GAD and Depression

[MOchp]

I'm on two meds and have been for a while now for general anxiety and periods of depression. I have been on meds in general since I was a teenager. I've been having some recurring anxiety and depression and it's been affecting me recently again albeit not as drastic as it has in the past. It has me worried a bit that my med combo is working but not as good as it should be. I find myself feeling like I have some kind of weird bipolar disorder where my ups are anxiety and my downs are depression and me wanting to break down crying. Thinking about making a therapy appointment soon, but just wondered if anybody else relates to the going back and forth constantly from anxious to depressed throughout the day. The problem I'm having is mostly with obsessive and intrusive thoughts which I feel that I'm constantly fighting throughout the day but just thought it was weird how my mood fluctuates like that.

[AntsyVee]

Anxiety and depression are flip sides of the same coin. The "cycle" you describe is normal for most of us...so...I think there's two questions here you need to be asking:

1) Have there been any life triggers which would cause the change? (work stress, change in diet, little/poor sleep, big life events like marriage or a promotion, etc.)

2) Are there any hormonal things going on? I don't know what your sex is, but if you're female, certain life stages and times of the month really affect us.

If you can't think of any answers for 1 or 2, then I think it's time to talk about med changes with your docs.

[littleme92]

You have basically described how I am feeling. I have stages were I am depressed and then the anxiety comes back really bad like I have too much adrenaline in my body and the anxiety fades and the depression comes back. It is a nightmare. I am under the crisis team at the moment because my depression got really bad at one stage, I am on 40mg citalopram and 150mg pregabalin but I am being referred to psychology soon. I have been told that psychology is a probably what I need at the moment to help me get better. I think that making an appointment with a psycologist may be a good idea for you as well if that's something you feel up to doing.

Just know you definitely not the only one feeling like that and I hope you start to feel better soon!

[MOchp]

Thanks for the responses. I am a 26 y/o male btw Antsy, sorry, should have included that in my post. I drive a school bus as a job so I'm on summer break right now and I believe the lack of having something to do is a contributing factor to my not feeling well emotionally/mentally as I don't have something to distract my mind from the obsessive/intrusive thoughts. Other than that, nothing has really changed. Found a therapist I'm going to make an appointment with so hopefully that'll be some help. I know my psychiatrist wanted me to come off of my Effexor completely and just go up on the Zoloft dosage but I was doing good on the combo so she left it. Not supposed to see her again for like 8 weeks, so I may call and move that appointment up since I've been feeling crappy again. I hope your appt. with a psychologist goes well and helps you as well littleme, thank you.

[AntsyVee]

Well, it sounds like you've identified the problem and are taking appropriate steps to deal with it.

[MOchp]

Yeah I guess. It's just hard, but I know most everybody here can relate to that. I made a therapist appointment for this Friday, so it'll be interesting to see how it goes. Thanks again for your replies.