What now?

[vicky23]

Hi all,
so I'm going through a rough patch at the mo and wondered if any of you wise people had any advice.
I had been on 100mg of sertraline for about 15 years but was in an ok place so decided to reduce the dose to try for a baby. Now been on 50mg for about 6 months. However, I'm finding myself getting into OCD thinking patterns and behaviours, general anxiety and panic is severe and my IBS is reacting.
I've had a few bad stomach upsets which cause panic but also just general day to day stuff my tummy is sensitive. I've struggled to be at a healthy weight all my life, got to my goal a year ago but am now back to being underweight due to not being able to eat well with the IBS.
I went to the Dr who gave me a leaflet for talking matters, I self referred and did a 6 week online CBT course which is coming to an end soon. I think my GAD scores went down a couple of points but I'm still definitely not where I want to be.
So I plan on going back to the Dr on Mon. I've got a few thoughts about what to do.
1) Increase my medication again but worried about side effects of this.
2)Find a therapist outside the NHS but I know these are expensive and I only work part time so not ideal
3)Ask the Dr for medication to help with IBS which might ease the anxiety as it does cause a lot of problems in terms of adding to the panic cycle
4) Restrict my diet. This is a tricky subject for me because my obsessive nature wants to take control and 'do something!' but I need food to put on weight, it's not the food that's the problem so I don't want to start labelling it as 'bad'.
Thanks for reading, even if no-one replies it's helpful for me to get my thoughts out of my head
Vicky
X

[pulisa]

Vicky, I'm sorry you are going through a bad spell. My advice would be to try some meds which may help to settle your stomach which in turn would have a knock on effect with your anxiety and reaction to the IBS symptoms. These could be simple over the counter meds or something your doctor could suggest if nothing you have tried has worked so far?
Personally if you are thinking of trying for a baby I wouldn't recommend upping the sertraline again. It depends what is the priority for you though.
Maybe you could do some more online CBT therapy to support you if you found this helped a bit previously. As you say, private therapy is very expensive if you are on a limited budget.
IBS is a pain but ultimately a completely benign condition. I know how reaction to symptoms can really set off panic, especially when the obsessive thoughts kick in.
I hope you make some progress with the doctor tomorrow. Sorry if my reply hasn't been helpful and has stated the obvious!

---------- Post added at 09:06 ---------- Previous post was at 09:03 ----------

And I also wouldn't restrict your diet unless there are foods which are definite triggers-it's a slippery slope!

[vicky23]

hi Pulisa,
thank you so much for your kind reply.
I totally agree with the slippery slope thing, I was on a restrictive diet before I don't really want to go down that route again.
X

[pulisa]

Yes it's easy to get sucked into any obsessive way of thinking with our issues, isn't it?! Personally I think anxiety has a big say in IBS regardless of what you eat. Obviously there are foods which can irritate the bowel but focusing on what you can/can't eat just feeds into the anxiety of everyday life.