Healthier lifestyle

Hi. I’ve suffered with anxiety and depression for some time now. I took antidepressants but had a bad experience with them so am struggling on without them. Trying an healthy and active lifestyle which I know is the best way forward for me. Just hard trying to juggle this with work

[lizzy1976]

Hi Cathyay I weaned myself off all mine because they just didn’t work, tried all sorts of different ones. To be honest it was my home life and hubby that was the problem, as soon as I had that pointed out to me by my counsellor I knew myself what I had to do, I’ve gotten myself out walking even running a little, it’s hard because I have autoimmune disease but I’m pushing myself and loosing a bit of weight too! I’m doing things my way and been honest with my hubby and told him, write down on a list all the things that’s upsetting you in your life, the worries etc, it might link up to one particular thing, sometimes we know what the problems are but can’t face admitting it lol ❤️

[Hidden in reply to lizzy1976]

Thankyou so much lizzy1976. Yes I have a lot of issues which I think I need to address. The medication was just a void and although in someways I felt better, It did not make me address what really is bothering me and underpins my anxiety and depression. Love the idea of writing things down and perhaps this would help make things clear. I have thought of writing a diary. I think when things are swirling round in your head it’s scary and doesn’t always make sense, but once it’s written down it’s somewhere else for it to go!

[Marc787]

Hello Cathtay, everyone's choice and path with dealing with a/d are different. I truly believe our own self is the way to self healing and self discovery. It's takes consistency , finding what works best for you and believe what your heart tells with positive thoughts. God bless 😀.

[Hidden in reply to Marc787]

Thankyou. Yes this is very true. I think antidepressants may have help in the short term, but definitely didn’t agree with me. I feel more clarity in my mind and feel I have more strength now to perhaps deal with my issues. I’ve decided to try and listen more to my heart, but struggle a lot with positive thoughts at the moment.

[Marc787 in reply to Hidden]

From my personal experience in my life. It's how I would react or overeact to anything, external things from other people, work, boss, co-workers, kids, wife, news, events, etc. And said they made or this made me angry, sad, stress out, scared, etc. but the real truth is anything outside of me didn't make me this or that. It's how I reacted and told my mind (thoughts) this. I reacted in a negative (low energy) way, and let it bother me for days, weeks, and evens months. I've discovered, learned and still practicing it. To change and control my reactions, my thoughts, what I would rather put in my head with (high energy) calmness, happiness, joy, love, being humble, and no ego, no pride, no greed, no anger, no sadness, no harm, no pay back daily. and to just let go of the past. I like to focus on the now, be mindful. There are so much infinite possibilities to who we can become. I choose to be the best version of my self. For me, I let myself get to this point of physical, mental pain with anxiety, stress and depression. Only I can get myself back. It will be hard work, it's a battle every day. But we have to trust the process. I just think of this, for every day I'm doing something good for me but don't feel good now and it's painful, do it again tomorrow and again so that later (future days) the pain will be less and less until its gone or manageable. I hope this helps. God bless 😀.

[Hidden in reply to Marc787]

Thankyou, this is great advice and really makes sense. I have always had low confidence, and a kind of negative internal image of myself which I presume others see. When someone has said something in the past I always see it negatively even if it has been a positive comment at times. It holds with me much longer than I should. While on antidepressants these gave me a false sense of confidence. It felt amazing because I had never felt like that before about myself. I keep trying to apply mindfulness in my everyday thinking and has helped. I realise it’s only me than can change my negative thoughts. We are our worst own enemies aren’t we 😁 hope you manage to find some inner peace today

[catharsis34]

Hi, I totally understand your struggle. It's hard enough to try to fit in a healthy routine with a full-time job, let alone dealing with the burden of anxiety and depression. I don't think people truly understand how difficult it is... So I feel for you... I have been on and off all different types of antidepressants since I was diagnosed around 19 yrs. old .. It's difficult because everyone's body responds differently to certain medications. I have been off my antidepressants for about 2 years now.. I certainly am not advocating for anyone to go off their meds. I am not a doctor, so I just want to clarify that everything I am saying is speaking from personal experience. I was just sick of feeling like a lab rat... Since being off my meds, I have ups and downs, but I felt on antidepressants that I was always so apathetic to everything. I didn't experience a rollercoaster of emotions, but I also wasn't feeling emotions at all... which to me is worse. That is why I decided to try to deal with my anxiety and depression without Rx antidepressants. I would rather feel something (even if it is a low state) than feel nothing at all. My psych knows my desire to go for the more natural route so I am currently taking SAM-e. (Which she recommended for me). It's a supplement that is advertised as a mood booster. So far I have noticed good results, without any really negative side effects... but it could be placebo effect as well. I also agree that trying to get exercise for the natural endorphins is a great idea. Eating a balanced diet helps a great deal as well. There is so much evidence out there that links a healthy, 'whole food' diet can greatly affect mood and obviously physical health. Sometimes we don't realize that the junk food we eat can actually have a lasting impact on mood... Anyway I certainly went on a tangent there (sorry!) but I know exactly where you are coming from, so I thought I would share my experience. I wish you the best!

