Panic disorder.

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Hello my name is O-E , I'm new to this and I suffer from depression, Panic disorder, I've been dealing with anxiety for about 7 years and im having trouble finding the help I need, I'm only 33 I work grave yard shift and I suffer from these symptoms anxiety , constant worrying, mind racing, emotional "crying" depression, isolation from social activities with crowds, impatient, and most of all focusing. Having these symptoms makes life and work extremely difficult, I've been taking lorazepam 0.5mg for seven years and I feel like I'm immune too it, so I recently got proscribed sertraline 25mg and having side affects from medicine it gives me stomach issues and my mind keeps racing I'm finding it hard to adapt to something that may possible help? I'm here to seek help comfort support guidance if possible , also my girlfriend is also on here for support and understanding. -God bless you all

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How long have you been on the sertraline? I am not a doctor (I am a patient ) but from experience, an antidepressant can take up to one or 1 1/2 months to really kick in. My past antidepressants took 2 months to really kick in. I didn't feel a huge boost. I felt a gentle lifting of the spirit is how I can describe it, something "lifted" and I felt lighter. I was not completely out of the depression & anxiety but it was not as dire as it had been. Hopefully you will find that the sertraline does work. But if you are used to taking only the benzodiazepine lorazepam (Ativan) for the past 7 years, your body might take a while to get used to adding an antidepressant? Is the idea for you to taper off of the Ativan if you find an antidepressant that works well? Or to taper down/lower the dose of Ativan?

I know for me, the idea was for me to start out with both antidepressant and anti anxiety agent (benzodiazepine called klonopin), and then after a while, to taper off of the benzodiazepine and take only the antidepressant (which would treat both depress. & anx.). Well, I kept taking both of them, and it's been 14 years that I've taken the benzodiazepine lately, just a very small dose, I never had problems with tolerance and needing more, thankfully. But I don't know if or how I would ever go off of it someday. I've tried to go off of it in the past and the withdrawals were just too difficult. I've found that a small dose of antianxiety agent each day helps without making me too dependent on it.

P.S. with the stomach issues, I don't think I've had those with any antidepressant, or maybe I have, it's been so long since I've tried a new one, hopefully that symptom goes away quickly. Luckily there are so many other types of antidepressants to try if that one does not work.

P.P.S. things like community acupuncture (it's less expensive), monthly massage (or just have you & your girlfriend massage each other=less expensive) & positive affirmation/thought correction journaling i.e. from the book David Burns' "Feeling Good" to help counteract racing thoughts & reframe them to positive thoughts. Also Margaret Wehrenberg has some great YouTube videos (only 2 to 3 minutes but they are free) regarding anxiety, and she sells books too. Reading one of her articles on dealing with anxiety was life-changing for me, I've saved the article (wish I could find the original - it lists tons of methods to deal with anxiety).

God bless to the both of you.

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margaretwehrenberg.com/the-... This is a link to a helpful article by Margaret Wehrenberg.