Hate to sound dumb, but what exactly is Anxiety?
I mean I know the definition, but how does an Anxiety disorder manifest itself?
I’m curious because maybe it’s what’s been bringing me down … either that or Depression I guess. My counsellor wants to try meds but I’m leery at this point.
Thanks,
S.
If you’re “lucky” like me, you suffer from both. I can’t give you the clinical definition, but basically, anxiety is nervousness which manifests itself for no apparent reason. Imagine some time when it’s perfectly okay for you to be a little bit stressed out, like going on stage, having to take a big test you didn’t study for or similar. Now multiply that feeling a thousand times, and experience it at inappropriate moments, like when you drop your pencil. Don’t be afraid to take the meds, untreated, anxiety and depression can be life threatening (as the condition gets worse over time). The only reason I’m alive right now is because of the meds I’m taking.
Oh, and alice, just rub it in, why doncha? 
Something that I just remembered is that they’ve found out that brain scans can identify if a medication is going to be helpful, just a short period of time after the initial dose, and long before it has any noticable effects on the user. Admittedly getting your insurance to pay for this, and finding a doctor able to properly interpret the results of the brain scan is a bit difficult, but hopefully that will be changing in near future.
Stainz, my anxiety manifests itself mostly in a generalized feeling of inner nervousness, unhappiness, just generally unable to stop thinking about things and upsetting myself over trivialities. I have only occasional panic attacks. Some people have panic attacks every day.
I think the most common element for anxiety disorders is the “What if…” thinking - “What if something happens and I can’t…” or “What if I have a panic attack and everyone looks at me/I go crazy/I have a heart attack?”
I’ve heard agoraphobia described as “fear of fear”, or “fear of your emotions.” That’s basically what happens with anxious/panicky feelings - we have learned through sensitization to fear some of our emotions. Cognitive/behavioural therapy is used to help us unlearn fear of our basically normal emotions.
Depression and anxiety are very closely related, and are caused by the same things. A lot of people will have both, or start with one and develop the other. The treatment is the same for both - meds, cognitive therapy, or both.
Wow … maybe that’s what’s “wrong” with me.
All my life I’ve been such a worrier - to the extreme. I totally expect the worst to happen, in every situation. I waste a lot of energy on this and it’s very frustrating, not only for me, but for my SO. It causes a lot of problems for us because I get stressed out when he DOESN’T worry (and he’s so happy-go-lucky it’s impossible for me to explain). So, then I worry because he’s NOT worrying, and I feel like I have to worry and stress enough for both of us.
Sounds ridiculous to anyone who doesn’t go through it I guess, but it’s a very real problem for me.
My counsellor’s suggestion was to just train myself to stop it - when I notice that I’m worrying, just start to think about something else. sigh if only it were that easy!
Thank you Tuckerfan and featherlou for explaining.
Sounds just like me before I got treatment for anxiety, actually. I would get to the point where I was worrying because I was worrying so much about everything. I’d been like that for as long as I could remember, though, so I assumed I was “just a worrier”.
I wasn’t able to do that before I started taking meds. Now I can.
Bah! I still get panic attacks - I just manage to talk myself out of them before I have to leave where-ever I’m at and go hide in my house. (It used to be my car - startling the amount of time I spent in my car trying to calm myself down.)
Anyhow - Stainz is in Canada so she will probably have an easier time accessing resources that your poor folks in the US.
While it’s not a hijack, I started a new thread on depression so that folks who might not peek in this thread will see it. Latest results of several studies are that depression shrinks your brain! SSRIs seem to help protect the brain from damage, so you folks who’ve been leary about taking meds might want to rethink your position.
::Heavy, heavy sigh::
The state of mental health resources in Calgary at this point is absolutely appalling. I would love to be seeing a cognitive therapist, but unless I can cough up the $200/hour, it just ain’t gonna happen.
Stainz, your counsellor is advising you to use cognitive therapy, and that’s good. It’s a lot more involved than just “think about something else”, however. If that were the case, I would have been recovered completely three months ago. I’m learning how to re-tool my thinker, so I don’t create the anxiety/worry/panic in myself.
Excercise has always worked for me in the past. I would need to go for a long jog every couple of days. Lately I have been taking yoga classes & am hooked. I do have xanax if needed but try to do without.
Featherlou - I hear ya. I’m very lucky, not necessarily because I live in Canada, but because my employer has a very generous Employee Assistance Program, which is free to us, and provides us with anonymous counselling services from any Certified Counsellor in the area. Not sure if it extends to Psychiatrists, but I do know that I paid a couple of times to see a Counsellor who was NOT certified (and therefore the costs were my responsibility), and it was $85/hour. Ouch.
My counsellor did also recommend yoga and any other physical exercise I can fit into my life. Unfortunately, (and this is where I think depression comes in) it is VERY rare that I am able to summon up the energy to go to the gym, never mind make the effort to find a yoga class, register, and actually GO.
Not sure which is more of a hindrance - depression or worrying/anxiety - and my fear of medication is tough to overcome. (My mom suffers from depression and unfortunately (?) she shared her horror stories re: her efforts to find the right medication and the right dosage, so now I have a real fear of how it might affect me. I tend to be VERY sensitive to most medications anyway.)
S.
I used to be terrified of taking meds because I had a friend who was on them and an absolute ravening loon because of them. When he stopped taking them, he stabilized for a while, and then went off the deep end. I can tell you that when you find the right meds, it’s one of the most amazing moments of your life. I finally went on medication because I realized that my anxiety was pushing me towards a direction which is literally the absolute last thing that I wanted to happen. Seriously, if you had come up to me ten years ago and told me that it was inevitable that I’d end up in the direction I was/am heading, and could show me solid proof, I’d have killed myself. Right now, I’m hovering between that happening and not happening (with no way of resolving it as the matter is completely out of my hands), and the only thing keeping me alive is the meds I’m on. Had I been on these meds six months ago (or hell, even two months ago) I would not be in the mess I’m presently in.
Stainz, esquimalt is absolutely right about exercise - people with depression and anxiety benefit tremendously from regular exercise. It doesn’t have to be fancy - go out your front door and walk around the block. That might feel so good that you go for two blocks. Every little bit counts.
The credo for recovering from anxiety is “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” Maybe the credo for depression is “Feel like doing nothing, but do something anyway.” Go outside, walk around, and give yourself lots of credit for doing it. Give yourself credit for every little thing you do, actually. These are tough conditions, and we are amazing people that we can function through them.
Tucker, I believe that mild anxiety or depression can often be treated without meds, but you’re right about meds for severe anxiety or depression. In one of the books I read, the author compares it with fighting against a strong current - it can be a good idea to slow down the current so you’re not fighting so hard.
Well, in my case, I get plenty of exercise (carrying around 100+ lbs of molten steel for twenty minutes at a time, several times a day), so I definately needed the meds. Even with them I still have very, very rough days some times.