Parkerchu
16-01-09, 09:54
Firstly, I'd like to say how good I feel to have found this website, so I am able to share my problems with fellow sufferers who understand.
I'm 26 years old and I have suffered on and off with anxiety for around 8 years. When I was at school I was a very outgoing, happy go lucky kinda guy but towards the back end of my schooling I started to mix with the wrong crowd, and I started smoking cannabis, this I feel is what intitally triggered my anxiety. I smoked cannabis for a couple of years before it started to have any negative effect on me. I started to realise that I was no longer going out, and when I did occasionally go out, I would be uncomfortable, unable to speak to strangers (Especially women - infact I still can't) , would sweat profusely and worst of all I began to fear eye contact ( How Weird!)! Over time this started to become stored in my subconssious and slowly I became a recluse. I had a job at the time so that kept my me busy during the day but my social life started to suffer. I shut off contact with all my mates, I turned down offers every day to go out, I began to feel trapped and wondered if I would ever go back to normal. It was around this point when I had my one and only panic attack, and let me say anyone that does suffer with this condition, I feel for you because it was the worst experience of my life and it rocked me for quite a while, on a postive note I never smoked cannabis again as I was convinced it was the root cause.
I now new I needed to get help as I could no longer rationalise my thoughts, so I started cognitive behavioural therapy, for me this helped a great deal as been able to talk to someone who understood seemed to help more than the therapy itself. I started to feel more positive and learnt to confront these fears and not to ignore them.
The major turning point though was a change in jobs, it felt like a fresh start a clean slate and slowly I began to feel my normal self again. So I started to again SLOWLY see my friends and one by one I realised I could confront them and live a normal life.
So I thought I had beaten it once and for all. Before xmas I had a couple of nights where I didnt sleep possibly due to stress at work as I now have a fairly responsible job, anyway I began to panic about not been able to sleep and once again anxiety grabbed a hold of my life. I went to the doctors and they prescribed me citlopram to help ease the anxiety, well these only made me worse and after a week i went back to the docs and he prescribed me some anti depressents instead, as I was feeling pretty low, and of which i'm still taking.
Now the any help part...! I've managed to get back to normal with my sleep but I can't seem to shake the anxiety and I dont know why, I mean I was anxious due to not been able to sleep (Insomnia) but i'm sleeping like normal now so why is it still in my head! I've constantly got this tight feeling in my head (adrenaline I believe), I keep feeling panicky like im suddenly gonna go mad, i'm experiencing dispersonilisation (spelling??) and now i'm suffering with bad indigestion, so again felling pretty low! How can i ease this stupid tension! Any advice anyone?
Thanks for listening, I know I can beat this it just helps to hear advice from likeminded people.
I'm 26 years old and I have suffered on and off with anxiety for around 8 years. When I was at school I was a very outgoing, happy go lucky kinda guy but towards the back end of my schooling I started to mix with the wrong crowd, and I started smoking cannabis, this I feel is what intitally triggered my anxiety. I smoked cannabis for a couple of years before it started to have any negative effect on me. I started to realise that I was no longer going out, and when I did occasionally go out, I would be uncomfortable, unable to speak to strangers (Especially women - infact I still can't) , would sweat profusely and worst of all I began to fear eye contact ( How Weird!)! Over time this started to become stored in my subconssious and slowly I became a recluse. I had a job at the time so that kept my me busy during the day but my social life started to suffer. I shut off contact with all my mates, I turned down offers every day to go out, I began to feel trapped and wondered if I would ever go back to normal. It was around this point when I had my one and only panic attack, and let me say anyone that does suffer with this condition, I feel for you because it was the worst experience of my life and it rocked me for quite a while, on a postive note I never smoked cannabis again as I was convinced it was the root cause.
I now new I needed to get help as I could no longer rationalise my thoughts, so I started cognitive behavioural therapy, for me this helped a great deal as been able to talk to someone who understood seemed to help more than the therapy itself. I started to feel more positive and learnt to confront these fears and not to ignore them.
The major turning point though was a change in jobs, it felt like a fresh start a clean slate and slowly I began to feel my normal self again. So I started to again SLOWLY see my friends and one by one I realised I could confront them and live a normal life.
So I thought I had beaten it once and for all. Before xmas I had a couple of nights where I didnt sleep possibly due to stress at work as I now have a fairly responsible job, anyway I began to panic about not been able to sleep and once again anxiety grabbed a hold of my life. I went to the doctors and they prescribed me citlopram to help ease the anxiety, well these only made me worse and after a week i went back to the docs and he prescribed me some anti depressents instead, as I was feeling pretty low, and of which i'm still taking.
Now the any help part...! I've managed to get back to normal with my sleep but I can't seem to shake the anxiety and I dont know why, I mean I was anxious due to not been able to sleep (Insomnia) but i'm sleeping like normal now so why is it still in my head! I've constantly got this tight feeling in my head (adrenaline I believe), I keep feeling panicky like im suddenly gonna go mad, i'm experiencing dispersonilisation (spelling??) and now i'm suffering with bad indigestion, so again felling pretty low! How can i ease this stupid tension! Any advice anyone?
Thanks for listening, I know I can beat this it just helps to hear advice from likeminded people.