Hey everyone,
20 year old male here - I've been stuggling with anxiety and panic attacks for about 5 months now and lately it has taken a really bad turn. For the past month, I've been getting a lot of 'brain fog' which has been making it harder for me to recover. I'd basically feel a little detatched from reality, like I'm in this dream-like state.
A couple of weeks ago, (for the first time) I got prescribed sertraline (zoloft) 50mg. I got awful side effects from this, including heightened anxiety and I had some suicidal thoughts as well. I stopped taking them after 6 days as instructed by my doctor because I was having a really bad reaction to them. I lost a stone and a half in a week! (I became underweight, so it's a bad thing haha)
I stopped taking them a week ago today so it's all out of my system. I'm no longer getting side effects and I feel like I can actually function again. However, I'm kind of back to how I was before the medication. I feel very tired and distant and I feel like I just can't think or anything. It's weird. I think it's called dissociation or something.
Basically I'm having these episodes of intense anxiety again (that I've only experienced while on the meds) where I get these intrusive thoughts about killing myself, even though I never would. I think life is worth living, I'm not depressed but I just get these bouts of emotional distress that make me feel like one day I will resolve to suicide. It's really hard to explain. I'm trying to say I'm not suicidal, I just have an overwhelming fear of becoming suicidal, because lately I feel like I'm stepping in that territory if that makes sense.
Whenever I bring this up to someone they say 'I need to seek urgent help', which worries me more! I will NOT attempt suicide! If I felt like I would, I would call the hospital have them take care of me. I'll even call a lifeline, I just wouldn't attempt suicide. I just feel like I'm going a bit crazy lately, I feel like I might be driven to suicide, and that is what is freaking me out. Sorry, but this is so hard to explain! haha
Take care,
Tom
I think alot of us here have had those intrusive and morbid thoughts, don't dwell on them...the time to start going to hospital is when you know you are serious and start planning it carefully.... You yourself have said you are not there yet. You are very young to be put on anti depressants and i think that is where alot of the problems come from doctors over prescribing them to very young people who are still trying to understand the world we live in and cope with life. Therapy would be alot more helpful, you need support, not pills! That said, pills help alot of people, myself included but many people find they are not without their problems
Hi...I myself have not tried meds (yet) I'm trying to deal with each symptom as they present....I think it's a sign that u can recognise that ur sub conscious mind is the one that's giving u the morbit thoughts and u are thinking with ur "real" mind which is good...have u tried mindfulness classes as they will teach u how to switch ur thoughts away from ur sub conscious and live in the moment along with other distraction techniques...I have tried them and still find it a working progress but they do help
Hi tom, I must admit I know exactly how you are feeling right now- it's like you've literally just read my mind and typed it!! I keep getting the suidical thoughts but know I wouldn't do it either because I have so much to live for but it frightens me that I could even think it and that makes me worse and I panic, I just need to keep myself busy with other things! I'm in myself today and that worried me, what if! Horrible horrible. Wouldn't wish anxiety on anyone!! The worry is even affecting my sleep, can't eat either but I'm trying!! I'm not on any meds but have a docs appointment tomorrow and think I personally might need something as it's been 6 years now but I think aswell as much as I enjoy this forum very much and it helps at times, I ready everyone else's problems and then that night i could feel the same xx
Hello Tom,
I've been going through the exact thing as you described. Derealisation and depersonalisatin. It's really tough, you don't feel real or your surrounding don't feel real and makes me feel constantly horribly anxious and I question myself so much. Living the dream in not the good way!
I'm not on any meds as I had really bad reaction to citolopram after taking just 1 tablet, and my GP took me straight off of them. I don't feel depressed either and suffer from weird racing and intrusive thoughts, and random images. I've only just started cbt, which I'm so positive about already 
. Keep occupied, stay strong. We're all in this together. X
I find that aswell jintybell... Sometimes i come here and read the messages and reply and it doesn't do anything.... Other times i have to have a few days break because i can feel it starting to affect me!
Yeh it definatley does, people talk on here about the feeling of there throat closing up, or choking feeling, sore head etc and I can then go to bed that night and feel the exact same way!! But because I have this set up to my emails I'm far 2 nosey not 2 look everynight xx
I'm the same I keep having these thought I told my doctor and said I would not do it I just get a relief feeling thinking about it but then it causes anxiety cause I'm worried if I did do it although I know I won't I have loads of thoughts and that what I'm stuck with now it's the constant horrible thoughts that won't go away if you really know you won't do it don't worry its only a though 😏 x
Have you heard of OCD, these are thoughts that come into your head which you don't want. I have a friend who suffers from OCD and she is always complaining she gets unwanted thoughts. I told her to push these thoughts out of her mind, and don't think about them, just ignore these negative thoughts. The more you ponder over these thoughts the worse it gets. Distract yourself from these negative thoughts, don't let it get better of you.
