Coping with Depression and Anxiety - My story

[Noboddy]

Are you suffering from a form of depression or anxiety? Maybe both at the same time? Well this is my take on how I overcame my thoughts and suffering.

Just so everyone is aware I suffered from extreme depression and anxiety causing me to lose my job and to be stuck in my home. Now I won’t go into detail about what happened to me because that is very personal but I just want you to know that I am speaking from experience.

Medication

I was prescribed multiple different medications during the time I suffered.

- Xanax

- Ativan

- Zolaft

Out of all of these Ativan in low dosages helped me, however, I do not recommend them. Xanax and especially Zolaft had negative effects on me. Still to this day I don’t believe I am fully who I was previous from the depression/anxiety because of them. These medications basically put up a mental block which is a lot different then what you think it is. You basically sit there without being able to even think about what you had for breakfast just zoned out watching the world go by. So in my opinion if you feel as if you can live without the medication I highly recommend it.

- On a side note I forgot to mention they also can worsen or even create suicidal thoughts.

Daily Life

When I was dealing with my depression and anxiety I pretty much was unable to do anything. Even going to the store I felt as if the world was spinning constantly and on top of that I would have frequent panic attacks for no apparent reason. When these things would happen the only way to calm down was to be home it was like a sanctuary for me. But even at home it would happen and that is when you feel like you have no place to go and that is when the darker thoughts start to come.

A few months into all of this i started to have weird beats in my heart like it would take a huge beat and just drop into my chest. This added on to my panic I already had and caused me to take frequent trips to the emergency room (which I am still in debt for). After a while they eventually gave me a heart monitor to ensure nothing was going on to which no surprise I was perfectly healthy.

In daily life things will get hard and even seem like the end is near, at least that is how I felt. But what helped me is knowing that my body is perfectly healthy even when my brain is telling me otherwise. Anxiety will cause you to feel like you are literally dying from a heart attack or lack of breath but just remember you are perfectly okay. If you are suffering from depression or anxiety I would suggest going to get a full physical done of your health. That way when your mind is trying to tell you otherwise you can counter with knowing you are healthy and can fight threw it. As for the dizziness, if you are experiencing this, I honestly have no answer for you other than focus on a solid object until it passes. In my time of having it I never found an effective way to beat it.

Therapy

When I went to see a Therapist it was by doctor order so I had to try it out. To be honest it helped me because I am an only child so I needed someone I could vent to. She also helped me a lot with breathing technics to counter my panic attacks and to cope with what was going on. All in all it was very helpful to speak to a person that is not attached in any way to the situation about your problems.

This option is pretty much up to you, if you feel you could benefit from therapy I would at least try it out. But some of the best therapy is friends that won’t talk down upon your situation. By this I mean say you are in a break up they won’t just bash on the other person, they will focus on you and having a good time.

Result

My life now is somewhat normal; I work. go to school and hang out with friends. But I still have side effects from it all and I don’t feel as if I will ever been 100% who I was. But from this post if there is anything you should take away from this is that you need to stick with it. Don’t let the depression take over your life and don’t let the anxiety tell you that you are unhealthy. Now It won’t be a quick process but I can assure you things do get better over time. So all of you out there suffering I feel your pain but just keep your head up and remember nothing is wrong with you it is only temporary.

I left some things out of this Take like suicidal thoughts because I didn’t want to get into that publicly. But if you have any questions feel free to message me about it.

[Hannah591]

I have dizziness/light headedness a lot and those horrible heart palpitations but I didn't link it to anxiety. I'm actually having quite an extensive body scan soon for other reasons so that'll help me but if they do find something, the diagnosis alone can cause people to have depression (the specialist was reluctant to diagnose me for that reason) along with the numerous health conditions I already have.

I'm getting medical treatment for my depression and anxiety now, despite asking for CBT, though I have counselling but that doesn't help too much. It's a low dose but it's helped a lot. My anxiety has shot up in the past few weeks from barely nothing to regular, unexpected panic attacks.
I felt a lot better within days, aside from side effects. I still have really low moments where I go back to how I felt before I went on the medication, coincidentally when I'm a few hours late to take my tablets. But I'm a lot more confident and chatty, my anxiety has toned down and I haven't had a panic attack since I started. I have gone back to the Hannah I was several years ago so it must be doing something! People shouldn't totally knock medication. I was apprehensive, I didn't want to be drugged up and on medication for a mental illness due to the stigma, I didn't want the side effects and I was often worried about it just being a placebo but the side effects begged to differ. Despite all this, I have noticed a big difference so it should be tried when you've tried every avenue already.

It's been really hard accepting that I have mental illnesses, I often try to ignore them and sometimes I question them myself, I wonder if maybe I've just become weak or I can't handle life as well as others but tbf, I've been through my fair share of bad things in life. I guess I gave up, I was fed up of acting like I was happy and okay and my life became more and more difficult and painful to the point I couldn't cope. People have breaking points and I guess I got to mine.

[Noboddy]

I am glad to see you are taking action to beat this thing. I am also glad that the medication is working well for you! Only reason i put it down was because of what it did to me so i was just stating my personal experience and opinion. But other than that you seem like you are getting to the point of control with your anxiety/depression and once you get that control your everyday life will feel so much better.

[BiffWebster]

Yea depression is hard. I mean talk about no motivation. And just think of the people that medication doesn't work for. Your trapped in your own head with all those wondrous emotions of guilt, regret, anger and a willingness to die. And this you feel almost everyday, and it doesn't go away, it alleviates at times, but at times it worsens. Your on edge in places that you had bad memories from, and even getting pleasure from something seems like an impossible task. Thinking becomes a disease basically

Medication sadly doesn't work for all, but it is very good it worked for you. I'd also that work is the best medicine as well. Putting yourself in gallons of work till you basically fall asleep at the end of the day makes you not think so much. No one wants to have their mind occupied with "what If's" and the fantasies your mind tries to create to make you feel either worse or happier. Finding somebody that loves you and that you love back can really help. In my experience with depression, the wrong people cared.

[spuitkaas]

Good take. I like the way that you're almost totally objective about yourself and talk about the solutions instead of the problems.
This take sounds very light-hearted, but depression is really horrible.

[Noboddy]

It is very horrible and i went down a bad road. I didn't want to express that in here though. I feel like that is something that shouldn't be pushed into the public eye.

[purpleluv]

nice take :)

[Noboddy]

Thank you :)