If any one has GAD if you could tell me a bit about your experiences with it, it'd be appreciated. Most of what I've read on it seems so impersonal and cold, I'd like to know what it's like from people who have it. I think I might have some symptoms of it. I have headaches constantly, am often stressed and worried, and sometimes when something is really stressing me out I get light headed and feel nauseous and like my throat is being constricted; I've missed days of school and have had my parents pick me up early a few times because of this. The lighted headedness and nauseous aren't has often as the headaches, that seem to occur everyday. And I'm pretty sure I am going to be seeing a psychologist sometime in the future to help me deal with stress so I don't have freak outs as often, so you don't need to suggest that to me at all.
Yeah my psychologist helped me too. I have GAD. It makes me always on edge, hard to concentrate, irritable, angry a lot. I was given a lot of medications, no anti-depressants worked, they actually backfired and made me more depressed and sick to my stomach. I am on ativan now, which helps for sleep, but I stil have problems during the day before taking the medication. Good luck to you, I know some days can be a challenge. I hope you have a good doc!
I was actually just told that I may have this by my doctor today. (I came here to make a thread about whether or not I should take prozac) I got food poisoning which turned into IBS and he seems to think it's caused by GAD. Psychology sounds to be the best option. Since, I've not tried treating it yet, I don't know much I can tell you. I've been prescribed prozac and even went down and bought it but am sorta reluctant to take it. I've been stressed all my life basically, except for when I was happy. Frequent headaches, horrible insomnia. The insomnia seems to work itself out pretty nicely if you get yourself on a nice sleeping schedule (always wake up the same time, go to bed when you're tired, don't get frustrated if you can't sleep, etc. etc.) Twitching, nervousness. My main thing is how stressed I get when I think about the future. When I think about money especially, it just really gets to me sometimes. The future to me, is sorta like a dark tunnel. It's only going to get darker. Really, it's probably quite untrue, but I look around me and can't help but viewing things that way...
I've never been diagnosed, and it's kind of specific, but my family has a history of social anxiety and I've had symptoms since I was at least 11. I actually couldn't eat more than one or two tiny meals a day for a year because I couldn't stand people looking at me when I ate. I felt weird placing orders at restaurants, going barefoot because I didn't like people looking at my feet, talking to people I didn't know or delivering speeches. I had boyfriends, but if they surprised me by coming over, or we had an anniversary dinner, I would get heart palpitations and feel really nauseous. I would avoid walking down hallways where there were people I knew because I was terrified at the prospect of having to think of something to say. I was afraid to go to parties because I didn't know how to act, and I was afraid to go to dances, because I couldn't dance (still can't but that doesn't really stop me now). My biggest problem was that I felt like there was a secret social code of how you're supposed to act and I was just missing all of the cues... Those which I knew I avoided acknowledging because I felt self-conscious and rebellious toward them. What changed? First, when I was a junior in high school, I was browsing through the library, not looking for anything in particular, when I found a book called "social phobia." The thing I remember most about it was the line, "YOU'RE NOT CRAZY" which was emblazoned in large, bold letters on the jacket sleeve. It had a lot of personal stories and a few coping techniques in it. I read it cover-to-cover and don't remember ever feeling so validated. Up until this point, I had no idea what was wrong with me. This gave my problem a name... defined it in a way that made me feel less like a freak and more like a victim of genetics and a holdover from ancient animal pack-behavior (fit in or die). Next, when I was a freshman in college (terrifying!!!), I went to the school counselor and he put things into perspective. Luckily for me, all he had to say was, "you don't have to do anything you don't want to do." (Obviously he meant in social situations.) Basically he said to hell with what's expected of you. We're not following a script. Sure people usually act a certain way, but that's mostly out of habit, not necessarily because you HAVE to act a certain way. He also advised me to just push through situations that make me uncomfortable, and the more I do that, the more I will be able to gain experience and compare things. So I'll be able to say, "well, I don't really want to do that, and I guess I don't have to, but look, I did this thing and I felt the same way, and now I'm glad I did." Since then, I've just come to accept my limitations and work on the ones I don't like. If I find myself unable to avoid doing something I don't want to do, I suck it up and deal with it. It's a lot easier, though, when all the pressure is off and it's just you yourself making the decision to push through it and try and become better... for yourself, not for others. I still hate public speaking, but I have to do it (part of my major). Sometimes my throat clenches up and I squeak, but I just clear my throat and move on with the presentation. It's not like the people I'm talking to are going to disregard my entire presentation because I squeaked... I still don't like dancing in front of people, but I've started to do it anyway. I'm awful, but it makes people (including myself) laugh. So where's the harm in that? I'd rather make people laugh than cry... It's been a very personal journey. I've had a time of it, but I'm still growing every day. I hope this has been applicable to at least a part of what you're going through. I think my social anxiety progressed to general anxiety for about a year before I said "fuck everything" and now I just take things as they come. I understand that things aren't always that easy though. When a lot of shit goes down, you can either turn into an electrified ball of stress or you can become the "I give a shit, but I don't" type. I guess my brain went for the latter...
It's quite a feeling isn't it? I had a friend in high school that had social phobia as well. We used to swap fears...
