Anxiety

[Daniel9]

I started getting panic attacks as a teenager. I lived with it for years. In my case it is a genetic biological condition as my father had the same thing. My doctor would give me tranquilizers which would help a bit, but weren't very effective. Then two important things happened in my life...

I became a Catholic and my doctor and I found that I respond amazingly well to Paxil. Now what does becoming a Catholic have to do with it someone might ask? Everything. I feel that without my faith, there would be no "cure" through the drug alone. I feel the presence of God and I feel His calm come over me.

All I can say is that my life is so rich and full and wonderful now it was truly worth any suffering I went through to get here. Hang in there. Give it to the Lord and everything will be fine.

[ardillacid]

How are your stools?

PS hot stuff you are getting slow in your old age

[Sister Rose Therese]

I know this won't be a lot of help but having seen your post about your money problems, the stress of traveling and being responsible for young people, and the worries of leading little one at home. You're under a lot of stress. I'd be anxious too. That's a lot to handle.

[CrossCuT]

[size=1]The best solution to any emotional situation whether it be from the blues all the way to stress:

[size=8]CHOCOLATE!!![/size]


Preferably dark chocolate depending on the severity of results you are looking for.
Dark chocolate has been proven to increase the endorphin level in a women's brain by 20%.
Gotta love the chocolate!
[/size]

Edited November 7, 2007 by CrossCuT

[photosynthesis]

I don't really have an anxiety disorder but I am bipolar II so my moods are all over the map and it's hard to predict how I'll be feeling because one day I'm depressed and it feels like my whole world is falling apart. I don't really experience the euphoric psychotic mania that makes people go on shopping sprees, gamble senselessly and dance in the streets naked. I never feel that. But I do go into this thing called a 'mixed state' where your depressed so you have this irrational belief that your world is falling apart and you are worthless. At the same time, your mind races with anxious thoughts that are difficult to control and it is very hard to fall asleep much less focus on anything constructive. Often that lasts for a number of days and I spend a lot of time running on little to no sleep.

Honestly, I don't really know what to do about the anxiety either. I've had people tell me that I'm not healed yet because I don't posess the virtues of faith, hope and charity. That certainly is true--no one has enough of those virtues... but God sometimes uses struggles like this to form these virtues. People who don't have mental illness don't have to work as hard to trust in God. It's still illness, it's still abnormality but God can be strong in your weaknesses and even if it's not His will for you to be healed in this life, you can still go on and become a saint because He is there with you in the struggle.

[cmotherofpirl]

When I get manic I clean and reorganize my house and dig new garden beds. This is fine unless its a cold december day and you have this irrational urge to redo your garden.

[mortify]

Best thing is to see a doctor, sounds like general anxiety disorder, but who knows.

If you're not taking any medications you might want to consider an over the counter herbal product, St John's wort. There's a lot of data on this herbal, the downside is that it has a lot of interactions with other medications, so if you're on anything else it might not be a good idea. If you're worried about some of the effects associated with other ante depressant or anxiety meds, it might be worth considering. Just be sure to run this by your doctor and speak to your pharmacist about it, they'll be able to help see whether this is good for you.

God bless

[mortify]

Heh, I almost forgot. There are non-pharmacologic ways to tackle anxiety! There's an excellent book by Claire Weekes called [u]Hope and Help for your Nerves[/u], I got it myself and it's an excellent read!

Edited November 8, 2007 by mortify

[Circle_Master]

Personally I've found when I am praying more often, my anxiety goes down. I guess that relates to me becoming more aware of the sovereignty of God and the impact He has in daily activities.

Other than that I try not to think about anxious things that may be coming up, or I continue reflecting on the successful times I've done the certain thing trying to ignore my 'what ifs'.

Anxiety is a pain in my rear. I also like to say that it's tough being an introvert in an extroverts world.

[Veritas]

+

This book is excellent. I struggled with anxiety for a time after I graduated from college and before I got a job... wondering if I would enter the convent.... moving from home... a lot of big time stressers! I didn't have the "phobia" aspect in the title, but it's a relatively small portion. It is an EXCELLENT book. Really helpful with a lot of cognitive therapy things you can do yourself. Most anxiety comes from our "self-speak". This book teaches you how to think and talk to yourself (to retrain yourself) through writing exercises etc... in a realistic way that doesn't lead to anxiety. It also helps you to identify your personal triggers, teaches you about the physical symptoms and gives you the physiology of it (and explains that it is NOT dangerous), it goes into nutrition and breathing, etc. Really well rounded, practical, good stuff! Super thorough about all the things we've all been mentioning. Really, please consider buying it.

God Bless!
[url="http://www.amazon.com/Anxiety-Phobia-Workbook-Edmund-Bourne/dp/157224223X"]http://www.amazon.com/Anxiety-Phobia-Workb...e/dp/157224223X[/url]

[cathoholic_anonymous]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' post='1414913' date='Nov 5 2007, 08:20 PM']I have had this all my life as well.
Sometimes it helps to list every possible thing that can go wrong and then really think about what you would do in each situation and plan accordingly. Then when something goes wrong you can say "AHA, I planned for that."[/quote]

This strategy might work for some people, but for others (especially those who have an obsessive-compulsive component to their anxiety) it could just make things worse. When I try to plan for every eventuality I end up giving myself a panic attack, as all sorts of implausible and terrifying situations present themselves to my mind. Logically I know that they won't happen, but emotionally I think they will, and the result is a near-unbearable fit of anxiety.