r/BusparOnline

I had it in my head I was starting this med today and I found myself here in a rabbit hole and not taking it. I was going to start at 2.5 mg. Has anyone started at this dose and had bad side effects. I took one pill of buspar back in 2021 I think and I don’t remember feeling anything crazy just calm I didn’t take anymore because it didn’t last that long and I didn’t realize it takes a while to work consistently. But please anyone who has tried a baby dose like 2.5 can you please tell me if it is a good place to start I am med sensitive and I am tired of all of this anxiety.

I’ve gotten as far as picking up the medication but I’m scared to do it. My doctor said I should give 5 mg 2x/day a try, and I ironically think my constant what ifs about side effects and negative reactions kind of point to just why I should be giving it a try, but mentally it’s a huge hurdle.

My mom has had bad anxiety my entire life and swears by her Buspar. When I was married I let myself get pressured into trying Prozac and absolutely hated it and got off it almost immediately. I’m scared of side effects like even more erratic anxiety, mood swings (in my job that’s very front facing that just…isn’t an option), the dreaded brain zaps, weight gain, more tiredness (I’m in a really bad loop of anxiety > insomnia, and while I’m waiting for sleep study results I’m not sure if it’s wise to throw new medication into the mix), and so on. But at the same time my baseline anxiety is so high I just can’t sleep or focus and I’ve tried so much therapy and techniques but my body is on a whole other ball game.

I guess I’m just looking for support and advice. Should I just break it up into 2 halves instead of the whole 5? Should I give it more time before trying it? Has it been worth it for you? I’m gonna check this in the morning and I’m trying to decide if I’m ready to try it now or wait a little longer.

I began taking the medication in March at 5 mg twice a day and only had some busy feeling the first week then after a month I started getting the dizzy feeling again sometimes with my morning dose, but not the afternoon. The last couple weeks I have increased it to 7.5 twice a day due to feeling some more anxiety symptoms yesterday I took my medication the usual time in the morning and had just to breakfast sausages plus coffee. I went to work and felt a little queasy and drank some ginger tea. Just assuming maybe it was because I only had coffee and something that is more fatty. I felt fine after the tea and going to the bathroom and even felt hungry for lunch so I had some blackberries then I went to go pick up my lunch, which was a wrap. I was really excited to get back to the office so I can eat because of how hungry I felt. Maybe I ate too fast, but after eating I continuously got waves of nausea. I tried drinking some peppermint tea to relieve it, but it just felt so overpowering along with smelling the food that other people were warming up in the office making it worse so I went home and finished the day from there. I felt fine at home but all evening I didn’t have any hunger feelings. I still ate dinner because, at this point, I’m definitely under 1,000 calories for the day. I had a small salad, salmon and sweet potato. I didn’t feel nauseous again, but I just didn’t feel anything at all. I slept through the night and in the morning (today) can feel the warm feeling of hunger but not the actual hunger cue. I took my medication I didn’t get to have breakfast because I needed to take my dog to the vet and now just don’t have any feeling of hunger.

Other things, I was having small burps throughout the day and some pain in my upper abdomen kind of below/in between the ribs which I know can be gas pain.

Anyone else suddenly develop this after multiple months on it? I’m thinking maybe to bring it back down to 5mg to see if I get my hunger back?

Also starting in the med, the first month I’d sometimes notice heartburn after certain meals. But it slowly subsided.

I have been struggling with anxiety most of my life now I am a 48 year old woman with perimenopause and anxiety and I have a bottle of buspar that my dr says will help I am really scared and crying as I type this because I don’t know who I am anymore and I want my life back please someone tell me a good story about this medication because I need to know that I have a chance to feel better. Because I am at my wits end.

Anyone else start super slow and low due to bad past experiences with SSRI and other meds? Started week 1 on 2.5mg once a day. My second week started yesterday with 2.5mg twice a day.

Is this counter productive? Just don’t want to have that super activated feeling aka intense anxiety while starting. I already have trouble sleeping. I don’t need help in that area lol.

I've been on Buspar since April 15th. I took 5mg for 3 weeks and then started taking 20mg. So I've been on 20mg for 9-10 days. I'm trying Buspar for social anxiety that I have had my entire life. I haven't noticed a single improvement yet and I'm feeling worried that it won't work. It seems like other people on here had it work in 2 weeks. Is my experience abnormal? Do I need to up my dose again? I have pretty severe social anxiety to the point where I avoid jobs so my worry is that this medication isn't strong enough for me. However ssri's give me extreme back pain, Buspar is the only medication so far that has 0 side effects for me. When I realized I had no side effects I was so relieved, but it is yet to work...

