Anxiety and mental disorder is perhaps one of the most common conditions that greatly impact people on planet earth. On this point, the United States becomes the clear winner with more than 40 million people between the ages of 18 and beyond being affected by anxiety disorders. Hence it’s an involved and challenging question which you should try to know and understand. Read on so you can further enlighten your mind from this article.

Focusing on one drug medication

If you really want to come to grips with accurate and concise information about a particular drug medication, the best thing to do is to zoom in on only one of them and extract the most effective and interesting information on it.

 Let’s have a go at Hydroxyzine using this approach and see what we can come up with.

Hydroxyzine, generally speaking is simply an antihistamine that’s quite similar to drug medications Benadryl and Zyrtec.

These medications, like our hydroxyzine are used for treating allergic symptoms and the common cold involving runny noses and watery eyes that constantly itch.

While we are free to liken Hydroxyzine with these other medications as being of the same category, it does have very distinct and unique features which we will endeavor to provide more details on later.

Essentially, we’ll be discussing Hydroxyzine in the light of it being the ideal medication for anxiety which sets it apart from the other medications mentioned here.

Another unique feature about Hydroxyzine over the other two drug treatments is that it can only be available under prescription and as such is not available over-the-counter or OTC.

As far as our Hydroxyzine is concerned, two versions of the same active ingredient (hydroxyzine) are available on the market and being versatile, these two versions are available in both brand and generic forms and are both prescribed in the same manner for the treatment anxiety.

How does hydroxyzine work its way into anxiety to quell it?

The amazing thing is that even the researchers are left speechless when faced with this question. Actually they don’t really know exactly how drug medication hydroxyzine does its job while it traverses the human mind and body to get at anxiety and calm it down.

Nevertheless, most healthcare providers such as doctors, pharmacists and others have reached a consensus that in actual fact, hydroxyzine alters the impact patterns or 2 chemicals in the body. These two chemicals are histamine and serotonin.

As mentioned earlier, being an antihistamine, hydroxyzine actually blocks the effects of histamine found in our body thereby causing us to feel sleepy.

Understandably, the process only repeats itself when Benadryl or Nyquil are taken because you also become sleepy.  Going further, the chemical serotonin has the ability to impact your mood and hydroxyzine commands a unique effect on serotonin.

This has led many medical experts to reach the conclusion that this may be the reason why hydroxyzine is the only antihistamine that’s used for the treatment of anxiety.

Even though there’s little doubt among medical experts that the versatility of hydroxyzine enables it to treat a variety of anxiety issues, it’s most often used to deal with generalized anxiety disorder or GAD.

Is there a special way for taking hydroxyzine?

Many articles have been written about the need for taking anxiety medications on a regular basis if they are to be effective. Needless to say, hydroxyzine possesses another unique feature that allows it to be taken whenever the need for taking it arises.

So far, you may be thinking that because of its effectiveness and diversity, hydroxyzine can effectively deal with anxiety problems on its own.

That’s strictly not the case since hydroxyzine is usually prescribed with another anxiety medication such as Buspar or Celexa which have to be taken every day to prevent the re-emergence of anxiety symptoms.

So every need is covered by taking hydroxyzine on its own when an anxiety symptom appears and by taking Buspar or Celexa to prevent the anxiety symptom to re-emerge after a spell of absence.

Similar to all other prescribed drug medications, you should take hydroxyzine strictly in conformity with the direction provided by your healthcare provider.

You should therefore make sure that you follow the instructions inscribed on your prescription label. Typically, the dose for an adult is 50 mg to 100 mg taken up to 4 times every day with or without food.

How long before hydroxyzine starts working?

The answer to this much asked question is that hydroxyzine can commence its work almost immediately with some users feeling it kick start within 30 minutes of being taken.

From accounts provided by other users the drug treatment’s maximum effect can be felt around the 2 hours mark after being ingested.

While being appreciative of knowing how fast the drug treatment works, one also needs to keep in mind that just a breadth away are the side effects that can also be felt just as quickly.

So what are the most common side effects of Hydroxyzine?

The onslaught of side effects from drug medications such as hydroxyzine should never be underestimated and constant reference to them should act as a constant reminder for avoiding them.

Compared to other drug medications, the side effects of hydroxyzine are mild and they included:

  • nausea
  • dizziness
  • sedation
  • dry mouth

The second and third side effects are reasons for concern especially since it’s impossible to avoid them because you need to take the drug mediation which can drastically affect your histamine levels. You should nevertheless prepare yourself and take the necessary precautions.

You should for instance avoid operating heavy equipment including driving a car after taking hydroxyzine and anything else that may cause you to feel sleepy or dizzy such as alcohol or other medications that have similar effects.

This is crucial during your first few times to take hydroxyzine so you can gauge the way your body reacts to the drug medication.

Bottom line

Anxiety is not a very comfortable condition to be in because it can affect the way you regard yourself and it can also determine the way you interrelate with others. However, in most cases, it’s very difficult to avoid due to the fast pace of life that people lead these days and the social pressures that affect our every life. But thanks to hydroxyzine a treatment is available for challenging a condition that can have crippling effects.