Alexus
12-13-2011, 10:42 PM
Hello everyone. Here is an introduction into my experience with anxiety. I am a female,28 years of age, married and with one 4 year old daugter. I have been suffering onstets of anxiet,y coupled with some mild to moderate depression on occasion, for several years now.
Just like everyone else I have experienced stress and anxiety troughout my life but in what I would consider to be normal levels under the cirsumstances. And by that I mean that for the majority of my life especially before I had my daughter I had a very active and psomewhat stresfull lifestyle involving a lot of travel, relocation and exploration of third world countries. This is not something negative on the contrary a lot of it is positive memories and a bit of background info about me.
My first onset of anxiety in a more major and lasting way happened after a sudden death in the family(my father) and ofcourse althought it is completly natural to be affected by such an event I mention it because it still affects me to even today especally when I am suffering another onset of anxiety. I will give a brief history of the rest.
My next "episode" happened after my daughter got sick when she was four months old,nothing serious but involving a high fever that kept us up for 3 days straight. After it was over I suffered an onset of anxiety for about two weeks which I got throught thanks to family support and an increase in exersise, no medical intervention though even back then I consulted a phyciatrist that ensured me it was anxiety. After this was over I returned to my normal positive and confident self for about a year and a half. Some more or less stressfull events took place in the interviening time but I will not outline them as this is already becoming a lenghty post.
My next onset of anxiety, coupled with a case of some dehidration was a bit more severe. I had an an actual panic attack exibiting in elevated heart rate and my low BP at the time made it seem even more conserning. This ofcourse made me worry about my health and compacted the anxiety issue as is always the case. I stoped breast feeding at that time and the additional stress of hormonal changes I believe compacted the problem further. After a consult with my phyciatrist I was prescribed Zoloft to help me get back on track as my anxiety was coupled with some depression she believed I was suffering some seratonin deficiancy as well. I took a course of 50mg of Zoloft for about a year and begun improving quickly. The treatment was not coupled with sedatives. Within 2 to 3 weeks there were some very visible results and the rest of my anxiety subsided to a minimal level within about 2 months. Waiting out some more stressfull events that took place during the year again health related withing the family, though not lethal, I eventually decided the wean off the Zoloft about 4 months ago as I felt I was finally ready for it. There were some side effects to weaning off as is normal but I was mostly carefull in decreasing the dosage so the worse of those dissipated in a bout two to three weeks.
I have had some ups and downs sinse then with the downs usually only lasting a couple of days at most and coinciding with my cycle most of the time, possibly coupled with some PMS sysmtoms which can cause a temporary low in seratonin in the body afaik.
My final onset of anxiety which I am currently coping with started about two weeks ago, again coinciding with PMS. I decided to go for a check up for my back and neck with a neurologist and had quite a stressfull day running arround the hospital getting x-rays done and so on. As it turned out I do have somewhat of a condition which though not serious is chronic and I was presrcibed some anti inflamatory/analgesic shots as a quick course to decrease the discomfort. The morning after that I had a panic attack again involving an elevated heart rate. I called a doctor as I had some concern it may be a reaction to the medication I had just started but she cleared me, even including an EKG and confirmed it was a panic attack. My anxiety has not been subsiding since for any prolonged period even after stopping the medication that brought on the inital attack. My mind as is commom keeps trying to latch on to new threats, in my case usually inlving my own health, and pumping me full off all those lovely adrenal subsatnses I am sure you all know too well. I am making some progress lasting a couple of hours or a day and then something sets it off again. Yesterday I forced myself to eat while feeling anxious wich resulted in me feeling for some hours like my stomach was way too full which ofcourse resulted in large amounts of anxiety and pacing all afternoon. Though I always loose my apetite during these ordeals gastrointestinal complaints are not usually at the top of my list so I was unprepared to deal with the new symptom. I have an appontment with my psychiatrist for later this afternoon and we shall discuss how to proceed with the current onset.
