I am using one and it helps immensely with anxiety. I started experiencing freezing, but not your regular run of the mill three second start hesitation, no mine started off as freezing blocks lasting anywhere from a half hour to two hours depending on where I was.

I didn't know what was happening to me, but neither did my MDS. I went to an endocrinologist, to a new GP who wanted me screened for some rare, scary forms of endocrine cancer, and talked to my OB-GYN who was the only doctor who thought it sounded like Thyrotoxic Periodic-Paralysis. In the end, my GP and OB-GYN were the only ones to probe and think outside the box and order further tests or offer to test my potassium levels during an episode of weakness. I really thought I had a separate endocrine issue and then realized after researching that I was having panic attacks which I think triggers the freezing or is it the other way around? The drug that stops the symptoms of thyrotoxic periodic paralysis? beta-blockers

The question is what triggers what? Are they still two distinct things? I will say that the freezing that occurs in both feels quite different. A stress or anxiety induced PD freeze is more like my muscles locking up and legs shaking. It lasts a few seconds. The other, episodic freezing is like profound loss of muscle tone and feels more like what I would imagine true paralysis to feel like.

On a happy note, I can back Rick and say that a beta blocker works. I tried Klonopin but it didn't seem to help with reducing the panic attacks. I take 5 to 10 mg of Propanolol daily as needed and it helps immensely. An extra bonus, is that you can fight this without a drug. I have been seeing a Cognitive Behavioral Therapist and essentially been slowly reversing the negative feedback loop that adds fuel to the fire. I have greatly reduced the episodic blocks or freezes and all but eliminated the minor freezing at home. This is not to say that it is eradicated, but I wonder if stress triggering our adrenals does not account for variability or subtypes in PD? Is it a sign that our endocrine system plays a part in the etiology of PD? Or is this yet another sign of dopamine dysregulation? Or maybe all three of these?

Laura