Anxiety Disorder Questions

[racer2c]

Hi gang, is anyone here familiar with general anxiety disorder (GAD) and the therapies and or medications that have aided or hendered overcoming this? Thanks!

[pinniped]

I have known Scotch to work. :p

[Ankf00]

I have known Scotch to work. :p
single malt certainly worked for me with my last relationship! mmmmm, balvenie

[IlliniRacer]

I was on Paxil for awhile after having some serious anxiety attacks about a year ago. The side affects, for me, were awful!!

To try and cheer me up, some buddies took me to some of the Metro East's finer Gentleman's Club. . . . NOTHING HAPPENDED!!!. . . I mean absolutely nothing. Not twinge, not a "how ya doin' ", nothing! The next Monday, I went back to my doctor to tell him I was going off of the medicine because of what happended. His solution - "I can write you a prescription for that." I completely lost it. I went into a tirade about taking pills to counter act pills to counter act pills to counter act pills. I guess I should be thankful that I didn't end up in the State Hospital after that episode.

My attacks started to subside when I found a new job. I still have problems every now and then put it doesn't feel like I'm having a heart attack. The one think that still bothers me is that I have probably only ran and biked a handfull of days since then. I have no desire to train and haven't competed in nearly two years now. I really miss it.

Also, check your family history. After having these problems, my mother revealed to me that the "low blood sugar" episodes she had when I was a kid where actually anxiety attacks. She also said that she has been on anti-depressants for about ten years. So has my grandmother, and my great grand mother also suffered from depression.

. . .One last thing about the Gentleman's Clubs. While nothing happended, I probably never would have been able to step foot in those places if I wasn't on the medicine :)

Of course, ZE errr pinniped had some excellent advice.

[Turn7]

I would get a little light headed, tingly fingers and feel like I needed to just escape. Not run but, get the hell out of there and then just an overall "scared" feeling.

A few times when my wife was out of town, I would worry that I would die of a heart attack and would be scared to death of the thought that my daughter would have to deal with finding me dead and not having somebody there or having to deal with getting help to come. Crazy ****, I know but, recognizing what it is is half the battle and then training your mind that it is just a thought and not really going to happen is the easy part.

After EKG's, hearing tests, MRI's, Stress tests, upper GI's, blood tests and the like, I found out that I am fat but healthy and shouldn't worry about it. When I was still concearned and having the symptoms that are variable and hard to describe, the Doc suggested that I so see a psych. I never did and have learned to deal with the occasional feeling to get up and flee and dismiss it as just another fleeting crazy thought.

STRESS seems to trigger it.

I don't know if I am crazy for having those feelings or for telling the www about it but, I guess that is part of my self therapy, I just don't give a **** about who thinks what anymore, I feel better.

[anait]

A good friend of ours suffers from anxiety attacks. This past year, he was quite frightened by one - he was on the road at the time, thought he was having a heart attack while driving. Many tests later, like Turn& and IR have said, they uncovered what was up. I believe he's on some meds - I'll ask next time I see him.

I wondered if I was having anxiety attacks, but after reading a bit and asking for info, I think my attacks are probably angina - when I'm under severe stress, I get stopped in my tracks by what feels like a metal hand clutching my heart for a second or two. I've been told I should probably get it checked out, as it gallops in my family, both sides.

[Sean O'Gorman]

A couple co-workers of mine have had panic attacks and the heart attack thing gets mentioned often.

I wouldn't know, however, as it is hard for me to panic when I seem to mostly go through life as an unemotional robot. :saywhat:

[Ankf00]

my friend had problems with paxil too

he'd get some major mood swings and turned extremely suicidal

[nrc]

I never had what I considered panic attacks but I did have problems with stress induced high blood pressure and chest pain a few years back. My doc put me on a beta blocker and it has been great. No side affects, no more chest pains and my blood pressure has been normal ever since.

