do you have to be on anxiety medication forever

Do you have to be on anxiety medication forever free#

But here, too, it's not uncommon for people to require ongoing treatment even with cognitive behavioral therapy to maintain their benefit. While drugs do not cure anxiety, they can help you manage your symptoms, so you can function well and feel better in your day-to-day life. Antidepressants are taken every day for long-term treatment. With cognitive behavioral therapy - psychosocial treatments - for some people, a single course of 12 to 15 sessions will help them feel better, and they may continue on without necessarily requiring more treatment.

Medication is a daily reminder of the illness you don’t want. However, exercise can do a world of good. No one wants bipolar and, certainly, no one wants to take one or more psychiatric medications. Depression is not an easy illness to live with, but it can be managed and it is possible for some people not to be dependent on medications forever. And then, if the individual wants, to try to taper them off their medication and see how they do.įor patients who, whenever they've tried to come off medication in the past, have relapsed or had retuning symptoms, for those individuals, longer durations of treatment maintenance therapy, probably over a course of years, is certainly warranted. If you live with anxiety, you may feel at times that you don’t have time or energy to go to the gym or out for a walk. You might have to try out a few things before you find something you like, but give yourself time and space to do these things.

Do you have to be on anxiety medication forever free#

General guidelines for treatment suggest that for a first treatment episode, keeping people on medication once they fully respond and are essentially free of symptoms for somewhere around a year or two years seems prudent and reasonable. As more information becomes available about these new medicines, we will. — - Question: How long do I have to take medication for my anxiety disorder, and can I stop if I no longer have symptoms?Īnswer: It's very common when people are on medication for treatment of anxiety disorders to wonder, 'Am I going to have to be on this the rest of my life?' The truth is we don't yet have definitive answers for a lot of people in terms of how long they have to stay on medication. Patients with mild IBS symptoms do not usually need antidepressants.