Anxiety

I have been reading 180 for a long time, its my go to place for health information. I have not restricted my diet in any way for over a year. Generally I feel pretty good. My weight is leveled off (tho still above what I would like). My main issue is anxiety. I have always had it, it is usually at a manageable level, but its always a nuisance.

I recently had an accident where I broke my ankle pretty bad, was in the hospital a few weeks, needed surgery, and was on heavy pain meds. I think this has stressed (obviously) my body a lot. Now my anxiety seems to be worse then before. It is much less manageable. I also was recently on two rounds of antibiotics for recurring UTI’s and I had terrible side effects from them. They increased my anxiety tremendously. I had my first panic attack and several of them with in the time span of 4 or so days. I got off the antibiotic, but am still having anxiety. I am needing to take xanax, not much, just at night. But my Dr would like me to take lexepro an SSRI. I really don’t want to. I don’t want the xanax either. But When taking the xanax I slept (the first few days) better then I had in literally YEARS. But now I already am noticing its not helping with sleep anymore.

I was reading up on serotonin before I decide what to do about the antidepressants, and read that too much serotonin can also cause anxiety. So I was thinking about taking some BCAA supplements to see if those help. My thought was, if they make it better then I must have too much serotonin and if they worsen it then I must need more. Is this simplifying it way too much?

I just would like some practical advice, and I think this is the best place to get it. Also, I am not really interested in getting anything overseas that isn’t approved in the US. I cant remember the name but I read a few posts about it on here, I would like to avoid that if possible as it seems pretty similar to SSRI drugs.