# Beta blocker (propranolol) doesn't work



## gracie07 (Jun 21, 2007)

My doctor gave me propranolol (20 mg) for my public speaking fears, yet I haven't noticed a big difference. I take is about half an hour before my speaking event, yet the fear really has not left me. I read an article in O magazine a few months ago where this women took a beta blocker and it make her feel totally liberated. I think my expectations were too high because I really didn't notice that much of a difference on it.


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## FairleighCalm (May 20, 2007)

That's kind of a bummer. :stu My mom use BBs to prevent tachacardia. She could no more do public speaking than beat Michael Jordan in hoops. I used BBs at one time but they made me feel ill. I hope the next thing you try works better.


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## Speak Easy (Jun 27, 2006)

Maybe you could try benzos


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## korey (Apr 25, 2006)

My psych prescribed Inderal/propranolol for me when I had to give a presentation last semester in college. It did nothing for my physical anxiety. It did make me a little dizzy when walking, but not mentally dizzy. It was like I didn't have complete control over my body, but my head wasn't spinning or anything. It was only 10mg tablets, but I took like five of them an hour or so before the presentation. I think it might have to do with the fact that I have naturally low blood pressure (according to the nurses who take my vitals when I go to see a doctor). The beta blocker probably didn't have much anti-anxiety effect on me because my blood pressure was already pretty low. Maybe that's what's happening with you? I don't know.


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## QuietCoral (Mar 23, 2005)

i took beta blockers my last year of college for speeches/presentations and it helped me a lot. it definitely didnt really help the mental aspect of anxiety but it took away all my physical symptoms of anxiety such as racing heart, shakiness, dizzyness, hyperventilation. so i dunno i dont think its meant to help you unless you have a lot of physical symtptoms because beta blockers slow the heart rate and block the release of adrenaline into your blood stream.


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## charlieparker (Feb 26, 2009)

Probably not taking enough - my Dr prescribed the 80mg pill and it worked fine.


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## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

Some react to low doses like 10-20mg others need up to 80mg. Imagine an extremely anxious situation very real and measure your pulse rate (and blood pressure too if you have an engine). If 20mg don't stop your heart from racing, try a higher dose. But don't drop your pulse rate lower than 50-55. This way you can find your optimum dose, of course just if you have good imagination.


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## Fairyxo (Jan 28, 2009)

To be honest, I wouldn't recommend taking Beta Blockers anyway, I remember my Psychology teacher telling us never to touch beta blockers with a bargepole, and i've made sure that I never will.

Maybe you could try something else? I'm sorry it didn't work though.


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## proximo20 (Nov 25, 2006)

korey said:


> My psych prescribed Inderal/propranolol for me when I had to give a presentation last semester in college. It did nothing for my physical anxiety. It did make me a little dizzy when walking, but not mentally dizzy. It was like I didn't have complete control over my body, but my head wasn't spinning or anything. It was only 10mg tablets, but I took like five of them an hour or so before the presentation. I think it might have to do with the fact that I have naturally low blood pressure (according to the nurses who take my vitals when I go to see a doctor). The beta blocker probably didn't have much anti-anxiety effect on me because my blood pressure was already pretty low. Maybe that's what's happening with you? I don't know.


I think what you were expecting from a beta blocker was a little bit different that what it does.

Beta blockers do not make dizzy or like drunk, they just inhibit the effects of adrenalin. So you dont shake or your heart does not beat very fast when you have to speak.


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## caithiggs (Jan 11, 2009)

First of all, *beta blockers do not get rid of fear*. I hope nobody has told you otherwise. Beta blockers block adrenaline. It is entirely physical, nothing about beta blockers have any effect what so ever on the way your brain functions, just your heart. Actually, they might leave you feeling a little depressed, if anything. If you were taking beta blockers thinking it will relieve stage fright or something you will have been disappointed. Sounds to me like nobody should have even prescribed them to you. If you didn't notice a difference it probably means you didn't have heart palpitations and jitters to begin with. That's the absolute only part about public speaking they would help you with.

For those of us who have horrible physical symptoms while public speaking, it can be very liberating because 90% of our fear is actually caused directly from our physical symptoms. If your fear is caused by something else, you need to find some other way of facing those fears, because beta blockers aren't even good for you anyway.


