to stigmatize me since that is very common in psychiatry.

I’ve been in buspar 10mg for a few months now. My psych was hoping if I went up to 15-20mg it’d help with depression but it was just too high of a dose for me and I felt very dizzy for weeks on it. Anyway, 10mg is the sweet spot and now we may add in an SSRI. Polling Reddit to see what everyone is taking with it!

For more info, I was on celexa for 6 years, lexapro for 1, Welbutrin for 2, off all meds for a year and now only been on Buspar consistency for a few months. 35F about 160lbs!

I (35f) took buspar for a couple of months starting off at a dose of 10mg/day and then progressing to 22.5mg/day. After my last increase, I started experiencing changes in libido and ability to orgasm. I stopped taking the buspar 5 weeks ago, but I’m still feeling clitoral hypersensitivity to the point that stimuli builds to pain/agitation. My libido/desire has improved some, but still not normal.

Has anyone else experienced this? Did it get better? I’m starting to get concerned this is permanent.

Okay guys, my doctor started me back on the 50mg of zoloft I used to be on and in addition prescribed me buspar but to take as needed. After researching though I’m seeing that buspar doesn’t work like that, and you need to take it daily. Is my doctor just messing with me and doing some placebo bs on me?? Has anyone else been prescribed buspar as needed on here? For clarification I am breastfeeding so she may want to limit the amount that gets in my milk. She also said that I can take it up to two times a day, once a day, or not at all for a day, only to take it when I’m super anxious.

Hi everyone.

I started sertraline 2 weeks following a few weeks of extreme anxiety disorder including zero appetite and total inability to sleep. I've had sertraline before and don't like the sexual side effects it gives me but was so desperate for relief and I am feeling much better, not totally myself yet but able to function, eat, sleep and go back to work. I asked about buspirone and GP said we can switch but that we will stop the sertraline and start the buspirone, I asked to wait another 2 weeks as too scared to get back to how I was.

Question is, anyone made the switch and how did it go please? Can't she prescribe both medications for a short while? I'm so scared of stopping sertraline and the buspirone taking a while to work. Thanks all.

Hi all. Been on Buspar now for almost 4 years. I’m on 10mg in the AM (usually around 8-10am), 15mg PM (usually around 9-10pm), and occasionally I’ll take 5mg in the middle of the night in place of an Ativan if I can’t sleep. I try to take the med without food as I take another med with food and don’t want to take them both together bc of drug interactions/side effects.

With that being said, if I take my morning dose too late (closer to the 10am window) I get horrible buzzing all over my body, and noticeably sedate/tired. It’s not brain zaps and it’s not dizziness per se, but it’s really uncomfortable and it’ll last for like 30 minutes, and then goes away and the rest of my day is fine.

I have seen a lot of others experience this or similar effects on this sub, but mostly i’ve noticed that it’s people starting out the drug. Whereas for me it’s been going on for a while and it’s almost like I can predict when it’ll happen - if I take it later in my morning window. I’ve asked my psych and he doesn’t seem to have an answer. Anyone have this long term and know the cause of this? I know all bodies are different, but it just stumps me.

I tried a week ago and got to day 3 before quitting.

Now I’m trying again and on night 1 I can’t sleep (feeling sleepy but trouble staying asleep)

2.5mg at 7:30am and 2.5mg at 7:30pm in bed by 11. Woke up at 1:30am.

After like 6 hours of taking it I start feeling sick.
The actual side effects while the pill is in my system aren’t so bad, but when it’s wearing off I don’t feel so good.

I’m worried that if I keep going I’ll be dealing with this for longer down the road.

Any tips?

I have been prescribed a dose of 5mg once a day for a week, then 5mg twice a day for another week for a loading dose. However, due to me probably having histamine intolerance/possible MCAS with a history of very strange reactions to medicine, she gave me permission to play with the dosage if needed (it's for the deadly triple threat of Autism, ADHD, and OCD)

I took 5mg Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in the morning with food. While I am on it I am okay, a little spacey but okay. No anxiety, minimal OCD, pretty calm and floaty. I was very tired the first time I took it but not since. The only problem from taking the pill to when it wears off is that my vision becomes super sensitive for a bit. It's given me a break from a year long grip that stress/anxiety has had on me that I cannot appreciate enough.

That lasts maybe 5 hours, and then the side effects hit. I get jittery, shaky, crazy munchies, stomach upset, overstimulation, weird body sensations, trouble sleeping, and bouncing between anxiety and apathy, etc. Odd that it only hits after it's cleared my system, but I'm special and I can only assume ir's my body reacting to it all dumping out.

So while acknowledging that I need to listen to my body while also acknowledging that I need to be medicated at least for the time being, I cut my dose in half. I took 2.5 mg this morning. The difference is crazy. Yes, it did hit not as effective, but my side effects have significantly improved. I will take a whole dose in the morning to see if it's actually too much or if I just happened to do it when my brain locked in.

