Poll: What worked best for you?

[chemlabrat]

I am at the end of my rope. I'm to the point where the constant dizzyness, heart symptoms, chest pain, and inability to do physical activity has taken away all my sick leave, most of my money (from seeing specialist after specialist and test after test), and has almost exhausted all of my personal leave at work. I've been debilitated for 8 months now and feeling sick for about a year. If I can't make this go away, the next steps in the near future are to use up the rest of my personal leave from work on those days where I just can't function.

I'm only 24 and just got hired on at this job making a little over 60k/year. It was a dream job, I have a wonderful family and childhood life, and the best girlfriend a guy could ask for. Life was just beginning to start for me, and now it's all coming to a hault. In reality, if these symptoms persist I'll begin taking leave without pay, then untimately losing my job. Being young, I haven't had time to accumulate any money, and I'll lose my house. Then it's back to the parent's house to live with them, which probably isn't going to go over well with my girlfriend who I have been planning on marrying and starting a family with.

Ultimately, I HAVE to find a fix, and I need one fast. So I'm calling out to you. What have you done that has worked for you?

What I've tried so far for anxiety that didn't work:
- 1 drug that made me much worse (Paxil) and I decided I was through with drug therapy
- aromatherapy (lavender oils)
- CBT (i just bought 5 books on health anxiety, cbt, stress, etc but haven't gotten far into them yet. so far, i haven't gotten any help)
- relaxation techniques
- physical therapy (on good days i can go a little while on my bike and on bad days i can't get out of the driveway. same goes with exercise. some days i could run awhile, and others i can't walk to the mailbox. hard to measure progress when you fluctuate in how you feel)

Thanks everyone!!!

[nickieb]

Chemlabrat

There is no wonder fix hun, however the only thing that has worked for me is 5-htp. It can be found at Holland & Barrett & other online health stores. It basically has the same ingredients as the synthetic meds on the market.

I would suggest you try that, it will help with your anxiety. Ultimately you have to pull yourself together hun and try & be strong. I know its easier said than done but you can do, it can be done & i have done it. My career and fantastic social life would have been lost if i hadn't so one day i thought i have to be strong and pull myself together. After about a month of taking these i felt relatively calm & fine again.

Best wishes
Nicola

[gtrgrl3369]

I also agree that there is no quick fix. I have almost beaten this with no meds. I read alot of self help books and do deep breathing. It is alot of hard work that has to be done everyday even when feeling better. Everyday gets better for me, but I have put alot into to this. I stopped going to doctors because they look at me like I am a sad case and thats not what I wanted. I still have the dizziness some days, but that usually because I havent eaten enough. I went through hell and back to get where I am and you can do it too. Realize this didnt happen overnight and it wont go away overnight. It is a mind over matter situation that is hard to fight but can be done. I wish you the best of luck with this and if I can help with anything please write to me and I will do my best. Take care

[Sallysdream]

struggeling too, but trying to think rational and not to jump to conclusion. Trying not to call the docs each time I have a symptom but to calm down first and do something different and see if it goes away. If not I go into the fresh air or shopping (to be near people) and try to do other things. Take some herbal stuff and herbal teas. Nice chill out music or call a friend.

Good luck

[Captain America]

what worked for me (and i'm not all the way there yet) was really getting in anxiety's face. i had just had enough, and whenever i'd feel dizzy or have chest pain, i'd jog in place. like, i'd do the opposite of what anxiety wanted me to do. like on saturday i was getting ready to go out on a friend's boat...out on a lake and far from any medical place. my chest was hurting. my kidneys felt like they were going to pop out. and my stomach was knotted up.

so i went anyway. the first 2 hours were hell, and then i just enjoyed the rest of the day on the boat. anxiety eventually gives up.

i just had a near attack about 10 minutes ago here at work. i went into the bathroom and jogged in place, thinking, take that anxiety! after a couple minutes i stopped, and went back to my desk. anxiety was gone.

sounds strange, but it works for me.

[Captain America]

oh, and exhaling longer than you inhale is key. so it's not just 'deep' breathing. doing this activates your parasympathetic nervous system and slows your heart rate. it helps with digestion too.

