anxiety out of the blue

Treatment and medication
1

ok, was to the doctors on friday jan 9, told him that my anxiety had seemed to have kicked in again out of the blue ! am currently taking 20 mg and have been taking this dosage since dec9/14, started out on 10 mg which eventually seemed to reach a plateau  hence the 20 mg dosage. this week past was that time of the month for me and is ordinarily a rough go without the cit. The past 2 days have been really rough with what seems to be anxiety kicking up , almost to the point if there was a way to climb out of my body i would.Doing all i can to keep busy along with walking 5 km a day, Up until my period things seemed to be good... not sure what is going on! my doctor didnt seem to want to adress it and im not sure why, now it seems im gonna have to go back again , why would anyone want to feel this way if they could help it

 

2

I think you're having a setback (a blip), which is normal with recovery.

When you take SSRI's you first go through nasty side effects, and when these start to wear off you begin to feel calmer, then quite good.  After a while you'll experience anxiety or whatever again, and this is when people panic and rush to alter their medication.  These are setbacks, and seem to be quite common when recovering, and if you wait, just accept them, they'll pass and you'll begin to feel good again.  You'll get many, but each time they'll get less severe, until they disappear.

It's very hard feeling like you're ill again, but it hasn't returned, it's just you going through the process of recovery.  It's how the medication works ....... and it proves it's working as you've now got to this stage.

You'll get setbacks for a while .. up and down, up and down ...... but just let them be there, and remind yourself that this is the normal process of recovery.  It'll pass.

K x

3

This is exactly what happened to me. I'm on 30mg and things are slowly starting to even out but the other day I had mad temper and was so emotional. The day after I come on my period and I seem to be balancing out a bit more now after my awful spell. Apparently the best it to ride it out as the good spells get longer and longer as someone said to me and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Hope this helps x

4

Hi Candace,

It sounds like you are around ovulation time - which would kick the anxiety out of the blue if nothing else is going on.  Don't worry about your GP they just don't really know what to do, but rather than say that right out they just brush right over things.  Best thing for you to do and was real good advice to me, is to keep a daily dairy of everything.  Because with me mine was cyclic and no getting away from it.  When my ovaries are building is the worse and around ovulation and then before my period.  Don't worry about any thing.  Will get to the bottom of it all.

As always big hugs and here.

Mel xx

5

i would think at almost 4 months of taking this med, a person should start to level out , and start to be alot more unanxious, cause i was for about 4 weeks , but not now...

6

thanks for the advice mel , my family doctor whom i revisted today changed my meds to zoloft thinking this might help said he couldnt up the dosage any more on cit at 20mg...i have been on the 20 mg dosage since dec 9.I did make a wise decision today though and am proud of myself , i start to meet with a counselor on the 21 of this month to discuss my anxiety... to try and find what is causing it,  any and all advice is helful! candace

 

7

i had seen my doc friday and was treated for a sinus infection, but the other issues as stated seemed to get skipped over.. after spending a full weekend anxious i decided enough was enough, i have 2 children to take care of as well as myself, i spent part of saturday evening sobbing crying and feeling like this was so hopeless , been spending alot of time excerciing and taking care of myself better but just seemed though nothing was working, its really hard, thanks for caring  candace

 

8

Oh Candice,

I am a counsellor so I can give you so much advice I did a reply to Dawn, I can find the forum or discussion to let you read it, all about anxiety and it is a learned response etc. etc.  This will give you so much head start for you with a counsellor - good for you girl.

Mel xxx (Big hugs)  Always here to help.

9

mel any and all help would be very much appreciated, i will keep on with cit for as long as i can its still not working that great.... will try and ride it out for a while longer i also have lorazepam that i can take but havent been taking it as i dont feel more meds are the answer...thanks for your reply, candace

i kind of thought where my dosage was upped dec 9, to 20 mg that it might still be side effects and they may pass , i guess its a wait and see

 

10

I know when I had to get citalopram in to my system it took quite some time and I can assure you it was pure hell, but once it got in and settled every thing down it was bliss.  It really stopped my hormones raging - which was taking me to extremes that my body really couldn't cope with, so hang in there girl.  Off out today so will try and see if I can paste this discussion to you or redo what i put.  I have plenty of stuff i could scan in and email if you so wish.  The process that i counsel on is 2nd to none with the info contained therein.  One lady with real mental health issues i worked with showed it to her mental health team, who I then worked with, and they had nothing for praise for it.  They hadn't seen any thing like it.  Then you can work through this with your counsellor if you so wish.  It is a self learning/help process and teaches you so much.

As always big hugs.  Mel Xx

11

sounds great mel, any and all help would be greatly appreciated, im so glad we have met, candace

 

12

Hi,

Hope you are feeling better today.

Looked at trying to cut, copy or paste discussion with Dawn 1208 - but to no avail.

