Yes, it hurts.

[ShaunaNicole]

Hi everyone, my name is Shauna and I have been suffering with anxiety for a little over two years now. I have recently began seeing a psychiatrist and I was diagnosed with OCD, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, and Anxiety. I'm currently taking Buspirone HCL for my anxiety, Seroquel for my Bipolar Disorder, and I am also taking Lamictal for my mood swings.

My anxiety persists in social events and when I am emotionally worked up. My symptoms are excessive sweating in the palms, tightening in the chest, I have trouble breathing, I become restless (I pace a lot), I have racing thoughts, I become quiet and very moody. It has devastated ALL of my relationships in my life.

Last night I went to a party with my boyfriend and met some of his good friends for the first time. I had an anxiety attack and began sweating heavily, I couldn't look at anyone, my heart was literally pounding, I felt like I was trapped in a cage. After 30 minutes I was so shaken up me and my BF had to leave and we got into a fight. I suppose the people at the party felt as if I was being a jerk about wanting to hang out...and they said some pretty mean things. Things that crushed me as a person. :cry:

It hurts. A LOT! I mean...I try so hard. I really do. But even though the meds have helped with random anxiety attacks I still freak out in social events. I literally have NO friends....and it just pains me that people look at me like a snob because I'm too afraid of what people will think of me to say anything. UHHH!

[Headcase]

Hi,

Dont beat yourself up over the party incident, they are not real friends anyway, real friends would have been more concerned about you and not so critical; so although it must have been upsetting let that one go.

Hurtful things get said in the heat of an argument so dont take any notice of it and certainly dont let it crush you.

This is an illness we are living with so you are better off without people around you who dont understand or are critical.

I know this better than most as my wife doesnt understand at all and says hurtful things all the time.

[Ryobi]

Man...Seroquel. That's a serious drug. I don't know, I tend to think those guys over diagnose, and over-prescribe medication. I heard they get an incentive for prescribing as much medication as possible.
I don't know, use your own intuition, you know yourself better than they do, and find a guy who understands what your going through...
I feel for you...I just think your being taken advantage of by the unscrupulous...but I don't know...I just get that feeling...

[Robbed]

Man...Seroquel. That's a serious drug. I don't know, I tend to think those guys over diagnose, and over-prescribe medication. I heard they get an incentive for prescribing as much medication as possible.
I don't know, use your own intuition, you know yourself better than they do, and find a guy who understands what your going through...
I feel for you...I just think your being taken advantage of by the unscrupulous...but I don't know...I just get that feeling...

I DEFINITELY agree about medication here. But besides possible financial incentives for medicating people, there are other reasons why these things happen. A BIG one is the fact that ALL mental diagnoses are made based on symptoms rather than actual labwork. And since different conditions may have similar (or at least similar sounding) symptoms, it is VERY easy to get improper diagnoses. A good example of this is bipolar disorder. MANY people with problems like anxiety are diagnosed as bipolar, and suffer as a result on powerful drugs. The problem here is that people with anxiety DO tend to have mood swings. You can feel OKAY at times, but REALLY crappy at other times. Of course, there is a vast difference between the mood changes seen with anxiety disorder and those seen with bipolar disorder. But an overzealous, 'do-gooder' psychiatrist might look at this as a clear-cut case of bipolar disorder.