Longterm anxiety and returning to "normal" life

[Abs79]

I know a lot of people on here have long-term anxiety problems, but what really counts as long-term and is there a point when it's been too long and you can't get back to normal?

The last letter I had from my psychiatrist at the mental health team has really upset me. I've just finished a year of CBT for GAD and panic/agoraphobia and also take cipralex at a lowish dose, but I'm still not much better after nearly 3 years - still can't go out alone, travel, see friends/family, or work (had to give up my job when it started). Anyway I went to see the psych for a review appointment and the summary letter I got afterwards said the anxiety has become "prolonged" and "disabling" and the longer it goes on the less likely it is I will be able to return to "normal" life. Right from the start with this I've been so scared it will never end and this is me forever now, and she's basically agreeing with that and saying I'm beyond help! Her only suggestion is to take yet more antidepessants... So I was just wondering if anyone here has got back to normal or at least significantly better after having anxiety for 3 years plus?

I just feel so depressed about it all and at the beginning people were telling me not to be silly, it definitely wouldn't last forever, but now I'm no better and it seems like they're starting to think the same!

I can't see how I'd get a job again anyway after such a long history of mental health probs let alone the massive job shortages there are at the moment, even if I DID ever get better.

[theharvestmouse]

This is also something that scares me, I am able to function and live a relatively normal life but I'm far from living how I would like to, I've lived with anxiety for 6 years, I was in denial for 3 years.

But I have been told that it is possible to go back to normal as anxiety does not do permanent damage to the brain.

So I think its possible for someone even with severe anxiety and phobias to return to a normal life, so don't give up hope.

[Abs79]

Thanks harvestmouse, I think it would be easier if I'd at least been able to keep functioning in some ways, like if I could still get to work and back and still do some things - so I was still a part of normal life I suppose even if other things were a problem. But I feel so far removed from it now, like I'm not part of it anymore and living in a separate world or something. It's a horrible feeling.

[ElizabethJane]

Dear Abs I'm sorry that you have had that diagnosis. I still believe that you can improve. No-body has given up on you except you perhaps? I don't suffer from long term anxiety although anxiety issues have featured in my depression. My diagnosis is severe recurrent depression and yet I manage to work part-time. The thing is to build up very very slowly. When I was severely depressed I read 'Claire Weekes books. I also practiced a relaxation cd every day. I also enrolled on an evening class and a yoga class. I did not think that I had the capacity to get well again but slowly over the years and many many set backs I reached the point that I am at now. EJ.

[Abs79]

Hi ElizabethJane

Thanks for your reply, it does give me hope (if only a tiny amount!). I guess I've felt right from the start that something in me has changed for good, so I probably have given up on myself. But I did feel more hopeful at the beginning and followed all the advice I was given and even did some voluntary work for a while but I could only manage to do it once every couple of weeks with some longer gaps when I felt worse, it never got any easier and I always felt just as panicky and ill going there and in a way it made me feel even more hopeless as it demonstrated how badly I could cope.

I'm sure doing more would make me feel less depressed but the agoraphobia and anx always get in the way - I might be able to force myself to do something like I did with the voluntary work but I feel so bad doing it that it makes me more rather than less depressed afterwards - not to mention the amount of energy it takes to get through it even just for an hour or two.

It's nice to hear that even after several years you could improve, I've often been told there's no time limit on this sort of illness which is why the letter upset me so much I suppose as it seemed to be saying the opposite!

[missy_c]

I have been a long-term anxiety/panic and depression sufferer, if you count the times when I was very young (about six) having my first panic attack. I'm now 30, but although that might seem doom and gloom and as though the longer you have it the harder it is to escape, I really don't think it is like that. I had random panics/anxiety from the age of about six to 16 (random as in, not often enough for me to realise what they were). When I was 16 I had a severe depressive episode, with panic/anxiety, which debilitated me for about 3 months. Then, I had about 4 years of nothing at all, and the happiest times of my life! Then I had episodes, which were treated, was fine, then episodes. It has come in waves almost, and not been a constant (I don't know if medication has helped this....but the happiest times were the medication free times, post episode). I literally get it on and off, no pattern at all. But my psychiatrist has had very honest conversations with me (I wanted to be a psy, and did a lot of studies into it, which I don't know if this is good or not as I question everything!), and has said, and I know this to be true as I have researched it myself, that every episode could be your last. Things are more complex than that, because one set of thinking behaviours can become ingrained the more often they are experienced, however your brain also changes over time and can be affected by hormones etc.

I guess that for some people like myself, I find it hard to believe that I'll one day be free of it because I've suffered with it for so long, but maybe that is a difference between anxiety or depression which is brought on by your situation (which can change) or that caused by genetics/deficiencies, which may not change...I just wish the causes could be more readily explored so you know what has caused it!

[petepie]

yea i hear you dude,i have had dp anxiety for a number of years,walls waving in and out going shopping,people moving back and fort as i talk to them all anxiety based,i had my first pa aged 15 and slowly my anxiety has gotten worse(29 now)maybe you need two ssri together?maybe you need to exercise?maybe you need to conquer your fears?maybe you need to distract yourself from yourself?dude you wont have it forever,go see a different psychiatrist if i were you(they dont know everything yea know)dude this anxiety has ravaged you from the inside and maybe its the inside that needs working ie meditation,martial arts etc etc,dude message me if you wana talk more about it,im just getting over my anxiety threw ssri(prozac)

[Abs79]

Thanks for your replies missyc and petepie. I agree missyc I think the cause is important - I have always been an anxious person so I think I must have a genetic predisposition, but I always coped until it suddenly got worse 3 years ago, which I guess was partly caused by the situation I was in at the time. It's been more or less constant since then though - I don't really have days or weeks off it's the same day after day. So I don't seem to have a pattern of having episodes with a break in between unfortunately.

petepie I have tried exercise (I've always exercised moderately) and I eat reasonably healthily. Have also tried mindfulness meditation without much effect. I do need to be distracted from myself but that seems to be impossible at the moment!

[bergertime]

For me I had a bad bout of GAD and HA about 10 years ago, I was in denial at this point. I went off the deep end as far as exercise went. I rode my bike 10 miles in the morning, ten miles at lunch, and went for an hour long walk/run in the evening. My anxiety cleared up up after about 2 months of doing this. I slowed my exercise way down after that. THis past summer I had some of the worst symptoms I've ever had. Guess what I'm back to doing. It seems the better shape I get in the more I can focus on my exercise, as opposed to my health anxiety.

[theharvestmouse]

I found that when I was exercising a lot my anxiety went down as well.