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## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

They just break the downside spirale: Normally we would sweat and tremble and get more nervous because of this and sweat and tremble more and so on... beta blockers... BLOCK this


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## Maike (Sep 29, 2004)

I just had about 40ml for a 2 min presentation I had to do today at work - lol!

I also took about 3mg of valium...

I had my doubts about the beta blockers - I've tried them before but I threw out the pack cos they were old...I think they were a lower dose.

Anyhow, today I had success and my heart wasn't beating right out of my chest like normal. I also noticed that when other people speak, they make mistakes or stumble over their words and it's no big deal! I always think I have to be perfect but it's only ME that's expecting that.

So anyway...keep trying the beta blockers providing they don't make you feel too sick and ALSO try and think about it rationally - I know it's not easy (you should have seen me a few nights ago, I was absolutely beside myself with fear over this 2 minute presentation) but I did it and now I have some positive things that I can take from it. 

All the best

x


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## shell (Feb 18, 2009)

I've had success with an 80mg dose, at least an hour before presentations, in reducing my physical sx's of anxiety. Which for me, is my biggest problem. I get nervous b/c I'm worried that others will see I'm nervous (hand tremor, blushing, etc) but when I can greatly reduce that, I feel much more confident.


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## pati (Aug 15, 2012)

QuietCoral said:


> i took beta blockers my last year of college for speeches/presentations and it helped me a lot. it definitely didnt really help the mental aspect of anxiety but it took away all my physical symptoms of anxiety such as racing heart, shakiness, dizzyness, hyperventilation. so i dunno i dont think its meant to help you unless you have a lot of physical symtptoms because beta blockers slow the heart rate and block the release of adrenaline into your blood stream.


Exactly the same with me.


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## xks201 (Aug 27, 2012)

Try carvedilol, it also blocks alpha receptors. I like atenolol as well, but it does nothing for my ADHD like carvedilol does.


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## clemsonkyle (Aug 22, 2012)

Carvedilol works just as good as propranolol


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## everclear (Jul 22, 2013)

As it has been stated several times before, beta blockers WILL NOT block anxiety per say. They calm your body down, which in turn, may calm you down. Your anxiety may be reduced because your body is more calm. The fear and anxiety in your brain essentially remains the same. When I take beta blockers I still get nervous, it's just that my body doesn't react negatively to that nervousness. It's a very strange feeling because in the past when I wasn't on beta blockers everyone could SEE my anxiety written all over my body. Now, they can't see it anymore even though it's still swimming in my brain. It takes time to get used to that.


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## 2me4u (Dec 14, 2011)

I used my dad's once when I was in training class for a job, nervous and sick for 7.5 hours, 5 days a week. It actually did seem to help, but I could only sneak one. Soon after I was a Klonopin worshiper.


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## hopethisisofsomehelp (Oct 3, 2013)

*Propranol (Inderal) worked very well for me*

Hi All,

Like many here on this forum this is my first time posting to a forum like this, which openly talks about the fear of public speaking. I had come across this forum about 2 months ago (purely by accident when I was researching about beta blockers), when I was trying to find away to overcome my fear of public speaking, which seems to have developed over the last 15 years or so. As a direct result of the posts of others on this forum (and other similar forums) of people sharing their experiences and how they have overcome this using Inderal (Propranol) I wanted to share also my very positive experience so far of using Inderal, which I believe is also referred to or known as Propranol.

I'm a normal outgoing person, loves to socialize, often the last one in the bar on a night out J ... and do not suffer general anxiety. I hold a very good high profile position and have held a number of these over the years, which has meant me leading major projects and programmes and having to present at management and board level on a very regular basis. Oddly enough when I first started into the world of work and as I progressed in my career I would often have to give presentations as well as training courses to others on subjects in my field and was generally perfectly fine to stand up in front of small and large rooms of people. The difficulty I have developed (for no reason I can put my finger on) was presenting in large groups (I was fine in meetings that I lead or chaired or with people that I knew well) and also introducing myself to others in a meeting with people I would not know (but this was less of an issue) and also contributing in meetings where I was less familiar with the subject area.

