Yes. Much of it has been triggered in the last few years by digging up traumas from the past, broken relationships and issues I’m having in the current economy.
I can’t really tolerate SSRIs for it. I tried alpha blockers and beta blockers (BP meds that block noradrenaline and adrenaline). The first time I tried an alpha blocker it was like a full body muscle relaxant, and I felt the weight of the world off my shoulders. Sadly I got severe insomnia from them and had to quit, but it was a great feeling to have the anxiety taken away.
I hope I can find something that works. Deep breathing is iffy at best. meditation, meh. Eye movement desensitization? Nope. EFT? Nope. etc. Most of the cognitive treatments don’t seem to work for me. I think the only thing that will work is either solving my problems or learning to become whole enough that they don’t bother me as much. But that takes time.
But symptoms like depersonalization, derealization, insomnia, dizziness, chest pain, feeling like you have some serious life threatening condition and obsessing over it, hypochondria, digestive issues, depression, etc. I’ve gotten all of them.
Anxiety medications are not completely harmless; look up things like Paxil lawsuits if you like.
Your average general practitioner doctor is not an expert in anxiety, depression, and the meds used for treating these things - she has a passing knowledge of them, in spite of them being some of the most common problems that people go to the doctor for. Your average MD also has drug representatives visiting them regularly; I don’t believe they have any CBT representatives visiting them.
Some people benefit so greatly from treatments like CBT that they require no further medication. Some people don’t. If you go to your doctor and just get a prescription for Paxil and take it forever, you’ll never know how far you could come with CBT. If you tried CBT and it didn’t help you, and Paxil does, take Paxil. I think CBT should be taught in schools, though - it is extremely useful for learning not to lie to yourself and distort your thinking, which is what people with anxiety and depression do.
The “chemical imbalance” theory is just that. Doctors don’t know which comes first - the chemical imbalance, or the constant habit of negative thinking that results in a chemical imbalance. People with anxiety disorders are not like diabetics; the analogy does not hold. A diabetic can’t think themselves into or out of low blood sugar. Someone with a panic disorder can think themselves into a panic attack.
I took medication and felt fine for years. My anxiety came back, and my doctor added another SSRI to what I was already taking, and I’ve never felt as sick in my life. Her response was to add even more medications to treat the side effects from the two medications I was already taking, and at that point I said, “Screw this - anxiety feels better than this,” and went looking for some other way of dealing with my anxiety disorder. I found CBT in bibliotherapy with a bunch of good self-help books, a support group, and a counsellor that I saw about four times. I’ve been medication free for about seven years now.
I don’t want to sound like I’m being condescending towards people who take medication for their anxiety. While my medication was working, I had zero interest in doing any other work on the causes of my anxiety. When my medication stopped working, I had lots of motivation. We all have different stories and different paths to take. I don’t like hearing things like, all people with anxiety have to take drugs all their lives and there isn’t anything you can do about it because your brain is broken. The answer is nowhere near that simple, and nowhere near that hopeless.
I think we’re talking on two different levels here. My case leaned over to the total opposite - I spent a year with a child psychologist before being referred to a psychiatrist with training in treating children. It never was my GP giving me meds, everything was done at a mental health centre supervised by people specifically trained for this. My case was never a cut-and-dry easy ‘I’m going through a divorce and need some help getting through it’, it was a ‘could not function in a normal classroom because of crippling social anxiety’ thing.
A lot of people just need help getting through a difficult patch, but some people are way over on the other end.
I understand where you are and what you’re advocating for - I’m advocating for the extreme end that go to the doctor after a three day long panic attack and need to be given benzos right there and then because they can’t calm down enough to talk to the doctor.
I think if it’s nipped in the bud early enough you can avoid a lifetime or a long period of suffering and worsening of your mental health, I realise now that when I was a child of nine or ten I had obsessive like behaviours but it wasn’t a disorder. Talking would’ve helped but I didn’t fully understand the emotions.
The usual therapy for anxiety disorders is CBT like Cat Whisperer said but after seeing psychotherapists and an OCD specialist, I was told that the conventional CBT wouldn’t help me so much and a different approach was needed and I definitely agreed. I never found out what that approach was because he didn’t want to see me again!
I tried SSRI’s and they made my depression ten times worse almost to the point of suicidal and my anxiety terribly high, I felt dizzy a lot and had constant abdominal spasms, the only good thing was my OCD wasn’t as bad as it had been but as I said the negatives were too high a price because I can’t state enough how bad it made my depression, I slept for three days straight I didn’t care to get out of bed and eat and I was crying constantly, I’m cautious about taking meds again, I would like to try a different kind…maybe…maybe not.