Ha ha, there's no cure for that!
I CANNOT take AD's they make me worse. Gotta stop smoking and stick with my benzos
I've been getting CBT for the past 4 months and it has helped, it just feels like the anxiety is more powerful now. Yeah my doctor said that because I had such a bad reaction to sertraline (the most basic AD) there is a chance i'd get that reaction on all the other SSRIs. But yeah, these suicidal thoughts aren't really suicidal thoughts, they are more like obsessions of suicide and an extreme fear of being driven to do it. Thanks for the reply Tracie!
Thanks for the reply! Yeah I 100% know what you mean. I think that is my issue at the moment, I have uncontrollable thoughts that make me feel insane and I just need to keep distracting myself until this phase passes.
I was actually reading up a lot on this last night. I think the reason why we are so afraid of these suicidal notions is because they are taken very seriously. Like whenever you bring it up to someone they will freak out just as much as you are, and you're urged to call the hospital or call a lifeline. I think our problem is that because suicide is such an intense subject, we get really anxious and obsessive over it whenever we feel like we're heading in that direction, when we aren't. Look up 'suicidal obsessions'. They are not classified as 'suicidal thoughts', they are more like intrusive thoughts about suicide itself. We're not suicidal, we're just really afraid of being suicidal
Yeah dissociation/depersonalisation is usually associated with depression, but it's extremely common with anxiety! The way I see it it's just my brain being worn out from excessive worrying. I remember getting it around October time last year but it passed somehow, so I think I just need to let it do whatever it wants atm. I'm getting CBT! It's great, but I think I went bad because my sessions are really far apart, like 1 every 5 weeks.
Yeah I had an awful reaction to sertraline from the first day i started taking it. I got all the classical side effects, which I could live with tbh - even though they made me immobile. But I also had really bad mind, like I got these weird panic attacks that didn't manifest physically, only emotionally. I think the depression/brain fog faded but the cost was too much. I feel like I'd rather be like this than be like how I was on those meds.
thanks for the reply X
this is exactly how I feel! I told my doctor about it and he thought I was suicidal because I found it hard to explain, but I'm not! I just have a massive fear of being driven to suicide, and sometimes I feel like this sense of hopelessness that triggers these anxious thoughts about suicide. And I need to just not acknowledge them. Look up 'suicidal obsessions'! They are not suicidal thoughts, but they are intrusive thoughts ABOUT suicide that causes distress.
actually yeah! I read up on 'suicidal obsessions' last night and it hit the nail on the head. It's basically an intrusive, uncontrollable thought that is a fear of becoming suicidal. OCD needs to be obsessive and complusive. It's obsessive, but for me it's not complusive. Like I have no complusion to do anything about it, the thought just sort of manifests.
haha I was gonna be put on benzos but they decided to not put me on them because I'm prone to getting rare side effects
So could ocd about killing yourself be like me saying over and over again "you should just kill yourself" and then arguing with myself to shut up cause that's that farthest think from what I want to do. It gets worse when I'm feeling low or anxious. Then I look for the thought and start ruminating it over and over in my head. Till I start thinking maybe it's another voice in my head tell me this. But it's like the voice you hear when you read a book. And then I start arguing with myself of how stupid um being and then at times when I'm anxious I look for bad thoughts or make them up in my head. It's weird. And very annoying. It didn't start till my antidepressant started wearing off and I had that initial thought popped into my head. Then ever since coming off the meds cause I felt like the doctors kept me on for anxiety which started as panic attacks for way too long it's been an ongoing issue while on no meds. It's only been a little over 2 months and some people say it's part of withdrawal cause my brain is messed up and trying to rebuild chemicals it doesn't have now. I guess if I knew it was just ocd and not like a psychotic thing I would be better about it. It was gone for a while and then this month with my period it started again. I get freaked out cause my dad killed himself about 15 years ago. So I get scared what if I'm getting what he had. But I'm not even sure he heard voices telling him to kill himself. I think he just got depressed and did it. I really don't want to go back on meds at this point but it's super annoying and depressing sometimes. So coming off the Effexor has also caused all kinds of other crap for me. But this one bothers me. I guess while on meds I didn't pay so much attention to my inner voice and now it won't shut up
Hi I'm not sure if you still use this but if there is anyway you would be willing to talk to me I have this issue really bad and it's scaring me and out of all the posts Iv read this is the only thing that helped me please let me know ! Thanks