Hi...my name is Jackie and I'm 28 yrs old. I have been battling with panic and anxiety for over 10 yrs. Its off and on really.
I have been to see a counselor and tried celexa and paxil both, but my husband noticed my emotions shut off a bit while on them. I currently have been off medication for 2 yrs now and have done ok with a few panic episodes up until this past month. This past month I have been feeling awful.
I can't sleep well, I ache, I feel my heart beat fast and pain in the left side of my chest daily and get scared...I have been going through a fear of dying phase of the unknown after I die and what happens to me. I have prayed to God and talked to my husband and where I am just fearful that I will not feel normal. Normal in a sense of being able to live a good healthy life without fear, anxiety, and obsessing about what will happen to me when I die or what will happen to my loved ones.
I don't know why I am thinking all these things, but I do know I have been under alot of stress lately and have felt that I haven't been living my life in a proper way by drinking and doing things that make me feel guilty. So, I have slowed the drinking down and am in the process of trying to quit smoking. I am battling my weight and have lost a little bit, but need to lose at least 50-70 lbs more. Can you offer good advice for me? Does taking that omega-3 fish oil stuff work as a natural supplement, or what should I do to quit obsessing and getting anxious. I want to wake up and be happy and play with my little boy who is 6...and feel normal. thanks.
Living with anxiety is very, very hard. I can certainly understand your wanting to have all the things your anxiety is robbing from you. The things you want to change are some of the hardest things to change--anxiety, smoking, over-drinking, unwanted weight. It is too much to ask to do it all at once. If you can conquer all this, it will be one small step at a time over a long period of time.
Did the anti-depressants work for controlling your anxiety? If you are medicating yourself with alcohol, smoking and eating, these things dull your emotions too, and don't work as well as anti-depressants to reduce anxiety consistently. If you can find an anti-depressant that works, it may be an important step in this process of what you want to change.
It could be that once you do the work it allows you to do, you might not need the anti-depressant anymore. Until you have the anxiety under control, the smoking, eating, drinking will probably stick around to help calm you.
If you can see a therapist, that could be very helpful. Therapy plus medication could make a big difference. Once the anxiety is not ruling you, and/or you are in therapy, you may be able to make use of resources you can't now. At that point, you might look into 12-step programs. There is one for alcohol, one for eating, one for smoking and lots of others. Ultimately, you will at some point have to train yourself to think differently. Anxiety usually comes from thoughts we have about something terrible that could happen in the future--in your case death to you or someone you love. That means you are scaring yourself, and the great news about that is that you can learn to stop scaring yourself. A couple of books that could help are one of David Burns' books and also Mind Over Mood. I think they both may be on my website.
Whatever you do, break it down into pieces that are small enough that you can be successful achieving each one, and take it step by step like that toward your goal.
