Posted by pedr on January 2, 2004, at 4:25:54
In reply to Re: Chest pains and panic disorder, posted by D03 on December 31, 2003, at 7:36:55
I am 31 and have suffered from anxiety my whole life. I just didn't know what it was until about 2 years ago.
- I'm sorry to hear that John. I suffered for 5 years without knowing and that was bad enough. I felt as though I'd been robbed of those years in some ways. The best way to look at it is that at least you now know and can do something about it.I started to do holistic things like, Reikki, Quantum Healing, Bach Flowers (Rescue Remedy) these all worked but only for a while.
- I too tried many holisitic solutions to no avail.I've had the dull chest pains for a month now every day I have them all day long.
- yep they're pretty grim. I used to get shooting pains up the left side of my neck and around the back of my left ear!!! Not pleasant.
I'm the youngest of 7 kids and the only one that takes care of my mom (she has memory loss and it's only getting worse by the month) my full fledge panic attacks & depression started 3 years ago after my dad died.
- sounds like you've had a tough time John. You certainly have a good heart though!
Because the holistic things aren't working anymore (I think they would if I didn't have to stress of my mom 24/7) I am going to go to my Dr this week to request to be put on Zoloft. I have two nieces on this as well as a few friends and they all swear by it. They all had the same anxiety symptoms that i have as well. I'm hoping this will help.
- be aware that YMMV (your mileage may vary). This is a much-used phrase on these boards that encapsulates the rather unfortunate fact that you can never predict how much an anti-depressant will help you. Take 100 people with the same diagnosis. Put them all on drug X and wait a few months. 10% will feel much better, 30% a bit better, 30% the same, 10% a bit worse and 20% bloody awful. The thing is that no expert on this planet can predict which bracket that someone will fall into. This means that it's usually a case of "guesstimating" which drugs to try. Be prepared to try more than one before you find one that helps you. It took me 5 dreadful experiences to find a drug that only partially helped.Also please be aware that anti-anx and anti-D meds are often remedial. If/when you stop taking the med and your thought patterns and beliefs are the same as before, evidence shows that you have a good chance of regressing back to depression/anx. Consider therapy, esp. CBT and REBT (more on that below). Changing your beliefs and thought patterns is necessary to avoid regression in most cases.
I used to be a really organised person too. I really can't stand the person I've become.
- please be careful here John. You're not being terribly fair on yourself. Imagine a friend of yours going through what you've gone through and becoming depressed as a result. Would you say "I can't stand him" because he's changed and become less organised and outgoing? Unlikely. For better or for worse, you're a human like the rest of us =0) And that means you'll mess up, get things wrong, get ill (depression is an illness) and other daft stuff. Try very hard not to put yourself down - it's not fair and it certainly won't help your recovery from depression and anxiety.
I know sometimes bed time for me is tough too as thats the time of day your are just laying in bed letting your mind wander and sometimes the slighest pain will start freaking you out. Sometimes somethign as simple as getting sick w/a sinus infection has made my anxiety go into full gear. Since my dads death I can not go into any hospitals w/out literally passing out.
- Blimey that's some serious anxiety you have there. I'm not going to go all evangelical but I should mention a form of CBT that's really helped me. It's called REBT and I found it far more useful than vanilla CBT and it's been the only thing that's really helped me in my struggle against depression. Feel free to ask me for more details, I'd be happy to help.
I'm glad I found this site as well I think having someone else to talk to about this helps.
- it's the best anx/dep site on the net IMHO! Good on you for finding it.I know my neighbor has anxiety and we used to help talk eachother out of it or help calm eachother down, now that she is on Zoloft she doesn't get anxiety anymore, neither do my nieces who take zoloft have the anxiety anymore as well. So i'm hoping my Dr will put me on this. I have never been one who likes to take any medications but as of late I think taking a pill a day is better then living the way i have been the last 2 years and especially these last 2 months.
- you're approach spot on IMHO. Meds should be avoided if possible but when things are really really grim, it's certainly worth a go.Wish me luck at the Dr's I'm hoping she can see me today.
- good luck!!! All the best & feel free to ask about REBT.
HTH,
pedr
poster:pedr
thread:3295
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031231/msgs/295635.html