[unlockingsanity]

For those of you who suffer from anxiety/depression, do you ever feel like you're on the right track and then out of nowhere, you feel like you're back at square one?

I have a Pdoc appointment and a therapy appointment tomorrow and I am beside myself with anxiety. I've had this Pdoc for 3-4 years. I've had this therapist for 2 years.

I can't even pinpoint what I'm scared about.

I'm on medication and have been doing well, but the cycling of good to so terribly anxious that I make myself sick is so tiring.

Will my life ever be free of it or should I just accept this is my life forever? Before having my first panic attack about 5 years ago, I never had such a problem with anxiety.

When I first started having panic attacks (in my mid twenties) it felt like there would be no end to them. And I'd never considered myself an anxious person, either! Even when I was having these attacks, it was confusing to me, because I didn't always consciously feel 'anxious'! What was I anxious/scared/nervous about? Sometimes they would come thick and fast and be so severe that I would spend hours continually throwing up. I too couldn't pinpoint what was causing them, they seemed to come out of nowhere to ruin my life! Medication didn't do a lot for me - maybe I wasn't prescribed anything good!? - so I'm glad if you are getting at least some relief.

I haven't had a severe panic attack in months now, despite starting to slowly introduce myself back into situations (social, driving, etc..) that I feared might tip me over the edge back when I was in a highly anxious state. One thing I found that really helped to get me to relax was hypnotherapy - although I went to a group guided meditation today and I got the same deeply relaxed feeling. I don't think I'd ever REALLY relaxed before. I think that gave me a break from 'running on red' and gave me a chance to cool down.

Something that has no doubt helped me has been my therapy. I think the process of getting to the core issues and starting to address them has been the key to reducing my anxiety and panic attacks. I won't lie, there was a stage where going to therapy (even over a year/18 months in) and addressing this stuff seemed to be causing more anxiety than it was preventing, but it was just a stage I needed to work through, I guess.

I feel like, for me, the anxiety and depression came from a feeling that I wasn't in control of my own life.. I feel that now, through my work in therapy, I am taking the reins.. and am starting to feel good!

I don't think you have to accept that this is your life forever. Things can get better.

[liveforfish]

My husband has bad panic attacks. He talks himself through them. He stopped medicating by running. He runs daily on a treadmill. He finds it helps his body to not get the panic attacks as severe. He still gets them, but he will call me to walk him through it or he'll talk himself through it.

He tells himself things like, "I'm not dying, I'm not having a heart attack, etc." Sometimes he really has to do a lot of talking to get it under control.

When I feel an anxiety attack coming on I have to breath and move my body. I'll shake my leg, wave my hands in the air, take a walk down the hall. Basically find a way to get the adrenalin out of my system. I also chew gum, especially peppermint gum. It relaxes you.

[SilverGlitter]

I've had problems with panicky moments (they're pretty effective at preventing me from continuing what I'm doing when they're bad - lightheaded, sweating, can't breathe - since I was about 10 years old. I never really dealt with them until I started seeing a T for depression. What I find is most helpful when I feel like I'm going backwards and am very anxious before a T session, is to tell her straight away. It almost takes away some of the anxiety, knowing that she's ready to act if it happens and knowing that she's aware I may need to take it slowly that day.
But even when I feel like I've slid backwards, I always manage to come back again to a point where I can semi-control it when it happens while I'm by myself.
It can definitely be a long journey, but I don't think you should be accepting right now that the rest of life will be like this - you've got to allow yourself to maintain some hope!

[CantExplain]

Originally Posted by unlockingsanity

For those of you who suffer from anxiety/depression, do you ever feel like you're on the right track and then out of nowhere, you feel like you're back at square one?

I have a Pdoc appointment and a therapy appointment tomorrow and I am beside myself with anxiety. I've had this Pdoc for 3-4 years. I've had this therapist for 2 years.

I can't even pinpoint what I'm scared about.

I'm on medication and have been doing well, but the cycling of good to so terribly anxious that I make myself sick is so tiring.

Will my life ever be free of it or should I just accept this is my life forever? Before having my first panic attack about 5 years ago, I never had such a problem with anxiety.

These are fairly normal thoughts for a depressed person.
Depression can be beaten, although it is very difficult to believe it when you are depressed.

[karebear1]

My T and Pdoc tell me I may struggle with depression and anxiety for the rest of my life, BUT it isn't constant and I have been feeling good for a year or more thanks to a Pdoc who knows what they're doing when they prescribe meds to me. And, because I feel good now, having times when the depression or anxiety return makes it easier for me to deal with.

I think we learn to deal with ourselves better. But this can take yrs

[elliemay]

Actually, accepting this as your life right now might give rise to the freedom that you speak.

Accepting that you will have periods of anxiety might allow you to roll through those periods better. Have less anxiety about the anxiety so to speak.

From there, you can live your life knowing that, if you do have a moment of acute anxiety, you can handle it, it's not permanent, and, at that time it's kinda awful, but still okay.

This kind of acceptance can take the sting out of bad things.

It doesn't mean that you stop working on the anxiety, or ways to curtail it. It just means it is what it is right now, and that's okay.

I was severly depressed for about twenty years. I just knew i would never escape. Now i am one of the most positive and happy people, snd others often comment on how positive and happy and patient i am. Two things made a difference: 1. Effexor and 2. A book i read called The Battlefield of the Mind (i read it over and over until it sll sunk in)
I believe you can get thru it. If i can, then anyone can.