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I Suffer From Anxiety, And I Want To Overcome It

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Posts

  • DidgeridooDidgeridoo Flighty Dame Registered User regular
    edited February 2018
    Didgeridoo wrote: »
    I strongly, strongly encourage you to continue taking the medication. Side effects usually go away after the adjustment period, but the medication can't help you if you don't give it a chance to

    I may try again in the weekend, not when I’m working. That said, I don’t want this to be something I have to rely on for life. And once more, this is admittedly done over my own impatience: seeing a therapist regularly would be a longer and tougher affair, since I would have to keep requesting time off to do so (unless they were available on weekends).

    I know this is easier said than done because society at large has been training you and everyone else to view mental health medications as dangerous and the people who benefit from them as "weak," but try and step back from this mind set. It's not a bad thing if you find a treatment that makes your life better and so decide to continue the treatment. Most people wouldn't dream of encouraging someone on blood thinning medication to discontinue it because they shouldn't have to 'rely ' on medicine. Mental health is no different.

    Didgeridoo on
  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    Just to say, as someone with anxiety, avoidance is something you do when you are feeling bad about yourself. This is a pattern of behavior that needs the help of therapy, time and medication. The forums can be a real poor form of help, it feels like you are doing something since people are telling you "You'll need to do stuff!" and you get to respond with "Yeah!". At the end of the interaction, we cant force you to be accountable, we cant keep tabs on your progress, and most importantly, we cant give you medical advice.

    Generally, the tone in some of advice that is supposed to help you get better, like "what have you actually done with yourself? Focus, stop doing the bad things and do the good things!" are 100% the exact sort of question I ask in my own, negative thought patterns and send me into a loop of despair. Its really important that you find a therapist to help you work through your thought patterns closely with you, because its very easy to get lost and lean heavy into escapism.

    Stopping monster hunter cold turkey and putting your nose to your coding lessons and doing the exercises your PT tells you everyday is exactly what is logical to do. It makes so much sense. Just like it makes sense for me to make a dental appointment and not wait three months because "I dont know, other things are happening and I'm busy" even though I'm really thinking, "I'll have to drive in traffic, it will cost 3k, I'll need more work, I dont have the money, I'll have to drive in traffic by myself" in a deafening spin.

    Anxiety feeds off of your real emotions and makes them huge, and paralyses you. You cope by finding people and resources that help you make real progress. A therapist that will make it your homework to make an appointment, and then ask you with compassion why you didn't if you cant, and help you work through it. The challenges of anxiety are tiny, ruthlessly terrifying blockers that feel so stupid to let effect you that you will make up every excuse as to why there has to be a real reason you cant. I dont think a few posts on the boards, even if they come in small bursts after an update with small amounts of progress, can sustain the work that is needed to help you grow out of this.

    Please continue to take your meds, find therapy, and double down on as many resources outside of the forums as you can to help. Try to be kind to yourself while you do it, you dont deserve to cope with anxiety alone.

  • Professor SnugglesworthProfessor Snugglesworth Registered User regular
    edited February 2018
    @Iruka thank you for the post. A lot of what you describe fits with how I feel at the worst of times. There's no denying I have to seek treatment one way or the other.

    I know my mother is the type to be overly paranoid, but I think she does make a valid point in that I may be jumping to medication too soon. The only thing I've done up to this point is have two sessions with a therapist (that may not have even been a good one). Besides the possible complications with going with medication, it's not exactly something I would want to depend on for life if I could avoid it.

    So as it currently stands, we're at least at a compromise where I'll see another therapist (hopefully as soon as next week) who was referred to me. Then, should that therapist recommend I take the medicine prescribed to me, I'll feel more comfortable going that route.

    Impatience is something that has gotten me in a lot of hot water. I've even been reprimanded at my job over making stupid mistakes due to haste, which is why I've felt this need to seek the immediate treatment, rather than delay things further with appointments I need to schedule. Jumping to mood altering medicine with possible strong side effects could also be one of those hastily made dumb decisions I've been making, so I should at least give therapy the hard effort first.

    Incidentally, are there any self help books on the subject that are actually worth reading? Any sort of yoga exercises or something? I've had a shitty week and I want to try to decompress over the weekend so I can start next Monday with a clearer head.

    Professor Snugglesworth on
  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    Things like Self Help or Yoga aren't magic bullets and generally require you to get out what you put in. You won't feel better after reading The Secret magically. There aren't some combination of words that will help you come to some epiphany that will change things.

    If you are interested in yoga exercises, the stretches you got from your PT should be the ones you are doing. Others may make your other conditions worse (as others have said in both your threads).

