Would you ever take anti anxiety medication?

[Aroura]

I was treated for anxiety for 17 years with various meds before another doctor determined my anxiety was a symptom of something else, and resistant to medication as a treatment.

Benzo's will ease any anxiety (including mine), but be careful with them. Some doctors will prescribe them, and you can easily become dependent on them.  Then you'll find most doctors won't prescribe them, and get to go through hell 10x worse than your normal anxiety, withdrawals.

Make sure you have a good diagnosis before you get treatment. And don't dismiss therapy (CBT, or other behavioral).  Therapy is more work, but it is more effective if you can stick with it, and you won't be on pills forever.  I would view pills as a crutch to help you succeed at therapy, not a fix in and of themselves.

Then again, I'm no doctor, so you should ask your doctor for sure. Actually, ask a few different doctors if you can.

P.S. Also good luck.  It seems almost everyone nowadays suffers from some mental illness, anxiety or depression in particular.  It really has started to make me wonder.