Anxiety and time off from work

[JP-MTL-31]

Hi everyone,


First sorry about my english, its my second langage.

I am 31 Male from Montréal,canada I work for a police departement I suffer from anxiety and panic attacks on and off for 10 years now. In 2003 I was off work for 8 months trying medications and relaxation, going to meetings ect... It was all very terrible at first, and now its up's and down's since we found the good combo of meds.

Right now its defenatly a down, I started to get them 2 months a go and the where little but for the first time ever I had constipation too, but my doc wanted me to take a couple of weeks off of to prevent going in the deep end. Witch I did... Came back to work for 3 weeks and had a panic again so I withdraw and went to the doc and I am on leave since. I am taking fluvoxamine 200mg and clonazempam 1mg at night ( taking these meds for 8 years ) but now we are talkimg about changing and it makes me SCARED ... Its been working for this tome why change ?? Now i am taking senna for my constipation as well (had a ct that was negative)

Q1: have you ever took time from work and where they ok with it ?
Q2: have you ever had constipation with your anxiety?
Q3: have you ever switch medication and is it hard !?

Thanks very much !!

[locksey]

Hi ... Yrs I've changed meds b4 but went bak to old ones as that's what I was used to and my head was telling me the new ones wasn't wrkin...

Throughout my wrkin career I've had time off , may a day or two ... A few mths and the longest was bowt 5yrs bak wen I had nearly a year off wrk as panic attacks had gotten so bad

Constipation .. No ... But I knw it can b part ov anxiety

[JP-MTL-31]

Hi ... Yrs I've changed meds b4 but went bak to old ones as that's what I was used to and my head was telling me the new ones wasn't wrkin...

Throughout my wrkin career I've had time off , may a day or two ... A few mths and the longest was bowt 5yrs bak wen I had nearly a year off wrk as panic attacks had gotten so bad

Constipation .. No ... But I knw it can b part ov anxiety

Thanks locsey, you had no problems frow your boss ?

[DorsetGirl]

I'm off work at the moment. They are being really supportive and are allowing me all the time I need to turn this around. Even when I'm at work they allow me to attend courses and group sessions that are of benefit to me and my wellbeing

Makes me feel a little guilty that at the moment I can't give anything back

[trinidiva]

I work from home completely due to my anxiety. I have trouble driving far distances and my job is far from home. This has been for about two years now.
To answer another question, I have had to switch and adjust meds many times to get the right amount. I've also added in other things like exercise and meditation along with the meds, which has helped tremendously.

[locksey]

No problems .. They cnt really do a lot if yr dctr signs u off anyway ...... Sum years bak it got so bad that I actually handed my notice in ... I now wrk 4 an agency which is gd as I dnt feel trapped anyway

[alankay]

Sometimes an AD like luvox pops out and a switch to another ssri is done or tried. The switch is simply and purely because it seems to not be working well enough any longer. If you were doing well they would just encourage you to keep taking the current meds. You could try another ssri and/or bump up the klonopin(until the new ssri starts working).
Never been off work but that would suck. I have had harder times at work than others but that's part of the nature of anxiety. It's never really super constant. Your boss will have to understand that it's the same as any other medical issue. Alankay