Posted by bella007 on May 5, 2001, at 14:19:04
In reply to Re: Question for mila, posted by mila on May 5, 2001, at 8:35:37
> hi bella, GOOD MORNING!
>
> Paxil was exceptionally good for my social anxiety, it affected my memory (blunted the emotional component of it), and allowed me to recall past events without bitter or hurt feelings attached. I quit it for the same reason: it affected my memory. I am a university student and risking my recall is not something i was willing to do.
>
> what worked for me? (thank GOD, my social anxiety is GONE, FAREWELL, SOCIAL ANXIETY...:))) Staying on SSRIs for almost a year helped. despite their individual and indesirable side effects, they all were silently working on the background, and gave my starving brain a break, and gave it a chance to repair itself in the serotonin abundant environment. I feel so healthy now, so great! ( I've been off the pills for what, 3-4 weeks now)
>
> addressing specifically my social functioning was very helpful. learning to move away from habitual 'how all these people can harm me' thinking into 'how all these people are good to be with' thinking was really helpful. People ARE a threat, People ARE a promise of being punished ( physically, emotionally, etc. relationships are always pregnant with promise of dissatisfaction, frustration, and dissappointment, you know), but people are also delicious to be with. They offer gentle stroking touch, they offer sex, they offer good food and drink to share, they offer interesting conversations and answer to our questions, they offer many rewards and promises of rewards. The trick is to stay aware of all four motivations being with a person or with a new person affords me. I found that working on my dreams one at a time really helped me to focus on one area of my social funcioning at a time.
>
> love
> milaThanks mila, I really appreciate you taking time out to answer my questions. You have actually given me hope for the first time in a while. Congrats on over coming your anxiety, and good luck in the future. Oh, and I have tried Paxil, but it also affected my memory and concentration, which was not good for my severe case of ADHD. It also caused me to gain weight, so I decided to stop taking it.
poster:bella007
thread:61630
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010424/msgs/61703.html