My experience with Inderal (Propranolol)

Angel_Of_Death

I have suffered of social anxiety since my teen years, I'm 24 right now. I first discovered about this condition around the same time I discovered this site, which was about 2 years ago. Since then, I've been looking at different alternatives to overcome my social anxiety. It seems that there is 2 different possibilities in trying to overcome the social anxiety, either with medication or with CBT.

I haven't really explored the CBT route, I'm not exactly sure how it would help....but as far as medication goes, I have to say that the side effects is something that really scares me, specially drug which have sexual dysfunction.

With the research I've made not only on this site but also on others...I've came to the conclusion that beta blockers is what seems to have the most impact at improving the S/A...I say this based on experience of others who have tried this. I'm talking about propraonolol. There is a thread that is stickied on this forum about it, and 90% of comments in that 6 page thread are all somewhat positive.

So I went online and ordered Inderal (propranolol) and tried it. I have decided to make a journal and my day to day usage of this drug, and give you guys basic info on how this drug is helping (or not) with my social anxiety, and also giving info about side effects.

I placed my order for 30 (40 mg) Inderal from mexmeds4you.com on september 3rd. I got it exactly on september 19th and tried it for the first time on that date.

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Angel_Of_Death · Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 7:15 am Post subject:

Propranolol is normally prescribed to patients who have high blood pressure and migraines mainly. From what I understood, for those conditions the dosage are higher, and with small dosage of propranolol is helps with social anxiety symptoms, as it kinda blocks the adrenaline factor. I guess taking proranolol at low dosage compared to high dosage diminishes the potential side effects.

Friday September 19th

I got the pills for the 1st time. I took one 40mg tablet and cut into half and took it ...so 20mg. That was around 1:15PM. I had class from 2pm to 5pm.

On my way to school (I was driving) after maybe 15 minutes of taking the pill I noticed that i felt really relaxed and without worry. I stopped at the gas station to put gas in the car, and didn't feel any anxiety at all during the whole process...

I got to school, while I was walking in front of the school and making my way to class, I noticed again that I felt really relaxed but was also feeling more confident. I crossed some groups of students and even some good looking girls, and normally my heart would start beating real fast but it didn't. I was even able to look em in the eye without feeling nervous.

My 3 hour class to sum it up, I felt 0 anxiety, was able to focus and felt confident. At the end of the class we had to do a group work, we were a group of 5....I was really getting involved, giving my opinion and making good conversation, again feeling confident with no heart pounding...just totally relaxed.

My first experience in a social situation with Inderal was a success, I was amazed on how effective it was.

Having said all that, I felt really tired afterwards....at night I almost didn't sleep despite feeling really tiered. I had read about one of the side effects of Propranolol being insomnia.

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Angel_Of_Death · Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 7:24 am Post subject:

Saturday September 20th

I like weed, I try to cut down on my smoking habits but it's not easy. On saturday I decided to smoke up...after doing so I kinda felt paranoid after and got some anxiety....I took half of the half pill I had from the previous day, so took about 10MG. I felt relaxed and it really killed the anixety. I didn't face any social situations.

My energy level was really low...maybe from the Inderal maybe because I didn't sleep much the night before. But this was my 2nd day straight I didn't go to train at the gym, I normally train 5-6 days a week and keep in shape and do lot's of sports.

At night, again my sleep was not consistent. My dreams were kinda fucked up and not the usual kind of dream I'd have. One of the side effects of inderal is having vivid dreams.

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Angel_Of_Death · Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 7:32 am Post subject:

Monday september 22nd

I took 10mg around 6:00PM. Went to train at the gym after, was able to do my normal routine without any problems. I went to work afterwards around 8pm even tough I wasn't scheduled to work, I had to print some documents....I talked with my boss and another colleague, they were surprised to see me there as I'm still on vacation till the 28th. I have to say I felt anxious while I was there and sweating like crazy, my whole shirt was wet. The 10mg dosage I took didn't seem to have much effect.

I have classes tomorrow, I'll go back to 20mg and see how it goes...

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iamalone · Newbie User Joined: Jul 29, 2008 Posts: 33

Pls keep posting

kerrinj · Newbie User Joined: Sep 23, 2008 Posts: 5

Great post, I'm taking the same at the moment but only 30mg a day 1 x 10 1 x 20 and it's going well not much energy but no flushing or social issues.

thanks for the posting keep in touch.

Psychedelicious · Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:24 pm Post subject:

Hmm I just got prescibed this drug, a few days ago. I haven't taken it yet. I got it for migraines and I'm suppose to take it everyday in the morning because I have them so frequent. I had no idea it helped with any of this stuff. Maybe that's good for me Wink

.

Angel_Of_Death · Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 3:46 am Post subject:

Psychedelicious · Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 3:52 am Post subject:

Well since I just got it it's like 20mg but it will probably get a lot higher.

Angel_Of_Death · Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 4:00 am Post subject:

Tuesday, September 23rd

I had class between 6h30pm and 9h30pm and decided this time I would go back to 20mg. I took it around 5:00pm

I didn't get the total relaxed feeling I got the first time. When I got to school and class, I didn't feel the same confidence as I did last friday when I took the same 20mg. I sat as usual all the way in the back of the class. I was feeling a little weird, kinda hard to describe the feeling. Maybe 10 minutes later, I started to become a little nervous and started sweating heavily.

Now normally sweating is one of the symptoms I have when something triggers my anxiety, but this time it seemed that, even tough I was surrounded by people, there was no reason for me to get anxious or nervous. But here I was sweating like crazy...I was trying to wipe my forehead and try to not embarrass myself. I had this feeling and was about to go into panic mode (isn't this drug supposed to block that ?)...then I started talking to myself and started breathing deep and I got back to normal. But still, I was uncomfortable for some reason and at our first break I decided to take my stuff and just leave.

While I was heading home, I got this feeling of regret because I anticipated things to go well today and was actually looking forward, considering how well I reacted to the drug the first time. I just don't understand why it didn't have the same effect as the first time.

I'm tempted to go with maybe 30mg or 40mg next time. But can I really take this everyday ? I'm not sure if I'd be able to deal with the side effects on daily basis.

Side effects today were...feeling tiered as usual...dry eyes, feeling sleepy, a little confused...didn't find the energy to go train at the gym...

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