18 Year old with anxiety

[floridanon]

I've come here in search of a relief for my anxiety. I guess i should first start with my background story. Ever since i started high school, i've had mild anxiety. When getting up in the morning, I would have panic attacks from being worried about my day. They got worse and worse, until eventually I had to go to a doctor, and get a prescription. I got put on a 20 pill supply of Lorazepam. When that ran out, I had to go to a primary doctor, as the first place was an urgent care center. The latter doctor gave me Prozac. After 3 months of being on it, the side effects were too much to bare. Being on winter break, I went back and he weened me off of the medication. I was completely anxiety free, until about two months ago. All of the sudden, I started having bad panic attacks in the morning. I would get up, and panic myself into vomiting. I would feel horrible the entire day until around the evening, where I would start getting calmer. I went back to an urgent care facility and got put on a 40 day supply of lorazepam. I started taking less and less, and now i've ran out. I read some articles about magnesium and the such, and picked some up yesterday and started taking it. I can feel my anxiety right now creeping up on me, and I just have this feeling in the pit of myself that this will be the rest of my life. I just wish i could go back to the way i used to feel. I wont be able to see another doctor for a couple weeks, does anyone have a way that i can cope with this? Im anxious almost all the time, and eating is very hard for me. I just wish I felt like my old self.

[un4ad]

Try to focus on other things. If you start feeling bad, move to a different setting or do something different. Something you like to do. A game. Try something new. Maybe learn how to play an instrument. Or exercise. Exercise is a great stress reliever and mood enhancer. Just don't focus on the things that get you riled up. But do try to dissect them and try to figure out what's causing all of it first (even though you probably do that already and it doesn't always help, even if you've figured it out and declared it illogical).

Definitely don't take caffeine, stimulants, or consume a lot of sweets (they act like stimulants too). Don't drink alcohol, because you will be come dependent on that and your anxiety will increase even more when you're not drinking. Try to get sleep. If you have problems sleeping, try taking a melatonin or valerian supplement (available at drug stores).

[Sleepless]

I agree about the exercise, its a great mood changer.
I think that generally if you focus on stuff that u like to do then the anxiety wont be the focus of your life, but just some kind of afterthought.