New here

[Teddysmum43]

Hello everyone I've just joined Anxiety Uk and thoug I would say hi. I'm 44 and have had anxiety all my life. I go through patches that are worse than others. I'm going through a really bad patch now unfortunately.

I started a counselling course in September as I was in a pretty good place then and felt strong enough to cope. Hmmmm how wrong I was. The anxiety has become really really bad and have also had panic attacks. I keep going to cancel the course but lots of people have been urging me to carry on including my doctor. I don't work due to the anxiety and I also have fibromyalgia. I used to have my own flower shop but the stress of it brought on the fibromyalgia. I'm on various medications but I haven't found a med to work for the anxiety. Am currently trying propranolol but its not helping at all. I feel my only choice is to stop the course as I'm feeling unable to function properly. However the course cost me a huge amount of money and apparently there are no refunds for whatever reason. I feel so stuck.

[stde]

Welcome--don,t be afraid to ask questions here a lot of good advice from suffers, and a lot of hope from those that have been thro, it......meanwhile check out some Q andA,s...and some blogs and you may be surprised.........good luck on you journey.....speak soon...x

[Pennylayne]

Hi there .....sorry to hear you don't feel too good at the moment, I think the time of year doesn't help.

How long does the counselling course last? I think that counselling can be hard as you are facing your fears and talking about them ......it makes it all so real and sort of overwhelming.

You spend a lot of time thinking about your own life and how you are dealing with it which can be tough.

Have you told the counsellor how you are feeling about it, it might be an idea if you do.

It's better to keep everything out in the open and tell them how you are feeling and at least you are not trying to work everything out on your own. After all as you say this has cost you a lot of money.

I can see that you are trying your very best to sort things out ......it's not an easy journey, there are lots of people here who are on that same journey ......I hope you find a little bit of help or inspiration here.

Best Wishes PL

[VincentVega]

Hi Tedsmum,

welcome, im sorry to hear your going through a bad patch, its awful, im pretty much in the same spot as you, was doing ok-ish, i had a bubble that i could function within, though i took a rather big step back a few weeks ago, i cant even put my finger on why, though sometimes we cant can we. its a good idea to come to a place like this with others that can understand how you are feeling, we are there with you, i would keep going with the treatment you are on, i believe its good to try anything that diverts your negative thoughts for a while.

Just one important thing about your meds, im certainly no doctor, but are you on anything else? as propranolol is a beta blocker, it slows the heart down, so it does help with panic attacks, though just my opinion it does little for anxiety, i take 40mg of propranolol a day, but with a combination of other drugs that are more for anxiety such as Sertraline, and anti depressents such as amitriptyline, just in my opinion though perhaps you should try something to go with the propranolol, i cant see this doing much on its own to help with the anxiety. i dont want to tell you what you should do because we are all different, but perhaps another visit to the gp may help a little, but this illness as you already know after so many years suffering with it, is all about little steps, that go together to make progress, keep strong tedsmum, best wishes VV x