# Muscle relaxants and their affect on your anxiety?



## RobDaBomb (Sep 14, 2012)

Hello everybody, I already had a forum post going, but then I realized that this question didn't really fit in much with it as a whole. 

I have to go to my psych. doc. today at 3:30am and I'm pretty sure I'm going to talk to her about getting me beta blockers to help with the physical symptoms I deal with with my anxiety. 

Lately though, I've been considering muscle relaxants instead because I hear they help with the physical symptoms as well as helping the mental feelings because they make you feel so 'relaxed' that your mind isn't as tense.

Any comments you guys could give is greatly appreciated! Any previous knowledge you or a friend may have with them or anything really! I have an appointment in like 4-5 hours and my doctor is such a pain when I'm indecisive like this, instead I just have to go in and tell her what I want to try.

Thanks everyone!


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## Luctor (Aug 10, 2012)

I've tried beta-blockers and had a paradoxical effect. I had my first panic attack on 3 of them (30mg). They make me sweat and feel anxious. I have theories as to why.

What do you mean when you talk about muscle relaxants? Anti-inflammatories?


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## Mr Bacon (Mar 10, 2012)

RobDaBomb said:


> Hello everybody, I already had a forum post going, but then I realized that this question didn't really fit in much with it as a whole.
> 
> I have to go to my psych. doc. today at 3:30am and I'm pretty sure I'm going to talk to her about getting me beta blockers to help with the physical symptoms I deal with with my anxiety.
> 
> ...


You might have heard of baclofen. It's a muscle relaxant acting on the CNS, at the gaba-b receptor. I've tried it, and the effects for me are comparable to a benzo's. Not everybody responds to it, but its always worth a shot.

If you do some research you'll find plenty of people who have experimented with.


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## billyho (Apr 12, 2010)

I use norflex sometimes, it helps to take the edge off..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphenadrine


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## Double Indemnity (Aug 15, 2011)

Muscle relaxers make me sleepy and seem to stay in my system for a long time.


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## RobDaBomb (Sep 14, 2012)

Okay thanks for the replies guys! I'm about to leave for my appointment now. I'm going to mention muscle relaxers like you mentioned and some others like Flexirl and such. I'm also gonna see about beta blockers... sorry I'm in the reply section now and can't see your previous posts and am to in a rush to go back, but one of you said beta blockers made you sweat and have panic attacks or so???? Could you please elaborate? They're supposed to be the opposite, at least to my knowledge. 

Thanks a bunch! I'll be back soon enough to reply again.


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## basuraeuropea (Jul 25, 2012)

baclofen, as someone mentioned above is sometimes used to alleviate anxiety. it works via gabab agonism, whereas the benzodiazepines work via gabaa receptor site activity. tolerance to baclofen when taken orally (versus intrathecally), appears to occur at a much slower rate than typically seen with benzodiazepines, and while there are some who are lucky insofar as not developing tolerance to the benzodiazepines, they comprise the minority not the plurality. so, in summation, while benzodiazepines have muscle relaxant properties, you might want to try baclofen first because of the aforementioned reasons.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2537582
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12921495

edit: i replied after you left for your appointment. whoops. hope it went well.


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## CD700 (Apr 22, 2010)

Mr Bacon said:


> You might have heard of baclofen. It's a muscle relaxant acting on the CNS, at the gaba-b receptor. I've tried it, and the effects for me are comparable to a benzo's. Not everybody responds to it, but its always worth a shot.
> 
> If you do some research you'll find plenty of people who have experimented with.


Did it have an effect on your depression ?
I purchased baclofen off the net the other day and can't wait to try it. Some people report it has similar effects to them as alcohol which is why I am looking forward to trying it as alcohol kills my depression/anxiety


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## riptide991 (Feb 1, 2012)

I get the muscle relaxant effect on Wellbutrin oddly enough. It's quite nice though sometimes when exercising it's not the best hehe.


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## istayhome (Apr 4, 2012)

I have tried a few muscle relaxants including baclofen and phenibut, none of them helped as much as the benzos.

