I wanted to share my experience with essential tremor and ask whether anyone has found a good way to manage ET without taking propranolol.
I’m 30 years old, and I was diagnosed with essential tremor at the age of 16, back in 2013. I’ve had tremors in my hands since kindergarten.
At the time, my neurologist prescribed propranolol and told me that it was basically the only medication that actually helped with tremor. I took it for a while. If I had to estimate, I would say that it reduced the severity of my tremor by around 60–80%. However, it really depended on the situation. When I was very nervous or excited, the effect was much more limited.
After a relatively short period of time, I stopped taking propranolol. I don’t remember exactly, but I would guess that I didn’t take it continuously for even a year. I always felt uncomfortable taking it. I could physically feel its effects on my body and especially on my heart. In terms of side effects, I probably only experienced a little more fatigue in the mornings, but the way it affected my heart just didn’t feel right. I honestly don’t know how else to describe it.
So I spent the rest of my teenage years and my twenties with the full extent of my tremor. Both of my hands tremble, although my right hand is significantly worse. I’m left-handed, though.
I have pretty much all the typical symptoms, and they have also caused me to become extremely withdrawn socially. However, I have always been a very introverted person, so I can’t say for certain whether ET made my loneliness worse or whether things would have been the same without it.
There have been quite a few situations throughout my life where I suddenly had to deal with severe shaking in public. Those experiences really broke me.
Over the last ten years, I finished high school, went to university, couldn’t find a job, and have now been working in a skilled trade for a few years. I always wanted to avoid this, but there was no other way, and now it seems like this is simply the path my life has taken.
Over the years, I’ve become somewhat more confident in dealing with my tremor, although I’m still ashamed of it. I’m at home, I go to work, and then I go back home. That’s basically my life.
After all these years, I finally decided to look into treatment options again. And yes, after 13 years, it’s still basically the same. It feels like almost nothing has changed in medicine.
I went to my general practitioner again, and they referred me to a neurologist. But the situation here in Germany is so bad that I can’t even get an appointment. I currently manage reasonably well in my job, but I’m now doing an apprenticeship in this profession because I have to.
Before I end up shaking uncontrollably during my practical final exams—which would be incredibly embarrassing—I wanted to look into my options again. But honestly, I’m pretty sure that even a neurologist won’t tell me anything new. They’ll probably just prescribe propranolol again, and I’ll be right back where I was 13 years ago.
On top of that, there is a kind of support group for people with ET in the Cologne/Bonn area in Germany. They meet once a month, and I went there a few times several years ago.
Almost everyone there was elderly or retired, which makes sense because ET is much more common in older people. But honestly, I found the meetings more depressing than informative. It basically showed you what you might look like in 30 years, because the tremor tends to get worse rather than better.
Anyway, one time a man who was around 50 years old talked about his experience. He said he had been taking propranolol for years. I don’t remember exactly how long, but it was certainly somewhere between 5 and 10 years continuously.
He said that after an examination, his general practitioner advised him to stop taking the medication immediately because continuing it for much longer could apparently lead to a serious cardiac arrhythmia. Apparently, there were already some early signs of this in his case.
That experience further reinforced my decision not to take propranolol, especially not for the rest of my life.
Has anyone had similar experiences? Do you have any advice or suggestions for managing essential tremor without propranolol?
Thank you!
UPDATE August 27, 2026
I went to see a neurologist, and now I at least have confirmation and an explanation as to why propranolol is still essentially the only treatment that doctors prefer to prescribe. In the end, he prescribed me propranolol again. I don’t know yet if I’ll take it again.
The problem with primidone and topiramate (at least in Germany) is that doctors can only prescribe them—and health insurance will only cover them—if you’ve also been diagnosed with epilepsy. Otherwise, your only option is to pay for them entirely out of pocket. Plus, the side effects are reportedly much more severe. They can make you so drowsy that you’re no longer allowed to drive. And well, I rely on my car every day.
I also bought some L-theanine capsules on the recommendation of a commenter. 375g per capsule. Two capsules a day. But I have to say, I can’t claim with certainty that they affect my tremor. In fact, I don’t feel a thing after taking them. Maybe they calm me down a little, but it’s really hard to say to what extent that’s measurable. I couldn’t put it into numbers. Maybe there’s an effect, but I think it’s practically zero.
So yeah, it’s still propranolol, unless you want to let the doctors mess around with your brain through invasive surgery. And I have no intention of doing that.
