Survivors guide to severe anxiety disorder .

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And not so severe . I wont explain to you how bad I was in case some scum bag uses this against me , This is not a "cure all" ;" I can't imagine their would be many who make a 100% recovery , though it is enough to hopefully get off disability and find a menial dead end part time job.

Get correctly medicated : I'm on Paxil (aropax) their was a decent improvement all the other tips are an "augmenter" starting it was brutal in fact my mom said it was "criminal" my gp put me on this medication, though tough it out your body will adjust, in fact taking the "natural" medicine had a similar effect (thankfully not as long lasting/intense)


Exercise : more is not more in fact it's worse exercising like an Olympian is akin to a drug fix , it may grind away the anxiety though it triggers the flight or fight responses and latter on you feel far far worse , so light exercise like walking in a air conditioned mall is the way to go.


Diet : eat a diet rich in complex carbohydrates which helps build serotonin stop refined sugar and for the love of god alcohol , eat regular meals I don't cook main meals any more , just snacks like bananas or roast potatoes , eat a banana just before bed to get you through the night , the (f) atkins crowd should be jailed for crimes against humanity, high protein diets make you depressive and constipated .


Get a Air Conditioner , until you get one you will not have realized how sensitive you are to heat and humidity , yes it is a nervous system stimulant .


Melatonin : yes this helps though oddly enough it doesn't seem to work as a sleep aide though it's particular useful for me during sleep when I have all the anxiety induced adrenaline running through my body.


Minimise stimuli : easier said than done you really need to work on it eg I previously thought sun was "bad" though it turned out to be the heat or sunlight through windows that had the stimulatory affects, some things may be fine to one person yet debilitating for another.


Sunlight : it's good , I avoided it as it can be bad for head injury patients , like exercise more is not more it can make things worse !


Vitamin D : mine was very low, in depressive/anxious people that is often the case do these illness cause you to be low in it or does being low in it cause you to be anxious? perhaps a little from column a and a little from column b.


tryptophan /spirulina:I I get it from spirulina as trptophan suplements are still banned in this country my gp gave me a list of "mood boosting foods" that are rich in tryptophan such as nuts, soy and certain dead animals though for whatever reasons these foods only had a marginal affect I suspect the spirulina is more easily digested /absorbed ?


CBT : yes cognitive behavioral therapy helps , at 1st i thought my gp was nuts it sounded like gibberish, though over time it managed to de program some unhelpful thought patterns eg "newstart" A = accept what you can not change


b]Get a blood test : [/b]This can give you something to work with I'm fair skin , young , living in the "sunshine state" , yet low in vit D who could imagine ?


I plan to try a couple of other things, if it helps I shall let you know...

Sound has a huge impact on me. I don't go anywhere without a way to play music.

^^^

like I said it's funny the way some one with a similar dx can be affected in different ways.

Hopefully it can help somebody it took me a while to work it all out glad I'm not alone particularly on the exercise thing it's not uncommon for people to think more is more , sadly I will struggle with this all my life, even worse suffering the stigma when I apply for employment I think in the OECD OZstralia has the one of the lowest participation rates for both able bodied and disabled .

Guess I need to accept if you want to be employed in this country you need to be in good health, pure Aussie white , ideally male , aged between 25-50 otherwise it's on the scrap heap for you or if your "lucky " enough a menial part time service job .*

* and that assumes if an Asian student on a special visa hasn't taken it all ready

In case any one is reading this though I'm highly doubtful probably most of you are to busy on other threads talking about yourself, yes indeed bananas help apparently they work in a similar way to beta blockers and of cause the slow release carbohydrates help with the serotonin production.

Theirs a raw vegan on You Tube with a fine body who eats 40 bananas a day ! Don't know how she does it I'm struggling with 10 .

www.nutrition411.com/education.../heart ... iet‎

thanks for posting that aussiebloke. it's weird timing because just today I decided that exercise was amping my energy up but also my anxiety. And that I am really at the end of my patience with dealing with how difficult (not putting swear words in there) the anxiety makes everything. Copied and pasted your neat list.

sounds like adrenaline from the flight or fight response funny at 1 st I thought I was bi polar "energy " , turns out I'm not I will be looking at beta blockers to will discuss with gp

yes this info should be freely available I go on depressive/anxiety lobby forums and their info is close to useless why did I have to spend all this time working it all out , don't get me started on the disability charity employment agency I'm with, their beyond useless don't get me started