Good luck though!


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## riptide991 (Feb 1, 2012)

istayhome said:


> I have tried a few muscle relaxants including baclofen and phenibut, none of them helped as much as the benzos.
> 
> Good luck though!


Only benzo I tried was xanax and I think that zopiclone is way better. That is, if it doesn't make you fall asleep. But I usually am just super relaxed and chatty too. I've been building up my zopiclone stash by having my doc prescribe me for every day sleep even though I only use half of it and plan to replace it with melatonin and use my stash for any future social functions that may come up. I think starting tomorrow going to give 1/4th a pill a try.


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## Solomon's Tomb (Aug 14, 2012)

Poppers also work well, but only for a few minutes.


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## basuraeuropea (Jul 25, 2012)

kehcorpz said:


> Only benzo I tried was xanax and I think that zopiclone is way better. That is, if it doesn't make you fall asleep. But I usually am just super relaxed and chatty too. I've been building up my zopiclone stash by having my doc prescribe me for every day sleep even though I only use half of it and plan to replace it with melatonin and use my stash for any future social functions that may come up. I think starting tomorrow going to give 1/4th a pill a try.


 look at you with your stash of zope.








hehe

anyhow, have you used melatonin in the past? i found that its effects were minimal and i became accustomed to them quickly. it certainly doesn't have the super strong sleep-inducing effect that the z-drugs do.


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## swim (Apr 4, 2011)

blakeyz said:


> Did it have an effect on your depression ?
> I purchased baclofen off the net the other day and can't wait to try it. Some people report it has similar effects to them as alcohol which is why I am looking forward to trying it as alcohol kills my depression/anxiety


you're gonna love it blake


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## swim (Apr 4, 2011)

Solomon's Tomb said:


> Poppers also work well, but only for a few minutes.


can't wait to go to London


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## riptide991 (Feb 1, 2012)

basuraeuropea said:


> anyhow, have you used melatonin in the past? i found that its effects were minimal and i became accustomed to them quickly. it certainly doesn't have the super strong sleep-inducing effect that the z-drugs do.


Yah I used to use 3mg every day for years while treating my own depression. But for the most part it only made me yawn and tired but when I actually tried to sleep i'd be tossing. I think the biggest problem for me was the racing mind, so now that I'm on drugs my mind isn't really racing much so I'll give it another shot. I'm actually taking about 0.2mg every day now with half the zopiclone. I take one capsule of melatonin and pour the powder into a pill bottle and i literally just put a bit onto my finger and take it. You only need a tiny amount of melatonin, 3mg is actually overdoing it.


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## basuraeuropea (Jul 25, 2012)

kehcorpz said:


> Yah I used to use 3mg every day for years while treating my own depression. But for the most part it only made me yawn and tired but when I actually tried to sleep i'd be tossing. I think the biggest problem for me was the racing mind, so now that I'm on drugs my mind isn't really racing much so I'll give it another shot. I'm actually taking about 0.2mg every day now with half the zopiclone. I take one capsule of melatonin and pour the powder into a pill bottle and i literally just put a bit onto my finger and take it. You only need a tiny amount of melatonin, 3mg is actually overdoing it.


yeah, i was reading a study the other day that said that there have been no proven benefits of taking more than 1.5 mg/day of melatonin. let me know how it works out.


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## Mr Bacon (Mar 10, 2012)

blakeyz said:


> Did it have an effect on your depression ?
> I purchased baclofen off the net the other day and can't wait to try it. Some people report it has similar effects to them as alcohol which is why I am looking forward to trying it as alcohol kills my depression/anxiety


No effect on depression. It just relaxes me, and makes me a bit drowsy. Basically, like benzos .

Since my social anxiety is mainly a byproduct of my depression, baclofen doesn't help me. If anything, it makes me more sluggish and lazy.

Alcohol acts on so many parts of the brain it's hard to draw any conclusions.

In any case, you know how it goes: you'll never know until you try the med. :clap


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