Somewhere along the line of your treatment, you may get offered the option of taking medication to temporarily alleviate some of your anxiety, and it’s important that you are only taking this medication temporarily! Here are some of the pros and cons to treating your social anxiety with medication.Why you might take medication:

•  If you find the right medication, your anxiety symptoms will seem to melt away
• Taking medication might make you feel like you’re being pro-active about ridding yourself of social anxiety
• Medication may temporarily alleviate symptoms of anxiety and allow you to express yourself more in therapy, allowing you to progress
• Medications may help with other problems such as depression
• The lack of symptoms may lead you to have more positive experiences

Why you might not take medication:

•  The instant release of anxiety symptoms that medication can sometimes bring can lead you to think that you are cured of it. It doesn’t work like that. As soon as you stop taking medication chances are your symptoms will magically re-appear.
• It often takes a lots of trial and error to find a medication that works
• Medication can come with all sorts of nasty side effects. 
• On most medications you cannot (safely) drink alcohol. Trust me on this one, I’ve been there, done that and it’s not pretty.
• The first two weeks of becoming acclimatised to your new medication can be really tough.
• Withdrawal symptoms occur sometimes too. The longer you’re on a medication, the tougher it will be to get off. There are plenty of Seroxat (Paxil) horror stories on the internet, feel free to check them out.

It’s important to weigh up your personal pros and cons before starting to take medication. If you’d like to add any pros or cons to the list then please comment.

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