Does anybody on here suffer from panic disorder, PTSD, derealization or other anxiety disorders?

My first psychiatrist visit took place when I was 4 years old. My grandparents took me because I had night terrors, and was terrified of dolls and mannequins (a child’s version of “they’re out to get me”). I was diagnosed with PTSD at the age of 16 from massive childhood trauma. You could say that my mother was the jack of all trades.

I went through many years of therapy, with a 3 year, 3 month stretch in an inpatient, outdoor treatment facility for girls. I prefer not to say where. After leaving there, I spent many an hour on the couch, talking to doctor after doctor. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to find a therapist with whom you “click”? It’s as hard as finding the perfect pair of shoes for an impromptu date.

Here’s the inventory: PTSD (now cleared), bipolar disorder clinical depression, and do occasioanlly have panic attacks for no apparent reason. It’s just for kicks, I guess (no more drugs for me after 13 years, at least for now). And none of those were my fault, dammit!

Damn, that felt good to say :)

I have minor OCD and GAD. I’ve been on anti-anxiety meds in the past, but they don’t do a whole lot for me. Wellbutrin worked best, but its kind of expensive. Done the therapy thing and I did better just figuring it out on my own. But that was me. I think my problem with therapy is that I wasn’t an advocate for myself and didn’t ask to change therapists when the one I had wasn’t a good fit at all. Its important to find someone who you can interact with without wanting to call them a smug bastard and slap them. What eventually worked for me is my own form of meditation and yoga. It helps me focus and chill. Fortunately nothing for me is so very obvious, but its something that I deal with as best I can. There’s no telling what will work until you try different things and see how they work. You definitely might want to go see a psychologist and a therapist to work on managing your symptoms, it tends to be easier with help.

I have PTSD from domestic abuse, anxiety issues (which are not so bad anymore), OCD. I have Xanax for the anxiety, but I don’t really need it. It’s for an emergency. I use to get panic attacks pretty often.

I suffer from anxiety. Have most of my life.
Never tried medication or therapy until I was a sophomore in high school.
For both my depression and anxiety I tried Prozac, Lexapro, Wellbutrin and Zoloft.
The depression has ceased but my anxiety has gotten worse over the years.
I switched back to Lexapro because I was told it was the best thing for the anxiety.
It didn’t seem to help much. Instead it fucked up my appetite and for about a year I was 10lbs underweight.
Six months ago I decided to throw the meds out the window and deal with it myself.
I get anxiety over ridiculous things. I’ll get an attack if I’m not sleeping in my own bed. You can imagine how much I suffer in a hotel or at a friend’s house.
I hate the dark, so I have to sleep with a light on.
I also have a vomit phobia, so when drinking alcohol I’ll always get an attack for fear of drinking too much and vomiting. Most of the anxiety stems from this phobia in the first place.
Oddly, I never get an attack when I have lots to do. The best cure for me is to stay busy. The minute I wind down and have a chance to reflect on the day is when they hit me. That’s usually why I get them only at night, before bed.
I chose a lot of wrong routes in coping with the anxiety. They work temporarily, but aren’t very healthy.
Instead, one of the things I started doing and have had pretty good results from is literally talking to my attacks as if they were a person.
I get what I like to call pre-anxiety.
It’s the feeling I get right before an attack is about to hit me. It’s like a warning. Sounds silly, but I talk to it and tell it to leave me alone. I look like a nutcase for talking to myself, but guess what? It works and half the time they will leave.
This has worked better than any medication I’ve ever tried.
Granted, I have to talk to them almost everyday, but I’d rather have that than be a walking skeleton and let the meds kill my liver.

I have panic attacks sometimes… When I smoke weed. Jk. It happens to the best of us. Find something that relaxes you. For me its playing pool. Hopefully you can get to this relaxing place when you are having trouble but if not remember that drugs aren’t the answer, prescription or not.

