"i take 100mg as a prn for extreme anxiety/panic attacks. it works almost as well as ativan but without the unfortunate inevitability of building up a tolerance that happens with taking benzos.the only downside is that my insurance doesn&#039;t cover it while it does cover ativan, otherwise i would just switch over completely.

the sensation is a bit different than using benzos to stop a panic attack. where ativan will work very quickly in 20-30 minutes tops and smother and separate you from the sensation of panic in your chest, with hydroxyzine it takes about 45 minutes and the way the anxiety slowly petering-out sort of creeps up on you. you have to be more patient which can be awful when you&#039;re panicking but the end result is nearly identical."