Can't believe that this can really all be anxiety.

[cattia]

Like most of us here I'm finding it so hard to accept that the way I'm feeling can all be caused by stress and anxiety. I have been on Sertraline almost five weeks now and every day I still experience severe fatigue and a lack of motivation that seems to come in waves. I have periods where I feel almost back to normal, then I'll crash again and feel dreadful for a while. All I want to do is lie in bed but I can't because I have three kids and a job which is getting increasingly hard to keep up with. I keep thinking that there must be a physical cause for me having these feelings. I've had two sets of complete bloods done and both came back all normal so why is my energy so low? I'm constantly going over what's wrong with me and wishing I had answers.

[Annaboodle]

Hello. Your bloods were normal so that's great and rules out the sinister stuff. To be honest as soon as you said you have three kids and a job I was thinking - yep, that's what did for me! Kids are bloody tiring, especially when you're juggling stuff around work and probably managing on not as much sleep as you'd like. Most parents will tell you that they feel fatigued/completely knackered a lot of the time and have no energy. That's why there's all the jokes about caffeine drips attached to your arm and "wine 'o clock". Could the physical cause of how you're feeling maybe be 3 small people and working hard plus effects of your anxiety (anxiety is just draining)? I know for me - though I also have insomnia - that's enough for me to feel tired, fatigued and drained a lot of the time.

[Senior Moment]

Yes, anxiety is very, very exhausting. According to medical experts, it is the excess adrenaline coursing through the body of an anxious person that creates the exhaustion. A certain amount of adrenaline is quite normal, but in anxious people it is continually in your system which is not 'normal', hence the physical symptoms of anxiety which only stress you out more. It is truly a viscous circle and the only solution is to try and stop the fear in your brain which then stops the rush of adrenaline. Hope I've made a bit of sense. x

[cattia]

Thank you both. I have been really anxious for a while and the medication made my anxiety much much worse for the first couple of weeks. Now that the side effects have worn off, the acute panic attacks have subsidised but what gets me worked up is how I can go up and down over the course of a day. Surely if it was just anxiety then I would feel tired only when I am anxious? It seems like I just can't break out of these waves of feeling low and exhausted. I guess being tired makes me anxious that there is something wrong so I am caught up in a negative cycle.

[swgrl09]

Yes, I am going through very similar right now in getting back on my meds. I think that's just how it goes when you are on them. How is your sleep? One thing that I've done in the past is notice if I am tired soon after I take the meds or not. I've sometimes swapped to taking them at night instead of morning to see if that helps.