Update~ I tried last night 8 pm and in 30 mins, I naturally was sleepy so I slept well. Also I took 2nd pill 8 am today and I’m a little drowsy in 3 hours of taking a pill. I don’t see any special side effect yet.

i read a bit about this before I started, but it's been crazy to experience. i've been a heavy marijuana user for over a decade, and while i've been able to take breaks before and have never had withdrawals, i've also never felt ambivalent about consuming THC. it's always been a crutch, and the habit has been so engrained that smoking felt as normal and expected as brushing my teeth.

but i genuinely do not feel like smoking now. the effect was near-immediate—i realized a few days in that i had only smoked a couple times since starting, and i never had more than a couple hits of a joint. it wasn't some big revelation, either... just more of a "meh" feeling. i truly can't believe this. by this point in the day, i'd have had two joints.

drinking has never been a huge problem for me, but in the last year, it became one. i was drinking alone at home most nights. not to the point of getting drunk, but enough to the point that i craved both booze and the routine.

i stopped drinking immediately. i noticed this before i noticed i hadn't been smoking. that first night, i started feeling sick about 3-4 sips into my drink, to the point that i poured the rest of it out. same deal every time since. i haven't had more than two drinks, total, in the last week. both were poured by friends, and i didn't finish them. i haven't smoked weed since saturday, but even then, i felt off when i did, i.e. i didn't want to be high at all. and i'm a person who has always had a phenomenally strong tolerance for weed.

i'm not going to delude myself into thinking it's Just That Easy to quit an addictive substance. my dad died of alcoholic cirrhosis—i grew up seeing the effects of addiction on the brain and body. but holy crap, the lack of desire to imbibe in anything is flooring me. if nothing else, this has kickstarted quitting for me. shocked this hasn't been studied more!

I only have 3 days left of my buspirone. I take 15mg 2x daily.

I reached out to my psychiatrist and she said she requires an appointment in order to refill. So I'll run out of my meds before I'm able to get a refill.

Is this standard procedure? I feel like its not right that they would let me run out of my meds like this.

Started off at 5mg twice a day. After taking the first dose I noticed feeling calm, quieter mind, didn’t feel as stressed.

It’s been about a week now and I’m feeling the effects fade, I have an appointment with my psychiatrist this week but wanted to ask those felt immediate benefits, did you stay at your current dose or actually increase the dose?

I wanted to know how hard or easy was your withdrawal on Buspar? For me it’s pure hell. I have been on it for 2 months at 15 mg per day total and experienced panic attacks and depressive symptoms which I never had before. I am now at 1 month in my taper at 7.5 mg per day. I had great day while on my taper at, symptoms come in waves. I can feel perfectly fine one moment and intense anxiety and agitation an other moment. I can’t wait for it to be over and never touching psych med again after that.

In the last 2 days I have just been so anxious. Please tell me it passes. how long does it take to set in. I have propranolol and stuff but it wears off after a while. I'm also losing my appetite

I 35M, was on Zoloft for years. I’ve been off of it for 7 months now. I noticed a slight improvement in libido when I came off of it. My genitals are no longer numb. I was also on Wellbutrin for a while too, but been off of it for about four months now. I experienced some anal aches when coming off of Wellbutrin. It improved, but for some reason the past few weeks the anal ache has come back.

Now I’m wondering if Buspirone is the reason my libido and emotional blunting are not fully improving as it is the last medication I am on. I’m on it for anxiety. I’ve suffered from depression, anxiety, and OCD all my life, but SSRIs ruined my libido and gave me emotional blunting, so I’m never going back on those. I was under the understanding that Buspirone would not cause any negative sexual side effects or emotional blunting, but now I’m wondering, is Buspirone the reason I am still experiencing negative sexual side effects and emotional blunting? Anyone else?

I started BuSpar last night and in two hours take my 2nd pill but im weary about taking it.. unfortunately I found a thread of people sharing their bad side effects which i regret reading and it scared me so bad that now im not sure if what im feeling is anxiety from reading that or from the med

So with that.. maybe hearing some different experiences might help?

I want this to work cause my anxiety keeps me locked in my house and Ive failed every other med but hearing that some people stayed nauseated and very dizzy and that it didnt go away until stopping the med is really scaring me.

