zerocookie
11-09-09, 11:15
I'm a 24 yr old gay male with GAD and HAD. For those who are interested I thought I'd make a post about how I'm getting on.
I have been experiencing horrible anxiety attacks for over 2 years now, they last days at a time and I never have a day without. Symptoms include dizzyness, pulsating feelings in my head, headaches, general aches and pains, numb limbs, pressure behind my eye, distorted vision and a whole lot more. Infact its safe to say I've worked my way through the list of symptoms but its only the above ones the remain, and incidently are the worst I've experienced.
I was diagnosed with GAD around 6 months ago, I'm also aware that I have a great deal of health anxiety due to the symptoms above. At my worst I was a jibbering wreck, signed off work for 2 weeks, could barely leave the house, taking 3 diazepam a day and convinced I was going to die, even convinced that I wanted to rather than carry on feeling this bad, this was about 3 months ago.
I have been back at work now for 3 months, I kicked the diazepam 3 weeks ago and feel no worse for doing so (reduced dosage to 1 a day, weekdays only and then stopped altogether). I feel moderately like my old self again, people around me have noticed the difference. Things I have been terrified of because of this anxiety no longer seem scary. I don't know how this has happened but something has certainly clicked, I can't explain why but it just has. I was totally convinced I'd never be free of this, not to say that I am free at the moment but I'm 10x better than I have been recently.
All I'd like to say really is that there IS hope for all of us, even when it seems like your doomed. Its a slow recovery process but we all have the potential to get better.
Things that have really helped me are -
www.nomorepanic.co.uk (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk) - massive credit to this site, really helped me at my worst
Deep breathing - Once I realised that you need to do this for at least 10 minutes to see an effect it REALLY helped but I felt bad, especially travelling to and from work
CBT - I've only actually had 1 CBT session but just getting it all out in the open, talking to someone who understands all this stuff gave me a lot of relief. The lady I speak to is brilliant, she's very frank and honest, doesn't talk to you like a doctor a therapist and is absolutely hilarious on occassions.
Diet - change your diet, cut out the rubbish **not all of it ;) we're only human **
Exercise -do some kind of exercise, even a walk will do, all that adrenanline pumping round needs to be used up effectively rather than just whipping its way round our systems and making us feel like crap
Enough rambling from me, wish you all the best of luck, I'll be using this site for the foreseable future, still a way to go yet but for the first time in years I have every confidence that life is improving and the future is bright ^.^
I have been experiencing horrible anxiety attacks for over 2 years now, they last days at a time and I never have a day without. Symptoms include dizzyness, pulsating feelings in my head, headaches, general aches and pains, numb limbs, pressure behind my eye, distorted vision and a whole lot more. Infact its safe to say I've worked my way through the list of symptoms but its only the above ones the remain, and incidently are the worst I've experienced.
I was diagnosed with GAD around 6 months ago, I'm also aware that I have a great deal of health anxiety due to the symptoms above. At my worst I was a jibbering wreck, signed off work for 2 weeks, could barely leave the house, taking 3 diazepam a day and convinced I was going to die, even convinced that I wanted to rather than carry on feeling this bad, this was about 3 months ago.
I have been back at work now for 3 months, I kicked the diazepam 3 weeks ago and feel no worse for doing so (reduced dosage to 1 a day, weekdays only and then stopped altogether). I feel moderately like my old self again, people around me have noticed the difference. Things I have been terrified of because of this anxiety no longer seem scary. I don't know how this has happened but something has certainly clicked, I can't explain why but it just has. I was totally convinced I'd never be free of this, not to say that I am free at the moment but I'm 10x better than I have been recently.
All I'd like to say really is that there IS hope for all of us, even when it seems like your doomed. Its a slow recovery process but we all have the potential to get better.
Things that have really helped me are -
www.nomorepanic.co.uk (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk) - massive credit to this site, really helped me at my worst
Deep breathing - Once I realised that you need to do this for at least 10 minutes to see an effect it REALLY helped but I felt bad, especially travelling to and from work
CBT - I've only actually had 1 CBT session but just getting it all out in the open, talking to someone who understands all this stuff gave me a lot of relief. The lady I speak to is brilliant, she's very frank and honest, doesn't talk to you like a doctor a therapist and is absolutely hilarious on occassions.
Diet - change your diet, cut out the rubbish **not all of it ;) we're only human **
Exercise -do some kind of exercise, even a walk will do, all that adrenanline pumping round needs to be used up effectively rather than just whipping its way round our systems and making us feel like crap
Enough rambling from me, wish you all the best of luck, I'll be using this site for the foreseable future, still a way to go yet but for the first time in years I have every confidence that life is improving and the future is bright ^.^