Hello at a loss to describe how i feel.

[Gezza]

Hi everyone, my name is Gerry and im based in the UK. I have always suffered from anxiety, during my college years I had panic attacks. Anyway I battled on and managed to start a successful company I was on the top of my game, managed to buy a beautiful house made lots of money, then l January 19th 2014 I had a burn out. There were hints that this was going to happen throughout 2013 but basically Id had major problems sleeping. So like an idiot chose alcohol to get to sleep, this ended in me becoming a full blown alcoholic for over a month, I had to go to a detox centre and came out. Initially I felt ok, but the doctor prescribed me diazepam to stay off alcohol. Since I've been taking them I have rarely left the house, the side effects have been truly horrific when I've tried to stop taking them, muscular spasms, anxiety you wouldn't believe etc. I have 2 beautiful children 3 and 5 and a beautiful wife who is so down today she said she just wanted her husband back and cried. I spend most of my days working from home, I can not even pick my children up from school. I had a very good social life before now it is zero ive stayed away from all my friends who were drinkers and now im too anxious to see them, Ive only confided in one person how bad I feel and that didn't help. Sorry to harp on but it kind of feels good to let it all out. This has been going on now since end of January.

[AnxietyDJ]

Hi Gerry, welcome to the site and really sorry to hear about your current situation. You sound exactly like a close family friend, although you have done very well to not let the alcohol (or anything else) really get a hold of you... Our friend did and he was a real 'had it all, then lost it all' story, which is so sad - sounds like you're doing all the right things to stop that from happening, which is fantastic.

This is a great place to speak to people who know exactly what you are going through and you can find a lot of great information here. Good luck with everything :)

[Gezza]

Thank you so much for your kind response it really is appreciated. The whole thing is really getting me down and to know someone out there cares and understands is invaluable.