Namaste sir/madam, I am prescribed to take olanzapine and escitalopram for social phobia and anxiety. Would these medicines work for fear and depression in public places which I have been suffering from? Pls guide me.

Mr. Sudarshan HegdePsychologist9yrs exp

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My dear friend, I wish you happy days ahead. I take time here to explain in little detail so that it can be helpful to you as well as many others who have similar questions. First let me answer in brief. Would these medicines work for fear and depression in public places? Answer is partial yes and no. Medicine alone will not help you. Now let us go in little detail why and how. Any psychiatric medicine is prescribed to manage or balance your brain chemicals that is responsible for problems with mood, perception, anxiety, or other mental health issues. In the correct dosage, medication can have a impact on functioning.� in your case, studies have shown that, anxiety disorders, including phobias, brain chemical called "serotonin" regulation is disturbed.�serotonin�is a neurotransmitter which modulate the signals, what you receive from external world like what you see, hear, taste and touch to the brain in chemical form. Thus, serotonin acts in the brain and, among other things, moderates mood. Too high or too low level serotanin can cause both depression and anxiety. Consequently, phobias are often treated with a class of antidepressants known as�selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors�(ssris). Olanzapine is one such drug which in combination address your anxiety and fear by modulating your brain chemicals. However, root cause for brain chemicals change are your thoughts and behavior/actions. When you are in intense emotions tablets helped you to calm down and helped you to think and behave in your normal pattern. Now, the question is how is your thought and behavior pattern? If your thought pattern itself is negative (most probably), drugs can not change your thinking pattern. When thinking is negative with respect to your self image, about people or/and to world it influence negatively to your necessary actions/behavior. Hence both thinking and behavior both are not better equipped to face external situation. Thus it influence brain chemicals regulations and create uncomfortable high level emotions such as anxiety or phobia. Hence, till thinking pattern and behavior not addressed tablets are not going to address your root cause problems. In order to address thinking and behaviour pattern, modulations and management, counseling and psychotherapy is effective. Which usually includes set of consultations in a planned frequent intervals so that new habit and thinking pattern can be formed with your new set of skills. Psychotherapist and counseling psychologist can help you to understand your current behavior and thinking pattern, pass information and techniques to learn new set of skills and thus modulate your emotions such anxiety and fear. This will be beneficial in long span of your life. If you wish to take counseling and psychotherapy feel free to contact in Lybrate. Thanking you for the opportunity to explain.  

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