Newby in need of some advise

[GW1981]

Hi Folks, this is my first real post on here so bare with me, i was diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder 7 months ago following 18 months of suffering, the initial anxiety all stemmed from one extremely traumatic event that had a massive impact on my life (or should i say my thoughts) and spiralled from there, although on reflection i believe i have always suffered anxiety but to a much lesser degree, life was not great, i suffered regular panic attacks and struggled with sleep and food but did manage to get short breaks from the physical symptoms and general miserable thoughts, 6 mnths after the event i confronted what i thought was causing my anxiety and for a short time felt better only for a few months later the spiral to begin again.

Anyway.....After my diagnosis 7mnths ago my doctor prescribed me Sertraline and i sought out counselling and CBT therapy privately, the counselling/CBT has helped me enourmously to this stage although i cannot say i feel the same about the medication which i would say heightened my awareness of the problem so i came of the meds 2 mnths ago although not pretty at first i felt better after 1 week of coming off them, over the past 6 weeks i have cut back my counselling sessions (only had 1) and somewhat neglected my CBT (I believe CBT is something you work on yourself, the counsellor only points you in the rough direction of the answers), i was actually at the stage for a 4/5 week period where i didnt have to do any therapy at all and i felt back to my old self, it was fantastic....to top it all i had some highly stressful events in my life during this time that i handled superbly, i was almost there (wherever that may be) and was really positive having thought i had come through this horrible condition...

However i have started to feel anxious again over the past week and i am struggling to move forward again, its like someone has put the handbrakes on, my anxiety tends now to be negative thoughts, i dont always suffer the physical symptoms and i do know how to deal with them, it just seems my negative attitude to the traumatic event over 2 years ago are so embedded they wont let me go free... I have considered my options and i have started to apply all i have learned about CBT again BUT i am considering seeing a hypnotist as it seems this is a far more progressive way of changing thought processes, there are some fantastic articles on this site that have helped me too, i have found someone locally who specialised in the treatment of anxiety conditions and i will find the money from somewhere to go and see him, i suppose i am wondering if anyone has tried hypno and knows if it works in conjunction with CBT, i have read online it is a very successful form of therapy but would be great to here some advise from people in a similar situation, i usually spend my days feeling anxious about feeling anxious....

i now know what it feels like to be rid of this horrible condition and its good so please be positive that it can be resolved, i feel so selfish because i have everything i have ever wanted and still i continue to make myself miserable and want to explore another avenue of putting these completely irrational thoughts into perspective....

Hope someone can spend some time to respond
:weep:

[Thyme]

Hello GW

Seems to me you have answered your own question...you say you believe that CBT is something you work on yourself...I agree with you, your therapist can point the way, can support and encourage you but in the end you are the one doing the work. I had CBT for several months and in the end I realised that I had to stop calling it therapy and start calling it my new way of life. I don't always get it right and I do get some bad days and some very bad days and now and again the odd really bad day, but I just have to remember that it doesn't stay like that and that I can change it.

I am not sure that you gave the sertraline long enough. The meds do not cure you what they do is give your brain the time and space to heal itself...but that takes a long time to happen....after all you had the signs and symptoms for 18 months before you had a diagnosis (possibly longer) so why did you think that it would all be right within a couple of months? It took a long time to develop and it will take a longer time to go than you have so far allowed.

When I first started taking the medicines (citalopram and propanolol in my case) I felt dreadful for several weeks but I perservered because I had no other place to go then I started to feel better but the doctor said keep going and I took his advice because he had been right about everything else. Now nearly a year later I feel much much better but still have to give my brain the time to get itself together and so the plan is to start weaning off the meds in the Spring. The point I'm trying to make is that you need to give it more time....don't expect so much of yourself...go back to your doctor and talk about going back on sertraline or some such
and don't expect it to be over quickly...make up your mind to go for the long haul and to remember that CBT is about changing the way you look at things and think about things and with luck it gets to be second nature...I still have to stop and consciously make the effort to quetsion the way I am responding to what is going on but my life has improved enormously.

Hope this helps....best of luck.

[GW1981]

Hi Thyme,

Thanks for posting your reply, hopefully when i am allowed more access to the site we can have a proper chat in a chatroom.

The CBT and Meds worked for me initially in conjunction with each other but i felt as time went on the medication was infact heightening my awareness of my anxiety, i consulted both my doctor and therapist and both agreed that medication would best be used as a short-term solution to give me the space to get through the initial counseling process and then wean me off it accordingly, although i was on it a short-time i did some intense counseling and CBT work and was making great progress so we decided to cut down and come off the medication that was almost 3 months ago, i experienced some pretty bad withdrawels from the medication but was soon on a better path again and until last week i had been doing great, i have to be honest and say i am not keen on going back on the medication just yet, it has only been a week and i have to give the CBT work some more time, i also have an appointment with a clinical hypnotherapist who specialises in anxiety conditions so will be good to see how that progresses, i also agree with what you are saying about expecting too much of myself, i just feel i was almost there and i have gone backwards, my thought processes were so notably different and much more positive, i got there myself before and i will give it 110% to get there again.

Thanks again for your thoughts and i hope you continue to feel better.

[Thyme]

Hi again

Glad you are talking to your doctor...I think that is crucial. Naturally your doc and therapist know you, I think you are wise to follow their advice.

Have never tried hypnotherapy myself, best of luck. Thank you for your good wishes.