Posted by JohnX on March 8, 2001, at 8:52:43
In reply to Re: OVERCOMING ANXIETY, hope my story can help!, posted by Miss Amy on March 7, 2001, at 15:48:57
> I can totally relate to being afraid to get into therapy. My fear was that it would not work and I would be S.O.L. and living in constant fear the rest of my life. BUT that was the ONLY thing that ended up working! I am so hypersensitive to drugs that any and all side effects only made my panic worse--it was the congitive therapy that helped more than anything. The whole "So what if I am going to feel like crap...that does not mean I can't get out of bed this morning" or "Nothing lasts forver, including nasty feelings of going crazy!" My grandmother and Mother have both suffered from panic at different points of their life, way before therapy and meds were an option (besides "mother's little helper"). i was told to "white-knuckle it" and grin and bear it, but of course that was nearly impossible. But learning to re-route my thoughts and accept the things I could not change, seemed to free me of the whole ordeal. It's the serenity prayer. I still have days where I feel a little funky sometimes, but they are far and few between. I just posted an email similar to this advising that anyone with panic should definitely be in therapy if they are going to to take meds, and learn that cognitive therapy--holy cow after awhile it really works. The joy is knowing you have strength within yourself to heal. You learn that you don't have to depend on anything else but yourself. Don't get me wrong, i am taking serzone for my depression (panic is generally a side effect of that) but learning coping skills is what really did it for me. I have lots of friends suffering from panic, and it is those that have gone through the cognitive therapy that are no longer on medication. I have been on serzone for about three months, but i have not had a full blown panic attack in two or three years. Since we are sharing stories, I thought I'd throw one in! Good luck to everyone overcoming panic! My prayers are with you!
> P.S. make sure you are educating yourself on panic---like dsmark is saying--he read and researched to find out what was going on. learning about WHY your body is having all those funky symptoms (mine were numbness in my arms and hands and back of head, tunnel vision, feelings of going crazy, nausea, diarrhea, dry mouth, heart palpatations, tight chest, loss of breath.......the list goes on.) As soon as I started reading about WHY my body was reacting this way.....the symptoms started to disappear. ALL THEY ARE IS YOUR BODIES WAY OF DEALING WITH STRESS. I thought for sure I was going nuts. Looking back, I can read my list of symptoms and think "Going nuts feels nothing like that."
Same experience. My #1 concern about going to therapy was that it wouldn't work and then I would feed more hopeless than before I went to therapy. Unfortuantely I went through therapy many years ago and it did not help and it did make me feel more helpless. Many years later when I had a major depressive replace, I was given an anti-depressant for the 1st time and I could not believe how much better I felt (much better than therapy). After learning about anxiety and depression and looking at my family tree, it was clear that I could be genetically prone to both. The conditions under which I trigger into a slump are usually psychological situations. So I do believe that therapy can help me, because if I can learn mental "tools" to avoid the psychological stress, then I may not trigger those genetic genes that lead to the slumps.Best to all.
John
poster:JohnX
thread:55802
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010302/msgs/55912.html