    Unless your mother is a licensed therapist with a medical license in pharmaceuticals, her advice in this arena isn't actually authoritative. Whereas the person whose job it is to help you with this specific thing (along with the anecdotal evidence you've gotten in this thread) would suggest that, no, you likely are not jumping to medicine too soon.

    It's all just avoidance, man. That doesn't mean you need to kick down your door and go "be hasty." It just means you actually got to do something, specifically the things your therapist and other medical professionals are suggesting you do.

  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    edited February 2018
    Your threads over the past yearish show you have a habit of just ignoring advice in general. Your mother isn't an expert, and it seems to fall under the "none of this is the advice I like or want to hear so I'd rather not do it or listen to it." Listen to your doctors and make sure you tell them when you have a problem and ask for their recommendation (don't offer one up yourself).

    I'm seeing this same thing repeat from the PT thread now in here. Maybe I'm off base but I don't think the issue is rushing in to things but the issue is you might rush into a bad decision by doing the things you want because it's something you think will help and ignore the other advice or recommendations that aren't quite lining up or are more difficult because they require a lot of work and time to do it.

    bowen on
    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • Professor SnugglesworthProfessor Snugglesworth Registered User regular
    edited February 2018
    I mean this with absolutely no disrespect whatsoever, but people like my mother (who I've spent my entire life with) do know me more better than people on this forum (who miss out on many intricate details about myself that get lost in these brief forum posts).

    Yes, I do disagree largely about her misgivings with the medicine, but it's not like everything she's said is irrational. I am willing to put aside the medication, because the risks are there and I've already experienced some of its side effects with the first attempt. But as I said, once I start seeing my next therapist and they also recommend medication, then that's the end of the argument: that's two professionals telling me to do it, so I would take it without hesitation.

    It's like some of you said: there's a lot I just haven't tried, so maybe just talking it out with a therapist is all I really need. It's not like I'm that far gone: I don't have suicidal thoughts, I don't have trouble sleeping or eating....my main problems are feelings of frustration and uncertainty, the latter which is ironically got me questioning said medication. Regardless, I am putting it aside just so I could get a second professional opinion.

    And for those bringing up PT, I have started working on core-strengthening exercises, including planks and squats and other stretches that I got from Reddit and other sources. The good news is that I'm waking up to a lot less pain in the weekend. Still got a pinch that goes between mild and moderate, but it does hurt a lot less than it used to. I just have to discipline myself to do the exercises more frequently, because my usual lazy hangups keep it from being a daily routine. But it's a positive start that already yields results, so I need to stick with it.

    Professor Snugglesworth on
  • CelestialBadgerCelestialBadger Registered User regular
    I find it odd that you trust Reddit's exercise forums over a physical therapist who has seen you. But it's good that they are helping.

  • EncEnc A Fool with Compassion Pronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
    I mean this with absolutely no disrespect whatsoever, but people like my mother (who I've spent my entire life with) do know me more better than people on this forum (who miss out on many intricate details about myself that get lost in these brief forum posts).

    Then what are you wanting from H/A?

  • Professor SnugglesworthProfessor Snugglesworth Registered User regular
    I find it odd that you trust Reddit's exercise forums over a physical therapist who has seen you. But it's good that they are helping.

    It's not a matter of preferring one over the other, but rather convenience.

    For something I'd have to see on a semi-regular basis like PT, I would have to request approval from my work a week in advance. Getting time off or leaving early is no problem, but it adds up to my personal leave time as well as co-pays and such. The Reddit suggestion was something I could have tried that same day, since all I needed was a mat. I can't say for sure if one is more effective than the other, only that it seemed to work.
    Enc wrote: »
    I mean this with absolutely no disrespect whatsoever, but people like my mother (who I've spent my entire life with) do know me more better than people on this forum (who miss out on many intricate details about myself that get lost in these brief forum posts).

    Then what are you wanting from H/A?

    Opinions, what else?

    Whether I put those opinions into practice or not is one thing, but reading alternate takes can help me reach a decision faster, or come to a different conclusion I hadn't considered before.

    Like I said, I'm currently at a compromise where I'm willing to see the therapist first and get their opinion on the medication. Those of you saying to take the medication right now, it's not like I'm ignoring you, quite the opposite in fact, but it's not a decision I should make solely from anonymous sources either.

    Yes, I am afraid. But I really think a second professional opinion would be the way to go right now.

  • ceresceres When the last moon is cast over the last star of morning And the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderator mod
    Okay, then get the professional opinion. You're right that professional opinions are much more valuable than those of strangers on the internet or people who are scared. It sounds like you've made your decision so I'm closing the thread.

    And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
This discussion has been closed.