All of my problems have stemmed from the same thing, which I prefer not to mention. My panic and anxiety started when I was 10 and OCD when I was 13. My OCD was extremely before medications, it got to the point where I was psychologically debilitated, almost every action and thought was controlled by my OCD, My anxiety and panic really only consisted of derealization and still does today. I used to get attacks of it randomly, but nowadays and for the last year I get it at least once a day and get major attacks not so much as before though. I started medicated therapy when i was 15 (when I got the courage to tell my parents that I had a problem). My first meds were Prozac and Clonazipame. After taking those until I was 17 I stopped meds all together or 2 years until I turned 19. I take Effexor and Clonazipame now.

I want to get CBT but am not sure I can afford it.

Isn’t CBT like hypnotherapy?
I tried that. Only went for 2 sessions. Couldn’t afford it.

I have problems with depression (treated by Zoloft), minor OCD (untreated), and periodic anxiety (treated by Xanax). At one point my anxiety and depression were so extreme that I began to develop agoraphobia. At another time, it caused me to collapse at work.

I go to a psychologist anywhere from once to six times a month not only for my direct problems, but also to help deal with the stress of caring for a disabled husband and a bipolar, ODD, ADHD son. I take Zoloft every day. I also take Synthroid for hypothyroid, a second cause of depression. I have a few Xanax around for in case I have another bout of anxiety or panic, but haven’t needed it in a number of years.

I have a rather mild case of PTSD which usually takes the form of nightmares.

I have GAD, panic attacks, and chronic depression. All are very well controlled at this point in my life by medication (Effexor XR daily, and Xanax as needed – not often). I went to therapy at several different points in my life, with the last being by far the most helpful. CBT didn’t work for me, but therapy in general really helped me sort out some major things in my life. I’m unsure whether I was born this way, or if it was caused by a horrific childhood. Either way, I’m certain that my childhood didn’t help!

I have anxiety issues. I take meds (PRN) for them. I was in therapy for about six years. CBT, DBT, talk and creative. Each of them worked for a specific angle I needed. I recently incorporated EMF into my coping skill bag o’tricks and it’s worked wonderfully.

Oh, and CBT is not hypnotherapy.

@gemiwing Thanks.

I suffered with problems of severe anxiety and periods of depression starting around age 11 and persisting into my thirties.
I still have fairly rare bouts of anxiety not connected with any particular fearful stimulus or situation.
Since my disabling car crash in 2004, I have been on antidepressants to help control the severity of my chronic pain. Chronic pain and Depression are linked in that they make each other worse.
I consider myself mentally healthy and high functioning except for the impairments of memory cause by chronic sleep problems and powerful pain medications.

Anxiety and depression are serious problems for people affected by them. Anyone who tells sufferers to cheer up and relax are showing ignorance and insensitivity.

It is a real struggle for friends and family of those affected by these problems to not be adversely affected by regular contact with severely depressed or anxious people. This often results in withdrawal of the unaffected parties. Depressed and anxious patients often fear being abandoned by friends and family. This unfortunately becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Affective disorders (anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder) are among the most common mental disorders and most adults will experience some episodes of depression in their lifetime.

Medications alone are rarely sufficient to treat these disorders but are commonly seen as a necessary precondition for effective talk therapies.

Cognitive behavior therapy, is among the most effective and economical (because they don’t require endless treatment) modes of treating anxiety and depression. They also are effective in teaching patients to help combat severe relapses.

@LeopardGecko Isn’t CBT some sort of kinky sex play?

I have GAD (when the doctor told me about this I thought he was making it up, almost like he didn’t know what was wrong with me and so he just said the first thing that popped into his mind out of frustration with me and my “issues”) which often cause panic attacks. I also believe that I may have OCD although this is something that I haven’t discussed or even told the doctors about because I am still embarressed to do so. I have certain “habits” that I know are obsessive and cause me a certain amount of distress if, for any reason, I can complete them. I know it’s something that I need to sort out but I really don’t want confirmation that there is anything else wrong with my mind.

@Kelly_Obrien I had the same notion—I know the kinky sex play meaning of CBT but apparently it also means cognitive behavioral therapy as well, Apparently DBT is dialectic behavioral therapy (per google). Still don’t understand EMF.

