When I became "ill" with anxiety I was offered a med which for a short while helped ease my symptoms and lifted my mood but then the benefits would wear off which meant I'd go back to my doctor who would up my dose to the limit until that too lost it's effect so I would then try another med and so on. It meant that I tried a variety of meds, both the old such as diazepam and the new such as prozac, sertraline etc. Eventually I decided I'd had enough of them and wanted to try to go without which on the whole I've managed except when I lost my dog around Christmas when I felt I needed something just to help me through the loss as he felt like my best friend who kept me going.
Anyway, picture this...
One day you get up feeling fine and go to open the front door when you are suddenly confronted by a lion staring at you. Immediately you feel terrified because you fear he'll eat you. You start shaking, sweating, you feel you can't breathe and start to panic.
The lion then runs away but you decide to go and see your doctor because you feel so shaken up and afraid that you feel you need something to make the anxious feelings go away. The doctor then prescribes some meds and after you've got used to them you feel much better.
One day the lion returns but you don't feel so frightened by it because you're now taking your meds and you know now that the lion won't harm you anyway, and again he runs away.
After a few weeks, one morning you open the door again only to be confronted by a big spider! Again you feel terrified because unlike the lion, you're not sure what it'll do to you. Maybe he'll spin a web to eat you later so you start worrying and this worry gets so intense that you start feeling really anxious again. However, the spider crawls away and doesn't bother you. You then think to yourself you're now taking meds so you can't understand why you felt so ill with the spider when they worked ok previously with the lion? Maybe the meds have stopped working?
You decide to go back to your doctor who advises increasing the dose to the maximum and you go back feeling relieved that this will now stop the symptoms.
The next morning you open the door and yet again there's the spider waiting for you. However, you're now on your increased dose and you know the spider will crawl away anyway so your anxiety doesn't feel as bad as before.
After a few more weeks, you find yourself confronted by a swarm of bees! You feel terrified they'll sting you and all your anxious feelings return. Again you think to yourself, you're taking these meds but they seem to have lost their effect so you end up back at the doctors who this time advises changing the meds to a new type.
You go home feeling content that you've got things settled and maybe these meds will be more longlasting and suit you better. However, within a few weeks you open the door to find the lion, the spider and the whole swarm of bees there to greet you...and you start to panic!...and thinking will it never end!?!
Now think of the lion as stress at work, the spider as stress at home and the swarm of bees as all your worries and intrusive thoughts then combine them all together and they create "fear".
We are sensitive people which means we're sensitive to new fears. Anxiety is triggered by fear, worry and too much stress whether emotional or in our daily lives. When pressures build up too much for us to cope with, anxiety results so we see the doctor who prescribes our meds. However, every time we encounter a new fear or fears, we start worrying and this worry then triggers more anxious feelings so in effect, it's not that the meds have stopped working but instead a reaction to new fears that we are still sensitive to because the underlying causes have never been addressed. These underlying causes would be such things as lack of confidence and lack of self-belief in our own abilities which create self-doubt and therefore worry and fear so that every time we encounter new fears or new stresses, we produce new worries which trigger our anxious symptoms. Anxiety though loves to deceive us into thinking it must be the meds that have stopped working so it misleads us into creating a cycle of meds, increasing doses and trying new ones.
Finding a longlasting "cure" isn't straightforward as every individuals anxieties differ with various fears and various causes so it takes a package of methods to learn how to cope and to find ways to ease pressures.
Anyway, I know it's a bit basic and doesn't cover everything but I hope it makes some sense.
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