Have AD's ever cured you or made you better?

[Dazza123]

I have thought about this for a while.

I have been on various AD's for about 10 years. I can rarely take them for any length of time, and have probably tried nearly all of them. Always given them 3-6 months to make a difference and do some good, but they rarely ever have, and if they have, it seems they have taken care of some problems but introduced others.

I have been diagnosed with GAD and Panic Disorder although I haven't had a panic attack for some time now which is great.

So I guess my questions is, do we ever become *normal* again and live a normal life like lots of other people, or is it just something we manage for the rest of our lives with medication, having blips and ups and downs along the way?

[chickpea]

I have thought about this for a while.

I have been on various AD's for about 10 years. I can rarely take them for any length of time, and have probably tried nearly all of them. Always given them 3-6 months to make a difference and do some good, but they rarely ever have, and if they have, it seems they have taken care of some problems but introduced others.

I have been diagnosed with GAD and Panic Disorder although I haven't had a panic attack for some time now which is great.

So I guess my questions is, do we ever become *normal* again and live a normal life like lots of other people, or is it just something we manage for the rest of our lives with medication, having blips and ups and downs along the way?

Great question!
For what it's worth, my take on it is this-

Anxiety is a symptom of a faulty thought process, not the cause (although it does become a bit of a chicken and egg situation once it's begun).
Drugs can treat the symptoms but will never deal with the root cause - which is not physical but mental.

We are humans not robots or machines. While we have cognitive function, there is always the ability for our thought processes to go awry. That is definitely not to say that we can't completely change them, but EVERYONE (not just anxiety sufferers) has upsetting thoughts and periods of anxiety - so if we can accept that our lives don't ever follow a straight path, then yes I absolutely believe that we are able to overcome anxiety and panic.

For me, the crux of the matter is how you deal with the small, absolutely normal blips all human beings have.

I had a complete nervous breakdown 4 years ago - couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, could barely function.
Yes, I still have days when I wake up feeling sick, heart racing etc but I am able to accept them as part of a normal life, and not allow them to linger by dwelling on how awful they are, asking what could they mean etc.
Acceptance is a huge part of overcoming anxiety, I believe.

[MrAndy]

ive also been on lots of different meds they all had similar but different side effects.To be honest I think sertraline did help me for about 3 months but disturbed my sleep and gave me akasthia which is a major factor for me so got off it.CBT and CBT group therapy did far more for me than any medication.For the record I am feeling better and better every day being drug free
I do believe we can all feel "normal" again but it takes a lot of time and effort,i dont believe in you dont ever recover fully bullshit.My mother had a nervous breakdown and was a train wreck for a year but is now happier than she has ever been and totally sorted with life

[Dazza123]

I was offered CBT once, the action plan was a girl half my age, about 19 took me out for a walk once a week to the local seaside area or a wooded park with walks. She would encourage me to say hello and good morning to strangers who would be there walking their dogs. I am not great around strangers, but I can say hello to people. She was a trainee and needed a project so they decided I should be it. It was more about her getting experience rather than me getting any help so I told them not to bother.

I do not need care in the community with a girl half my age, they made me feel pathetic and ridiculous, and wanted me to do something I could already do, just to help her with her studies.

It's a shame as it took me ages to get an appointment for CBT, and it turned out to be a waste of time. I was hoping they might teach me some coping skills, but nothing good came of it.

[chickpea]

That doesn't sound like CBT to me.
CBT isn't about learning physical coping skills, as such - it's about changing your thought patterns and processes. Eg helping you to question yourself when you find yourself catastrophizing situations.

To beat anxiety, you have to first understand the mechanics of what it is, what the physical symptoms are and why it happens. CBT does this.

[Dazza123]

Well if that's what CBT is/does then it's a shame they didn't use those skills with me because I could have benefited greatly from them, but as I said, it was more about that young girl having a project than helping me. Shame really.

[blueangel]

If I'm being honest, I don't think I would still be here if it wasn't for antidepressants. They have saved me a number of times and I've always been fairly lucky with side effects (or a relative lack of them).

However, they have worked best in combination with CBT, which has helped my thought patterns. It isn't a cure by any means, but I can function, do a responsible job and other stuff that I want to do.

[trish1955]

My CBT therapist was. Verey young to she use to take me a walk round and say on a scale of one to ten how is our anxiety it was always high ad I never went no were without a member of my family I have suffered 46 yrs and wat I was doing with her I could already do. Then with my daughters with high anxiety it was no better I now don't g out at all as the high anxiety was so draining and. Made me feel bad all time I I have anxiety all day long with meds and without them were do I go from here I have no idea xx

[Dazza123]

That's how I have felt Trish, I have never felt better on AD's, just different, my normal anxiety would ease, but new anxiety would develop. Also apart from feeling anxious on AD's, I would also feel ill, as if I had a slight flu coming on, which would go away once the AD were stopped. I guess for some people they just do not work.

