Anxiety.

[knockout33]

Just wondering whats anxiety disorder or anxiety generally speaking? Also what are symptoms? I didn't know where to put this so I posted here.

[deckard11]

It may differ for everyone. I'm currently dealing with it, mostly because of my job but also my personal life as well. I get burning stomach pains, can't sleep, occasional chest pains and the latest symptom I've been having is my left eye starts twitching a lot. I need to think about seeing a doctor and getting some meds.

[losangelena]

Well, it's kind of a large, broad topic. What exactly do you want to know? The dictionary definition states: "a nervous disorder characterized by a state of excessive uneasiness and apprehension, typically with compulsive behavior or panic attacks." Does that sound like something you struggle with?

 

There are a vast array of online resources that describe anxiety and its suggested treatment options. I mean, there's generalized anxiety, there's panic disorder, there's hypochondria. Physical manifestations can range from sweating to hives to heart palpitations to headaches and beyond—the list is long.

 

I personally grew up quite anxious, and that all came to a head about five years ago when I started having panic attacks and health anxiety. I took Xanax and saw a therapist to get it under control.

[OldRover]

The above definitions are pretty good.

 

It can be devastating and require some serious treatments. I've had personal experience with two close relatives. One need shock treatments to get out of it. A total feeling of despair, worthlessness, and not wanting to do anything including getting out of bed in the morning, including suicidal thoughts.

 

There are good treatments out there, some meds, Xanax and Amitriptyline work well, but have some down sides.

The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) can work well (Citalopram Hydrobromide, Celexa, Cipramil), but kill your sex.

 

Treatment is a MUST, and a good doctor's evaluation for the right meds is a must, too.

[knockout33]

OK, so what I'm doing frequently is always looking in my purse when I'm out to make sure my wallet is there, and cell phone. I've never lost neither before but I'm constantly doing it. Im doing it mostly after I buy something. Anything like lunch at the mall or anything else or even if I take out my wallet at the doctor to show my health card or at the library to sign out a book. Just whenever I take it out to do something. I feel like ok I got to check to make sure its back in my purse. I'm checking more than twice though. that's the thing so Im wondering am I ok? Also when Im going out, leaving my house. I'm constantly checking to make sure my stove is off even though I might not have used it. And constantly checking that my drawers are closed cause my kitten will get into things. Or at night when Im going to bed, I'm constantly checking to make sure my door is locked. Even if I would have checked like twice and it was. Just things like that. I guess its more of an uneasy feeling. But it seems frequent.

Edited January 10, 2016 by knockout33

[losangelena]

OK, so what I'm doing frequently is always looking in my purse when I'm out to make sure my wallet is there, and cell phone. I've never lost neither before but I'm constantly doing it. Im doing it mostly after I buy something. Anything like lunch at the mall or anything else or even if I take out my wallet at the doctor to show my health card or at the library to sign out a book. Just whenever I take it out to do something. I feel like ok I got to check to make sure its back in my purse. I'm checking more than twice though. that's the thing so Im wondering am I ok? Also when Im going out, leaving my house. I'm constantly checking to make sure my stove is off even though I might not have used it. And constantly checking that my drawers are closed cause my kitten will get into things. Or at night when Im going to bed, I'm constantly checking to make sure my door is locked. Even if I would have checked like twice and it was. Just things like that. I guess its more of an uneasy feeling. But it seems frequent.

 

OP, have you ever heard of obsessive-compulsive disorder? What you're describing sound more like OCD than just anxiety. How long has this been going on? Also, how old are you?

[knockout33]

It's been going on for a while now, since sometime last year. I'm 30.

[losangelena]

Interesting.

 

Yeah, checking, re-checking, and checking even though you already know that the door is locked or your wallet is in your purse, that's definitely a sign of OCD.

 

Have you seen someone or talked to someone about this? I mean, we can sit and arm-chair diagnose you all day, but if your behavior is interfering with your everyday life, and it's bothersome, then it's better left to a professional to figure out.

[Buddhist]

Just wondering whats anxiety disorder or anxiety generally speaking? Also what are symptoms? I didn't know where to put this so I posted here.

 

In the past year I rapidly developed Panic Disorder, which is a one of the main anxiety disorders. Panic disorder looks like this....

 

- Heart palpitations, rapid heart rate for prolonged periods without external stimuli. So you can be in the shower, lying in bed or relaxing with a book when your body is hit with a sudden release of adrenalin. It makes you feel dizzy, off balance and it's frightening. Accompanied by a very strong sense of impending doom.

- Symptoms very similar to cardiac arrest except they don't escalate. But still having these symptoms for 20mins at a time feels life threatening and it's a battle not to believe you are about to die.

- Sudden desire to escape situations, places and even your own body during the course of a normal day. Often these feelings aren't precipitated by any kind of stressful event. You will just be somewhere that you've been hundreds of times before and feel sudden fear and a desire to flee the surroundings.

- Chest tightness, limbs and face tingling, heat rising in the body, hot flushes, muscle tremors that are not onset by any kind of stress event. They happen during calm and quiet moments often when you are alone and at peace. ]

 

Panic disorder is panic that occurs in the absence of any reasonable trigger for it. So there is never a stress event, or anything life threatening happening when the panic occurs.

 

Anxiety is a neural pathway (habit of thinking) that has developed over time to bring the person to a negative outcome with any given set of circumstances. It typically looks like disaster thinking. So even tiny little mishaps can blow up in the person's mind to become some catastrophic event that they'll need to circumvent. It leads to irrational behaviour out of proportion to the situation.

 

The development of anxiety looks like....

 

- OCD behaviours, this is a fear of catastrophe occurring due to a failure to perform in some way. I had OCD behaviours for three decades before my anxiety reached disorder levels.

