Posted by Theona on February 5, 2003, at 21:32:46
In reply to New lex user, posted by Chuck2112 on February 5, 2003, at 11:21:23
> I am new to anti-d's. I am self diagnosed as having general anxiety disorder. This seems to have been building ever since I had a child while trying to finish college some years ago. 3 years ago i was divorced, happily i might add, and i noticed a difference in my behavior when I had trouble making ordinary conversation with old friends, i just thought i was growing different. Well i got fed up with it and dedided to work on my skills, and started pushing myself into more social situations and trying to get outside myself. I made some progress, but always felt something holding me back and couldnt figure out what it was. Shortly after, I fell into a slump that I didnt recognize as depression or anxiety, i thought it would pass. Well it didnt, finally i did the same and decided again to work through it, and again made progress, but was always held back, this time though things got real bad. I was finding myself with aching back, aching legs, just tensse all the time with no real reason to be.
>
> I would sometimes get sweaty hands, didnt want to do anything. Had a hard time even forcing myself out the house, and sometimes just drove around town aimlessly, just looking for relief in anything. Never came. So i looked up anxiety and saw the symptoms and realized that this was my problem, so i tried to solve it on my own....didnt happen.....
>
> So i went to the doctor and he gave me some lexapro to try out.....
>
> I have been on it for 16 days now....i am feeling much better, i actually cooked a nice dinner last night, enjoyed the movie i watched, and put some clothes up.....
> i still feel a little detached, I was feeling detached before taking it too, it comes and goes in waves.....
> i have trouble getting to sleep sometimes, but once i fall asleep i stay asleep....
> no nauseous feeling or any other side affect, except with vision sometimes, not too bad though...
> i hoping it starts to work a little bit better in the next week or two, i feel a little better today....i take 10 mg a day
>
> to people who have experiences with this, do anti-d's help releive the detached feeling and depersonalized feelings that accompany anxiety and depression, and how for those feelings to start to subside?From Theona:
I am seeing your note about being self-diagnosed, and I guess I'm concerned about your not having supportive therapy along with the medication, if I am understanding you correctly. The medications can relieve physical symptoms, but it's really hard to be objective about complex behaviors we have developed to cope with the symptoms for so long. Even an amicable divorce is a trauma in life, and traumas can make existing tendencies worse. Getting guidance on the healing process can insure a more steady climb out of the hole. When we are alone, very alone, it is hard to see what we are doing that's odd or different, except what's pronounced.
I've done the medication route without therapy in the past, but recovery was not lasting. I thought if the high anxiety and chronic depression were gone, I'd get on with life. But when symptoms returned when I'd go off and on medications, I didn't have a "plan," so to speak. I want to make steady progress. I know I don't see myself objectively. So I am in my 3rd week, working with a cognitive behavioral therapist, an am surprised, already, to learn how little I have been dealing with feelings because I have been "coping" on my own for so long. Additionally, the therapist works closely with a medicating psychiatrist so that my dosage and effectiveness of Lexapro can be evaluated.
Before, I have worked with my famiily doctor, who is brilliant, funny, concerned, and just the best. But these drugs for depression, anxiety and conditions like OCD are not his daily bread.
I would have diagnosed myself as primarily having high anxiety, too, 4 years ago, but now I know it's OCD. Getting a good, professional diagnosis can mean getting the right help, holistically, and getting better in a lasting way.
I hear all of you say, "I want to feel normal." Me too. Now, on Lexapro for a week, I am not having side effects, but I moved to it from being on Celexa for 4 months. On Lexapro, I no longer have 2 hours of nausea a day. It still remains to be seen if the dose is right for the anxiety and obsessing. The compulsions are reducing. I am working more even-paced throughout the day at work. I suspect I will eventually be moved to 20mg of Lexapro.
How do they know when you are on too high a dose of an SSRI? What happens?
Theona
poster:Theona
thread:109458
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030204/msgs/139707.html