In this episode, medication Treatment Options for 2024. Welcome to the Anxiety Road Podcast. This is the involuntary journey, finding treatment options and resources for people that have an anxiety condition or disorder. This podcast is treatment agnostic. My name is Gena Haskett. I'm coming up on an anniversary for the podcast.
I started in 2015 because even with the internet at the time, it was hard to find accurate information about having anxiety or a mental health condition, let alone treatment information in 2024, it's still hard. Most people have to navigate to try to find accurate non-sales related health information. We have misinformation coming from social media influencers, mainstream media. And opportunist looking to make a buck.
If you're new here, this is the podcast that shares the medical, behavioral health, meditation, relaxation, and X equals the unknown treatment options for those of us on the anxiety condition or disorder spectrum. Now, I am very fond of saying it's okay to decide if medication is right for you. It is equally okay if you don't wanna have anything to do with it, and you've made the decision not to take medications. It is a choice.
However, there have been some changes in how medication is accessed and prescribed. So that's what I wanna get into in this episode. Due to the opiate crisis in the United States and the now almost unanimous requirement. Of monitoring medications issued by doctors. There have been changes as to what medications are available for most anxiety conditions in North America. Many primary doctors will not prescribe mental health medication.
Often you probably would be referred to a psychiatrist for medication management or a therapy provider. Now, as far as that psychiatrist goes. If you are lucky in order to be able to find a psychiatrist that is taking new patients and you can afford the monthly medication management sessions.
, for those of you who don't know if you are a prescribed opiate level medications, you have to be on a medication management program to make sure that you're not abusing the drug and that your usage is monitored. And also that you're not going to three or four other doctors saying that you have an anxiety condition and racking up pills. What didn't exist in 2015 was the licensing of advanced nurse practitioners and physician assistants. In some states, these folks can work independent.
Of a medical doctor or alongside a medical doctor, and there are some states that will allow them to prescribe medication for anxiety conditions. That is, if they have the right credentials. Again, it depends on where that practitioner lives and the where their practice is taking place. We'll determine whether or not they can dispense medication and provide, medication management.
What also didn't exist in 2015 was the growing entry of non-medical or private equity firms moving into the entrepreneurial health space. These include many of the online mental health vendors and service providers and some of the apps that are. Let's say they are designed for insurance companies or large corporations first and individuals second, third, fourth, and fifth. Some of the companies act as a third party connector to accessing treatment.
Others have subscription service for medication management. These companies have access to nurse practitioners, physician assistants, doctors and psychiatrist. So you basically would go through their portal and depending upon their evaluation process, you might be shunted to a nurse practitioner or a health coach, or if your condition warrants it, they may refer you to one of their in-house psychiatrist. So let's talk about the medication available.
The medication of choice in 2024 that doctors most likely would be prescribing, could be an antidepressant called a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor known as SSRI. This medication takes a while to build up in your system could be weeks before you would experience a noticeable change. There are also serotonin norepinephrine retake inhibitors, SNRIs, and these medications may be prescribed if the SSRIs are not effective enough.
SNRIs increase both the serotonin and the norepinephrine it levels in your brain. Again, it takes a while for it to build up into your system. For short term or emergency use. There are benzodiazepines. Which I like to refer to as being available for off the chain and possibly public embarrassing symptoms. These are effective and they're quick acting, but users run the risk of becoming addicted to the drug.
They are now generally prescribed for limited short term use, or they're supposed to be only prescribed for limited short term use. And if you are a senior or of a certain age, as in people over 60, there can be additional brain risk in taking that class of drugs. There are other medications for anxiety and mental health conditions. It depends on what you have and if it's appropriate for you to take for your condition.
What mainstream medical providers are issuing in 2024, there are people and doctors who are doing off-label use. I'm not talking about that in this particular episode. So let's make with the resources, if you are new to this, you wanna start out with authoritative information. The US National Institute of Mental Health has a page on anxiety disorders and the types of medication generally prescribed for the condition.
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America has a page on medication options. So if you don't like going to governmental websites, this is a nonprofit organization. Pretty much the same thing just coming from a different source. And Health guide.org also has information very similar to the other ones that mentioned, but their orientation is not necessarily medication first.
Everything else after it's everything else first, and then if you have to maybe consider medication, it's just a different orientation about how they approach things. But they have a lot of good information on their website about anxiety disorders and attacks. So your call to action this week is to remember that. Treatment and recovery is a journey, and it might take time to find the right combination of treatments or finding the right person or persons that can help you.
You get to decide the first step and then the second step, and if you need someone else to help you take that third step, you keep on looking till you find that person. Now, this is part one of, I think, two other additional episodes that I wanna do to do a refresh because there really has been changes. And so I hope that, you will hang out for the next couple of episodes to see where this is going. I'll catch you next time on the Anxiety Road.
You can visit anxiety road podcast.com for links and other information resources. You can listen, download, or follow the podcast via number of iOS and Android podcasting applications. You can find the show on Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, Ghana, Pandora, or on the web at listennotes.com. Links to other sites are provided for information prefaces only and do not constitute endorsements. Always seek the advice of a qualified healthcare provider with questions you may have regarding a medical.
Or mental health disorder. This podcast is intended for information and education purposes only, and nothing in the program is intended to be a substitute for professional, psychological, psychiatric, or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.