How's your Doctor?

[guy_lafleur23]

Hey everyone,
Just wondering how your doctors or councilors treat you and your anxiety? Because I've seen numerous doctors since my anxiety started and they treat it like no big deal... i mean, I guess it isn't considering i'm not really having a heart attack even though i think i am, but it seems like they brush off anxiety patients like we are a nuiscance... that's what i feel like i've gotten out of doctors anyway... plus i've seen 3 different councilors in the past year and all of them seem to forget everything I've said and show no interest. It just seems like the medical world doesn't really care for anxiety/panic etc. is there a reason for this or am i just having bad luck?

[Robbed]

You're not going to find alot of anxiety sufferers who are happy with the way they are treated by the medical community. What you descibe is one possible scenario. The OTHER possible scenario is what I call the 'drug pusher' scenario. And as the name suggests, it is pretty obvious what is happening here: doctors pushing for you to get on antidepressants and telling you that you need them because you have a lifelong illness. Granted, the proper treatement of anxiety is really out of the realm of problems that GPs typically treat. So the way they deal with it is at least SOMEWHAT forgivable. Nevertheless, their job here should REALLY be to point you in the right direction as far as finding the resources to overcome anxiety.

But then again, that brings me to counselors/psychologists. These are the folks who should REALLY be helping us deal with anxiety. But from what I have experiened, incompetence and complete lack of knowledge seem to be rampant among these folks. Also, much like doctors, there is a STRONG tendency to point you in the direction of medications. I guess they figure that it is easier to get you on pills than it is to actually help you. In any case, my experience with counselors and psychologists is that they are pretty useless.

All of this makes me a firm believer in self-help. When you look at people who have actually overcome anxiety, they pretty much all did it by themselves. Indeed, it is also quite interesting how some of the best self-help material was written by those who have overcome anxiety on their on AND have NO formal training in psychology.

[Velrose]

I have to say in the beginning, I thought my counselor was doing me some good. I go about about once every two weeks, and I am beginning to feel like the appointments are more or less pointless. We never really do anything but talk about how I did over the last couple of weeks. We haven't tackled my anxiety much and she hasn't really bothered to help me with my phobias but the bare minimum. My anxiety is rooted around a very strange phobia that I cannot seem to shake--

I go to see her tomorrow again, and I AM looking forward to the visit because it DOES give me the chance to talk to someone-- but so far... there hasn't really been any improvement. I feel myself slipping back into the bad state I was in when I first began to see her. T_T

I am on meds as well, and my doctor--after only listening to me for a half hour, prescribed Lexapro and Ativan for my anxiety. The lexapro was a bad thing for me and I reacted badly on it. Going back to him, without even listening to what happened, he said,"Ok... we'll switch you to zoloft."

The Zoloft seemed to work for a while but I think I may need my dosage increased.

[guy_lafleur23]

Velrose, I had the same experience with a doctor before... I went into a walkin clinic to try something different from my family doctor and this new doc presc. me whatever i wanted to try... i ended up leaving with paxil... I spent a total of about 5 mins talking to him. I could've been lying... just crazy how they love to hook you onto a drug that you could be on for years. You mind me asking what type of phobia you have Velrose? I have a fear of my health going down the tubes from cancer... I'm also freaked out about my heart stopping. I'm constantly fighting chest pains... I know it's not my heart but for some reason i keep thinking it is. I'm only 24 and In the last year I've been to my family doc about 20 times complaining about my chest pains and I've been in the emergency 3 times thinking I was having a heart attack... everytime... I was cleared with a clean bill of health. Weird how the mind can be so strong.

I've also been on ativan for a year... i'm weaning my way off... 2 nights now without it... but now insomnia is kicking my butt. Can't win lol.

Oh and Robbed, I agree the best med is self help. Friggin' tough tho

[Velrose]

Hey! Well... I've dealt with obsessive fears for many years now, ranging from nuclear war (back when I was 15 or so, Pakistan and India were having issues--I'm almost 26 now), then tornadoes(instant panic attack if bad weather, or even rain hit the area I lived in--this fear has since reemerged since a few weeks ago, many large tornadoes struck the area where I live--I find myself checking the weather constantly) But the biggest fear---and this will sound absolutely out there-- is spontaneous human combustion. I am scared to death that this will happen to me if I am alone at night. This started when my husband began working third shift a few months ago--and has stuck with me since. On the nights he works, I bring my 4 year old daughter into my room to sleep because I am terrified if I am alone, it will happen to me.

My zoloft worked for a while, but the last two weeks, my anxiety has been rearing it's ugly head again. T_T For about two months I wasn't having to take my ativan, but I'm having to do so daily now just to remain level. I honestly wonder how serious my doctor and therapist take me... When I tell my counselor how bad of a week I have had, she just asks if I did the exercises she worked with me on. Honestly...they don't work. She has me write my fear over and over again when I start getting antsy, and I rate my anxiety level from 1-100 each time. It DOESN;T work for me.