Anxiety + Head Injury + Drug Addiction

[sweetypie]

Thanks to everyone for the support and replies. I will suggest he join this or another forum.

We have talked about starting an anti-depressant and he's willing to try it, but he wants something that will help him "RIGHT NOW". I can understand why he wants that, but it's also always been a part of his personality that he doesn't like to wait for things.

We are in family therapy and have been for a few years. And it's weird, but the accident has definitely brought us closer. Especially he and his father.

I'm definitely going to discuss the pot with him, because I've heard that it can cause anxiety from other people too.

He has no memories of the accident or even of the hospital stay for a few days (they had him on Ativan, and I guess that causes memory loss). So I don't think that's causing any anxiety. He says the anxiety just hits him whether he's in his room, or at school, or whenever. (Sometimes "stupid" people bring it on, but I think that's because his patience has shrunk to zero. He's very easily irritated.) He says he can't pinpoint any concrete reasons to be anxious and that's what is so maddening about it. Before the accident, if he felt anxious, he usually had a concrete reason, and he could think his way through it. Now there's nothing to think through, just that feeling in the pit of his stomach and the racing heart and headache.

Thanks again for the support, guys. I'll let you know what the pdoc says!

You can tell him this . . .

The thing about anxiety is that all of us who have it want a solution right at this very moment as well. Our thoughts drive us crazy, too, and we just don't understand why we can't control this terrible feeling. But the more we try to control it, sometimes the worse it gets. The more we accept the anxiety, usually the better it gets. The more we realize that even if we are anxious, it doesn't actually hurt anything, the better we get. And the more we realize that it might take time to get better and accept that, the better it gets.

It sounds counterproductive, accept your anxiety and you'll get better, but a lot of the problem with anxiety is that we fear what it does to us and our brains and lives. And when you accept it and believe you can handle it, it becomes easier to handle.

But of course, that is much easier said than done! And I'm not saying this is a simple solution because it really isn't!

Also, I know he was injured, but it would be good to encourage him not to believe that he's a damaged individual. I have had anxiety and depression problems my entire life and therefore I've always thought it was genetic, almost like fate, that I would be forced to suffer forever. Make sure he understands he's the same person, he just happens to have anxiety right now, but that it doesn't define him. It's not who he is now. He's still the same person. That helped me a lot, too. Because when you have a mental problem like this, sometimes you feel like you're some kind of doomed weirdo!