Mathias: in need of advice

[Mathias]

Hello there, my name is Mathias and I'm here seeking advice or maybe directional help. I'm unsure if this wall of text I 'produced' is irrelevant to what this forum is doing and focuses on. To shorten it down without my attempt to explain; would you advice against any form of antidepressants as a 'tool' to overcome the barrier of anxiety in seeking professional help?

 

Considered antidepressants; I'm someone who considered antidepressants yesterday evening, did some research and stumbled across this forum. Now I am not so sure any longer so I signed up to make contact. 

What triggered the idea was a two day 'anxiety' sort of experience. I was recalling Jordan Peterson advice on antidepressants and how it helped him 'overcome' depression. I stumbled across a forum discussion that critiqued his stance on antidepressants and that mentioned this site.

My background story; 6 Months ago I moved to a new town starting as a student in Social Pedagogy and Deaconess, there's 3 periods of a total1,5 years out in the field for working experience and reflection. I'm now in a kindergarten that I very much enjoy, but I'm having great difficulties with the social aspect with the elders. I'm very introverted and shy that has lead to isolation from people over many years, so I'm pretty social awkward, at least in my own head. I'm being self conscious to a degree that I become paralyzed from showing my existence doing conversation in the lunch breaks, with the exception of people talking directly to me. I have also noticed that it has to do with my obsession of over-analyzing and thinking about the expression I leave and my focus on the opinion of others. So I'm dealing with some degree of self-centeredness, some degree of narcissism maybe, traumas, and maybe some degree of psychosis that clouds my mind.

Therapy; my contact person at the kindergarten recently approved the 3 months course, but very much advised me to get some therapy.

Recent anxiety; After that conversation things got very real for me - many months of reflection on God, life, positive thinking, optimism and other perspectives I got from reading and my study - it all culminated with the last two days of anxiety but also a wake-up call that I need to take responsibility and take action.

Making contact; It's very foggy at the movement, where should I begin and all that. My initial thoughts was that maybe the antidepressants could help me overcome the barrier of making contact with counselors and therapists. Anyhow, I decided this morning to write a mail to a church and also made a phone call to a free 5 session psychology program that my city is offering.

 

I appreciate your advice and counsel if you have any with your own experience with antidepressants - if you have something I should read or look into it's much appreciated.

Thank you so much, kind regards, Mathias.

[SkyBlue]

3 hours ago, Mathias said:

To shorten it down without my attempt to explain; would you advice against any form of antidepressants as a 'tool' to overcome the barrier of anxiety in seeking professional help?

 

Hi Mathias and welcome to SA.

 

Most of us here have had very negative experiences with ssris, antidepressants, and other poorly-understood psych drugs that we thought would help us. This site helps people who have decided to come off of them. Coming off can be an extremely difficult process, life-altering and debilitating for many. So we don't tell people not to take psych drugs, but we don't help them get on them, either. 

 

You sound like a wonderfully reflective person. I'd hate to see that get altered in any way.  It sounds like you are willing to explore issues you're going through, and it's wonderful that you reached out for counseling. Would you be open to learning some non-drug coping strategies? We have many of those on our site. 

 

[Mathias]

5 hours ago, SkyBlue said:

 

Hi Mathias and welcome to SA.

 

Most of us here have had very negative experiences with ssris, antidepressants, and other poorly-understood psych drugs that we thought would help us. This site helps people who have decided to come off of them. Coming off can be an extremely difficult process, life-altering and debilitating for many. So we don't tell people not to take psych drugs, but we don't help them get on them, either. 

 

You sound like a wonderfully reflective person. I'd hate to see that get altered in any way.  It sounds like you are willing to explore issues you're going through, and it's wonderful that you reached out for counseling. Would you be open to learning some non-drug coping strategies? We have many of those on our site. 

 

 

Hi SkyBlue, thank you so much for your reply and warm welcome.

I understand, I will read some of the topics and see if I can get more educated on the subject.

 

I would love to learn coping strategies that doesn't involve drugs. I'm trying to focus on my sleep schedule, the food that I eat and exercise. Getting the courage to be involved in social situations is still my biggest challenge, it's a real pain to be honest. If you have any advice and want to share your experience it's more than welcome.

Thank you.

 

 

[ChessieCat]

Hi Mathias and welcome from me too,

 

Understanding what is happening helps us to not get caught up with the second fear, or fear of the fear.  This happens when we experience sensations in our body and because we don't understand them we are scared of them and then start to panic.