Last edited by aussiebloke on 07 Mar 2014, 4:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

get a pet preferable from a shelter it makes you feel self rightious and superior(confidence building ) , if you feel you must buy one from a sweat shop do so your life may depend on it when no gives a ka ka at least you can stick around for your pets

stay away from humans at best their unwanted stimuli at worst they may make your amygdala go hay wire eg the other day at the soup kitchen i was told with authority that gaming was not a "productive" hobby yet scribbling on paper or making unwanted noises (singing ) was i tried to convince them if your not saving the world like we are now everything is self indulgent , got no where except through the roof ! I was made to feel like a wierdo back in the day for my hobby now their doing it again allegedly it's a hobby for children . I just kept my cool as i know their are others their with mental problems and i hope to think it wasn't said in a hurtful way that and i didn't want to be fired from a volunteer job!

eat regularly part 2 makes sense when you think about it animals graze through out the day and only get sick when know it all humans shove them in dirty cages or turn vegans in to carnivores or god forbid cannibals . Forget this 3 meals a day nonsense make it 10-15 snacks + per day (seriously)

hot shower /sauna yes heat humidity is bad oddly enough? if it's for a very short period it can be helpful I presume as it relaxes the muscle tension thus helps reduce the anxiety ?

Last edited by aussiebloke on 07 Mar 2014, 5:12 am, edited 2 times in total.

What helped me is learning about things. Researching Aspergers, anxiety & other issues have. Trying to analyze what the anxiety was related to & then coming up with ways to avoid it or make it more tolerable. I also researched anxiety medication abit & got on Buspar which is specially for generalized anxiety instead of instead of other uses like antidepressants or benzodiazepines. Officially it only helps with the physical symptoms but me & some others found it helps with the mental affects. I researched OCD medication after because I realized my OCD was contributing to my anxiety & I take Neurontin which helps it a lot. Also changing my life circumstances & getting settled in to a better environment & learning various little life skills helped reduce my anxiety too. I do take the benzo Klonopin before going out when I think I might be on a crowded bus because I feel claustrophobic like when buses are really crowded & noisy. I get hot, sweaty, feel feverish but I'm fine without it when traveling on buses that aren't crowded or on full Greyhound buses because there's more space than a crowded city bus & I'm fine in tight spaces by myself like closets. I had a panic disorder that Buspar got rid of & now I don't have panic attacks, it helped take away the anxiety aspect of my OCD thou I still had compulsions & thoughts I'd get hung up on before Neurontin. Buspar helped my social anxiety enough so I could be more social with effort without feeling too anxious & it's not bad now so I don't get the crowded bus issue but taking half the lowest dose of Klonopin before helps. I occasionally take Klonopin or Lorazepam to help me sleep; I sometimes have problems sleeping; I may have minor sleep apnea & plan to get a sleep study done after I get surgery to correct a deviated septum(inside of my nose is crooked) which could be contributing. I very occasionally take Klonopin or Lorazepam if there's something going on that causes me to be anxious which is usually something that would cause the average person to feel pretty anxious

^^^^^^T^

yes it takes time , the 1st thing I did was get medicated than I could work it through ....

I'm sorry you have to take so many meds I only take 1 , what happens if one starts to give you side affects or one stops working , what than?

the only other med I am open to are beta blockers I will let you know...

Your absolutely rite about it taking time. I suffered a bad psychotic depression at 20/21 & spent the next 5years seeing a psych, other experts & taking med including antidepressants, antipsychotics, couple mood stabilizers(at different times of coarse), couple ADHD med(also at different time) & Klonopin. I didn't really feel better till I got off the meds after 5 years. During the time I was on them I got a job for 10months, got another job for 25months, & another that only lasted 3months. I also joined a bipolar support group before I started working. All that stuff made me pretty anxious but I toughed it out. I didn't feel like the psych meds helped with my anxiety or OCD much except by making me feel kind of out of it & harder to focus/think. They may of helped hold my depression & mood problems together some but those got even better after I quit the meds. I tried a beta blocker during that time for a tremor disorder that acts up when I'm nervous or doing things with fine motor-skills but it lowered my blood pressure too much & made me sick. I tried one before I got depressed that a different neurologist prescribed & it made me sick too. My blood pressure has been a tad low at times when I wasn't on psych meds & my BP is perfect nowadays but I think a couple meds I'm on could be raising it slightly or counteracting effects of other meds lowering it so I don't think beta blockers are rite for me.

I joined WP after I got off the meds & being here helped me learn & sort things out. I got in my 2nd relationship which was a girl I met on these forums but I had some problems within the relationship because of my anxiety like some codependent behaviors which is some of how I screwed up my 1st. I also think anxiety was a contributing factor to the psychotic depression I had when the relationship ended & I really did NOT want to go that route again. I really did not like the idea of meds at the time but felt like I needed to try something. I ruled beta blockers out doe to their effects on blood pressure & didn't like the idea of antidepressants. I felt better after I was off them than i did the entire time I was on them. I had tried Paxil, Prozac, Pristiq, Remeron, & Lexapro. Lexapro was the 1st one I was put on but I kept going back to it because I tolerated it better or it helped more than the others & I was taking the maximum daily dose at night & half the max in the morning so I was put on 1 & a half times the max dose a day. I liked the idea of Buspar because it was specially for anxiety & meant to be taken regularly. It helped but it was kind of too late for my relationship by then & she realized she was better off without anyone at the time which I understand.