[nursey4]

While I think it's great that people have been able to overcome this without meds, I know that I am better on meds than I am med-free. I have had this disorder for 6 years. Like you, I got it at 24 years old. I was a normal 24 year old, getting ready to start nursing school, went overseas for a last trip before settling into 4 years of university and I came back with this anxiety disorder which has not gone away despite hypnosis, CBT, meditation and several medications. A few months ago I was feeling the best I had felt in years. I truly thought the anxiety was over, that it had just burned itself out. I was on a low dose of Prozac and decided to go off it due to side effects (sexual issues, blunted feelings, teeth grinding). I was fine for about a month before my symptoms returned. I toughed it out for awhile using my CBT and breathing techniques. When I became so debilitated that I had to take leave from work for the second time this year, I went back on the Prozac. That was about 3 weeks ago and I am feeling much better and am preparing to return to work late next week. I am still on a low dose and yes, the stupid side effects have returned, however,I am willing to put up with them in order to have my life back. I still practice CBT and deep breathing and I try doing relaxation exercises though I find it very hard. I would hope that I will not be on meds forever, but it does help me. By no means would say it's a cure but it gets the anxiety to a level where I can work with it and use my other coping techniques.
I notice it seems people are very med-resistant on this site. I think whatever works is the best thing and there is no shame in being on medication to treat your illness. That being said if you can treat it with CBT, exercise, breathing techniques, etc. while it's in the early stages, as yours is, great!

[jannnne]

Hi Lots of things worked last time, the drugs I took were Diazapam. I found that they gave me a few day breathing space, about 3 days on 3 a day and 3 days coming off them slowly. Still felt fragile for ages but exercise and CBT helped then. Don't know about now see my mole thread I am back to square one I think I thought CBT would be a cure all option but its not.

[Dooges]

Some of you may have read this already as it is a copy from a previous post but I think it fits here.
This site did 2 things for me, well 3 really.
1. Reading so many stories about the hell people go through with anxiety made me realise that I had to get help. My problem was a health anxiety related and being scared of what symptoms I was having. Something different all the time, and as one symptom dissapperared another would show. I was scared frustrated, angry becuse I didn't know what was happening. And there lies the clue. I didn't know! I was seeing a phycologist who was telling me how I can change my thought patterns and positive thinking etc but she wasn't telling my why I was having these symptoms. These REAL symptoms. I had been to the Dr's and had all the tests ppl talk about on here I even ended up at a psychiatrist that charged $330.00 an hour. That was all good and I did learn a few things from him but they werent telling me why I was getting the symptoms. Not one of them.!!!
2. Next thing I did was buy a book. Pretty simple really. One that is recommended in here I think. I was on holidays in Thailand where I think I reached my lowest point. I was in beautiful Koh Samui and all I wanted to do was stay in the hotel room and be a recluse worrying about what dreadful disease I could be dying from. So I came in here to try and get some reassurance. I went into the chat area and some wonderful person, I forget who it was, recommended Claire Weekes " Complete self help for your nerves" This book, you could say, changed my life. Finally I was starting to find out why this was happening to me. While I was reading I could look back over the last 12 months and realise why I have ended up withthis condition. It was like a big blanket being lifted off of me.
3. Whilst reading a post in the health anxiety forum I read about a guy that had great benefit from another web site called anxiety centre dot com . Having joined this web site ( it is a subscription site ) the take you on a course that is structured around CBT. And like Claire Weekes book it is big on the fact that understanding anxiety and how it effects you is one of the most important things to do before you can move forward into recovery.
For me I finally had the understanding. I have accepted the fact I have anxiety. I have tools to tackle PA's, and I know that I have to be patient and let time pass before I will be free of anxiety.
Now I can look forward to the future and know I'm going to be there with a smile on my face.
Thanks for reading
Dooges
p.s. The one thing that the psych told me to do, and it works for me, is that when I get a new symptom, or feel the anxiety starting to build I just tell myself " It's anxiety stupid " Simple but effective for me.
However you will still have your down days or periods where the anxiety will raise it's head. But slowly the good days are starting to outnumber the bad. Take happy feelings from this fact alone and don't dismay when the bad days are with you. Patience is the key.

[Joeycrazycat]

Exercise and fresh air does it for me; really like walking, even if it's just down to the town centre to pop to the market.

I also like to try to go out for 1/2 walk at lunchtime at work.

[Meewah]

Captain America

I like your method. Hit anxiety where it hurts. When my chest tightens up, I give it what it wants. I curl up and prepare for a possible heart attack or lose myself in "what ifs".

If I could get the guts to run round the block I would love to just to shrink its power over me.

Mee