I hope this really helps as I found this knowledge invaluable.

It is about the limbic system of the brain, it is where all the automatic responses and emotions are stored.  Including automatic survival responses, fight, flight and freeze.  Anxiety is a learned response that we all learn.  Every body has anxiety and feelings come and go all day long.  Anxiety can be used as an anesthetic to cope with feelings, normally a fear of something.  Though uncomfortable, the emotion releases neurochemicals that cause the body to speed up to avoid the feeling.  We can reprogramme this part of our brain as normally the fear is of being out of control, (stress), which we all feel at certain times of our lives.  Anxiety in its self.  Reprogramming it is like reprogramming computer takes time.  First off you have to find out what is triggering it . 

Once you find out what is triggering it you can then tell your brain, although it is flagging it as dangerous, it is not really happening, as it only has to be a former shaddow of a feeling, but the brain thinks it is happening all over again.

Obviously it will take a little time but once you start to put it in to practice - which again is reality thinking your brain will learn not to focus on it.

Other things that are important whilst going through this is setting realistic goals which gives us a good sense of achievement - gratification - which the brain loves when you are feeling low.  I find going for a nice walk, looking at the beauty of nature and also do some craft work.

There is lots within the process, but we always do things slowly and at the pace of the person as we are all different.

One of the first processes is to do a life history, which will show any patterns that have happened in life.  It will normally be a mistrust of some kind and needs that have not been met within our lives.

Obviously we look at lots more, teach tools etc. etc.  But will take things one step at a time.

Lots of love and hugs.

Melxx

 

13

mel thanks for the note... i am feeling a little better today thankfully! i have been walking 5 km a day, but there is the odd day i havent gone because its just too cold minus 34 yesterday. I have also started to do some biofeed back with the controlled belly breathing really seemed to help alot.

with the life history how far back do we need to go, cause man it could take a long while and how detailed , i can do this but kind of need to know more about what you want. could you help me pinpoint?

thank you so much for all your help so  far and your concern for me as a person, hugs, candace

14

So glad to hear that you are feeling better. 

Walking really does help.  We took on a rescue boxer - Turbo who really does live up to his name and I find that once I have my walk in the morning, I am set up for the day.

Have they given you a date or are you still looking for a counsellor?

The life history is very brief, pin points, it is major events in your life.  Believe it or not it starts in the womb.  My mum was anxious because she had three miscarriages before me.  So for me it would that.  But some it would traumatic birth.  Then I was in hospital at 7 seriously ill, divorce, etc etc.  It really is just major events. 

For me they put me in isolation, in the dark and gave me a lumber puncture.  So when ill and can't get out of bed, my brain didn't used to like being alone and this was because in sub concious was reverting back to thinking, oh no this is going to hurt as back then my parents couldn't stay over night with me, we were away in a caravan and they couldn't come and see me til about 10 am and I used to cry apparently til they got there.  Now I know what was playing in my subconcious - fine.  As I used to hate being ill.

To counsel you first have to go through counselling, to understand and be able to sit in the other persons place and feel what they felt.

I hope this helps and no probs as finding the right people to help you is so hard.  Big hugs, Mel Xx

15

p.s.  forgot to say a good counsellor will never put words in your mouth but will be a mirror image to help you understanding your feelings and why you feel like that as we are all so different.

16

i can write all this stuff down for as far back as i can remember , but not sure what i will find ! i am sure hopeing for a good counselor cause the last one i had turned out to need some conseling herself..kind of turned me off from that, but i know now i need to talk through this the best i can, maybe i could do up the list on the computer and let you take a look , i f you would, thanks for all advice, candace

 

17

No probs.  Honestly this will help.  I didn't see the connections in my feelings until somebody went through it with me on the training.  One of my best friends had to train to counsel for her job in the police force and until she had to have some due to a really bad divorce and her daughter she was shocked at how the same things were playing in her sub conscious and the same for her daughter.  It would be no probs to take a look for you as always. 

Mel

p.s.  The guy who trained me had 25 years of experience.

18

thanks so much mel, i will do it up on my computer and see what you think when i have it done ok... i sure hope seeing a counselor works, candace

 

19

oh love, i can patch between you and any counsellor.  Don't worry it is all about getting to the root of things and learning at the same time.  What I can't do is talk to you face to face as that is the only way I can see how you think as we all think differently and our thought patterns are what govern things.  Also false beliefs that have been installed in to us.  ie.  I have to be all to every body - reality can't (leads to exhaustion etc. etc) and there are loads of these.

Don't worry I will help you get there.

Mel xx

20

Hi was wondering how your feeling now? My time of the month is due in 2 days and I have felt really low at times through the day then really anxious the last 2 nights my sleep has been horrendous too. Who would have known being that time of the month could cause so much trouble. Xx