Dealing with anxiety

Kerouac said:
I have really bad anxiety, even with therapy and a mood stabilizer. I have a low dosage valium prescription hat It take as needed, which helps keep the edge off somedays at work, or when my life gets stressful; I had to pop one today because I had a $700 car repair bill, had to scrape together an extra $1k for closing costs, and am trying to get everything packed and ready to move on Friday.

But honestly, the #1 thing that helps my anxiety is some good old fashioned marijuana. I was really disappointed last year when our marijuana bill didn't pass in Ohio, but it was a bad bill. I have a small vape and only ever have enough that if I was to get busted it would be a fine, not jail time. I'll take two or three draws and that is enough to keep anxiety at bay, but not enough to leave me ripped and nonfunctional.
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Not to be a Debbie downer but weed can exacerbate whatever tendency you have, long term speaking of course. Short term it can be great but long term can cause whatever mental state yer in be it anxiety an introvert, a depressive, a paranoid, etc...it can exacerbate the issue and make things worse. of course when you are a smoker it's rainbows and lollipops and "it's naturural man...alcohol is way worse blah blah blah" but if you step back and are honest it can be harmful.

The best thing for many 'mental' things is freekin' good ol excercise OUTDOORS. Something like running, biking, hiking. you get the endorphins going, fresh air, and all kinds of benefit. It's basically free and there's no downside at all.

Anyway I've never really had classic anxiety but i have had social anxiety i guess at times (I do not like social events like parties, get togethers but I'm perfectly fine as an anonymous person in crowded places if that makes sense. I'm fine one on one, I'm outgoing in day to day but I'll avoid a social get together like the plague.
 
DdBob said:
Not to be a Debbie downer but weed can exacerbate whatever tendency you have, long term speaking of course. Short term it can be great but long term can cause whatever mental state yer in be it anxiety an introvert, a depressive, a paranoid, etc...it can exacerbate the issue and make things worse. of course when you are a smoker it's rainbows and lollipops and "it's naturural man...alcohol is way worse blah blah blah" but if you step back and are honest it can be harmful.

The best thing for many 'mental' things is freekin' good ol excercise OUTDOORS. Something like running, biking, hiking. you get the endorphins going, fresh air, and all kinds of benefit. It's basically free and there's no downside at all.

Anyway I've never really had classic anxiety but i have had social anxiety i guess at times (I do not like social events like parties, get togethers but I'm perfectly fine as an anonymous person in crowded places if that makes sense. I'm fine one on one, I'm outgoing in day to day but I'll avoid a social get together like the plague.
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I'm aware of the risks, but in my case it's quite the opposite, especially as I'm not a daily user and I vape just enough to take the edge off. My doctors are well aware of me using it and once it's legal for medicinal use I'll be receiving a prescription.

I love working out and lifting, but it does NOT lower my anxiety; if anything it exacerbates it due to my increased heart rate and shorter breath.
 
What I have found in my life is there is no pill that is a magic bullet and what works for others did not work for me. Find somethings that works for you and find support groups. It can over whelm you, but hone coping skills and use meds as tools and not crutches.
 
Wow I'm surprised how many people here suffer from anxiety. I've had it my entire life, & I've been on anti-depressants & tranquilizers for it since 2002. For me, it's severe social anxiety. I'm an introvert also, so I find it cripplingly exhausting to just go to work every day. I see it as a kind of therapy sometimes. I've gotten a lot better since I started taking meds, & working in a job that requires dealing with customers ( grocery store ). I still have good days & bad days, & really really awful days, but luckily those are very rare as of now.

Before the meds, counselling, & a psychiatrist ( who did no good at all except give me meds which only made me high as a kite. She thought it could be something called Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. I don't think it was, because the meds did nothing.

Besides the meds, & counselling, I've found that indeed there is no magic pill, or combination of pills that will totally erase anxiety. I think that it is a really, really deeply rooted emotional issue that is so complex & variable for different people that there cannot be one cure for it.

Deep meditation works very well for me, personally.
 
Once again, diet and exercise. My kid went from a person that suffered panic attacks ,anxiety ,etc, when in a crowd, to an outgoing, socially comfortable person when she changed her life style. Here she is featured in a fitness rag and she's in another next month. She competes on stage, has a contract with an elderly complex teaching fitness to the elderly. Is sponsored by a fitness food company,etc, etc,etc,

She couldn't do this five years ago...

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Tom, I am not saying that there is anything wrong with your diet and exercise advice, but it is something that may not work for everyone. There can be multiple causes of anxiety and each one may require a different approach.

When I started doing addiction counseling 18 years ago, the prevailing opinion was that everyone needed to go to 90 AA meetings in 90 days, and then continue weekly meeting for the remainder of life. Thankfully, the field has come to aceept that each person may need something different. I think trying to work on diet and exercise is a good starting point; it certainly won't hurt anything, but it may not be the answer for everyone.
 
I agree. I was just putting out there as an option, perhaps something to look into as it worked in this instance..And there's no way she'd take meds. Won't even take a pill for a headache...
 
