Hi guys!! About a month ago I was prescribed Zoloft to help deal with my general anxiety disorder and mild depression. It's been pretty helpful so far. Now my doctor is just trying to determine if I'm taking the right dose or if I need to increase my dosage. She told me to continue taking the 50mg capsules and to decide if I feel "normal" and then come back in a month or so to decide where we will go from there. The problem is that I don't really know what it feels like to not live with these conditions. I've been extremely anxious since I was a small child and the smallest things could send me into a panic. Some of that has been diminished, but I'm still feeling anxious occasionally and have had a racing heart/trouble breathing during some anxious moments (no panic attacks though, yay!!). Is this considered a "normal" amount of anxiety? Is this what normal feels like? I'm not sure if there's anyone on this site who knows anything about this, but if there's anyone I would trust for advice on this it would be you guys If you can offer me any help at all please let me know!!
I hate anxiety, and get anxiety at just thinking about getting anxiety. I get social anxiety which causes my heart to pound fast and gives me butterflies. My health anxiety, actually slows down my heart rate and I have a hard time breathing and my hands start to tingle. Sometimes my face will start to burn or I will get light headed. The best thing to do, is try meditating, exercising, and keeping your mind preoccupied. Don't fight the anxiety, just observe it. The more you fight it, the worse it gets. For me I still have trouble getting rid of it, usually it just has to pass. Anxiety meds can help, which I know you're on, but trying different meds out there might benefit you in order to see which one is the best fit. Hope your anxiety gets better.
I got the exact same problem, it happens all the time! I've gotten Conserta for mine, and it helps now and then, but doesn't help my panic attacks.
I have social anxiety which really negatively affects my life. I really do not know what it feels like to be truly free from anxiety. I do take xanax which is probably as close as I'll ever get.
Well, if anxiety prevents you from doing everyday things, then there is a problem. A little anxious but able to function normally is fine, panic attacks are not. You don't need to decide yourself, your doctor should know if you describe your overall state to her. When I was taking anxiety medication my therapist asked me to keep sort of a journal of my moods throughout the day. I guess, that helped him to see how I was improving.
I get anxiety a lot. it becomes kind of overwhelming and I want to just get in my car and drive away somewhere. One of the things is that if I have new things to do, or a lot of things, or anything that is a new challenge. I wasn't always like this, or at least no where near to this degree. some of it is PTSD from having lived in a dangerous country before coming back to the US, and a lot of it has to do with the whole closet thing. I say that because when I joined EC and started sharing openly with everyone who is here, a lot of the anxiety lifted. you're doing the right thing to deal with it, and I am planning to do that as well, to see a therapist and work through it. imagine being in denial about being gay, and compounding that by being in denial about being depressed and anxious. so I'm working on these issues one at a time. I'm so glad I found this site.
