Advice and newcomer

[ellieinbg]

Hey there,
i am new to this forum, i am an on/off sufferer of depression and anxiety, and also the dreaded panic attacks. My worse episode was a year and a half ago after a terrible split with my boyfriend. Then i was in a constant panic all day long for 2 weeks running. I went to the doctor where i was prescribed citalopram aswell and diazepam for the panic attacks. Also i went through a course of councilling. I found that citalopram helped to calm me down, i went up to 40mg as i was quite bad! But i found it was a short term solution, something to help you while you address the real cause of the problem and to give you time for your body to heal. I have read alot about this since then.
I have recently had a reccurence of anxiety and PA, i went on the web and read about a course called the Linden method, even the website gives you a lot of info about what is happening to you, which no doctors ever told me! I am going to give this course a go, as i have been experiencing severe tireness, worry about being around people, basically worry about everything and i am fed up. They say that diet can have a lot to do with it too. Has anyone else used this method and what do they think, it looks very promissing to me ;). I have tried many things which have helped me other than drugs and therapy, changing my diet, lots of exercise, meditation etc...... which are wonderful but have not entirely got rid of the problem when i go through a bit of stress, the old anxiety and panic return. So let me know what you think guys.
Take care to all,
Ellie x

[RabidBadger]

Hi Ellie

I have not tried the Linden Method but I have acquired the documentation for it and I know what it involves. There are a lot of positive testimonies for it on the internet but I don't buy into it myself.

Here in the UK, the government spends billions of pounds every year on mental health and if they could purchase a treatment for £90 that is as effective as it claims to be, believe me, they would save themselves millions.

The Linden method, as far as I have interpreted it, revolves around teaching yourself to "forget" that you have anxiety problems and may be very effective for people who have the mental capacity to do that but I don't. If it was as easy as that, none of us would be suffering.

I find it interesting that you view Citalopram as a short-term treatment because no SSRI drugs are short-term; they do, by their nature, take a long time have a noteable effect. And to view them as a stop-gap completely rules out any physiological or neurological cause or factor in your anxiety, leading me to believe that you view it as a purely psychological problem. In which case, trying to treat it physiologically would be pointless, right?

I don't mean to "rain on your parade" and if you purchased the Linden Method and found your way to recovery that way, I would be delighted for you.

I couldn't ever tell you why you suffer from anxiety because I am not a psychiatrist but if you ever want to know anything about why your body reacts physically the way it does, please feel free to email me [email protected] and I will share my knowledge with you free of charge.

Best wishes

Chris