[monkeybruv]

Has anyone else experienced an increase in anxiety symptoms when in remission from depression / just before getting better? I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression but I feel that my major problem has always been the depression until I got treatment (I suffered from panic attacks aged 8 but was pretty happy otherwise, then had quite bad anxiety by the time I was 11 which by the age of 13 just turned into pretty much flat depression. I'm 19 now and have been in treatment for a year.) I feel pretty awful at the moment but the fact that I care about things enough to worry about them is new...maybe the meds are going to work? or maybe they are just not right for me?
I was on citalopram before and i noticed that when i first started treatment my anxiety suddenly appeared and went out of control, after years of feeling extreme numbness...i thought it might be a good sign but then when the anxiety calmed down I went straight back to zombie mode and increasing the dose did me no good at all. I'm on sertraline now and am suffering terribly with my obsessions but i don't know whether to soldier on until I 'come out the other side' better or to get off these evil meds as soon as possible. Or even if life is always going to be a choice between either having horrific anxiety or being in a stupour of depression for me.

bottom line: is anxiety a good sign of remission? or as good as it gets? or is blankness a good thing after all?

[Rohag]

Originally Posted by monkeybruv

...the fact that I care about things enough to worry about them is new...maybe the meds are going to work? or maybe they are just not right for me?

In my case, anxiety has never meant a remission of the depression. It is possible your beginning to care about things indicates the meds are having an effect. In any case, it would be good to report everything you are experiencing to your prescribing doctor as soon as possible.

How debilitating is the anxiety?

[monkeybruv]

Originally Posted by Rohag

In my case, anxiety has never meant a remission of the depression. It is possible your beginning to care about things indicates the meds are having an effect. In any case, it would be good to report everything you are experiencing to your prescribing doctor as soon as possible.

How debilitating is the anxiety?

Thanks for the reply.
Pretty bad, I'm not sleeping or eating properly and I've become obsessed with measuring, weighing and looking at myself in the mirror (even at 4am ) because I can't stop thinking about all the weight I've lost and how terrible I look. I ruined my french oral exam last week because I could barely speak and when I tried to look at my notes it just looked like black squiggles on the page and not language. I wake up most days shivering and with an upset stomach from nerves.

What has anxiety meant to you, then? I'm trying to determine if I'm getting better or worse :/

[Fuzzybear]

[Rohag]

The anxiety symptoms you describe are significant. If possible, take everything you've written above and inform your doctor.

I experience anxiety differently - it's not sustained for long periods. My anxiety usually appears suddenly, often but not always in response to some external trigger. If I do not deal with the anxiety immediately, it can rapidly escalate and drive me into an irrational state, which can be dangerous.

[monkeybruv]

I guess maybe it's circumstantial...I do have a lot of uni work atm. But in a way I get anxious about nothing at all or else things that really shouldn't matter. So maybe not so. I don't know.