There are a couple of CBT workbooks that come highly recommended by many who’ve used them, for both anxiety and depression. CBT is designed to try to stop these self-defeating, spiraling-in cycles of thoughts that you start to obsess on and which drag you down. I would highly recommend looking into these, especially if finding a good doctor is taking you a while.
Also, you should almost certainly be seeing a therapist in addition to a doctor. Medication can sometimes do wonders, but more frequently, it seems like the meds will just get you to a mental “place” where therapy can start helping.
I have panic and anxiety attacks which cause me to have tightness and pain in my chest. Because of a very strong history of heart disease and heart attacks on my father’s side of the family, the pain then causes me to worry that I am having a heart attack, which worsens the anxiety attack.
I try to calm myself and remember that every single person who had a heart attack was a heavy smoker and I have never smoked a single cigarette, and that I have had several EKGs and a stress test which detected no problems at all. But it takes a while for me to work myself down from one of them. My husband helps, and so do my dogs. I often imagine that I am holding one of them, and that my husband is holding my hand. These things sound silly but they help.
My father suffered from such profound depression and anxiety that I think he should have been hospitalized – and he was several times, with ulcers – but he otherwise did little to help himself. I do tell myself how much better I have made my life than that.
Wow. So let me get this right. You make a point to address this one part of my comment so you can say that your first priority is to be concerned over someone’s well being and not bring your atheist issues into it. Then you give the OP a brief “find what solace you can but another day we’ll talk about if your beliefs are factual” throwaway line and talk about magic Jesus.
Yes, you are all class and you are oozing care for humanity. So glad you could spare a few seconds of your time to respond to the OP during your little declaration of your atheism. I mean, it’s super important to let us know where you stand on that.
Thanks everyone for the support and suggestions. I am doing a daily devotion in this book called New Day, New You by Joyce Meyer. If you are a Christian and have a relationship with God, I recommend this book. I would consider it a self help book. For me, personally, my faith is what brings me through these troubled times. I understand that some of you have different views and that is fine. But I really just posted this thread in hopes that others might be dealing with this same thing. I never meant to get into a heated debate about religion. I really don’t blame God for this. God helps me overcome things and this is merely a bump in the road that will make me a stronger person and Christian. I hope you all can respect that even if you aren’t religious. We all have different things that help us cope and I love to hear suggestions. Books, therapists, and medication. But please be genuine and sincere when replying. I want help, not criticism for my religious background. You all have been helpful in many ways. It’s comforting knowing that other people suffer with the same thing. I know it’s hard, but it does help knowing you can talk to someone who can empathize. Sympathy is always nice, but it always nice to talk someone who knows exactly what I’m going through. Again, thank you for all the sincere comments and suggestions. Keep it up. Maybe people will get some help from listening to others.