[Hidden in reply to catharsis34]

Thankyou so much and don’t worry about going on a tangent, your words make sense. I think antidepressants work for some people, but they definitely didn’t for me. I reacted badly to both citalopram and sertraline and not sure if it’s any coincidence that these are both SSRI’s. I definitely have a more clear mind now but have started to feel low and slight anxiety is starting to creep it’s way in. I was exactly the same on the medication. Was very apathetic. I just felt numb, but had amazing confidence. This is the part that’s hard to deal with, as this is where I struggle a lot in life, and for the first time I felt good about myself. But now I know it was the drug that made me feel like that. Glad you are feeling a little better, and echo what you said about eating healthy. I admittedly love my junk food but feel so much better when I’m health conscious

[HealthAnxietyGuy]

I can totally relate as I've been there for a long time. I was so bad for years with panic attacks and some depression. Resolving issues in your life will hep as well as exercise and healthy diet.

However, for myself it wasn't working totally, what was needed for me and I believe most likely many people as well is probiotics. This helped tremendously for me because of my major problems with IBS, which I thought were all anxiety related but it was actually the other way around.

There's a huge link between gut and brain that science is finally realizing. I suggest looking into this as well. I have a few posts which I gave the details of the probiotics I use and believe it's a good one because there are many choices out there, some may be less effective due to storage and will die off before reaching the large intestine.

[Hidden in reply to HealthAnxietyGuy]

Thankyou, I had a really massive panic attack last summer while at work. It was the worst I had ever experienced as I have had them before but nothing like this, I thought I was dieing. I think I had been depressed for some time and not addressed my issues. Thankyou I will look into probiotics. I remember reading somewhere that serotonin is made in the stomach which I found quite surprising.

[HealthAnxietyGuy in reply to Hidden]

Yes, I as well had high levels of anxiety in the past however, starting in 2014 my panic attacks were crazy, especially last year and I thought I was dying, it's hard to explain how severe it was.

You are correct about Seretonin, I've even read a study that they believe 80% or more of the seretonin is created in the gut. Also, I believe that seretonin is one piece of the puzzle, that's why you and I have reacted badly with antidepressants. I've done lots of research on them and they say antidepressants are mostly theoretical. Think about it, they don't even check your blood or anything to see if your low. They then give you pills to help increase it, well what happens if you are not low and that's not the exact problem? It's like if they diagnose you with low Vitamin B, D, or whatever but never do the test, if you aren't low but isntead high you will overdose. I would think same would be the case for seretonin. I had tried taking a little magnesium because they say this is a major cause of depression, anxiety and palpitations, which I had all of these.

So I tried low doses of high absorbing magnesium but it gave me worse problems with loose bowels (sorry for the extra info) as I already have severe IBS, even though I did all the tests to rule out other serious illnesses. I finally forced my doctor to check certain vitamins including magnesium, turns out I was normal in magnesium and actually on the higher end of normal, even at my worse state when I was unwell. All the vitamins and few minerals I checked were normal. Probiotics with psyllium husk (which is a pre-biotic, and feeds the probiotics) is almost the only thing that has controlled my IBS and panic attacks.

[Hidden in reply to HealthAnxietyGuy]

Yes I think that’s very true. Sertraline worked initially when I started taking it and eased my anxiety. Over the months though I slowly got worse and ended up having having manic episodes. I told the doctor and she seemed perplexed as not really heard of this. I think I had excessive serotonin in my brain which can be dangerous. When I came off sertraline I felt awful like I was withdrawing from a drug. I still miss the ‘high’ now. I now have the clarity now though to realise I need to deal with my issues