Symptoms: Akathisia, Brain zaps, Emotional blunting, Cognitive impairment, Severe anxiety/panic, GI disturbances
Succumbed to physical panic attacks while studying in Chicago, I was admitted to the hospital. Given Xanax while told to see a psychologist. Diagnosed within a 5 minute conversation with "General Anxiety Disorder."
The good was that I was able to find some stability during this time and not experience physical panic attacks.
The bad was that coming off 6 years later, I realized I never actually worked on any of it, despite consistent counselling.
The ugly was terrible side effects throughout the duration. Every time my dosage changed (upon recommendation), I would lapse into a severe mental void, covered in melancholy while still having an extreme sense of doom pending. It is a fate I wish upon no one.
When I finally went to go off, in dreams of feeling emotion again for my coming daughter into the world, I went about a three months journey of body shocks. The doom came back. The panic settled in. The pit in my stomach would not go away. Sometimes my brain felt it was twitching or being zapped.
I have been 6 years off and would say I am still healing. The bulk of which happened in the two years after, including new aversions and allergies to health-related issues. Would definitely now be diagnosed with a "preoccupation" with health, but now I am working on it head on, no meds.
I work in the mental health field now as a therapist, hear these stories all the time, and I think people still wonder about the effectiveness of this classification of medication. I think we have no idea what it actually does.