Seeking support for terrible morning anxiety which now appears to last most of the day.

[willowroad]

I have recently come off paroxetine after approx 17 years. I had one other go about ten years ago with the same result. Each morning now i wake with a sense of dread which disappears as the day goes on normally. However, I am now at the point where in the evening I am anxious because I know it will all start again in the morning. My doctors have prescribed various ssri's, trazadone to sleep etc but none of them work. Diazepam does work but both I am my doctor are aware of how addictive this can be. My partner is desperate for me to seek other support to take the pressure off her as I have become more and more isolated in the past month. I know everyone says you've got to fight the fear and get on with it but it is so intense it colours all my perceptions of the world in this unremitting kind of grey pessimism and despair. I know they are only thoughts and that my elevated cortisol fight or flight is pumping this stuff around which becomes a bit of a vicious circle but the emotions don't allow me to look at it rationally at the moment.

[willowroad]

Thanks for getting back. Logically I agree with everything you say it's more the putting it into practice that does me. It's brilliant if you can do this and especially tie into a reason to keep going and living. In that respect I suppose fear becomes a challenge in the same way as scaling a cliff or putting up those shelves you meant to do for years. Maybe it allows you to disassociate from the fear if you see it as a challenge. I can remember feeling real fear like in a car crash and being assaulted when I was younger etc but because they just came out of the blue and needed immediate action I just went into overdrive and got on with it. Problem this time is it is all anticipatory - I'm not even in the car crash just thinking about the possibility of one in my house. I suppose there is not fight or flight like the car crash just this numbing sense of an impossible fear - the fight or flight then becomes a constant because there appears to be no where for it to go. As you can see as the day goes on i get more analytical and logical - but next morning i will be the same bag of fears and emotions and off i go again.

Good luck it sounds like you are on the right path - its not the kind of feeling i'd wish on my own enemies...

[Hidden]

Hi there

That s what I m scared off :coming off tablets!i ve been on tablets for 18 years and in September my gp want to see me to review the prescription.Last time I tried to come off very very slowly I was crying all the time!!I cannot describe how awful it was.

Yes I know I m addicted to them ..and this would be another issues to deal with every day all day long..once we found our balance wouldn't t be better to stay on them???

[willowroad in reply to Hidden]

Yes, I am in exactly the same boat. I tapered off paroxetine over a 15 month period gradually reducing until I got to 5mg. Then I stopped and for 3 weeks I was relatively Ok. Down but not that anxious. Then one morning I woke with this screaming anxiety which has now been with me for two months. I sort of wanted to come off but it was my partner that was the deciding issue because of my low libido. The reason I was on them for so long was because i felt I had found a balance - they made me slightly numb and a bit angrier than not on them but i functioned socially and in the work environment on them for all that time. I can't call what you should do but I do think that you need to voice your fears to your doctor. From reading around on other forums and from my own experience doctors mark withdrawal as the time the drugs finally leave your body. I know in my experience that the drugs have shaped certain aspects of my brain in terms of serotonin production and that it takes a long time for this shaping to be replaced and function returned. So I just think you need to remember that how you feel is as important as what your doctor suggests you should do.

[rosesRred34]

HI Willow

you seem like me, in the sense that logically we know all there is to know about the effects of anxiety, we know all the steps to accept the symptoms and blah blah lol. But in the thick of a panicy moment or

Anxiety ridden day it seems all logic takes a back seat and we grip on the rail for dear life.

Today I purchased a book called The Healing Code. I am about 8 chapters in and I am soo excited as this book has opened my eyes to alot of issues but also it seems like there is a solution to all of it too. I have mentioned this on here a few times tonight because we all go through the same stuff. Essentially this book is helping us confront and change ..not the symptoms of anxiety or panic but the real reason we have it in the first place.. we all know about flight or fight response.. but what if we can learn to control it. WE CAN HAVE OUR LIVES BACK ! .lol can u tell I am excited.

Anyway I have no suggestions for u because I think we are in the same boat. But I am gonna finish reading this and if it works for me, it can work for everyone . I will be praying for you

[willowroad]

Yes, I've heard of it and it seems to work for some people. It sounds similar to eft which I did to some success. Let me know how you go on - it certainly seems positive at the moment. Thanks for the post it is good to know that there are others who have the same problems and recognise what they are but still find them difficult to deal with. Good luck.