Hello, everyone!
I just decided to join this community as I have begun to talk more openly about my depression and anxiety disorders. I have received professional help and advise, which includes talking to other people who might suffer from the same conditions or have to deal with them on a daily basis through a loved one or a relative.
I am here to talk, answer questions, and provide support. Thank you in advance for welcoming me into your community.
Vanessa.
Hi I'm going through hell with anxiety. Depression is getting there . This all started after I stopped taking my antidepressants in July. I'd bin on them for years and kept missing them so I thought I'd be ok . Silly thing to do. Now I'm on my third different antidepressant . But it's seams to be helping. But I'm left suffering with anxiety it's horrible and I don't know how to deal with it. Going to be talking to someone next week.
I am glad that you decided to get back on the medication and hope that it is helping. Sometimes it takes awhile before the doctors can figure out what medication works best but it is important to keep trying and always let them know what is and what isn't working. Hope your anxiety is better soon. Have you ever tried meditation?
My psychologist is also a conduct specialist and she taught me several exercises to fight anxiety which have helped tremendously. If you want to try them let me know!
Yes please. X
Yes would love to try them.x
Cas, hang tough! I did the same thing back in April. Went off my medication (Zoloft) because I was feeling so well. What a setbacks that was! My doctor explained that this was a very wrong thing to do without consulting her, and that trying to go back on the same med might not work, which it didn't. I had to switch and am still adjusting to a new medication (Pristiq). I think it's starting to work and I am feeling better. I will never, ever go off a medication again. Yes, talk to someone and perhaps try a new med. And hang tough. You will cone through this!!!! Warm regards!
Ahh thanks so much for your reply. That's why I've been through so many. I'm nearly a month on mirtazapine. And was doing really well. But one little hiccup last week as just pushed me over the edge. Words from people who no how I'm feeling are such a big help.
Hi Vanessa
It sounds as though it's helped you to talk about your anxiety and depression. Do you find it helps to talk about it to your friends or just to others going through similar health problems?
I find it helps to talk on here but I'm not sure it's good that I've told my friends and family as much as I have. There weren't sites like many yea
The first person to help was my fiancee. When he found out the cause of my depression he begged me to share all details with him. I think the fact that his mother is a psychologist makes him more understanding and patient, but he has been fantastic.
I have not been able to speak with my parents or family members, it is still too embarrassing for me, but my closest friends know, specially because when I suffer a panic attack they need to know how to cope with it and help me.
Vanessa,
Can you share any techniques you have used for anxiety? I have horrible anxiety and no one to turn to.
Kimberly
Sure!
One of the most helpful techniques I use (especially during a panic attack) is holding my thumb with my other hand. I squeeze it and that "grounds" me back to Earth. It feels as if someone was telling me "hey, come back to reality!" and it helps a lot.
Another technique my psychologist taught me was sitting down and use my hands to tap on my knees, rhythmically. While I do that, I start regulating my breath with that rhythm, and I slow it down until my breathing goes back to normal. That is the one I use when I hyperventilate.
Honestly, at first, it was awful. I couldn't even remember the exercises, but now they come naturally. When I'm super nervous, I find myself holding my thumb without even knowing it. As I said, it works for me, and I think it can help other people as well.
Thank you. I will try those techniques.
Hi
To recover from anxiety I ditched all avoidance techniques (doing anything to avoid the feelings) as this only provided temporary relief. Full recovery followed when i learned to allow myself to think and feel everything that my anxiety would throw at me and do absolutely nothing about it. I didn’t try to question the thoughts or feelings, I didn’t try to force them away, I didn’t try to avoid them. I just let it all happen without putting up any form of resistance whatsoever. I let those thoughts scare me, I let my body vibrate with severe stress and did nothing to try and change it. Was it uncomfortable? Hell yes! Did it feel scary? Hell yes! Could it harm me? Absolutely not. Did it make me feel better? No, not straight way because I knew it would take time for my agitated nerves to calm down after years of stressing about being stressed.
Anxiety is just a by product of stressed nerves and produces excessive adrenalin that needs to be released and the only way to do that is to feel it all willingly and opening up the floodgates. This is the way to recover. Repeatedly passing through the anxiety storm with as much acceptance as you can manage. Resign yourself to being blown and tossed around by the storm, knowing that the storm will pass and can’t harm you. You may have to travel through the storm many times but the more you do it, the less intense the storm becomes until you reach the point where it simply doesn’t matter to you if there is a storm blowing or not. When you are past caring about it, you will have reached calm waters and be free of anxiety.
I tend to disagree with a few things you said because, for me, cognitive therapy has been wonderful, it has helped me to calm down and learn that anxiety cannot control me but that I am the one in control. However, other things you said are helpful. Thank you for your input! 
That’s ok and very happy that you are in a better place Vanessa.
You are right, Anxiety can not control you but for a lot of sufferers it does, which is the problem. It dictates how they live their lives. They avoid social interaction,, they won’t leave home, for example. They dislike the feelings so much (fear them), they try to control anxiety using avoidance techniques, restricting their movements and can become agoraphobic. Clearly, they are not free of anxiety and will remain fearful of its return. As long as fear lurks in the shadows, so too will the anxiety. Therefore, cure lies in giving up trying to control it, getting out there and living life as if they didn’t have anxiety. In other words, they take control by giving up control.
If my understanding is correct, the goal of cognitive behavioral therapy is to help a person learn to recognise negative patterns of thought, evaluate their validity, and replace them with healthier ways of thinking and control anxiety.
For me, controlling my anxiety was never the goal. My goal was to remove my anxiety completely so that I no longer felt inappropriate levels of fear at inappropriate times. Being able to live my life completely free of it. I’m not referring to normal levels of anxiety because they are, well, normal and a walk in the park compared to full blown Anxiety.
In a heightened state of anxiety, anxiety sufferers are only too well aware of the negative thoughts but because they come with such force, it is the evaluation of the thought that keeps them ruminating and stuck in the cycle. Is the thought true? Is it not true? I don’t know what to believe!! More doubt and despair ensues adding further stress and fear, maintains the fear-anxiety-fear cycle. They are trying to evaluate anxious thoughts with an anxious mind! Talk about pouring petrol/gasoline on a fire and hoping to put out the flames.
If they could evaluate their thoughts and decide they didn’t matter, they wouldn’t be in the predicament they find themselves in.
Acceptance works because it removes the evaluation of those thoughts and learning to let the thoughts come and go without judgement. This eventually brings peace of mind because the sufferer is no longer adding further stress and fear to the thoughts, allowing their nerves to calm down. When nerves are calm, the mind and body are calm too.
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