Anxiety Support Group

Anxiety is a physical condition marked by intense and persistent feelings of distress, fear, angst or dread. General anxiety caused by routine day-to-day stresses usually passes quickly and is experienced by almost everyone at one time or another. However, such feelings that linger over time and are very difficult to cope with, and which lack a clear cause, may indicate...

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Good Days and Bad......

HayGray02
HayGray02

Well,I seem to be having some more good days than bad but I am still experiencing my anxiety pretty bad at times.  I am just so frustrated.  My doctor "upped" my dose of Fluoxetine from 20mg to 40mg a day about 10 weeks ago. I feel good at times and then all of a sudden and almost without any warning, my Anxiety will just come back.  I am also trying to learn other techniques to deal with my Anxiety as well.  Does anyone on here have any advice on what I can do to help myself get through this Anxiety and hopefully "lessen" the affects it has on me?  Meditation or anything like that?  Any websites or anything that I can go to for that?  I just dont know what else to do besides just hope and pray when I wake up every day that I am going to have a good day.  Is it normal to still feel anxious at times and pretty bad when you are on an anti-anxiety medication?  I know that everyone is different, and everyone reacts differently to medications, but does anyone on here take Fluoxetine that could talk to me about it?  It would be greatly appreciated.  I have also developed PVC`s (heart palpatations) in regards to my Anxiety and they are so frightening at times.  The medication seems to help with the PVC`s at times, but other times I feel it is not.  My primary doctor also prescribed me a very low dose of a beta blocker to help with the PVC`s and Anxiety.  Just looking for some advice and to talk to someone.  Thank you.  

GirlinCalif
GirlinCalif
Going to therapy with a therapist who is knowledgeable in anxiety would be very helpful. Medication alone might not be enough for everyone, although it does help calm the anxiety quite a bit. Medication with therapy is what I have read to be a very successful combination. It's what I do.

Also, Fluoxetine (Prozac) is one of the oldest anxiety/depression medications out there. It works for many people. However, there are newer medications that might be more effective for you. You'd have to discuss this with your psychiatrist.
mtd
mtd
Good days and bad days are common. PVC’s are common. I took Paxil for a while. While it did help some, I wasn’t satisfied. After a few other anti depressants I landed on Pristiq which also helps some. What you should know is that antidepressants help some, but they do not change our thinking patterns, only we can do this. It was our thinking and internal beliefs that caused us to develop anxiety disorder. Medications cannot change that. There are ways to deal with anxiety that are effective, like relaxation meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance method, etc. For me relaxation meditation and practicing acceptance method every day plus seeing a therapist has me in recovery mode. I highly recommend a book by Carl James titled “It’s Only Anxiety”, available on Amazon. It’s about the Acceptance Method. I also recommend a web site called “anxiety centre.com”. This website is full of very helpful info. They do charge a yearly fee around $50, gives full access. Well worth the money. If not for these resources plus my therapist, I don’t think I would have reached recovery mode. And as to recovery mode, it’s a way to describe that I know I am healing, having good and bad days, but the good days outnumber the bad now. PVC’s nearly gone, as well as a host of the other anxiety symptoms I’ve experienced over the years. I hope this helps.
arfie
arfie
With this very post, you are already plying my most used therapy tool for anxiety management, Hay. Getting my anxieties of the day into words helps me focus them far enough to ply radical acceptance and awareness to set them aside for long enough to participate in my current day. It is a process, not an event. Be patient with the process.

Inside my own skin, I hold frustration as a sign that I need to look at my expectations. Anxiety is a hard-wired part of the survival instinct. Expecting a **Cure** for my survival instinct never was a realistic expectation, but. . . I still find myself wishing and expecting my wish to be granted. Any wonder why I'm frustrated?
rmb
rmb
What helps me is accepting the anxious moments, let them float by and sometimes just distract myself. Those help me not feel frustrated because the frustration to me just escalates the anxiety.

