Posted by mattdds on March 6, 2003, at 22:59:13
In reply to Attention MattDDS!!!, posted by Jack Smith on March 6, 2003, at 18:43:52
Jack,
What I meant by that is, although my anxiety fluctuated a lot, I never had any behavioral disturbances that would have indicated anything near traditional mania.
My point was that some pdocs may well have diagnosed bipolar II, perhaps because that diagnosis seems to overlap a lot with GAD and is certainly en vogue today. To be honest, I still don't really think there is a big difference between the really soft bipolar people and GAD.
I also have comorbid panic disorder, which I think has a strong genetic component, because I have mitral valve prolapse. People with this have been shown to have a higher rate of panic disorder. I went to the ER a few times last year because I thought for sure I was dying! Pretty embarrassing now. The best thing for panic for me has been CBT, which has reduced all my anxiety symptoms by about 80%. Even though that is great improvement, I felt I always had a great deal of somatic anxiety that was unrelated to my "distorted thoughts". After 6 months of panic, I also developed a state of almost constant depersonalization / derealization. The CBT worked wonderfully for 80%, but I was left with 20% residual. Could I live like that? Sure I could. But Klonopin erases pretty much all the rest, so I take that daily. I was in quite a sick state last time this year, it's amazing how far I've come.
So my symptoms were panic, depersonalization / derealization, muscle tension and pain, especially in the neck and back area, weird headache that did not respond to regular headache meds, malaise (so bad for a while, I was sure I had cancer). I would also ruminate constantly, and seemed I couldn't shut it off.
Many people would say that since I responded so well to CBT I must not have been that sick. But the truth is I was REALLY sick! My psychiatrist urged me to take a year off dental school, and I scored in the "extreme" ranges for anxiety and depression for many months before I got help. I tried to start a discussion about CBT earlier, but most people seemed convinced it was only for people with minor problems, and that only meds helped people with "real" problems. This always pissed me off. My experience was the exact opposite! I had some major problems, and meds didn't do much (looking back, I doubt they did anything (except Klonopin), especially in my worst state.
I told Krissy I would discuss what I did to get better in psychological babble, and I plan to get pretty in depth over the weekend when I have more time. Next week is spring break, so I will post a lot. Perhaps if one person benefits some, it will be worthwhile!
Take care,
Matt
poster:mattdds
thread:205579
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030306/msgs/206688.html