Propanolol for anxiety?

[Drama Llama]

Does anyone take this?  Can you tell me your experiences? 

[stormy weather]

I do occasionally, but I am also taking escitalopram daily. When I get super stressed or anxious I use the propanalol. I have been happy with it as my body and brain were in a kind of panic feedback loop and it regulates my heart rate so my brain can calm down. 

Edited November 16, 2021 by stormy weather

[MercyA]

Is that the blood pressure medication which is sometimes prescribed for anxiety? If so, pretty sure my mom takes it. It has helped her quite a bit. She has agoraphobia, panic attacks, and generalized anxiety and also takes an SSRI and a tranquilizer. I am 100% sure she would be fine with me sharing that here. 

Edited November 16, 2021 by MercyA

[Spryte]

Wow, it helps with anxiety? Cool! That’s a happy side effect.

I have taken it for years for migraine prevention. It changed my world. Love it.

[maize]

My husband took it for awhile, he felt like it made him sleepy.

[Dmmetler]

I took it for migraines, and honestly, it took weeks before I had adapted to it enough to really feel conscious-it zoned me out big time. I can't say it helped me with performance anxiety, either. If anything, it made it harder because I felt like I was having to push through fog and I didn't get a burst of adrenaline to help take me to the next level-as a music major, I found that hard to deal with. I guess it might have helped if I'd had anxiety to the point of being unable to perform, but I found it counter productive, and ended up using different medications. 

 

[Drama Llama]

11 minutes ago, maize said:

My husband took it for awhile, he felt like it made him sleepy.

That would be very good.

I am having panic attacks at night that make sleep very hard to come by, and I have hypertension, so my doctors decided this might be a good way to kill two birds with one stone. 

Does anyone have any thoughts on how to time it for sleep?  I'm on it twice a day because of the hypertension.  I figure I'll time the first dose whenever is best for the sleep, and then just take the other dose 12 hours later.  But an hour before?  Two hours before?  

 

[Drama Llama]

52 minutes ago, Spryte said:

Wow, it helps with anxiety? Cool! That’s a happy side effect.

I have taken it for years for migraine prevention. It changed my world. Love it.

So, it supposedly helps the physical impacts of anxiety -- like the racing heart beat, and the headache if you get headaches.  

How long does it take to work?

[Drama Llama]

14 minutes ago, Dmmetler said:

I took it for migraines, and honestly, it took weeks before I had adapted to it enough to really feel conscious-it zoned me out big time. I can't say it helped me with performance anxiety, either. If anything, it made it harder because I felt like I was having to push through fog and I didn't get a burst of adrenaline to help take me to the next level-as a music major, I found that hard to deal with. I guess it might have helped if I'd had anxiety to the point of being unable to perform, but I found it counter productive, and ended up using different medications. 

 

How much did you take?

You're making me worried I won't be functional for work.

[Dmmetler]

I think I was on 60mg? I was a really tiny 17 yr old, though, without hypertension except during migraines, when I'd get really major blood pressure swings (like into the high potential for stroke zone), so that probably played into it.

[Drama Llama]

5 minutes ago, Dmmetler said:

I think I was on 60mg? I was a really tiny 17 yr old, though, without hypertension except during migraines, when I'd get really major blood pressure swings (like into the high potential for stroke zone), so that probably played into it.

How long did it take to kick in?  Do you have a vote on when I should take it?

 

[Dmmetler]

3 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

How long did it take to kick in?  Do you have a vote on when I should take it?

 

IIRC, it took a few hours, so if I took it with breakfast, I'd be falling asleep about lunch time, and it would wear off about an hour or two before the evening dose. So, if you could take a single dose with dinner, it would probably lead to sleeping well, but not affect the day as much. In my case, we were really trying to keep blood pressure spikes from happening at all.

[madteaparty]

Was prescribed for anxiety—works just well enough to take the edge off but not really life changing. Does NOT make me sleepy, huh. This is a daytime med, if ever, for me.

eta my old dr in NYC said she often prescribed this for actors/performers. So the sleepy comments are puzzling me.

let’s just say this is not what I take when I want to sleep. 

 

Edited November 16, 2021 by madteaparty

[mellifera33]

I didn’t find that it made me sleepy, but I took a pretty low dose, if I remember correctly. I liked it because it reduced physical anxiety symptoms without making me feel slow like some of the other anxiety meds I had tried in the past. 

[ktgrok]

11 hours ago, Spryte said:

Wow, it helps with anxiety? Cool! That’s a happy side effect.

I have taken it for years for migraine prevention. It changed my world. Love it.

THATS why the medication name was familiar! My ex husband way back when took it for migraines, and then hypertension. He did have anxiety, I can't remember if the propanalol helped with that. 

