Posted by nicky847 on December 22, 2003, at 14:10:55
In reply to Re: Depression symptoms?, posted by bluesfan on December 22, 2003, at 11:38:27
Good I'm glad my input helped you feel a little better. The best thing to do with these thoughts is ignore them and know you will not act on them. For me it helps to think of all the things that would ACTUALLY happen if you somehow became "overcome" by these urges and feelings (which will not happen), for example you might go take a walk to collect yourself, you might have a glass of water, you might go get some ice cream, you might turn on a game on tv and get wrapped up in it..you might just sit or lay still and breathe deeply until your feelings have passed...those are the things that will REALLY happen...you acting out in a violent manner will not..people who suffer from panic attacks often fear losing control of their thoughts or bodies..but they NEVER DO..chances are you are so seized up with fear when you feel like this that you are overly conscious of every single thing that you do..so actually you are monitoring yourself so intensely that it is causing anxiety..
Of course you wont be able to at first but the more you make an effort to do so the easier it gets..Kind of like if you've ever seen "A Beautiful Mind", where eventually he ignores the people that are figments of his imagination..Screwed up as it sounds the more you get used to them the less frequent they become..and then they go away once you stop giving any significance to them..
the fact that you talk about these feelings is a huge step to making them go away...thats not easy to do...for me feelings like this are the last thing to go away when recovering from anxiety/depression, but i know that eventually they do so just hang in there and things will be OK..
> Thanks.......it means a lot to hear that from someone. I guess I was just afraid that this wasn't a common thing. I just hope it passes because I have never felt anything like it before. Hopefully with time the drugs will take effect and I will feel better. Thanks again!
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> > Bluesfan-
> > The thoughts you are having are not at all uncommon for someone suffering with anxiety/depression..and the lexapro should help with this..what i read once is that those really really unsettling thoughts are actually like a defense mechanism your brain kicks in..right now you are afraid of depression, and your body sees this as danger, so in order to activate the fight/flight response your mind is generating obssessive scary thoughts to get your adrenaline going..and the thoughts are very scary...the important thing though is that these thoughts DO scare you..they dont mean you are going crazy..people that actually act out on these thoughts derive pleasure or comfort from them, while it doesnt seem like you do...lexapro helps control obssessive thoughts, and if it is the right SSRI for you it should help, if not, then other SSRIs can have the same effect..
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> > just know that it takes time..but these thoughts will go away as the anxiety/depression is relieved..and that these thoughts do not mean you are crazy or want to hurt yourself or someone else..
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> > > This is my first post on this board, and my first experience with possible depression. It all started about a week ago (with more severe symptoms) and has continued since. My biggest symptoms were being tired all of the time, no appetite, not caring about anything, and thoughts of death and suicide. This really scared me and sent me into bouts of severe anxiety, so I called the doctor on Friday and got an appointment. I was immediately prescribed 10mg of Lexapro and I am now on my 4th day. I guess my biggest question was the thoughts of death and suicide. Is this normal with depression? It seems as though it is overtaking every other thought that I have. Just out of the blue last night I thought about my neck breaking and my wife's neck breaking. I couldn't get the thoughts out of my head....I'm not at all a violent person, so this was really scary to me. I couldn't tell if it was me trying to break our necks, or just the thought in general. I just have a fear that my thoughts will turn into actions and that makes me even more anxious. Is this normal as well? Since I've never experienced any of this before it is pretty scary and I really hope the Lexapro helps soon. Thanks for any thoughts and advice any of you can give me!
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poster:nicky847
thread:292332
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031219/msgs/292401.html