I was prescribe propranolol for anxiety. I took it for 1 year but now I wanna stop it .when I stop it give me high heart rate in little work .heart sound also different .like a lub dub sound I can clear feel every beat in lub dub lub dub .i am not able to stop .i had ecg and eco which came back normal. Lub dub sound make me panic .what should I do?

Dr. Saranya DevanathanPsychiatrist50yrs exp

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Dear Vaibhav, Why do you want to stop propranolol - any side effect or can not afford or you have learnt to ignore your heart's presence in you body? Learn to manage your anxiety with Jacobson's deep muscle relaxation or cognitive therapy or yoga and pranayama before thinking of stopping propranolol. 

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Mr. Saul PereiraPsychologist50yrs exp

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You should never stop medication on your own. It is good that you want to do without the medication but when you work with a counselor along with the medicines, you will get the best results. Obviously, when you stop the medication you will get back all the symptoms of anxiety all over again. Anxiety has all to do with fear and your inability (or so you would tend to think) to handle the same. Fear is based on looking too much into the future and imagining things that usually do not tend to happen (usually 90% of your fears will not happen). You need to change your perception of the fearful stimulus then you can change your response to the fear. The first one is the best and will preempt the need for the second. If you are already far gone into the reaction mode, then you need both responses to counter the attack. The way we see things in life (like half empty or half full glass) is very dependent on our attitude. Attitude may have developed over many years but fortunately can change in a matter of sustained choices made and acted upon now. Sometimes, fear may have originated in childhood, and your body, more than your brain, remembers the emotion and will react with heightened fear even for the slightest provocation or stimulus. Sometimes, you may not even need a stimulus! these matters can ideally be resolved in therapy only, and exclusively. Accordingly, you choose to see things as either threatening or as an opportunity. The opportunist will be positive and work with the situation to make good out of it. The individual who sees it as threatening, will, out of fear, try to avoid/run away from the situation or react with anxiety. Yes, self-belief does impact it too, but you can see that prior to that, the perception will tarnish the belief system too. Here, you can see that all the resolution lies in just changing your perception/attitude, even if it is against odds. Changing your response, despite the perception, is building up your reserves and resources to handle any contingency that life throws up at you. And life throws up situations quite regularly and heavily. For this you need to develop a fit mind and body: the former, by meditation and mind exercises; and the latter, by exercises and proper diet. You need good sleep too. Included in the development of the mind is the handling of emotions, in your case, fear. These changes will give you a handle on life and your perceptions and responses. Prayer is really powerful if you are a spiritual person. Repeat some personally framed affirmations that are geared to calming you down and building confidence. Do a personality development course too. Anything that develops you personally will be of great assistance in building resilience. All this can be learned in counseling ideally.  

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Hello, please recheck that you are just taking propranolol and not the combination of propranolol with etizolam decrease the dose of propranolol to 20 mg for 5 days then 10 mg for 5 days then stop the medicine besides this start doing some sort of physical exercise like running or yoga.  

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Dr. Mohd Abrar GurooPsychiatrist4yrs exp

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May be you are still having anxiety issues that is why you are perceiving normal sound as loud one. There is no harm in taking propanolol but you need to see that you are not taking it as a combination with other drug that can lead to withdrawal symptoms. 

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Mrs. Meghna SinghPsychologist4yrs exp

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lybrate-user first of all hope you stopped medication on drs recommendations. Psychiatric medicines should be lowered gradually with time and then stopped not suddenly. Your body is used to the. Meds and is adjusted to that. The second part is that there shall be withdrawal symptoms so accept them because your eeg and ecg are normal. Isn't it? So focus more on how to better the way your live and that can be only possible by taking up counseling, understanding your fears, learning ways to overcome them, taking up new skills there is so much one can try to do. Agreed today you will have self-doubt low confidence but gradually all this can be build up. Eat well, remain active, take out time for chintan, spend time with friends and family, learn new skills, have some goals, learn deep breathing and relaxation techniques for your anxiety and do yoga. All shall be fine and much better. Keep the faith.  

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