I am currently taking nothing again at the moment, and find my mind is clear enough to cope with the anxiety and manage it. It does get me sometimes, but on the whole I feel better without AD's than I did with them.

I do wish there was something I could take that did help and i'd love to wake up feeling absolutely normal and have a completely normal day, but I just don't know how this would come about as I have had enough of medication and have no desire to try anything else.

[Rennie1989]

That doesn't sound like CBT to me.
CBT isn't about learning physical coping skills, as such - it's about changing your thought patterns and processes. Eg helping you to question yourself when you find yourself catastrophizing situations.

To beat anxiety, you have to first understand the mechanics of what it is, what the physical symptoms are and why it happens. CBT does this.

You are right that CBT helps to change your thought process, but they can (and some do) teach some physical coping skills. My CBT therapist taught me proper breathing and relaxation.

In answer to the OP: I have tried four different anti-depressants, three were SSRIs and the other was something different. The SSRI's made me feel aritifically happy and somewhat emotionally unstable. Mirtazapine helped me feel a lot more positive, which aided me to get over the next hurdle of my anxiety, but did nothing for my mood swings and depression, other than making me feel horrible by gaining a fair bit of tummy fat.

I found CBT was far more beneficial than any medication I took. I needed to change how I thought, not be pumped up with artificial hormones. I still swear by talking therapies like CBT and I believe they work far better than AD's. AD's help to reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression so you can fair better from the talking therapies, but they are not a cure.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Anti depressants are not a cure but they can be used to give you some breathing space so that you can focus on things like CBT to get better. For some, their anxiety is just so high that any normal daily task makes them anxious so its renders CBT moot.

For me, CBT was helpful but not a cure. A lot of it made sense to me because a lot of the tools & techniques were similar to the ones I would use in business so I took to them easily. The problem was, I needed to put more effort in and CBT didn't seem to help with this side (I know thats something for the patient but sometimes we need encouraging or pulling out of it) and because its relatively short in comparison to Level 4 treatments, you need to keep it going afterwards to sometimes see any results.

You have to keep looking for what works for you as many of us are different and the NHS falls apart here for instance, it doesn't take a holistic approach and assumes changing thought processes corrects problems. For some, this works but if you have more complex issues or environmental factors it looks more to 'management' as opposed to cure and maybe this is why so many don't feel it works for them.

Sounds like yout therapists were very poor to be walking you around when you could already do that! One of the fundamentals is always going to be to assess the needs of the patient and tailor the programme. Personally, I would have told them to find themselves another project and would have put in a complaint to someone more senior. Its just another issue with this unregulated sector.

[anthrokid]

Short answer: yes. Some people respond well to medication, others respond well to therapy, and then some respond best to a combination. You can only find out what is best for you by trying, which it sounds like you've been doing. Recovery is different for each person. My idea of recovery may be different from yours, or from my neighbour's, or from the elderly woman behind the counter in a small town...

[Dazza123]

Well because I refused the offer of being taken for a walk by a teenager, I was taken off the therapists list, as they felt I was refusing help, and I am no longer in the market for AD's, they just make it all worse so I decided to go it alone and see how I get on in the end.

I'm not doing too bad, just trying to keep myself busy so fingers crossed. I am coping generally day to day and that will do for me, I just cannot ever see myself getting better, they all seem to think that coping is enough. Mental health services are pretty poor I guess in some areas.

[MyNameIsTerry]

It sounds like they are a bunch of idiots Dazza! You could always report this to your GP so that they are aware of this services lack of support. Any professional code in the self regulatory bodies will state that they should be helping you to obtain the correct support if they cannot provide what is required, not just dump you. Their reasoning is ludicrous so in any professional standards complaint, they would be on shaky ground. You refused pointless help so they would have to justify a strategy that does not benefit your health and they would easily lose that!

Just another example of why this sector needs the current Bill of Parliament to go through so that they get investigated and punitive actions taken, where required.

Are there any charity groups in your area? Many of these provide courses, workshops and walk-ins to bridge the gaps in services.

[Dazza123]

I think there is a 'Mind' a few miles away, will have to look it up. I was going to get in touch with them before, but the CBT was mentioned so I forgot about it and hoped that would help. I will check them out and fire off an email to see if they can give some advice :)