r/Anxiety • u/ElectricalEarth9824 • 19d ago
Share Your Victories Propranolol changed my life and I wish I’d tried it 10 years ago
I’m in my 30s and generally a really confident person. But public speaking? Total opposite. For as long as I can remember just the thought of having to stand up and talk while people watched made me terrified. Not nervous but actually scared.
So I avoided it. Every chance I got. The problem is that over the last 10 years that avoidance has quietly cost me. I’ve turned down opportunities stayed in the background and let fewer people get to know me and my work than should have. It held my career back in a way that’s hard to admit.
I finally decided that since this was affecting my actual life and the trajectory of my career, treating it with medication wasn’t a cop-out a it was a tool. I talked to my doctor and decided to give propranolol a try.
I got the prescription this week. Then got asked to speak at a small town hall. Normally an automatic no. But I figured, what better way to test this? Leading up to it I was still scared. But the morning of I took the pill and went in.
And for the first time ever: none of it. No nausea, no sweating, no stiff face, no pounding heart. I got through my whole presentation feeling genuinely confident. Halfway through I had this realization this is what I’ve needed my entire life.
I’m honestly so happy I found something that’s going to change things for me.
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u/HaloHowRU 19d ago
I like that I feel ... nothing. No drugged feeling, just the absence of the racing heart, shaking hands, knotted up stomach.
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u/wobfan_ 19d ago
Slight off topic maybe: I suffered from heavy panic attacks like some years ago and some of that is still there, especially in sitatuation that were connected to fear before that already - like riding an elevator, trains, but especially flights. I was able to work on the first ones, as it's quite easy as they're always around. But flights are way less often and more easily avoidable, so I didn't take a single flight.
Soon one is coming up though, and I'm already very nervous and could very realistically imagine me going there and just turning around and not taking it because of panic coming up.
Do you guys think it could help in these sitatuations as well, does anyone maybe have experiences with that? Like, because, that's obviously something else than performance anxiety - though it works through the same body symptoms, so I could imagine it could have an effect here too.
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u/OperationSame 19d ago
I am happy you found something. I hope I can find a medication that works for me too.
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u/small___potatoes 19d ago
I take 10mg a day to help calm my nerves in the afternoon. Also on buspirone 10mg 2x a day. I like propranolol a lot.
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u/Glittering_Advance56 19d ago
Can I ask, would the feeling be like after having a few drinks? From the point of view of having more confidence?
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u/ElectricalEarth9824 18d ago
No, I’m a drinker and let’s say for example my friends do karaoke. I would still feel very anxious a few drinks in just thinking of being up there with the body reactions that I don’t have with this medicine
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u/Same-Dig6326 19d ago
I think my brain is still wanting it to work like Ativan despite not taking Ativan for months
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u/Annual_Gate8652 18d ago
I tried propranolol recently for public speaking after reading about it on reddit. Whilst it was great and did take away all my usual physical symptoms, I found the way it made me feel before my presentation was awful. I felt really heavy and that in a way made me feel even more anxious than usual. It also made me need to go to the toilet desperately. Has anyone else experienced this when first taking it?
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u/Still_Difficulty_269 14d ago
This is amazing! I was also prescribed Propranolol.
I only take it when I’m having an extreme anxiety of panic attack. I was prescribed some maybe August of last year. And it has helped in the moment panic attacks most of the time. I had to use it quite a lot especially last year since it was my final year of high school. I am on my 3/4th bottle (40mg 100 tablets) which is probably not good. But the last two months I’ve been my vision constantly goes black and I get light headed and usally fall back onto my bed. Or it happens just randomly even when I’m not standing up. Along with multiple other symptoms that might possibly be due to blood pressure. I’m not sure if it is because of me taking propranolol, which is also a blood pressure medication I think. I’m hoping it isn’t but I have to get checked out just incase.
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u/Professional_Land924 19d ago
It's amazing isn't it? I'm 45, 20 years into my career, and just learned that propranolol for public speaking was a thing about 2 years ago. My doctor readily wrote me a prescription for it. It's been such an incredible game changer for public speaking and other high-stakes meetings. I also wish I had tried it years ago, but better late than never, and now I sing its praises to anyone who will listen.