This is very strange because right before i came online tonight i had just finished reading an article regarding severe anxiety and how to cope! I will just highlight some of the major things it says to do: When having anxiety, resisting or fighting it will make it worse. Avoid tensing up or trying to make it go away b/c supressing it or running away means that your telling yourself "I can't handle it" Your SUPPOSED to say, "ok, the anxiety is back, I can allow my body to go through its reactions and it can handle this. I have done it before." Acceptance of anxiety is the key to over coming it b/c if you accept it then the next natural phase is that it will move through your body and mind and then PASS! Anxiety is cuased by a sudden rush of adrenaline. So you need to let it pass and remember that the adrenaline will be metabolized and re-asbored in 5 minutes! Here are some coping strategies to deal with it: Do something to relax your body, like deep breathing Meditate to relax your mind or find a focused activity to do for 20 minutes, like coloring. Call someone to distract yourself Distract yourself (if out in public) by counting your change in your purse. Also tell yourself some of the things listed below: THis will pass I deserve to feel ok It is just anxiety and i wont let it get to me This anxiety will not hurt me,even if it doesnt feel good. Say the following affirmations to yourself everyday: I am learning to let go of worry Each day i am growing in my capacity to handle this i choose peace over fear i am learning to control my mind so i can choose my OWN thoughts. I hope this helps!
Thank you perkyperks. I suffer from anxiety because of small small things, like if I hear someone laughing, some part of my mind goes "they're talking about me!" and i start to feel it. Or I create hypothetical situations and think they are real. I really find that the deep breathing helps, that's what I've been doing to cope with it. Last night I guess I made a small breakthrough, I asked myself "Why do I always think people are always talking about me?" I haven't figured out the answer yet, but it will come in time.
stay tuned for my later posts, I'm gonna give you some guys some links to stress reduction techniques that don't get in the way of life, and really fucking help.
I haven't heard back from any of the psychologist I had later contacted. Yesterday there was the senior citizen prom that I was looking forward to for quite some time (i'm a bit of do-gooder). But I wasn't feeling good, because my english teacher unknowingly made me feel like crap, and I had to get my license replaced. So while I started feeling sick, I ended up crying, I was mad at myself for not enjoying this like I wanted to, and I left early. My mom says I'm placing too high of standards on myself, and I don't know how to fix that. I cut myself earlier this week, looking back it's soo stupid because now i'm constantly worried about someone seeing it, no one has said anything, so I'm feeling like people aren't caring. My friends know i've self-harmed, and I told a friend maybe an hour after I cut that i wasn't feeling mentally okay, and we just did math homework. What the hell? I'm feeling really nervous right now. And on top of all that i have to go be pleasant tomorrow at a mother's day brunch. And I usually love those things, but instead I just want to sleep through it, i don't want to have to deal with it. My grandmother is going to be there, and she so doesn't like me. I'm just so tense and on edge right now, and I don't know what to do.
I'm seeing a psychologist for the first time this weekend. I don't really know what to expect. I'm afraid I might freak out a little about going to see her. I'm just wondering what it's like.
I was diagnosed with GAD, among other things when I was younger. It bothered me more when I was in school, gradeschool/highschool/college. I was on prozac, duck, and as far as ssri's it's one of the first and it helped me for a time. It's a bit more broad spectrum and tends to help more with anxiety than say zoloft which, also older, tends to have more of an activating effect. I was on a whole myriad of different drugs for a while and I'm not a fan of meds in general but only you can decide what's right for you. There's nothing wrong with any of you guys, you're just a bit more sensitive than many of the people around you. It can be a real gift if you allow yourself to recieve the messages you're giving yourself. For me it was an inability to be what most people call "normal". I'm simply who I am and I have my own pace and do things my own way. When I get pressured or pushed I tend to fall apart. If you haven't already I'd check into chemical and food sensitivities. Start taking b-vitamins, especially a full spectrum with some b-12 in it. Calcium and magnesium an hour or so before you want to sleep, especially with the b spectrum will help a whole lot with sleeping problems. Drink as much good water as you can find. Eliminate as many refined sugars and caffeine from your body. Most table salt will tend to strip your body of minerals as well go for natural mineralized salt, it tastes better anyway. If any of you have any questions I have extensive experience with GAD and depression, bi-polar, ADD, OCD... those were the labels that were given to me, feel free to contact me on pm or on here if you're more comfortable. I now live medication free, relatively stress free and I'm the happiest in a lot of ways I've ever been in my life. Good luck with everything!
I've had really good experiences with counselors, you've got nothing to worry about. Mostly you just talk. If you don't have somebody to talk with where you can just be honest and open they might be able to help. If for some reason you get really anxious when you see them there's no reason you have to keep going. You never EVER have to do something you don't feel comfortable doing. Good luck.
See, I don't want to start taking the medication and get into the cycle of it. I really want to seek counseling if I can find any that I can find any way to afford. But that book I grabbed had some exercises called autogenics that are extremely helpful. You give yourself some time to rest. You go in a nice comfortable laying or sitting position and you focus on making your left foot feel heavy, your right foot, your left calf, etc. etc. You make your whole body feel relaxed, and then there ar variations where afterwards you feel the blood flow to your hands and feel your hands warm and such. It's all very interesting and works quite well.
yeah meditation works really well. what actually helped me a whole lot was energy work. now I'm a Reiki Master and help others with it. It's worth checking into something like that if you're open to it. It got so bad that I was really really sick and energy healing was the only thing that helped me come back. Meditation works along the same lines. And of course whatever works for you... go with it. Each person is different. For me it was just a chance to really feel who I was because there's so much static and noise that says you should be anything but who you are. For me if I'm free I'm healthy. If you're not really free and really happy then you're not healthy. I think we're just a little more able to access that than most people. If you do end up taking meds get really familiar with how they work and get in charge of your treatments so that you can regulate what's going into your body. If your doctor's not on board with you and helping you figure out what works for you, I'd suggest getting a new doctor or at least a second opinion. I'd say as long as long as you go into it with your head up and listen to yourself you'll be fine.