When I was a young kid, I had a period of time where I would have constant anxiety & panic attacks. Fortunately, I saw a child therapist at the time who taught me some effective tools for stopping the echo chamber of anxious thoughts in my head, nipping the panic attacks in the bud before they could take hold. Over time, the anxiety subsided too. I can relate to anyone who suffers and wish you all a path to internal calm & quiet.
 
tompetty said:
I agree. I was just putting out there as an option, perhaps something to look into as it worked in this instance..
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Understood, and, as I say, it is a great option. The problem is when it doesn't work and the person starts wondering "What's wrong with me that this didn't work?" That's why I like letting folks know that there is no "silver bullet", you have to experiment to find what works for you.
 
I had pretty bad anxiety a year or so ago. I started on Lexapro and am much better.
 
Thanks everybody, this is comforting to hear that I'm not alone. Having a fairly rough morning, for no reason at all, that is the worst part of it... but this thread is helping.
 
dodgechargerfan said:
I don't think I am at any point where I need medical attention, but I realise that I have anxiety around social situations.
I will try to avoid them unless I have a good grasp of what's going to be happening, who is going to be there, and what my "responsibility" will be in the scenario.

All of this happens in my head before the social event. Once I get there, I am usually fine and just roll with whatever is going on. But leading up to it.... I hope for non-fatal car crashes to give me an excuse to bail, or just a ridiculous traffic jam that is bad enough for me to say "Screw it" and turn around.

How do I get myself to the events that I do attend? Resignation that I just have to go coupled with a "suck it up and do it" attitude. Essentially, I act the part that I think is required. That gets me there and gets me going. Once I'm there, "Me" takes over because it seems that being there isn't the source of my anxiety, it's getting there.

I'm not suggesting that "suck it up" is what everyone with anxiety needs to do. Not by any stretch.
With my relatively mild affliction, it works for me.

Another thing that does work for me is to just say "No".
But that works because it's what I want. So, there is no bad feelings about saying "No".
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I hate some social situations too. It always depends what it is though. I realize that when I used to drink, part of it had to do with social anxiety. I hate going to neighborhood things. I just don't really have anything in common with the folks in the neighborhood except that we live in the same area. Without drinking, it is really tough, but I won't drink anymore. I never really had a drinking problem that made me quit, I just don't like being drunk anymore, and with me, it is either no drinking or I am shitfaced.
 
A lot of focus on social anxiety in this thread. Mine is not that. I WILL flake out on social gatherings in exchange for sitting home doing nothing but it's not through fear of people.
My anxiety is an impending doom kind of feeling. I can never pinpoint the exact cause but when it comes on, oh boy. I do recognize certain triggers and avoid those if possible but unfortunately some of my triggers involve work and to avoid those would be a very bad idea.
I went into a panic a couple weeks ago because I had a closing shift. I usually work morning or mid shift. I go in at 11am to close and I'll tell you, by 930am that morning I was sitting in my recliner breathing deeply and trying to clear my mind. No idea what caused it.
 
MonkeyZero said:
A lot of focus on social anxiety in this thread. Mine is not that. I WILL flake out on social gatherings in exchange for sitting home doing nothing but it's not through fear of people.
My anxiety is an impending doom kind of feeling. I can never pinpoint the exact cause but when it comes on, oh boy. I do recognize certain triggers and avoid those if possible but unfortunately some of my triggers involve work and to avoid those would be a very bad idea.
I went into a panic a couple weeks ago because I had a closing shift. I usually work morning or mid shift. I go in at 11am to close and I'll tell you, by 930am that morning I was sitting in my recliner breathing deeply and trying to clear my mind. No idea what caused it.
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Fucking spiders, man.
 
To @smurfco when was the last time you went to the doctor for a routine physical type checkup?

There can be physical things at play that have mental symptoms. Blood pressure is a big one that comes to mind.
 
MonkeyZero said:
A lot of focus on social anxiety in this thread. Mine is not that. I WILL flake out on social gatherings in exchange for sitting home doing nothing but it's not through fear of people.
My anxiety is an impending doom kind of feeling. I can never pinpoint the exact cause but when it comes on, oh boy. I do recognize certain triggers and avoid those if possible but unfortunately some of my triggers involve work and to avoid those would be a very bad idea.
I went into a panic a couple weeks ago because I had a closing shift. I usually work morning or mid shift. I go in at 11am to close and I'll tell you, by 930am that morning I was sitting in my recliner breathing deeply and trying to clear my mind. No idea what caused it.
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That feeling of impending doom was the worst part of my depression; it really got bad when good things happened, because then I know life would fuck me over. I had to learn to recognize the automatic thoughts that triggered that feeling; hard to do because they are so automatic. I then had to learn to dispute those thoughts with rational ones. It was a process and took time, but my life is much better now.
 
Gary Blanchard said:
That feeling of impending doom was the worst part of my depression; it really got bad when good things happened, because then I know life would fuck me over. I had to learn to recognize the automatic thoughts that triggered that feeling; hard to do because they are so automatic. I then had to learn to dispute those thoughts with rational ones. It was a process and took time, but my life is much better now.
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That's exactly my work in progress. It's hard. I find comfort in the gloom and doom sometimes because it feels normal.
 
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