I was dx with PTSD after a series of unusual events. Have done talk therapy and tried meds (didn’t like them). Will do xanax if it’s bad and have to use clonazepam to be able to fly or tolerate tight spaces. Really got some benefit from the rapid eye movement therapy I tried several years ago.

My first panic attack struck in 2004 when I quit Paxil cold turkey (I was given Paxil wrongly – in that I didn’t need it to begin with and it fucked with my biochemistry) – followed by a suicidal month full of anxiety and mini-shocks through my body. After that I was able (after a couple of tries) to find a psychiatrist that I felt didn’t think I was sick – I just wanted him to fix an imbalance that Paxil has caused. He did and I was on Lexapro for a bit – I was able to go off Lexapro with the help of Bikram Yoga. I was fine for a bit and then pospartum depression dropped on my head like a ton of bricks. It was the worst 4 months of my life – my psychiatrist was away on vacation for the first month and a half of that and I didn’t trust anyone else to give me meds – this almost killed me…once he was able to see me I was on Klonopin for severe anxiety and Lexapro for depression – I also had insomnia so I was on Ambien…slowly but surely I didn’t need Klonopin or Ambien anymore…I remained on Lexapro lowering my dose until the present…when I was pregnant with my second I lowered the dose to 1 mg…after the pregnancy, my anxiety and panic threatened to return…this time I knew what it would lead to and raised my dose to 2.5mg (I am very sensitive to these meds so these low doses do a lot for me)...at some point with my father’s cancer battle and death and my husband’s lay off and us having to find any income, I thought I’d need to up the dose (something I hate doing) to 5mg but I returned to yoga and was able to keep it down…now I am on 2.5mg…I see my psychiatrist for about 5 minutes every 3 mo for a prescription…I do not get any anxiety or panic attacks any longer…

I have suffered depression, anxiety disorder, eating disorders and panic attacks.. I’m not on meds right now, cause they actually make me feel worse, while Lexapro helped a bit on the beginning after 3 months I was going crazy, rush thinking all the time. I’ve always been a “worryer”, but Lex .. geeez, I just wanted to cut my head off to stop thinking.
Right now im better.. im on vacation, still struggling with the worry issue, too much free time is just as bad as being burned out with stress, so im trying to find myself, keep myself busy, I play nintendo, I bake cakes, I go out with my boyfriend.. etc..

@Kayak8 EMF (Emotional Freedom Technique) is just a series of mantras you say while tapping on pressure points. It’s incredibly effective. I thought ‘yeah, so tapping myself is supposed to do something?’. Lo’ and behold- it works.

If you ever find me in real life you’ll know it’s me because I’ll be tapping right below my bottom lip in line at the grocery store. I also like it because you can do some of them and not look out of place.

@CaptainHarley I am in the same boat, I am usually able to nullify the bad dreams by reading or watching TV for a few minutes before falling back asleep. How about you any tricks to help you get a good nights sleep when you have the dreams?

Yes, OCD. Meds and therapy (talk therapy and ERP – exposure response prevention). I also did a 3 wk. out-patient OCD program at a hospital. You can pm me for more info.

Aspergers Syndrme, PTSD, social phobia, OCD symptoms possibly a part of the AS, clinical depression. Beet treated with many medications over the years, none worth a shit except for Valium, which forces me to sleep every once in a while. To add icing to the cake I recently suffered a complete emotional breakdown. any form of talk therapy is laughable as I am painfully uncomfortable in any F2F situation, I amuse myself by getting as drunk as possible and posting incomprehensible gibberish on the internet.

I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder mild OCD and Chronic Severe Depression. I had a total nervous breakdown a couple of years ago. The depression’s been around the longest (19 years now) and is probably my biggest problem. I now take Celexa and Paxil for it. I’ve taken just about everything else out there but these seem to work the best. OCD was the worst when I was in high school and college, by the time I got to grad school it had almost completely gone away and now it’s just occasional and only about certain things. The GAD really inhibited me in college and while it took a brief hiatus in grad school it came back about 3 months before I finished. I now take Elavil for that as well. The depression is a daily battle and I expect it will be for the rest of my life.