I had problems after because I was still obsessed/hung up on her & things & kept checking her recent post even thou we didn't chat anymore. I thought some of it was related to my OCD because I had urges & thoughts that I couldn't let go but thanx to Buspar I didn't have the anxiety associated with them. I researched OCD meds & tried Afranil which is the gold standard for OCD but it made me really shaky & felt out of it mentally & those effects seemed to increase after being on it a few days instead of getting better & that was on the lowest dose. Those effects wore off a day or so after I quit taking it but my OCD was better for a few days latter. I tried Lorazepam after but it made me alittle sleepy & out of it. I had got a bunch then & I still have some left. I researched more alternative treatments for OCD after & Neurontin seemed appealing because it's occasionally used for that tremor disorder I have & also it's a seizure med instead of a psych one. It didn't help my tremor disorder but it didn't make em worse; Buspar helps it alittle by helping my anxiety which causes em to act up.

I haven't noticed any side effects from Buspar but I only take half the maximum dose. Neurontin made me feel like it was harder to focus at 1st but I noticed it helping my OCD. I lowered it & my OCD got alittle worse so I increased it back because the benefit outweighed the focus issue. I don't feel like it does that now but maybe I gotten used to the feeling but maybe the side effect left after awhile idk. I still take a lower dose. It's possible I'd get a better benefit if I increase Buspar or Neurontin but I think the risk of tolerance & possibility of side effects could be worse than the benefit I'd get. With Klonopin I average half 1ce to 2wice a week & Lorazepam is a lot more occasional than that. I don't want to risk building up a tolerance to em like I probably had built up when I was taking higher doses of Klonopin a couple times a day. for my tremors. I think it helps em some now but I only feel the need to take it for that if I'm doing something with fine motor skills that triggered it or if I was carrying something heavy for a while & made me shaky after but those things are very occasionally.

I don't understand what that bus issue is related to. The paperwork I get from my doc that list what meds I'm on & my ongoing conditions I take meds for list agoraphobia with panic but that bus issue doesn't feel like the panic & anxiety I'm used to & I don't think the agoraphobia label fits but the physical symptoms of what I feel may. I'm OK in other public situations like stores & lines & not that bothered when people try to chat with me but I still rather they didn't.

My plan when I started taking Buspar was to get my anxiety better under control & then make changes to my life & improve things & learn & grow. I figured 1ce I did that stuff & gotten used to things I could try weaning myself off of it. I still think/hope that I'll get to that point one day with Buspar, Neurontin & Klonopin but I don't think I should try anytime soon.
I wish you luck with the beta blockers AB. I know they can be a big help to some but get your blood pressure checked so it won't get too low.

^^^

I had heard of Beta blockers though was unaware they could be used for anxiety to , you say helpful where these people you know personally ? All the good stories I've heard where on the www , only bad things I've read it had little to no affect on their anxiety

I do hope the people on this thread improve doubtful many any ? will make a full recovery though you will make inroads and for that you will be most grateful . Today I saw some one at the counter at EB games and am 100 % certain she has anxiety disorder , poor girl , a breakdown waiting to happen

ps and they say where "blind" I think I can see breakdowns in the making better than most .

Beta blockers affect the nervous system & can have an effect on some of the physical symptoms of anxiety; like they may help with the symptoms I have when I'm on a crowded bus but I'm better not being on them due to my blood pressure thing. My mom takes a beta blocker for blood pressure. She was really stressed with work when she started it(she's retired now thankfully) & she was able to handle stress alittle better, sleep a little better, & quit getting tension headaches & that stuff & stress & anxiety are related to each other sometimes.

Another medication idea I just thought to mention is Vistaril/Hydroxyzine which is an antihistamine but has some effects on anxiety. It's been suggested to my girlfriend by a couple different docs/psychs(she has depression & anxiety issues that she's been trying different meds for) & she may try it at some point but so far neither of us has any experience with it. Like with the other med stuff I mentioned I strongly suggest that any readers who may be interested in trying something I mentioned read up on it alittle instead of just taking my word or the word of a doc/psych. Doing my own research & knowing myself helped me figure out the rite meds for me.

^^^^^

well that's why I did the list above little bit better here and a little bit better their, it all ads up, I hate to think what will happen when Paxil dies on me I thought I would "experiment" with it and take it in the evening and see if it could get me through the night better , bad idea it really messed things up , it's to be expected it only has a 1/2 life of 21 hours perhaps even less in my body