Anxiety Support Group

maybe you should try another anti depressent til you find the right one that works for you . i had to do that. don't be fearful there all really the same . i found seroxat the best for me. did you ever try therapy to get to the root of the problem. i m going to start it soon now because i ve had enough also.fear is a horible horible feeling and you can t run from it no matter how hard we try. i had a bad night last night to and was just mins away from full blown anxiety attack but i just got up and told myself to stay calm if possible.like you i d prefer to be medication free and thats my goal.would you ever take up swimming? i tried it for last few weeks in the evening and find i sleep better.or why not get a good book to read before you sleep. anything to keep your mind on anything else but panic. you can talk to me anytime. i know what your going through i ve had anxiety and panic 13 years.

I know exactly what you are going through. I have suffered from my fears for 20 years now. I too would like to be normal and free from suffering these terrible attacks. I fear taking meds because i am afraid of dying. i was on lexapro for about a year and half and didnt seem to work very well for me either. i have been working with my doctor now switching my meds. i am on cymbalta now. its been about a week and half with no side effects yeh!!! i am praying this works because of fear of having to start over again. i also take xanax .5mg. next to lostest dose. it help with the anxiety. not sure if you have tried it yet but if not you might try it. just be careful because it is very addicting. i find talking with a therapist helps me very much. it has also helped me and gave me courage to try other meds. good luck with what you decide to do. first you must have a you trust in to help get you through this. best of luck and if you ever need to talk i am here.

I really feel for you. I have lived with anxiety and panic attacks all my life and it is no fun. The only med that worked for me was Xanax. I take a low dose when needed and it does the trick. It was such a relief to find something that worked. Right now, I am on nothing. Xanax can be addicting but not at such a low dose. I was taking a dose of .25 -.50 mg., as needed. It is important to use other coping strategies, too. Relaxation breathing and postive affirmations that I repeat to myself every day help me stay calm. I have also been able to identify some of the triggers that bring on my anxiety. Go easy on yourself and make a plan to utilize the coping techniques that are available to you. For instance, I walk every day and repeat my posive affirmations out loud to myself softly. I also listen to music on my Ipod. I try to keep busy and immerse myself in whatever I am doing at the moment. I wish I didn't have this disorder but accepting that I do and doing something about it empowers me.

Thank you all for your kind words. I have a lot of aniexty this morning.

I realized last night that I forgot to take my Lexapro, but then it was too late to take it because of my fears. I just took it now. Do you think that that could of had something to do with my panic attacks last night. I didn't think that missing one does would do that.

You sound like me. I'm here if you need me or need to talk.

I think a missed dose of your med could make you feel more intensely if you were in that frame of mind. Try not to worry about it and move on.

the best thing that works for me is physical fitness. it is amazing how much better everything feels when one is in shape.

Anxiety disorders are all about association. You have created a worry pattern. Your brain associates night with being anxious because that is what you have taught it to do. You have to break the pattern by not dwelling on these thoughts and getting yourself distracted with other things. It takes time for it to sink in but eventually it will.
I am a very anxious person by nature. I am one of the most anxious people I have ever known. I am afraid of a lot of things. Too many to list, and I have been since the day I was born. But I learned how to change the way I think so that it doesn't control me now. I am a "normal" person again. I did it by changing the way I talk to myself and breaking those stupid habits I created in my brain. Things can get better for you too if you make the decision to quit repeating this cycle and by teaching yourself better ways to think and talk to yourself. I hope things get better soon.

Lilygirl
so glad you were able to that. i have been working on that myself but not having much luck yet. although when i start to have a panic attack they are shorter than they used to be. i have also tried the exercising and for some reason that tends to bother me more. one of my symptoms with anxiety is racing heart rate. so when i exercise my heart rate increases of course. so instead of continuing on i stop because i want my heart rate to slow down. i do believe it is about controling the way you think but that is really hard. i hope one day i can do it again, but it has been 20 years now and no luck :(

You like millions of people have a fear of fear. It's very normal and it's all about anxiety. You have associated night time to fear because that's where most of your panic takes place. I use to think that mornings were bad then it went to night time after that. Anxiety has no time structure, it cares nothing about if you're sleeping, on a plane or in your doctors office. What you need to do is STOP linking in your mind that night has anything to do with it. Like I can't fly now. People think I have a fear of flying. I don't. I love airplanes and back in the 90's I worked for United Airlines and flew all the time. It's not the plane or that we are going to crash it's the fact that I associate "Fear" to it. Like how can I get help at 35,000 feet? How can I slow my heart rate down now that we are in the air and we have 2 hours more to go? I just want out or off the plane so I can feel in "Control". My point is the plane has nothing to do with it. I don't fear flying just like you don't fear the night. Night has no power and neither does a plane. But we give it power by thinking about it over and over then we analyze it, then confirm it and then we are hooked on the phobia.

I personally think anxiety is all learned behavior. We just reinforce it by avoiding the places like a grocery store, a plane or maybe going on road trips.

The thing to do to break yourself FREE is to bring it on. Yes bring it on!! What can happen? What is the worst?? You pass out? You faint? You get scared? O.K. now what? If at this point if you decide to give in and say, "Wow this is something I never want experience again" and then you start to avoid and distance yourself from then you just created a new life style and a new fear has been born. Welcome to anxiety and panic disorder. Where we try to protect ourselves from non-existent "actual needed fear". It has complete power and if you continue to embrace that fear it just grows on you. Then the learned behavior is hard to break. You said after 21 yrs of not dying obviously from the fear of dying of the the night that you would get it by now. It has nothing to do with 21 yrs either. You just have conditioned your mind for 21yrs to keep the fear alive. Know that our mind tricks us all the time. It's up to us to distinguish from real fear or imagined fear because our minds can't tell the difference. If you believe hard enough that you are in danger your mind is not in the business to make you out to be a liar. It will do whatever it takes to protect you no matter what. Yes your adrenaline will be released in small portions or big amounts depending on the situation. The body is doing what it does best...it's a self protecting self mechanism. It is built by God for survival and that's that. It cannot be changed. But what can be is what you associate fear to be. Lexapro is not going to help you nor will Xanax if you still think the same thing. Change the way you think. It's the only way. Sure you can take Xanax, eat better, drink water, no Coca-Cola, no beer, workout and run on the treadmill and get into shape....what does any of that have to do with the way you think?? Change your mind, not your circumstances. It's not what happens to, it's how you react internally to it. So many people think that this or that will stop or "help" you. Band aids are what they are. Get to the source. If you keep taking pills and getting cancer under control who cares? Get to it and take it out so it stops coming back. Might not be the best example but I hope you get what I am trying to say. We all cry out to be normal again. I too wish I was like 16 again and not have a care in the world. But if you sit and think super hard nothing has killed you not even all the fear you have put in your mind for 21 yrs...nothing has happened because fear does not kill. Go look up to see how many people have died because of a panic attack. The answer is NONE. Sorry for making this a very long response. But I just wanted you to get where I'm coming from. So do not change your lifestyle because some person thinks that your anxiety is out of control because you don't sleep enough, or that you don't exercise enough. Sure those things help and keep you strong internally but your mind is under your control not Coca-Cola or the workout machine. Again sorry for the long response. Wishing you the best.