I’ve tried: Lexapro, Efexor, Wellbutrin, Prozac and 4 others I can’t remember the names of.
I’ve seen: An MD Psychiatrist, a regular MD, and three psychologists and they all worked at different times for different reasons.

Now to keep in check, I take two pills in the morning (Celexa and Paxil) and one pill at night (Elavil) and I see a I don’t really know what to call her woman every other month or so. She’s an herbalist, psychic, intuitive person who just cheers me up and tells me I’m doing better than I realize. This combination has done the best for me for almost the longest now. I don’t plan to change.

I don’t really know what I do that helps me cope I’m actually going through a bit of a rough time right now. Hot chocolate, good books, time to myself, keeping up my medications, listening to music all keep me fairly level headed. Between my medications and my Mom’s dog I’m still alive after the nervous breakdown. I just keep telling myself everything’s okay and use the mantra “come what may” whenever I feel like I’m spiraling too fast.

@LeopardGecko There are often lots of counseling centers that will see you on a sliding-scale basis or even pro-bono. You should look into those. CBT is quite common so shouldn’t be hard to find someone who practices that technique low-cost. Also universities often have a program to give free counseling to help their pscych. students get practice so you might look into that as well. You may have to travel to the nearest city but heck it might be worthy it monetarily.

@drClaw

I usually just log on to the Internet or read a bit. After awhile, sleep catches up with me and I go lay back down. Seldom am I bothered again the same night.

love to everyone on this thread…

I’ve been depressed all my life with a few ‘spots’ of happiness
I’ve been on and off medication – currently diazepam
I suffer with anxiety and depression at the moment
and physical manifestations of it..apparently
My GP thinks I’m a hypochondriac..but that’s the anxiety too
I love self-help books
I love books, although I rarely read them
I love sleeping.
Exercise helps me immensely – I can actually feel myself feeling brighter as I’m working my body
But… I have to fight myself to get up at 6.30 in the morning and do it (I won’t do it otherwise..)
I never thought I’d make it to 21
but I’m here!... nearly 30 too!
which I have my son to thank…because children sure make you find that motivation to get out bed and live
I do love life..I’m just not very happy going about it
I constantly wonder whether it’s all my fault

I had GAD in addition to being Bipolar. I take meds for both. They’ve helped my life A LOT!

@RedPowerLady Yay, you’re back :)

@Leanne1986 thanks :) My computer at both work and at home has been dysfunctional. My work computer is working today, thankfully, and hoping to get my home computer back from the fixins today.

yes, quite… @RedPowerLady is so cool!

@lynneblundell TY!

PTSD – cured
Panic disorder: Cured. Turns out some of what I felt was actually thyroid disease.
Bipolar disorder: yup.
Clinical depression: I drew the lucky number.

I took medication for years and years. It will never end (except for when I can’t afford it, like now). Now I have thyroid meds that will never end (once I can afford them). Come to think of it, I’m not doing as well as I thought I was. Now I’m all depressed. Thanks a lot!
Drat – now I’m talking to myself because you aren’t here. Where’d I put that gun?

I deal as best I can. Most days I am perfectly fine and can handle anything thrown at me. When the black cloud comes, I remove myself from as many people as possible so that my problems don’t bleed over into their lives, and I suffer through it ungracefully, without any dignity at all. And I get over it, because that’s not who I am. I know that, eventually, it will be over…...eventually. Did I mention eventually? Mr. Bipolar keeps hope far, far away from me during those times.

People say the good times never last. I say thats a crock, because you’re only giving half the story. How do the good times come around if the bad times don’t last, either. Even if I can’t emotionally remember that when I’m under the black cloud, logic like that helps.

@LeopardGecko If you are still around im new, I have agoraphobia with depersonalization disorder, and insomnia…so I can definatly understand where you are coming from