Posted by blayton on July 16, 2001, at 12:38:23
This is my first post on this board , so I will have to be slightly verbose in describing my problems . Please excuse the length.
I am 25 and suffer from an unusual variant of GAD( or so my present shrink tells me ) . Eight years ago , while preparing for an exam at high school , I was suddenly stricken by fears regarding what would happen if I were obsessed with fear thoughts during the course of giving the examination . That happened 8 years ago , but it still describes the crux of my problems : " continuously worrying about being worried in a critical situation "( I picked that phrase from an Internet site describing GAD and which beautifully summarises my problems ) . I have problems concentrating , as I am always monitoring my thoughts . You have to go through this to experience how disgusting and self-defeating it feels .
I was initially diagnosed with OCD although I have never had any compulsions anytime . I started Prozac in high doses ( 80 mg ) and found substantial relief from the frequency of the obsessive worries but somehow the core fears remained and would spring up whenever a high tension situation arose . But Prozac enabled me to get back to normal work and I pulled on . Then poop-out hit after 31/2 years . After unsucessfully trying many drugs , I finally found success with Zoloft. 100 mg and for about 11/2 years , I was as good as normal, or as normal as I remember normal to be . Then Zoloft pooped , and supplementation with Buspar pulled the cart for another year or so , Buspar dosage gradually increasing . Then the combo also stopped working three months back.
I changed doctors , and was diagnosed with GAD . I have been on Effexor for nearly five weeks now , being at 150 mg. for the last five days . I have noticed partial improvement , lets say 50-60 % but still have spells of high anxiety , all of which is anticipatory , and some of which involve conditions I am likely never to be involved in .
This fear of one's own thoughts and continuous monitoring of my own mind has left me very depleted mentally . Has anyone else suffered from any such symptom ? Is it indicative of GAD and if so, does Effexor work ? Also , how long does it take to work ?
Thank you for your attention . Any advice would be appreciated .
PS I have tried CBT twice , it made no difference to me .
poster:blayton
thread:70320
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010714/msgs/70320.html