I have emetephobia as well and would rather not puke from this med or have permanent dizziness.

I’ve been on 10mg Buspar twice a day for about 2 weeks now, and honestly the difference has been pretty wild so far. I suddenly have a crazy amount of energy, my appetite actually came back, and I can finally sit down and focus on things again like playing guitar instead of constantly feeling mentally scattered.

The weird part is the dreams. They’re insanely vivid and bizarre every single night. Not exactly nightmares, just really intense and realistic.

Before this I had to stop Luvox for OCD because it completely killed my appetite and had me nauseous literally all day for over a month.

Has anyone else had Buspar give them this much energy or vivid dreams? Did the dreams calm down over time?

I started buspar 7 days ago. The past 3 days my intrusive thoughts have been very loud and they actually had calmed down and started back up after taking medications, can something happen to me if I just stopped it after 7 days ? 5 MG twice a day

I just started Buspar at 5mg twice a day once after breakfast and once after lunch 8 hours later. For you who take/have taken Buspar, what was your dose? Did you titrate at the start? If so, how?

I have started taking 5mgx3 daily for 10 days, it already started helping my mood however it made my sleep quality terrible, I am half awake half asleep during the night and I toss and turn around countleess times during my sleep. Does it ever go away pr get better?

Around a year ago I was prescribed buspar after a steroid shot sent me into psychosis and I got EXTREME anxiety and panic attacks. I was immediately started on 10 mg buspar 2x daily. Over time I noticed my anxiety got smaller but was still there just not all day everyday. But a negative was that I was always very irritable. Everything got on my nerves and because I don't respond well to negative emotions (I also have harm OCD and issues with emotional regulation), I wanted to see if upping it would help with that or just coming off entirely and learning how to manage anxiety through exposure instead. My doctor didn't want to go the exposure route and instead decided to up my dose to 15 mg 2x daily (which I have been on now for a month and a half).

The first week was pretty rough as I had increased anxiety and worry. I know this is normal when upping or lowering medications so I didn't focus too much on it. I did notice my irritability levels were also lower. However, around a week ago, I got suddenly irritated for two days straight at EVERY SINGLE THING. Following those two days I started to feel nothing. Now, 5 days later (5 days following the irritable days), I have noticed that I am incredibly emotionally blunted and completely spacey in the head. I feel like I can't think about things properly and while I have noticed more energy, I don't appreciate feeling nothing. I feel almost zombie like. It feels like i'm just existing and standing in the middle still while everything around me moves fast. I even called off work because I was worried I was disconnecting from myself.

Unfortunately I can not talk to my doctor anymore as my insurance won't cover that company so now I am in with a new one but I can't meet with their psychiatrist for another month and a half. I started to go back down to 10 mg 2x daily yesterday and I am worried about how this is making me feel. I don't feel anxious but I also don't feel anything at all when I feel like I should.

Did anyone else experience this? Is this normal? What advice do you have about getting through this?

I’m taking buspirone for anxiety/panic/health anxiety. I took it for about 7 weeks and increased the dose irregularly: 2.5 mg, 5 mg, 7.5 mg, 10 mg and finally around 15 mg daily for about 5 days. During that time, I had no improvement in my anxiety, mainly just sleep problems.

Then I stopped it abruptly for about 3–4 days. On day 3/4, I suddenly developed strong depressive mood, increased anxiety, intrusive suicidal thoughts without intent, hopelessness, derealization/unreal feelings and strong mood swings.

After that I restarted inconsistently: about 7 days with changing doses between 5 and 20 mg, then 8 days on 10 mg, 10 days on 7.5 mg, 1 day on 6.25 mg, and now about 8–9 days on 5 mg daily, split into 2.5 mg morning and 2.5 mg evening. This whole state has now been going on for about 5 weeks.

I feel like every dose reduction made things worse. Especially since being on 5 mg, my sleep problems, early waking, racing thoughts, emotional numbness, derealization/depersonalization, anxiety, brain fog, head pressure/headaches and depressive feelings have gotten stronger.

Before buspirone, I had never felt like this and never had these depressive/depression-like symptoms. I already saw my GP, but he referred me to a psychiatrist; my appointment is only in about 3 weeks. I honestly don’t want to take buspirone anymore.

Has anyone experienced this with buspirone or after abruptly stopping/restarting it, even at low doses? And why could every dose reduction make it feel worse instead of better????