Posted by GLYN on January 23, 2001, at 4:54:56
In reply to Re: Any UK people out there, please? » Lisa Simpson, posted by dreamer on January 22, 2001, at 20:01:40
Well Lisa, sure sounds familiar to me. I live in Manchester and had the same experience - either you will be dead, crazy or nuts before you see a shrink. If you want my advice, stop seeing your doctor and the world of medicine as your primary route out of this.
I started having panic attacks, terrible shaking of the hands and legs that never ceased and a whole host of awful physical symptoms so strong I was sure I would die or go crazy - and I dont joke here, I spent most of my day and night trying to banish obsessive thoughts I was going mad - even though I had no real evidence other than anxiety and the fear I was going loopy.
This quickly escalated into a full nervous breakdown where I felt unable to do anything and was terrified to even leave the house. Its a fairly common experience but one which, in my experience, is just about the worst experience a person can ever have - I would rank it alongside with death of a spouse etc.
But my point is, I sure wish I had learnt earlier that my GP didn't have the answers I needed. There are reasons why people have anxiety attacks and depression and 7 minutes with a doc will not get to the route of it however often you go. Neither, in my opinion, is seeing a shrink going to be your answer - though it would be of some some use if you could get reffered. Many shrinks will simply try to force their own perceptions onto you - ok, not force but certainly by implication.
The fact is, as awful as your experience is it is actualy very common, fairly simple to understand, very successfully treated and certainly never develops into madness of the pink elephant kind.
It sounds to me like low self esteem, relationship problems and other stuff are causing you to feel down about yourself. As is often the case when we get depressed (especially if we have dependants) the mind realises that something is seriously wrong and threatening it and the well being of yourself and your children so it startles itself into alert thus causing anxiety and panic. Trouble with panic is that it quickly becomes a vicous circle. All creatures with a central nervous system can experience panic as it is the classic fight/flight response (hence the physical symptoms people get such as breathing difficulties, lightheadiness, churning stomache, shaking etc etc etc) but we as "rational beings in cosy worlds" are so unacustomed to this sensation it scares us, we think we are dying/going crazy etc and we stimulate even more anxiety and panic through nothing more than fear of fear itself until we uttrerly exhaust and fatigue our minds and bodies - be wary of the fatigued mind as it can play tricks on you and even become obsessive but it doesn't mean its crazy just without the strength to resist.My advice is as follows - take it or leave it as I'm no GP. First, get yourself to an AA meeting - "but I'm not an alcoholic" you say - well maybe not but you do use drink in the wrong way and nipping it in the bud is essential. Going to AA doesn't mean you have to stop drinking but it brings it out in the open and you can talk over all of your problems that uyou describe above with loving and supportive poeople - better than therapy any day. Next, and I mean the same day, go to the GP and tell him you want an SSRI anti depressive medication - Celexa or Citalporam are especially good as they target depression and anxiety and aren't addictive. Make sure he starts you on a real low dose for a month and then ups it or else it can cause even more anxiety. If the pills make you anxious demand half a dozen diazepam (valium) to get you over the worst times - they take 4 weeks to work, make you feel worsefor a while but are literaly fantastic when they finaly kick in. One other thing, try to lay off your reliever inhaler. Overuse (more than 2 3 tmes a day) can cause a build up of chemicals which constantly stimulate adreneline and can worsen anxiety and even cause panic attacks. I found when I went on citalopram I cut down from about 6 puffs a day to 1 and gave up the preventer altogether - asthma is very much linked to our emotions and you can become dependant on inhalers.
Finaly, get soime books on deprerssion and anxiety - especially those tha take a behaviour therapy approach - again I would r5ather have any book by Marion Weekes for example than half a dozen visits to a shrink.
Most importantly rest and try to turn all of that frustration with your GP and NHS towards solving your minds little riddle of a problem - Frued would say that the unconscious mind is deliberately distracting you away from the real solution to your problems (the unconscious mind tries to protect itself according to Freud).
Sounds corny but I really think that only you have tghe answer and the solution to your problems and you have a mystery of the famous five proportion to solve.
Good luck and God bless you.
Glyn
poster:GLYN
thread:52015
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010122/msgs/52284.html