Hi,

This may seem unusual but here me out. I have come across a medication that helps the brain get rid of fears. It works by augmenting exposure therapy by repressing the fear response during exposure to a feared situation and at the same time reprograms the brain much faster than exposure alone, so that in other words the brain learns much quicker that the fear is unnecessary.

It is called cycloserine and is actually an antibiotic prescribed for tuberculosis, but also has this interesting effect. There are quite a few studies on it (try searching for it on pubmed.com). I'm tempted to buy some online (if you do make sure you talk to your doctor first). It should make getting over approach anxiety much less painful.

The studies I've seen show how people needed dramatically less exposure sessions when taking it than people who didn't take it and these changes were maintained a while after the exposure therapy. The study that would be most similar to approach anxiety is one that was conducted with people that have a fear odd public speaking.

There is actually medication to lower or get rid of anxiety. Why take an antibiotic?

Because the medication you are talking about works only as long as you take it. It has been shown in studies that if you come off it there is often/always a relapse back to the previous state of anxiety. Even if combining CBT/exposure therapy with medication, once mediation is stopped, anxiety levels incrase substantially. In other words it is a temporary measure. Cycloserine facilitates a permenant change in the brain when taken along with exposure therapy because it basically makes the brain rewire itself more easily in the area of fear conditioning.

"Exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), in which patients are repeatedly exposed to anxiogenic situations in the absence of any aversive consequences, has been quite successful in treating these disorders. CBT is procedurally similar to fear extinction in animals, in which a fearful stimulus also is exposed repeatedly without aversive events. Extinction does not erase the original fear memory but instead actively inhibits that memory. It is dependent on a protein called the NMDA receptor in brain areas such as the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex. A medication called D-cycloserine allows the NMDA receptor to work even better and it also facilitates fear extinction, especially when extinction is compromised following stress. However, it does not work when given alone, but only in combination with extinction training. "

A randomized controlled trial of D-cycloserine enhancement of exposure therapy for social anxiety disorder.
Guastella AJ, Richardson R, Lovibond PF, Rapee RM, Gaston JE, Mitchell P, Dadds MR.
Source

School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. a.guastella@unsw.edu.au
Abstract

BACKGROUND:
Pilot research has suggested that D-cycloserine (DCS) enhances SPAM outcomes for anxiety disorders when employed as an adjunct to exposure therapy (ET). The aim of this study was to determine whether 50 mg of DCS enhances ET for social anxiety disorder (SAD) according to a comprehensive set of symptom and life impairment measures.

METHODS:
In a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial, we administered 50 mg of DCS or placebo in combination with ET to 56 participants who met primary diagnosis for SAD.

RESULTS:
Participants administered DCS reported greater improvement on measures of symptom severity, dysfunctional cognitions, and life-impairment from SAD in comparison with placebo-treated participants. Effect sizes were mostly in the medium range. Results also indicated that the amount of adaptive learning about one's ability to give speeches in front of an audience interacted with DCS to enhance SPAM outcome.

CONCLUSIONS:
This study shows that the administration of DCS before ET enhances SPAM outcomes for SAD. Results also provide the first preliminary evidence to suggest that DCS moderates the relationship between a reduction in negative appraisals about one's speech performance and improvement in overall SAD symptoms.

To me, using antibiotics to treat approach anxiety is like using a chainsaw to slice bread.

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One of the most useful things you will ever learn about body language.

Some peoples bread is much harder than others though...In my view that metaphor should go like this: you could just hackaway at it with a knife and which will take ages (no meds) or use anti-anxiety meds (chainsaw), but using cycloserine is basically like throwing away that tough old loaf and buying pre-sliced.

If you can do approaches without any medication then great, but some people find it almost impossible though and so this is a way around that. And if you are going to use medication, why not use one that facilitates a permenant change in the brain rather than a temporary one?

Anyway, even if your approch anxiety isnt unbaeable, cycloserine will make it easier and speed up your reduction in approach anxiety. With very little side effects and risks, why wouldn't you use it?

Again, its temporary. Your slowing your brain down with alcohol to blunt the anxiety...I'd say this isn't unhealthy in itself as you would become reliant upon alcohol each time to reach this state. Much more healthy to train your brain not to be anxious any more, which is what this antibiotic helps with considerably.
Soundss like you do condone it actually. Anyway, again, its temporary. Your slowing your brain down with alcohol to blunt the anxiety...I'd say this isn't unhealthy in itself as you would become reliant upon alcohol each time to reach this state. Much more healthy to train your brain not to be anxious any more, which is what this antibiotic helps with considerably.

In terms of stuffing yourself...not really. You take one pill just before an exposure session and they recommend waiting at least a week between sessions because it doesnt work if tolerance builds up, which it does very quickly. Also the dose needed is 10% of the dose they use to treat tuburculosis. Also, you may need only a few sessions to considerably decrease anxiety permenantly (I read somewhere the number of exposure sessions needed in a study was 9 without cycloserine and only 2 with). I think given all this, you can hardly call it stuffing yourself, and there will not be much side effects..in fact theh studies showed very few side effects.

In terms of being healthier than alcohol....I think everyone knows how unhealthy alcoholol is.

In terms of being a shady medicine....why is it shady?
Well I think they do know...just have a look at some studies. Im not sure about long term effects but there were very few side effects at the dose I mentioned. Im not gonna do the research for you as I can't be bothered. This thread is merely meant to offer a possible solution..I havent tried it myself and maybe there
are long term effects, but I doubt it given the low dose needed and how infrequent and few doses are needed.
Your right it could be promotion. But it's not, I just thought I'd mention something that I've been looking into recently. If I post an affiliate link then you have every right not to trust me, but until then I don't see why you wouldn't.