[chop456]

I wouldn't know, however, as it is hard for me to panic when I seem to mostly go through life as an unemotional robot. :saywhat:

At least you don't have to worry about your girlfriend dumping you. :D

[FTG]

My wife, the lovely Mrs FTG, had some thoughts that she wanted to share. Here they are:

Just a message of support here since this disorder seems to be fairly common but not well understood by the general public.

In June of this year I was diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder. Fortunately, I had been speaking with my doctor about stress for a couple of years so he was aware that I was concerned. Then it finally reached a peek and I had a hellish bout of severe panic attacks that went on several times a day for about a week. My logic told me it was panic, but my body was saying "you're dying - this is a heart attack". On monday I was in the doctor's office. He prescribed Effexor and I'm happy to say things are going very well. I really haven't had any side effects and am feeling strong, well and happy! I have a high powered and stressful career and now I feel like I can 'take it on' again.

Keep going until you find a medication or treatment that works for you - it's worth it. GAD and Panic are the result of a chemical imbalance in your brain and there are good medications out there to help. It also helps to do some research and think about cognative therapies as well.

It also helps enormously that I have a very supportive husband and family!

Good Luck!!!

[DjDrOmusic]

I've been there with Panic disorder, I refused the drugs, and learned to control it with breathing exercises. Family support is crucial. I know I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

[Dvdb]

Xanax/Alaprazam worked for me, but you have to be careful. Can be addictive after awhile. But they got me through the breakup of a three year relationship recently.


I think.............

[racer2c]

Thank you all for your candid replies. I hesitated bringing this up but it's been an absolute horrible couple of weeks for me and my family. I decided to ask if there were others because, one I'm looking for tips and two, to be honest, it helps me to talk about it and well, all of you are good people, I can tell.;)

I had my first attack two weeks ago. typical evening, my wife and I had just settled down on the couch under an afghan to watch Eternal Sunshine and the Spotless Mind when I noticed that it was difficult for me to breath and that my palms were sweaty. I reluctantly told my wife, "honey, I don't feel so good". She suggested going to the bathroom to splash some water in my face. I did and noticed that my neck was as bright red and the the veins in my neck were bulging out. I told my wife, "we need to go to the ER". I ended up spending the night there while they took every test known to man (so it seemed). They sent me home telling me that I could be used in medical text books as the epitome of perfect bio charts. They asked me if I had any stress in my life and I said "does a 140 mile round trip commute through northern Virginia traffic count?". The doctor laughed and said that that would be the first place he would focus on changing if he were me.

It turns out that much of this was masked through 'self medicating'. Meaning that a typical night I would get home, or fight home rather, make dinner (I cook and my wife does the laundry, her cooking skills are, uh, well, more microwave based), sit down and drink a six pack of beer. I've been doing this for oh, six or seven years now. So, taking the advice of my primary care physician who prescribed me Xanex (my magic pill), I drastically changed my life style. Immediately stopped drinking and started a regular exercise routine. Exercise is very important for curbing anxiety. Uh, oh, here comes the alcohol withdrawals. great, now I have extremely high anxiety (which gives you the felling of 'unreality', not fun) and alcohol withdrawals. I lost my appetite and could only sip soup for about eight days. I'm over that part, but now I still have the anxiety. I've read that stopping the drinking will increase your awareness of the anxiety. I've read pages, and pages, of anxiety websites.
I practice the breathing techniques that they recommend. I notice my body feels better (no alcohol, exercise and a healthy diet) but now I'm a healthy guy with high anxiety.
Now my doc want to put me on an SSRI, those are the Prozac, Paxil, Lexapro family of drugs. They increase serotonin in the brain which is supposed to help. I've read many success stories, but I've also read many horror stories which have me very frightened of taking these drugs. Some people have gone manic and ended up in the mental ward, while others have committed suicide or have serious suicidal thoughts. Now the nay sayers claim that those people had history of mental illness and depression prior to taking the meds but it still doesn't make me feel better about them. Oh BTW, I've never had any mental problems in my life and have a great passion for life so I would freak out if the meds made me suicidal.
And there I am. A new life in a short two weeks. Luckily there is some light at the end of the tunnel. I just had a meeting today with my vice president who offered to allow me to telecommute on a permanent basis. This is going against his mandate of no telecommuting and I about fell on the floor when he offered. The problem is that I have what they call 'free floating anxiety'. That means you really don't know what is triggering the problem. I'm guessing it's the commute because there are night where it takes me two and a half hours to get home through extremely stressing traffic and it took me an hour to unwind when I got home (and a six pack). Hopefully it is the problem and me and my Xanex can continue on with life without taking the SSRI's.
I know some will wander across this thread and roll their eyes and I may be perceived differently around here going forward, but honestly, it helps to talk about this, even with strangers, and I feel better for having posted this.
Again, I greatly appreciate all of the candid replies. It helped.
Thanks everyone.

