widge
06-10-17, 22:25
Hi all,
I am wondering how well people come to terms with ongoing anxiety/panic as time goes on and how many people feel they have developed managing strategies that carry them through the bad times and whether things have changed for them over the years with how they view and cope with long-term anxiety conditions?
I have suffered a general anxiety/panic/sometimes depressive disorder for pretty much my whole life but am blessed to have been supported by a loving wife (who I sometimes feel I don't deserve!) and my local gp/health service. I have, to all intents and purposes found ways to manage my long term 'GAD' (my Doctors name for it all) to the extent that I have (with some degree of effort and struggle) managed to function throughout a fairly demanding but mostly fulfilling working life with the help of (usually) low level but constant medication (Diazepam/or 'beta-blockers' for debilitating panic- sparingly - and Mirtazipine for long term depression. I have had many episodes of acute panic and depressive episodes and have had to occasionally take time out when things overwhelm me.........but have sort of come to realise at the age I am that management is key and eventual cure is not always a given.
I cannot be sure whether this is a helpful or helpless attitude to have?
I suppose I have really just put my effort into coping and learning to live with it all........and have reached a point where this is a more viable way to exist than hoping one day I might be magically relieved of all my self doubt, constant fear/panic and tendancy to introspection and depression.
I am now 60 (I know that still makes me a youngster to some!:blush:) but find so many of the same things STILL trigger absolute despair for me but I feel it is becoming even HARDER to 'bounce back'.
Has anybody else found the same thing as time goes by and does anybody have any wisdom or coping-ness for these feelings? Have you altered your perspective of how things are as time goes on?
In many ways...managing to keep working and 'in the world' keeps me more or less 'ok' most of the time...but anxiety is increasingly affecting me harder and makes me feel physically more 'ill' each time it rears its head....which is a bit of a 'catch 22' situation. I find I am making poorer decisions at work and when dealing with others around me and punishing myself more than ever when I feel low or incapable..or even just a pathetic waste of my own and others space!
Certainly-the 'mistakes' I make in life these days seem to knock me back harder than ever.
I am in a position where I could 'semi-retire' - will be short on income - but my bigger fear is that without the 'getting out and 'doing' aspect of my life I will just continue to decline until I become reclusive, permanently ill/depressed and a sorry mess! I know I am lucky to have such a choice compared to so many but wonder if others have been scared by this sort of inevitable change of life pattern....?
My work is my life and passion-I find the thought of 'retiring' alarming but find it harder and harder to 'hold my end up' in the big wide world where I seem to have to struggle so hard to just stay even and my fear of messing up if I just try to keep on keeping on is mounting daily.
Sorry to witter on......you know how it goes when thoughts and worries tumble around your head during darker moments.
But-
Any wisdom gratefully appreciated - and all best to all.......
W
I am wondering how well people come to terms with ongoing anxiety/panic as time goes on and how many people feel they have developed managing strategies that carry them through the bad times and whether things have changed for them over the years with how they view and cope with long-term anxiety conditions?
I have suffered a general anxiety/panic/sometimes depressive disorder for pretty much my whole life but am blessed to have been supported by a loving wife (who I sometimes feel I don't deserve!) and my local gp/health service. I have, to all intents and purposes found ways to manage my long term 'GAD' (my Doctors name for it all) to the extent that I have (with some degree of effort and struggle) managed to function throughout a fairly demanding but mostly fulfilling working life with the help of (usually) low level but constant medication (Diazepam/or 'beta-blockers' for debilitating panic- sparingly - and Mirtazipine for long term depression. I have had many episodes of acute panic and depressive episodes and have had to occasionally take time out when things overwhelm me.........but have sort of come to realise at the age I am that management is key and eventual cure is not always a given.
I cannot be sure whether this is a helpful or helpless attitude to have?
I suppose I have really just put my effort into coping and learning to live with it all........and have reached a point where this is a more viable way to exist than hoping one day I might be magically relieved of all my self doubt, constant fear/panic and tendancy to introspection and depression.
I am now 60 (I know that still makes me a youngster to some!:blush:) but find so many of the same things STILL trigger absolute despair for me but I feel it is becoming even HARDER to 'bounce back'.
Has anybody else found the same thing as time goes by and does anybody have any wisdom or coping-ness for these feelings? Have you altered your perspective of how things are as time goes on?
In many ways...managing to keep working and 'in the world' keeps me more or less 'ok' most of the time...but anxiety is increasingly affecting me harder and makes me feel physically more 'ill' each time it rears its head....which is a bit of a 'catch 22' situation. I find I am making poorer decisions at work and when dealing with others around me and punishing myself more than ever when I feel low or incapable..or even just a pathetic waste of my own and others space!
Certainly-the 'mistakes' I make in life these days seem to knock me back harder than ever.
I am in a position where I could 'semi-retire' - will be short on income - but my bigger fear is that without the 'getting out and 'doing' aspect of my life I will just continue to decline until I become reclusive, permanently ill/depressed and a sorry mess! I know I am lucky to have such a choice compared to so many but wonder if others have been scared by this sort of inevitable change of life pattern....?
My work is my life and passion-I find the thought of 'retiring' alarming but find it harder and harder to 'hold my end up' in the big wide world where I seem to have to struggle so hard to just stay even and my fear of messing up if I just try to keep on keeping on is mounting daily.
Sorry to witter on......you know how it goes when thoughts and worries tumble around your head during darker moments.
But-
Any wisdom gratefully appreciated - and all best to all.......
W