- Obsessive thoughts. I also became convinced of impending catastrophe regardless of the circumstances of my life. Even when things were going well I'd be on high alert expecting everything to come crashing down around my ears at any moment. I wasn't even aware of this tendency, it was so pernicious and subtle. I just lived with a constant feeling of unease about myself and my situation.

- Hypervigilance. Slight to moderate paranoid thoughts about other people, what they thought of me. The assumption that people were gossiping about me, planning to reject me, and projecting negative connotations onto their actions or words, when none was intended.

 

Anxiety is like a king tide. It will build for years without the person even being aware they have it. Their fears and worries appear to just be the normal fears and worries that everyone has and this is what they tell themselves too. But if new neural pathways aren't actively created then at some point it will reach disorder level and manifest as physical symptoms which are highly unpleasant and damaging to the body as well. Once it reaches disorder level, many people fail to recover and live debilitated lives. Recovery is possible but needs mammoth effort and dedication over the longterm.

 

 

Initially I was prescribed citalopram and diazepam for the condition in conjunction with therapy. To be honest, therapy was more effective than the medication and I've since discovered that St Johns Wort, Schisandra and Skullcap taken daily are far more effective than citalopram, which did not work for me at all. The Book, The Happiness Trap is actually a practical course in creating new neural pathways and is extremely effective when dealing with anxiety. I recommend it.

 

Strangely enough I've discovered sex or masturbation to be a really good way to head off a panic attack when the symptoms of one first appear. The sudden contraction and release of muscle tension during orgasm and the resulting hormones works a lot like diazepam on the body. I used this technique when I ran out of prescription one day and discovered it's effectiveness.

Edited January 20, 2016 by Buddhist

[OldRover]

In the past year I rapidly developed Panic Disorder, which is a one of the main anxiety disorders. Panic disorder looks like this....

 

- Heart palpitations, rapid heart rate for prolonged periods without external stimuli. So you can be in the shower, lying in bed or relaxing with a book when your body is hit with a sudden release of adrenalin. It makes you feel dizzy, off balance and it's frightening. Accompanied by a very strong sense of impending doom.

- Symptoms very similar to cardiac arrest except they don't escalate. But still having these symptoms for 20mins at a time feels life threatening and it's a battle not to believe you are about to die.

- Sudden desire to escape situations, places and even your own body during the course of a normal day. Often these feelings aren't precipitated by any kind of stressful event. You will just be somewhere that you've been hundreds of times before and feel sudden fear and a desire to flee the surroundings.

- Chest tightness, limbs and face tingling, heat rising in the body, hot flushes, muscle tremors that are not onset by any kind of stress event. They happen during calm and quiet moments often when you are alone and at peace. ]

 

Panic disorder is panic that occurs in the absence of any reasonable trigger for it. So there is never a stress event, or anything life threatening happening when the panic occurs.

 

Anxiety is a neural pathway (habit of thinking) that has developed over time to bring the person to a negative outcome with any given set of circumstances. It typically looks like disaster thinking. So even tiny little mishaps can blow up in the person's mind to become some catastrophic event that they'll need to circumvent. It leads to irrational behaviour out of proportion to the situation.

 

The development of anxiety looks like....

 

- OCD behaviours, this is a fear of catastrophe occurring due to a failure to perform in some way. I had OCD behaviours for three decades before my anxiety reached disorder levels.

- Obsessive thoughts. I also became convinced of impending catastrophe regardless of the circumstances of my life. Even when things were going well I'd be on high alert expecting everything to come crashing down around my ears at any moment. I wasn't even aware of this tendency, it was so pernicious and subtle. I just lived with a constant feeling of unease about myself and my situation.

- Hypervigilance. Slight to moderate paranoid thoughts about other people, what they thought of me. The assumption that people were gossiping about me, planning to reject me, and projecting negative connotations onto their actions or words, when none was intended.

 

Anxiety is like a king tide. It will build for years without the person even being aware they have it. Their fears and worries appear to just be the normal fears and worries that everyone has and this is what they tell themselves too. But if new neural pathways aren't actively created then at some point it will reach disorder level and manifest as physical symptoms which are highly unpleasant and damaging to the body as well. Once it reaches disorder level, many people fail to recover and live debilitated lives. Recovery is possible but needs mammoth effort and dedication over the longterm.

 

 

Initially I was prescribed citalopram and diazepam for the condition in conjunction with therapy. To be honest, therapy was more effective than the medication and I've since discovered that St Johns Wort, Schisandra and Skullcap taken daily are far more effective than citalopram, which did not work for me at all. The Book, The Happiness Trap is actually a practical course in creating new neural pathways and is extremely effective when dealing with anxiety. I recommend it.

 

Strangely enough I've discovered sex or masturbation to be a really good way to head off a panic attack when the symptoms of one first appear. The sudden contraction and release of muscle tension during orgasm and the resulting hormones works a lot like diazepam on the body. I used this technique when I ran out of prescription one day and discovered it's effectiveness.

 

Buddhist,

 

That's for the very educational info about Panic Disorder. Never knew much about that. My experience was with Anxiety, which can be challenging, too. Maybe not quite as bad, don't know.

 

But the three people that I was really close to all had anxiety disorder. One required some very serious medical (hospitalization) help, but did recover. The other recovered well with citalopram, but hurt his sex life. The third wasn't affected by citalopram at all, and ended up using therapy and xanax as needed, but still has a very slight occasional bit of anxiety... but easy to live with, and without the citalopram, the sex drive has come back strong.

 

It all depends, but all need some professional help. Without pro help, the first one above would not have made it.