My anxiety is not constant, more situational/stress related these days but I’m going through a period right now where my anxiety is pretty heightened. It’s not great, no but I think because I just kind of accept it for what it is right now, that helps keep it manageable for me. With that said being awakened by my heart thumping like it’s going to burst out of my chest and feeling like I’m going to jump out of my skin is not pleasant. But I know it’s not going to kill me. It seems once I can reconcile that these are just uncomfortable feelings and nothing more, they tend to dissipate. But that’s me.
didleedoo
didleedoo
Wow——sounds a bit like what I am experiencing right now. I was on effexor for 15 years and it worked fine until around 3 years or so ago. My doctor weaned me off and introduced Sertraline, another group of antidepressants. I am not able to sleep past 3;30 and the anxiety/depressed mood begins. I have no interests or energy to do anything, never look forward to the day beginning and its no wonder. Am still in the balancing the dose of this medication——-it has created more anxiety at times. I went through the waking with a rapid heart beat——now its different, I just feel blah. Anxiety can be heightened by antidepressants in the early stages or so I’ve been told, I am waiting to cross that stage to find some relief and enjoy my life again.
Tired
Tired
I'm on Fluoxetine. A high dose. Maybe you need a higher dose or to switch to another med. Definitely, you need therapy or self help knowledge in addition to medication. Anxiety dims at times then comes at you full force.
Some good books are: Rewire Your Anxious Brain by Catherine Pittman and
The Mindful Path Through Anxiety by Tanya Peterson.
Community LeaderMid
Mid
Writing it out! Keep writing out the words. The more you release the words, the easier it is to do the even breathing to find your calm in the moment.

The medicine is temporary. It is a helper, just like anxiety itself is a natural helper. You 'do thinking' to get it back within normal range. It takes time and time again when you get out of balance, because your usual methods will keep it in where it's at. It's a combination of getting up, getting moving, and distracting your usual thought pattern to help your mind and body balance together.

You can do this!
HayGray02
HayGray02
Wow, thank you all so very much for taking your time in commenting on what I said and giving me some hope. I also appreciate so very much the suggestions and books to try. I am open to anything!! Anything else besides more medication!! I have not been a part of this group for very long at all, and I already feel like this is where I belong, and that it is another type of supportive family to me. Thanks again, I will keep posting and trying to describe how I feel because it seems to be helping.
HayGray02
HayGray02
I am also wondering....I really enjoy a glass of wine with dinner or at night a few hours before I go to bed. It really helps to relax me as well and makes me sleepy. I always make sure not to over do it, and I only allow myself one glass. I also drink red wine, and I drink Pinot Noir because it is supposed to be the healthiest wine for you and very good for your cardiovascular system. Do any of you have any thoughts on this? Advice? I just do not know if I should continue this or not....... I just thought of this as well.....
mtd
mtd
Although you should really ask your doctor about wine and medication, I have drank on medication with no ill effects. That’s not to say it is fine for everybody but since you have already been drinking wine, my personal unprofessional opinion is that a glass of wine is ok. It does help you relax and fall asleep, and the added bonus is that you aren’t taking a chemical pill to help you fall asleep. My goodness, even in the Bible, wine was something everyone drank, even Jesus. The thing about alcohol is very over emphasized, it’s really all things in moderation as mentioned in scripture. Wine is good for a person in many ways, it’s just that becoming a drunkard is the problem, hence the moderation aspect. If you can stop at one glass, that’s great. If you can stop at two or three when in social situations, great. If you find yourself drinking to drown your anxiety, then you have a problem. Alcohol, as everyone knows, doesn’t mAke the anxiety go away, it’s right back the next day, right where it has been for goodness only knows how long. Enjoy that glass of wine, make a toast to anxiety, that it won’t be with you much longer.
GirlinCalif
GirlinCalif
Regarding drinking alcohol, my psychiatrist calls that "self medicating". It can be a slippery slope when/if one glass turns to two or three and so forth...

Please check with your psychiatrist to make sure you can drink alcohol at all with your anxiety medication. Yes, this *can* be a dangerous combination. Are you only taking the Fluoxetine? Alcohol and anxiety medications don't really mix well and you have probably already noticed that you feel sleepier from the alcohol. But this is more because you are mixing it with anxiety medication. Depending on how much you drink and how close it is to when you take your medication, very bad things can happen to your body, which I won't list, as it can trigger some people here.

All I'm saying is to ask your psychiatrist about this before continuing. Better safe than sorry. None of us can give you medical advice.
arfie
arfie
A mild alcohol allergy won't let me drink every day, but it sure helps relax me on the days I do have a glass. Beer, too. Doctors have prescribed me a beer a day to help me gain weight. Is there a buzz-kill more potent than doctor's orders?

My husband's grandmother had her first glass of wine in her 80's under doctor's orders to have a glass of wine a night before bedtime to help with her insomnia. Somewhere in her 90's, she declared that, if she'd have known wine could be that soothing, she would have started allot earlier. She lived an active farm life until she was 98.
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