[Drama Llama]

8 hours ago, madteaparty said:

Was prescribed for anxiety—works just well enough to take the edge off but not really life changing. Does NOT make me sleepy, huh. This is a daytime med, if ever, for me.

eta my old dr in NYC said she often prescribed this for actors/performers. So the sleepy comments are puzzling me.

let’s just say this is not what I take when I want to sleep. 

The thought isn’t that it will make me sleepy. Just that it will calm the panic attacks which I only get at night.

Last night seemed better?  I am optimistic. 

[Paige]

Ds takes it for migraines. He only takes it at night because it lowers his blood pressure. He tries to take it about 1-2 hours before bed. They advised him not to try to take it immediately before bed because his blood pressure could still be low when he wakes up. He doesn't notice much difference whether he takes it 1 hour, 2 hours, or right before bed, however. That could be because it's such a low dose but it's helped a lot for migraines! He was prescribed it 2x a day but only takes it at night because his blood pressure is naturally low. He's very athletic and finds it inhibits his performance and he'll get a little light headed. I had no idea it helps anxiety too- that's a bonus.

Edited November 16, 2021 by Paige

[Spryte]

13 hours ago, Baseballandhockey said:

So, it supposedly helps the physical impacts of anxiety -- like the racing heart beat, and the headache if you get headaches.  

How long does it take to work?

FWIW, since I’m taking it for a different reason: I take it daily, in the mornings, though if there’s a reason for taking it in the am—I don’t remember it. It’s just more convenient. It doesn’t make me sleepy. It was Rx’d by a neurologist who specializes in migraines, initially, and now my GP calls it in. It’s been years and years now, but it took me from four four-day migraines a month to having none on most months. If I run out or skip it, I can count on a migraine. Restarting it will usually help within a few days, and it makes my emergency migraine meds work a bit better.

I didn’t know it treats anxiety. That’s a bonus.

Overall, it’s been an amazing med for me—but it took me from 16 days of debilitating migraines a month, so obviously it really worked.

I think it would be worth a shot, if it treats anxiety, too.

 

 

[OH_Homeschooler]

I was prescribed it for "performance anxiety" (job interviews). I think it helped me stay much calmer on some interviews than others. I still take it occasionally when I feel like I have sort of out of control anxiety, like I'm working and just feel really jittery and I don't know why. I also have Ativan for anxiety, which I take as needed. I guess when it feels more like a physical, heart beating out of my chest feeling I tend to reach for the propranolol. 

[Drama Llama]

1 minute ago, OH_Homeschooler said:

I was prescribed it for "performance anxiety" (job interviews). I think it helped me stay much calmer on some interviews than others. I still take it occasionally when I feel like I have sort of out of control anxiety, like I'm working and just feel really jittery and I don't know why. I also have Ativan for anxiety, which I take as needed. I guess when it feels more like a physical, heart beating out of my chest feeling I tend to reach for the propranolol. 

I think that's the most similar to what I experience.  It's an anxiety provoking event that happens at a scheduled time.  It happens that that event is bedtime, because I have PTSD triggered by things that happened when I was asleep, but it's not really a sleeping med.  

My understanding is that it's use for anxiety is limited to specific events you can anticipate.  So, a job interview, a performance, a party if you have social anxiety etc . . . 

So, how long before a job interview would you take it for it to work best?

[OH_Homeschooler]

1 minute ago, Baseballandhockey said:

I think that's the most similar to what I experience.  It's an anxiety provoking event that happens at a scheduled time.  It happens that that event is bedtime, because I have PTSD triggered by things that happened when I was asleep, but it's not really a sleeping med.  

My understanding is that it's use for anxiety is limited to specific events you can anticipate.  So, a job interview, a performance, a party if you have social anxiety etc . . . 

So, how long before a job interview would you take it for it to work best?

The bottle says to take it 30 minutes before the event. 

[ShepCarlin]

I was prescribed propanolol for high blood pressure a little over 2 years ago by the nurse practitioner I see for my gynecologists needs. About 6 months in I realized I felt great. And this was in the first few months of the pandemic! My usual anxiety and over worrying were very much reduced. As was my blood pressure. She really only prescribed it for my blood pressure but was glad to hear of my improved mood.

Fast forward to this summer. I developed a cough (not Covid related) and went to my allergist as I suspected it was my allergies acting up. Going over my prescriptions, he flipped out when he found out I was on propanolol. Told me go make an appt with my regular doctor to get it changed. Apparently, one side effect it has is that it really keeps your heart rate down. Good right? NO. I had been wondering why when I was hiking with my husband why I could not catch my breath and it felt like my heart as going to pound right out of my chest. It will not let your heart rate increase even when it needs do, for example when exercising.  I really thought I was just out of shape! So my doctor switched me to a different blood pressure med. Blood pressure still under control but I don't feel as good as I did on the propanolol.

So be sure to ask your doctor about that side effect. It is a terrible feeling when your heart wants to work harder and literally cannot. It can also cause you to cough but in my case it was acid reflux.