Anxiety

[ElephantsHear]

I’ve been having big issues related to anxiety and self esteem recently. Could you share your medication regimen, if it helps, as well as some of the side effects to watch for? I do have a psychiatrist that I’ve been seeing for years and he’s on call 24/7, but his fee for on call is $250 per 15 minutes so I try not to call him often. It keeps me out of the ER for psych issues. ER staff in my experience can be sort of callous regarding mental health issues, but mostly I’m just hard on myself for “feeling weak”.

[Blueruth]

Have you tried focused breathing as a self care technique? I tried this today: count 1 on the in breath. Hold and pause. Breath out. Count 2 repeat. It doesn’t matter how many cycles you do. Could be one which will still break whatever is making you anxious. You can do as often as you need.

[Daveacr1959]

Try to get 30-60 minutes of daily cardio exercise to produce endorphins that battle your anxiety and depression. I practice Wim Hof breathing exercises twice daily. And his cold shower or bath therapy twice daily. It’s all free on you tube. I have been on medicine 30 years. You need to find a dr on health insurance plan.

[ElephantsHear in reply to Daveacr1959]

Thank you! I forget often how important exercise is for me.

[Megapanda]

Unfortunately it's hard to give recommendation for these types of medications as everyone is different and what works for one doesn't work for another and each person can experience different side effects which can also depends if you have any other health problems or take other medications so personally I think you should speak to a doctor about starting medication .

I have found journalling really helpful for anxiety and setting myself goals . Start of with a big goal and break them down into very small steps you can work towards daily . This really helped my self esteem . I also agree with other commenter about meditation . I found this YouTube channel really helpful tips as well youtube.com/c/TherapyinaNut....

Wishing you the best

[ElephantsHear]

Thank you! Someone encouraged me to call my doctor. He’s on call 24/7, but he’s $700 per hour. I finally did. I’m very fortunate that I get money from the VA for disability and I’m able to work (my rating is 90%) . I could use the VA’s mental health services, but my PTSD is bad from the war/ post 9/11. I can’t get close to the VA or military installation without panic symptoms. I was fortunate not to deploy or lose a limb, but I was at Ramstein AF base/ Air Force Nurse Corps.

[ElephantsHear in reply to ElephantsHear]

So I can afford a good psychiatrist I meant.