Help with my daughter

[Hammer]

Hello everyone. I just found this forum and as you can see, this is my first post. I came here because of my daughter. She just left my house and she told me that she's suffering from severe anxiety. This was the first time she's ever told me about this, and apparently she's been suffering from it for a long time, only now it's gotten worse.

I came here hoping that someone here could shed some light on it for me, so I'll relate what she's told me about it. She said that she has this extreme dread to go anywhere, yet once she's there, she's fine. When she gets up in the morning for work, she doesn't want to get out of bed because she's dreading going to work, but she gets up anyway and just lays on the floor crying. It doesn't have to be work either, it can be anywhere.

She thought it might be her job, since it was stressful, so she changed jobs to a low stress job, but the anxiety is worse. She said it feels like she's coming out of her skin. Even when she was with me today, I drove to the store figuring that would help ease the stress but she said she was anxious the whole time.

She said that she doesn't know why she's anxious, since there isn't anything to be anxious about, but she is. She said that she wakes up in the middle of the night and she's anxious about whatever she has to do that day, even if it's something that's insignificant, like going to the food store.

I'm really concerned for her and I don't know what to do. She said that she's had anxiety all her life, and at one time or another, she's taken either Prozac, Zoloft, or Xanax. She said that these help, but that they make her feel doped up or sleepy, which makes it hard for her to work. She's not taking anything now, but she's going to try the Prozac again.

Is there anything that she can take or do that will help with this? It's hard for me to understand since I don't get anxious about anything, so I don't know how to help her deal with it.

[HM]

Hi,

I’ve suffered from anxiety for a long time and I still do till this day (It’s worse now than it ever was). But during periods of my life I have been able to cope with it.

What I’ve found to be most helpful is therapy; in particular CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy). This can be done one-to-one with a therapist or in groups. I’d recommend finding a psychologist that specialises in this subject.

Also there’s a self-help book from a series called ‘Overcoming’ – one of the volumes deals specifically with anxiety disorder and it’s definitely helped me a lot in the past. (If want to get an in-depth understanding of this condition I’d recommended you reading it also). You can buy this from Amazon or any good book store if you live in the UK. This deals with CBT practices.

CBT is commonly accepted as one of the most effective treatments for anxiety/depression. It also normally takes less time than other ‘Freudian’ type ‘talking therapies’ – where a lot of sessions are spent examining your past, rather than giving practical advise on how to deal with the hear and now. (So it’s cheaper if cost is an issue).

I’m no doctor, but what stands out from looking at the type of drugs your daughter has been prescribed is that they are all ‘SSRI’ (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). Not everyone responds to these, and it might be worth her talking to a doctor about possible trying another class called ‘SNRI’ (serotonin-norepinehrine reuptake inhibitors). I’ve just recently started a course of these myself.

It’s trial an error when it comes to medication; you just have to keep trying until you find one that suits.

The only thing that really works for me at the moment is Ativan (Lorazepam) – which is a ‘benzodiazepine’ similar the Xanax that your daughter is taking. But it only works short term and doesn’t help you deal with the condition generally – it’s a quick fix, mainly used for panic attacks.

Hope some of this helps, and that your daughter gets better soon.

Harry