Anxiety/depression

[Wanting to get better]

Hello, I am having both anxiety and depression. I have been on Prozac for 20 years without having serious anxiety/depression, although I now see I have avoided stress to the best of my ability, which means I don’t have a lot going on in my life. My hormones have been changing with perimenopause, and a few weeks ago I had a panic attack followed by anxiety and depression. I switched from Prozac to Zoloft two weeks ago and also a low dose of bio identical hormones. I’m doing a little better, but I’ve lost confidence in myself to handle things, I am really hard on myself, and still have a lot of repetitive distorted thinking of doom and my inability to handle any of the scenerios. Trying to do the next right thing.
Just looking for some support or suggestions. I feel for everyone in this forum, I think it is wonderful that we can help each other here. Thanks

 

[Kimberly Hunt]

Hi, telling you not to worry is like telling you not to breathe. I myself have had anxiety for a long time and now I am a lot better with it. I have been on Paxil and it has completely done a turn around for me. However, I am also responsible for making myself feel better. I won't tell you how that the anxiety doesn't creep back up and try to attach itself to my brain, I just know now that it won't be debilitating like it was before. I let it be exactly what it is, a thought and give it no power whatsoever. I had to practice a lot with changing my thought process because I found that honestly, when my thoughts are on something else, I don't really have an anxiety issue. I mean I will have thoughts that bother me, but I don't let it do its' progression of "what if" or any negative thinking that can take it to an attack. It is not easy, but my life is better and I am happier.

 

[Wanting to get better]

Thank you for your support and insight, I really appreciate it. What kind of work did you do to change your thoughts?

 

[Kimberly Hunt]

Talking to someone who knew what it was like to have the intense anxiety that I had. She herself is a therapist and had suffered debilitating anxiety. She told me that, it is a story that we tell ourselves and we feed in to the story and give it life. Which made sense to me, because I knew that when I was having these awful panic attacks and I mean they were as bad as you can get, I didn't feel it as much when I would have my mind on something else. So first I knew that my thoughts were 100% the reason why I felt the way I did, but I also knew that some people like myself are just more prone to worry than others and I started to accept that fact. However, I did not just all of a sudden one day decide that I wasn't going to have panic attacks anymore and there ya go! Nope, it took almost six months of retraining my brain to turn every single thought I had that would start my negative downward spiral into something positive.
I would tell myself this is not my story. I have control over my thoughts and what I want to say to myself to make myself feel better. I also have an amazing support system that encouraged me and helped me through the bad times. My family didn't see me the last time my debilitating anxiety happened but they did this time and they knew that I wanted to die instead of feel like I was feeling because death was better than this. Seriously. I still have anxiety at times, and thoughts that get me a little shook, but they go away because I make them. I talk about my anxiety to everyone and I don't feel bad about what I am feeling or that I have this "way" about myself.

 

[Wanting to get better]

Thank you