gertirouge

Hi all, I have posted here to introduce myself a few months ago.. Have been suffering very badly with anxiety for 6 months now. My anxiety seems to be specifically triggered with the following visuals/situations: Going into shops More than 5 or 6 people at a time in the same situation as me The overwhelming fear of passing out Medical procedures (doesn't help I work in healthcare!) I've had 6 sessions of CBT which I've paid for myself which is helping.. but I am getting so exhausted with feeling like sh*t all the time (sorry just fed up now!!!) Can anyone give me any good advice regarding anxiety meds? I took beta blockers for a little while but they made me feel worse.. I also suffer with depression so I think I may need an anti depressant? I know all meds work differently for different people but can anyone share some stories with me? How do they work? Thanks x

Thanks for the advice Kitty, I think DR's do just try and fob a lot of us off, especially when it comes to "mental health" even in 2014 it seems like there is still a huge stigma around people who have mental health issues.. quite sad really but I've come to the point where I don't care! I'm trying to use the approach where I need to constantly reassure myself just how irrational it all is in the midst of an anxiety attack. I just came across something really interesting online that a dr has wrote about anxiety, specifically relating to people fearing they will pass out. Wanted to post it here as I hope it can give some comfort to others aswell: This is a very common fear among people suffering from panic attacks. First, here's a little background. People think of fainting as belonging to the same category as heart attacks - a terrible physical calamity. But fainting is actually a valuable way the body protects itself. Do you know what causes a person to faint? It's caused by a sudden, significant drop in blood pressure. When blood pressure drops this way, there is a chance the brain won't get enough blood, because it's at the highest point of the body. That's no good - your brain needs a steady supply of the oxygen the blood carries. So when your body can't get enough blood to your brain because of low blood pressure, it protects you by bringing your brain down to the blood. The faint ensures a blood supply to the brain by bringing your head down to the ground. If we had our brains in our feet, there wouldn't be any such thing as fainting, but tap dancing would probably be banned. Here's the key point: What do you think is happening to your blood pressure during a panic attack? It's going up. Probably not a lot, but it's doing the opposite of what you need to faint. So it's extremely difficult to faint during a panic attack. In order to faint during a panic attack, you need to have some other physical circumstance or condition which lowers your blood pressure to such a degree that it overcomes the increase. It's not impossible, but extremely rare. Some people have a condition, called a syncope, which can result in a faint during panic. If you have such a condition, you would probably have a history of actual faints (not "almost fainting", actual faints) by the time you're in your thirties. Some people have what's called a Blood Phobia, and they can faint when they see blood. That's not an uncommon condition, but it's very different from Panic Disorder. In more than 20 years of treating patients with Panic Disorder, I've seen four who had actual fainting episodes. Certainly it was of little comfort to them that it was so rare and, if you have a history of actual fainting episodes, you have to learn how to manage them and protect yourself. But if what you have is a history of fearing a faint, of feeling like you were about to faint, of thinking you just narrowly dodged a faint, and so on, in the absence of any actual fainting episodes, then what you are troubled by is a fear of fainting in the absence of any actual fainting. While fainting almost never occurs, the fear of fainting is extremely common among people with Panic Disorder. This is because people often feel dizzy and lightheaded during a panic attack, and mistakenly associate this with fainting. People who have never fainted in their lives will say "it feels like fainting". That's part of the Panic Trick. These sensations are the result of shallow, labored breathing, and have nothing to do with fainting. A good belly breathing exercise will quickly clear up these sensations of feeling lightheaded and dizzy. This post has been promoted to an article

Oh boy I got quite emotional reading all your replies! I've become really soppy! Thank you so much for your reassurance and support, its hard to believe sometimes that anyone feels as terrified and well... stupid sometimes as you do! I think my main problem definitely is not dealing with issues when they present themselves. I DEFINITELY am guilty of always being the strong character and never dealing with stuff. I remember I was very very sad for a few days after I miscarried but then I was so ill that I just got on with it and just had the attitude that "things happen for a reason" which I do think but maybe I didn't grieve correctly. My best friend died 2 years ago and I still struggle with that everyday so possibly I just didn't have any grief left in me? The mind is a scary thing. I don't want medication. I have had two nervous breakdowns and still refuse meds. 90% of the time I felt fine and 10% I felt nuts. Now its the other way round 90% nuts with this anxiety and I just want to feel centered again. I don't think I will both with counsellling or CBT through the NHS I was offered it 2 years ago. it took 8 months to get an app then it was cancelled and no one contacted me back. Horrible service the nhs. Hopefully I can sort something soon. Joycicycle thank you so much for the advise with the thinking. It really helped put things into perspective. The thing is I have been to see a few doctors regarding mental illness and they have all said that my logical intelligent thinking tends to be my downfall? I have all this knowledge and advice and thinking about mental illness but can't see it in myself? Gaaaah I don't know anymore! xx

Hi all, my names Katy and I'm pretty new to all of this.. Just a bit of a back story as I'm starting to wonder if I'm actually ill or not? I have had a pretty rocky few years, issues with my dad, ended a long term relationship, started a new one, moved away from home, got engaged, took on someone's child to name a few, specifically last year I had a miscarriage.. I'm ok with all this! I've always been pretty ok with problems/issues etc that come my way which might explain my recent problems.. I'd never had an anxiety attack before, and it all started in November last year. I was at work and talking to a colleague about when I had a miscarriage. I was quite ill in hospital with septicaemia as a result and everything happened quite quickly. I was admitted to hospital and my partner came to see me. I had to have blood work, don't particularly like needles, don't particularly hate them either and my partner passed out. Dropped to the ground and looked pretty much... dead! I was explaining this situation to my colleague in a "this is funny" way, started thinking about the nurse taking my blood and I just came over REALLY awful. I was sitting at my desk and apparently I went white and I felt like time had slowed and I was about to just go unconscious. I then started to panic and began to cry hysterically (embarrasing!) Started feeling better as my manager took me outside for some fresh air, but was a bit jellified the rest of the day. This was on the Friday, was pretty freaked out but tried to write it off. On the saturday I went to some clothes shops with my mum.. well, attempted to! Went into the first shop and within 10 seconds the exact same symptoms came on, just this overwhelming fear that I was going to drop to the ground unconscious, time slowing, dizziness etc.. And this has now led to me not being able to go into any shop.. I had to take a week off work at the end of last year because I just felt so dizzy and faint all day. Went to the doctors and they gave me beta blockers. They didn't help and I didn't bother with them. In the october I had full blood work done and everything was fine, so I think I need to stop thinking something is seriously wrong with me and accept I have quite severe panic attacks? The drs seem to think so but no follow up treatment has been offered. I had made massive improvements recently, could go into some shops etc but last week I was driving home and my car set on fire, this seems to have started all these anxiety problems over again. I drove past the place the day after where my car set on fire and had a HUGE anxiety attack, even felt nauseous which is something I'd never felt before and its made everything 10 times worse. At the end of this week I have felt like I am in a constant state of panic, scared to stand up at work incase I pass out, purposefully not booking interviews/meetings as I just feel like I am going to drop unconscious. My question really is this.. has ANYONE out there got anxiety specifically related to the fear of passing out?? And also what medication/therapy/thinking/techniques helped those people? I am getting married in August and seriously considering cancelling it as I can barely leave the house at the moment