Welcome to the Anxiety Forum - A Home for Those with Anxiety, Fear, or Panic Attacks.
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  1. #11
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    First off I'm not agoraphobic. But I had horrible anxiety attacks and health and social anxiety and meds helped some but were never the answer for me.
    I finished a cbt group last summer and it was the best. If you do the exercises like the TEA it will retrain your brain to eliminate anxiety. I'm loving it and it was worth all the struggles I had with it at first.

  2. #12
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    May 2007
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    17

    sure is

    I am totally convinced that meds are a band aid.

    It is cruel of the doctors to give anxiety suffers meds.

    i had a Valium on my first major panic attack and then fell asleep.

    after that i went to a cognitive therapist and never needed meds after that. i am not fully cured but your mind is better than any med. you mind gives you the anxiety and your mind can take it away.

    meds only reduce the symptoms they don't teach you how to control anxiety. life is too long to rely on meds forever because meds have side effects eventually like any drug.

    i suggest you see a cognitive therapist. they are awesome and it works!

    your anxiety is NOT your enemy and is not trying to attack you. It is trying to help you but it is a little off the target and a hypochondriac. Embrace it and teach it how to not get worked up about things that are not real.

  3. #13
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    Cool post sameboat :mrgreen: It sounds like we think alike. I finished a cbt group this past summer and life's a beach now for me. The book we used in my group by Sam Obitz has an exercise called a TEA that is awesome and if you are disciplined you can do them on your own and you will start to feel better. I'm not perfect but I feel like I am in control of my anxiety instead of it being in control of me now :tongue:

  4. #14
    Robbed,

    I know you aren't a doctor, but you seem to know anxiety well from your post. You said that you may not need meds if you can do most things with it. I am pretty productive at work I think even with anxiety. It's usually not too bad there. I have learned to control it somewhat. I have anxious most of the time depending on the day. However, yesterday and the day before I had pretty much no anxiety. I guess I'm just trying to guage how bad my anxiety is. I usually rate it by my heart rate because it all revolves around the heart with me. I have a slow resting heart rate because I run a lot. Resting is prob 50, I've measured it lower. But my heart rate doesnt usually get over 60 at work, so I assume I'm doing alright. However, I do get a mild headache by the end of the day. Probably due to my somewhat constant anxious state. I should prob start those CBT books. Does anybody know of a place I can access them?

  5. #15
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    This thread should be a sticky imo :shock:

  6. #16
    Junior Member
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    May 2008
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    Australia
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    I suffered from panic attacks which caused me to lose control of my bodily functions, which in turn made me agoraphobic and the only way I can cope is to stay on my meds. I have tried going off them but it starts all over again, so I stay on them. It's been 8 years but I feel "normal".
    "You can come out of the fog. Just look for the lighthouse to guide your way"

  7. #17
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    Apr 2008
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    Canada
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    Re: Medicine - is it a band-aid?

    Quote Originally Posted by jessr421
    Hi Everyone,
    I'm confused about medicine, a lot of people have been saying (including my doctor)
    to just take the medicine for a bit and maybe that will be what I need to get by and then I can live a normal life.

    My doctor said the good news is, that my anxiety isn't a life long thing for me (i'm not sure how she can determine that in an hour conversation....but...),
    she says that until I can learn how to deal with anxiey on my own. I should take the meds.... (i'm meeting with a cognitive therapist in a month). Why are they so easy to give you meds before trying to do it a natural way???? Couldnt she have just said, your appoinment with the cognitive therapist is not for a month, try to deal with it naturally for a month if you need meds take then...but if not, dont and soon enough you'll learn the skills to deal!... NO, she told me that anytime i feel anxious that i should be taking them..... now i'm an anxioius person , i feel anxious all the time! ha... i can't deal with the nonsense anxeity, its when i have an attack that causes me trouble!....

    But I don't understand it, because people like us are very intune with everything that has to do with us, our body, our mind....everything around us!
    Since this is mental, how on earth can I take meds fora 2 months... have no panic attacks....., and then convince my mind that when i'm off the meds, that my panic attacks will be gone forever & that i don't need meds, when it was the meds that got me better in the 1st place?????

    Has anyone struggled with this?

    I just don't understand how anyone goes off the medication and doesnt have panic attacks......
    because you never truly learned how to deal with them...(unless you were doing things throughout that time)
    but if not - it was the medicine was what was dealing with the anxiety not you.....(??????)

    I dont mean to offend anyone taking medicine, but I just don't understand it!
    Please opinions would be greatly appreciated!

    I'm 28 years old, I plan to have a baby in a year or so... the doctor prescrived me Ativan (causes birth defects)
    So, obvoulsy, i can't be on meds when i'm pregnant... I don't want to start taking the medication, rely on it...
    get pregnant, unexpectiely or planned and have to go off it .. and be thrown into the world of anxiety attacks & pregnant to boot! (like thats not stressful...ha)

    Thanks for any thoughts you can give!!
    It's band-aid for some people, like you and I (bec. i agree with what you are saying) but my sister for example....is on Citalopram for quite some time and is doing great. My sis and I unfortunately went through some bad times growing up with an alcoholic father. We should have been going to teenage group therapy.

    I carry Ativan all the time in my purse and now I just have the .5 dose not the 1.0 dose. (otherwise I almost fall asleep.) But man, it really works if you need it!!!! (Like going to the dentist.) My advice: don't get pregnant until you sort this out a bit, at least until you join a group and get emotional support.

    What you said about doctors only prescribing medicine....not the therapy....I don't know. Mine has never mentioned any therapy. Maybe they want us to ask because otherwise they may be insulting us????? I don't know. Why not ask your doctor and I'll ask mine next time.

    I want to go to my first meeting tonite....It's been written up in 2 of our newspapers this past week and also on our radio. There are ALOT OF PEOPLE SUFFERING IN SILENCE. I think it's a world wide epidemic. Our society is falling apart for many reasons. We need to get back to basics, laugh more, sleep more, eat right.... and many other things.

    Hope I've helped a little bit.

  8. #18
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    Dixxie, I thought you made a lot of good points in your note

  9. #19
    Senior Member
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    Jun 2008
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    242
    This is really good info. I just finished a cbt group and it only took 16-weeks to get me feeling better than i have ever felt before. meds always made me feel not all there and now I feel alive again. We used the tea forms and have been encouraged to stick with them now that the group is over. Try and avoid meds if you can.

  10. #20
    Senior Member
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    Oct 2006
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    USA
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    Beachgirl great idea about making this thread a sticky. How do they decide on which ones become sticky threads?

 

 

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