Question: Hello, I hope you can help me today. First of all, allow me to provide you with some background information. I have suffered from severe social anxiety disorder and depression for approximately 10 years. I first saw a doctor for treatment for my social anxiety approximately 3 years ago. And I currently am now seeing a psychiatrist. The drugs that I have tried so far (that I can remember) include: Escitalopram, Sertraline, Citalopram, Propranolol (a low dose), Venlafaxine and Mirtazapine. None of these had any effect on my social anxiety or depression at all! Lately, I have been seeing a psychiatrist, and I have been taking Nardil. (I specificially asked the psychiatrist if I could have Nardil as I had read extensively on the internet how Nardil was the “gold standard” for social anxiety disorder. And I also hoped it would help my depression.) I currently am in my second week of taking 105mg Nardil daily, and so far have not felt any benefit from it (for my social anxiety or my depression). As I hope you can understand, I feel very annoyed that I cannot find a drug that seems to help me with my social anxiety or depression. If I had my way (and I have asked my doctor and psychiatrist for this), I would be taking a benzodiazepine. Benzos seem to be the only drugs that are guaranteed to provide a person with social anxiety disorder with any relief. From what I remember, my doctor and psychiatrist did not want to prescribe me with a benzo due to the fact they can be addictive and you build tolerance to them. Due to the fact that I am not a expert in pharmacology, I don’t know what to say to them in return, but I am sure that there must be ways around tolerance and addicitiveness! Unless I am wrong and everybody in the World that takes a benzo for anxiety is addicted and has built up a high tolerance (which I doubt!). Am I not correct in saying that it IS possible to take a benzo without you building up tolerance and becoming addicted? (For example, can’t you cycle a benzo with a different drug to prevent tolerance, and if you only take a benzo pill once per week, you won’t build tolerance - right?) At the moment, it looks as if Nardil isn’t going to help me (and it will prove to be yet another drug that hasn’t helped me). Should I bother to continue taking Nardil for a few more weeks and possibly increase the dose to the maximum of 120mg when I haven’t noticed any benefit from it so far? In other words, if I haven’t experienced any benefit from it by now, am I wasting my time sticking with it and increasing the dose to the maximum? I have been looking on the internet lately for other drugs that I could take that are supposed to be effective for social anxiety and depression. I want to find the most effective social anxiety and depression drugs available for myself and then specifically ask my doctor/psychiatrist for them because I do not have any faith in the competance of my doctor or psychiatrist. I believe that if I allowed them to decide what drugs I should take, I would never get cured from my mental problems! So, having looked on the internet, I notice there a lot of different drugs available for my mental problems, including: Parnate, Clonidine, Inderal, Adderall, Lyrica, Wellbutrin, Vyvanse, Symbyax, Serzone and TCA’s. Are you familiar with any of these drugs, and would you recommend any of them for social anxiety or depression? And aside from these drugs, please tell me what drugs you would recommend that I take to get rid of my social anxiety and depression? Apologies for writing so much. Thank you in advance.