Anxiety is a major problem for most of the urban life folk and it shows up every so often when there is a crucial step that lies ahead. This can be simple things such as the first day of school to more complicated ones like getting medical results when you were almost sure there was something wrong with you. Because of this, there are medications that have been developed to help deal with anxiety attacks. The question that remains in the long run is, can you take anxiety medication without a doctor’s recommendation?

One would feel the need to rush to a pharmacy and get the drugs when they know that they are going to get overly expectant during some periods but it still puzzles people if taking anxiety medication over the counter is safe. The market offers a variety and you need to be able to take precaution when choosing the right one.

The truth about anxiety medication is, some of them are addictive and cause withdrawal symptoms when intake is ceased abruptly. That means with the freedom to order this over the counter, you can easily get addicted to them and that is by no way solving the anxiety disorder problem, only accelerating it since continued intake even when the anxiety is not prevalent will create resistance and the effectiveness of the drugs will be reduced.

So should you take anxiety medication without first getting a second opinion from your doctor? The answer is possibly no. There are different levels of anxiety attacks and some medications are stronger than others. In the natural, a person without medical knowledge may not know how to tell them apart and that is why the doctor is needed. Besides, you need to know the anxiety disorder that you have before you go on trying to treat it yourself. Some of the anxiety medications have some side effects that you may not like so much and you need to discuss this with your physician. Your medical history also comes to the spotlight here and some of the medication may not be meant for someone with a history such as yours. That too needs to be confirmed by a medical practitioner.

All this is not to say that anxiety medication is the only way to approach the problem- on the contrary. In fact, drugs should be taken with the promise of addressing the root of the anxiety and not really to provide short-lived results. Learning how to relax and have a breathing pattern greatly helps in combating anxiety and it has been used for the longest time now. Avoiding caffeine and living positively in general terms also help in getting you to the anxiety free life. As much as anxiety medication is encouraged (with a doctor’s prescription of course) especially for the severe cases, it is not a long terms solution.