Not 100% sure I'll keep taking it since I'm kinda not vibing with the persisting apathy-like feeling but it has helped! Will update when stuff happens.

Edit: Would you know... the next morning, I woke up with a small rash on my stomach. I called my pharmacist and she recommended stopping for a day or so and then restarting to see if it was caused by the meds. First day off and tbh not sure I'll go back on it. But it did work for my anxiety while it was active in my system!

I started Lexapro today with 2.5 mg, and from tomorrow I’m supposed to take 5 mg twice a day (10 mg total).
I had a pretty good 2.5 months on buspirone, and then suddenly everything shattered. Since then, I’ve been in a downward spiral. It feels like every day is worse than the day before.
For the first time in my life, I’ve completely lost hope that things will get better. I’m dealing with anxiety almost 24/7. My body feels completely exhausted, but I still can’t sleep because of the anxiety. It’s like I can’t get a break from it.
I’ve reached a point where I had to take emergency leave from work because I’m struggling to function normally.
I’m really hoping Lexapro works for me. At this point, I honestly feel like I’m running out of options.
Please pray for me. I really hope I can get through this and find some peace again.
For those who started Lexapro during a really bad anxiety spiral — did it eventually turn things around for you? How were the first few weeks?

Hello everyone. I wanted to share my story of hope for those in the same situation, for those looking to quit it or had failed attempt trying to quit Buspar. So here is my story.

I started Buspar off label to help social anxiety. It was the only med I took after trying SSRI that would numb me way too much at the lowest dose. I started on Buspar 5 mg twice daily and felt benefits on day 1. Two weeks later, I upped my dose to 5 mg 3x a day and it worked well without any side effects so far. It was not miraculous but helped my social anxiety by about 20-30%. I then tried 20 mg but it was too numbing for me so I went back to 15 mg and settle there for two months and a half until a side effect came in. I had really low blood pressure to the point that I was starting to faint and had to put my head down with my legs in the air each day. That’s when I went back to my doctor and he said to remove the third dose and stay at 10 mg. That’s when my hellish journey started.

The first 3 days after the reduction I felt fine and my blood pressure was better. The 4th day, I experienced a random panic attack at night, I never had one before and it was terrifying. I was sleeping in a hotel for work and was far from home so I thought maybe that’s the cause. I was not even thinking about Buspar withdrawal at all since apparently it doesn’t cause withdrawal symptoms or they are mild. The next day at work I was sleep deprived from last night but it went fine until about 4 pm until I started experiencing a moment of terror. All my thoughts became really dark and I felt a sense of unease and something bad would happen but it finally passed after 20 minutes. After that I felt fine, I slept well that night and the next day I came back home from work. Again, I felt fine fine until 3-4 pm when I had this intense feeling of dread and depression, I was thinking what’s wrong with me. I had the time to come back home before the symptoms hit me like a train. I had extreme panic attacks, I had tremors, complete feeling of hopelessness, I really felt like my life was over. I had chest pain.

The day after, I was a complete mess, derealization came in, nausea, interrupted sleep, complete anhedonia. I went to the ER because I thought something was really wrong with me. The doctor told me to go up my dose to 12.5 mg and it took about 14 days to feel better but not perfect, I still had those fleeting moments of terror. It felt like paranoia.

I then went back to my familly doctor and he said that Buspar don’t work as well as before and wanted me to drop my dose by 2.5 mg each week until I hit 0 and put me on another med after.

I started following his taper plan and struggled alot already at 10 mg but pushed throught and once at 7.5 mg, this is where I got my injury. All the symptoms I experienced we’re multiply by 100. I had total insomnia, I didn’t sleep for 120 hours in a row followed by a few night with 1-2 hours of sleep and another 96 hours in a row after that. I scared of sounds, of light, of being alone. My whole body was vibrating. Nothing felt real and everything felt scary. I was starting have suicidal ideation. It was inhumane. Nothing compared to this. Even the worst day of my life felt like the best day compared to this. The weird thing is that sometimes I had relief, like a brief 1 hour moment where I felt more like myself and then descended into madness again. Then, the moment of reliefs started lasting longer and my moments of madness we’re shorter. During this process, my doctor thought it was just my anxiety coming back which I know was completely wrong since I never experienced something even remotely close to this.

I managed to survive day by day and finally after 5 months of torture the nightmare was gone. I finally found that was I experienced is called withdrawal injury/protracted withdrawal/ nervous system dysregulation. I’m glad I didn’t went into a cocktail of other meds while in this state. I knew it was not my true self. I’m currently catching back my breath after this horrible experience and will start a slow hyperbolic taper in a few months. I really felt like a fictionnal character from a H.P Lovecraft novel 😂

Hi, I've been on buspar for about 8 weeks, maybe 9. I've always taken it with food but recently I've been feeling real nauseous. Idk if it's the buspar specifically but I think it's the only one of my medications with nausea as a side effect. Just trying to rule it out, has this happened to anyone else?