 

This document has a diagram of the body explaining what happens in the body when we become anxious:

 

https://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/docs/AnxietySelfHelp.pdf

 

Anxiety Stuff - all kinds of stuff about anxiety attacks and things that help ...

 

Audio FEMALE VOICE:  First Aid for Panic (4 minutes)

 

Audio MALE VOICE:  First Aid for Panic (4 minutes)

 

Non-drug techniques to cope

 

dealing-with-emotional-spirals

 

Dr Claire Weekes suffered from anxiety and learned and taught ways of coping.  There are videos available on YouTube.

 

Claire Weekes' Method of Recovering from a Sensitized Nervous System

 

Audio:  How to Recover from Anxiety - Dr Claire Weekes

 

CBT Course:  An Introductory Self-Help Course in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

 

Resources:  Centre for Clinical Interventions (PDF modules that you can work through, eg:  Depression, Distress Intolerance, Health Anxiety, Low Self-Esteem, Panic Attacks, Perfectionism, Procrastination, Social Anxiety, Worrying)

 

On 4/28/2017 at 4:03 AM, brassmonkey said:

 

AAF: Acknowledge, Accept, Float.  It's what you have to do when nothing else works, and can be a very powerful tool in coping with anxiety.  The neuroemotional anxiety many of us feel during WD is directly caused by the drugs and their chemical reactions in the brain.  Making it so there is nothing we can do about them.  They won't respond to other drugs, relaxation techniques and the like.  They do, however, react very well to being ignored.  That's the concept behind AAF.  Acknowledge, get to know the feeling involved, explore them.  Accept, These feelings are a part of you and they aren't going anywhere fast. Float, let the feeling float off as you get on with your life as best as you can.  It's a well documented fact that the more you feed in to anxiety the worse it gets.  What starts as generalized neuroemotinal anxiety can be easily blown into a full fledged panic attack just by thinking about it.

 

I often liken it to an unwanted house guest.  At first you talk to them, have conversations, communicate with them.  After a while you figure out that they aren't leaving and there is nothing you can do to get rid of them.  So you go on about your day, working around them until they get bored and leave.

 

It can take some practice, but AAF really does work.  I hope you give it a try.

 

 

 

[Mathias]

Thank you so much ChessieCat for all these resources. It's a lot of material to go through, so I have something over the next couple of weeks I can read.

 

The AUDIO First Aid for Panic especially helped from the very illogical thoughts that was flowing through my mind and focusing on the breathing. I will read it through and see if I can incorporate these techniques in situations of anxiety.

 

Thank you once agian

Sincerely, Mathias

 

Edited March 16, 2019 by ChessieCat
extracted response from quote and deleted quote

[SkyBlue]

On 3/15/2019 at 3:01 PM, Mathias said:

I would love to learn coping strategies that doesn't involve drugs. I'm trying to focus on my sleep schedule, the food that I eat and exercise. Getting the courage to be involved in social situations is still my biggest challenge, it's a real pain to be honest. If you have any advice and want to share your experience it's more than welcome.

Thank you.

 

Hi Mathias, 

 

You're very welcome. 

I'd be happy to share my experiences. It's my favorite topic!

I was prescribed Paxil at age 19 for anxiety (very mild) and symptoms of (very mild) depression. I never had severe depression or anxiety prior to Paxil. This was the golden age of so-called "antidepressants" and they were being prescribed like crazy. Paxil sort of helped somewhat for a while, then stopped (this is common, I know now), and my doctor kept increasing the dose. Finally for many years it wasn't helping at all; I was just taking it to stave off (prevent) withdrawal symptoms. After way too long being on it, I went to a new doctor who took me off way too quickly. I paused that process after I understood withdrawal, thanks to SA. But it has been three and a half years of on-again, off-again hell. I wouldn't wish this on absolutely anybody.

 

Through this process, I've developed (usually by trial and error) some techniques for taking care of myself. The biggest thing to heal withdrawal, which I realize you're not dealing with, is time. Support, rest, meditating, mindfulness, magnesium, eating well including lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, exercise (not as intense as I was doing pre-withdrawal, sadly), calm/breathing, distraction when necessary; reaching out for help, rest, repeat. 

 

I encourage you to be gentle with yourself in social situations. A lot of people have that challenge--more than we might think. Bit by bit, you'll get there. 

 

Let us know how you're doing and whether any more of the techniques above from Chessie have been helpful. Again, I appreciate what seems to be your very thoughtful approach to this.