This is the short of my experiences with anxiety. I know it is a lenghty post but I am hoping it will be as much an introduction as perhaps a helpfull read to others suffering similar patterns.
Just like everyone else I have experienced stress and anxiety troughout my life but in what I would consider to be normal levels under the cirsumstances. And by that I mean that for the majority of my life especially before I had my daughter I had a very active and psomewhat stresfull lifestyle involving a lot of travel, relocation and exploration of third world countries. This is not something negative on the contrary a lot of it is positive memories and a bit of background info about me.
My first onset of anxiety in a more major and lasting way happened after a sudden death in the family(my father) and ofcourse althought it is completly natural to be affected by such an event I mention it because it still affects me to even today especally when I am suffering another onset of anxiety. I will give a brief history of the rest.
My next "episode" happened after my daughter got sick when she was four months old,nothing serious but involving a high fever that kept us up for 3 days straight. After it was over I suffered an onset of anxiety for about two weeks which I got throught thanks to family support and an increase in exersise, no medical intervention though even back then I consulted a phyciatrist that ensured me it was anxiety. After this was over I returned to my normal positive and confident self for about a year and a half. Some more or less stressfull events took place in the interviening time but I will not outline them as this is already becoming a lenghty post.
My next onset of anxiety, coupled with a case of some dehidration was a bit more severe. I had an an actual panic attack exibiting in elevated heart rate and my low BP at the time made it seem even more conserning. This ofcourse made me worry about my health and compacted the anxiety issue as is always the case. I stoped breast feeding at that time and the additional stress of hormonal changes I believe compacted the problem further. After a consult with my phyciatrist I was prescribed Zoloft to help me get back on track as my anxiety was coupled with some depression she believed I was suffering some seratonin deficiancy as well. I took a course of 50mg of Zoloft for about a year and begun improving quickly. The treatment was not coupled with sedatives. Within 2 to 3 weeks there were some very visible results and the rest of my anxiety subsided to a minimal level within about 2 months. Waiting out some more stressfull events that took place during the year again health related withing the family, though not lethal, I eventually decided the wean off the Zoloft about 4 months ago as I felt I was finally ready for it. There were some side effects to weaning off as is normal but I was mostly carefull in decreasing the dosage so the worse of those dissipated in a bout two to three weeks.
I have had some ups and downs sinse then with the downs usually only lasting a couple of days at most and coinciding with my cycle most of the time, possibly coupled with some PMS sysmtoms which can cause a temporary low in seratonin in the body afaik.
My final onset of anxiety which I am currently coping with started about two weeks ago, again coinciding with PMS. I decided to go for a check up for my back and neck with a neurologist and had quite a stressfull day running arround the hospital getting x-rays done and so on. As it turned out I do have somewhat of a condition which though not serious is chronic and I was presrcibed some anti inflamatory/analgesic shots as a quick course to decrease the discomfort. The morning after that I had a panic attack again involving an elevated heart rate. I called a doctor as I had some concern it may be a reaction to the medication I had just started but she cleared me, even including an EKG and confirmed it was a panic attack. My anxiety has not been subsiding since for any prolonged period even after stopping the medication that brought on the inital attack. My mind as is commom keeps trying to latch on to new threats, in my case usually inlving my own health, and pumping me full off all those lovely adrenal subsatnses I am sure you all know too well. I am making some progress lasting a couple of hours or a day and then something sets it off again. Yesterday I forced myself to eat while feeling anxious wich resulted in me feeling for some hours like my stomach was way too full which ofcourse resulted in large amounts of anxiety and pacing all afternoon. Though I always loose my apetite during these ordeals gastrointestinal complaints are not usually at the top of my list so I was unprepared to deal with the new symptom. I have an appontment with my psychiatrist for later this afternoon and we shall discuss how to proceed with the current onset.
This is the short of my experiences with anxiety. I know it is a lenghty post but I am hoping it will be as much an introduction as perhaps a helpfull read to others suffering similar patterns.