I have like many others gone to great lengths to avoid public speaking, which has been to my detriment in relation to career development. I had been invited to speak at a number of conferences and had always found away to get out of it. Again like many others I had done toast masters and had also gone to a specialist abroad to go through techniques to use during the build up and prior to a presentation but to be honest none of this worked and for me and was a waste of time and money. The symptoms leading up to the event are the same as so many others have described. Just the thought of it would set the heart racing and butter flies in the stomach and this would be the case all the way leading up to the presentation. Then when it came to doing the presentation the nervous quiver in the voice would be evident and depending on how things were going with the presentation I would either settle into to it and get through it or it would be a complete disaster. 

For me anyway, I had figured out if I could control my heartbeat then the rest of the fears / anxiety's that are triggered would not occur during the presentation and this for me (and seems to be the same for many many other people across the various forums I have been on) has proven to be the case. As 'whatelsecanido' on another forum had posted "That nervous feeling you get before speaking publicly lasts for about half a second and you feel it going away, its the best feeling on earth to have no fear" is I can personally confirm this is absoluely 100% correct.

I had gone to my doctor who was surprised by me asking to be perscribed Inderal but he was familiar with it and told me that many sports people such as snooker players, sports shooting and archery use this to control their heart rate. I had read in a number of forums that it was common for high profile people who do public speaking also use this. My doctor said to try different dosages to see what worked. I was perscribed 100 (tablets) x 10mg of the drug (seems to be the set amount that comes in the bottle) and I had read people taking up to 4 x 10mg of the drug before they did presentation, so I wanted to try with different amounts. 

I understand this can be marketed under different brand names (see Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propranolol); the version I was perscribed is a very small pink round pill with Inderal written on it. I tried it at work with just 1 x 10mg tablet. I'm a pretty big guy and the pill seemed to take effect within 20 minutes. I have read other posts that have said to take this an hour before the presentation and I would also agree with this as the way to go to be sure the full effects are taking place. The first time I tried it was for a regular enough weekly meeting that I was to attend (an area I was not completley familiar with). What I found most surprising was because I was not worried about having to contribute during the meeting ... I was able to think about what I could say as opposed to worrying about how it would come out. I was completely calm, it was truley a great sensation. I was able to contribute to the meeting and was getting great feedback, it was just amazing. 

The next time I tried it I had prepared a presentation and had a meeting with a senior manager (just me and him in the room) and stood up and went through the presentation. Again no issues with standing up and starting off the presentation and was able to confidently present this and answer questions. He was happy and I was delighted J. I have done this a number of times since in 1:1 situations as well as with presentations over the phone. More recently I have presented at my first trade conference abroad. It was in a large room full of people (approx 40) who I did not know. I took 1 x 10mg tablet about 2 ½ hrs before the presentation and had made sure I was well rehersed in order to be able to deliver the presentation. I stood up and confidently gave the presentation, was able to linger on particular slides to make points and not race through it and while I was up there felt very calm and actually enjoyed it!!! It really went very well, I could not be happier J.

Although it is obvious, and someone else in the fourm has also made the same point, Inderal does not help if you do not know what you are going to present and have not spent the time practising this. You still need to be prepared as you would do for any other presentation and a tip I would suggest is to take Inderal when you are rehersing so you understand how calm you will be on the day. If you are practising alone or delivering the presentation to a room of people the feeling when doing this I have found will be the same (you will be calm), you just need to know what you will be saying on each of the slides you present. 

Another interesting dide effect that I'm seeing is that now that I know I have this option, I actually do not worry about the lead up to a presentation, it simply is not an issue anymore J and I have to say after how things have been going I will now be putting myself forward more for these opportunities and I'm only sorry I did not know about this sooner. No one wants to have to take any drugs especially for something like this but for me as I think someone else had mentioned I really do not care. It is a small pill I take every so often (I have taken 6 over 2 months) so life is to short to continue to worry about this debilitating condition when there is a solution there that works and I suspect as my confidence grows there will be a time when this will not be required. 

I apologies for the length of this post but I wanted to cover as much of the experience I have personally had as I found these types of posts very useful for me before I plucked up the courage to go and see my doctor and try this out. This has really worked well for me and I'm hoping other people will also benefit from this.


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