Sean

[cart7]

I'm currently taking a generic Prozac, I've had to do this because the prescription company won't pay for the medication that really works, Lexipro, without doing the whole generic thing first. I've had 2 bouts of depression in my life requiring medication, both were after long stretches of stress.

I agree with IlliniRacer, the er, uh, sexual side effects of these drugs can suck. My Dr. prescribed Wellbutrin to counter the side effects. I can say that that stuff really works. It's doesn't do me much good as a anti-depressant, but the side effect of the drug is quite interesting. ;)

Good luck r2c. :thumbup:

[oddlycalm]

Medications are a great tool, but you are right to be wary of long term use of strong meds. Systemic changes are best if you can manage it. Sound like your employer is trying to come to the party.

I have no experience with panic attacks, but I've had 16yrs experience telecommuting and highly recommend it. It's a major adjustment, and I know folks that hated it, but it's worked well for me. On the rare occasion where I am forced to deal with rush hour traffic, I am remined how stressful it is.

The upside of telecommuting is that there are no interuptions and you can spend the time you previously spent commuting either getting more done or relaxing. I found I got more than twice the amount of work done as I had previously. Family members normally get into the habit of not interrupting pretty quickly, and Plantronics makes a headset phone with a massive red LED on the keypad that lights up when you are on the phone.

Office politics can be an issue when you are not ever around, and you need to have key sources on the inside and keep in touch with them regarding what is really going on. There are the inevitably envy issues by those still driving to work everyday, but if you are not around, that fades quickly. Probably the biggest issue for me involved getting left out of impromptu meetings where decisions inevitably were made in my absence and without my input. Early on I chose a particular moment to force the issue, which resulted in a significant product re-design. Getting people to realize when to get on the speaker phone and discuss things was easy after that. I only care about the big decisions in any case, and the rest of it should be delegated.

Best of luck in dealing with this. Hopefully, with the help of broadband, phone and fax you will soon be at home and not in the car. At current gas prices that will be like getting a nice bonus every month.

oc

[Turn7]

Scuderia Gomerwagon faithful have been screaming that we are all crazy for years.....I'll be damned if they weren't right. :thumbup: :D

[FTG]

My wife was very worried about side effects. That's natural when you think about it. You have an anxiety disorder, of course you are going to be anxious about possible side effects.

She listened to her doctor, tried the medicine, had almost no side effects and is much better. Also, there are about a dozen different anti anxiety drugs, so if one doesn't work for you, tell your doctor and he will switch you.

I'd highly recommend that you try medication if you doctor suggests it. Start at a very low dosage if you are concerned. Once you feel better, the cognitive stuff will be much eaiser, you'll be more successful and you can ease off the drugs.

(But a little advice. Don't read the list of possible side effects before you start the medication. It's written by lawyers. It freaked me out and I don't have an anxiety disorder.)

Finally, it's a medical condition, like having a cold. There's no to be embarrassed or ashamed. Anyone who treats you different deserves a smack upside the head.

[racer2c]

Thanks FTG. That makes me feel more confident going forward. :)

[FTG]

I'm sure everything will work out great. Good luck.