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Comment by cj | Hacker News Reader

For performance anxiety, try asking a doctor for propranolol.

Propranolol blocks the physical symptoms of anxiety. It stops your hear rate and blood pressure from rising. It stops those uncomfortable adrenaline rushes. It stops stress-induced trembling / shaking.

It's completely safe, any doctor will happily prescribe it, it's not addicting, and unlike benzos, it doesn't affect your cognition.

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Thanks but I've tried beta blockers and a couple of SSRIs and diazepam is the only thing that touches my anxiety. When I walk in public the vigilance to perceived threat is is what I would expect walking through 1980s Beirut, it's a primitive fear response that manifests through symptoms that are more mental than physical in nature - heart rate and sweating in particular are issues but seem to me to be at the bottom of the chain.

How can it be "completely safe" if it's affecting your heart rate and blood pressure? Those are pretty basic systems to tamper with and altering them in ways contrary to what signals your brain is sending is inherently going against the normal functioning of your body.

Not sure how "Propranolol may cause heart failure in some patients" is considered safe.

And I’m not sure why propranolol would be continue to be prescribed, as it as been for 50+ years, for acute heart attacks if there was a substantial risk in the patients health deteriorating. It’s one of the oldest beta blockers in use.

Beta blockers block adrenaline, it's not particularly dangerous to do so.

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