Anxiety: Need advice - Page 2

Start working out again. Heavy Squats and Deadlifts are a form of meditation.

On August 09 2015 03:33 Baalim wrote: You are having panic attacks, I had them too and It was hell I also thought that I was having a heart attack and I made exactly the same questions. Anyone who has had them strongly related with what you said, so take our advice. There is nothing wrong physically with you relax!, go see a psychiatrist, they will prescribe you anti-anxiety meds, ideally he will give you one box to make you feel better right away of traditional meds (benzodiazepine or Clonazepam) those meds cause dependence though, so ideally he will prescribe you the "new generation" anti anxiety medication that helps you release serotonin those start working after 1 month of usage and you will probably have to take them for at least 6 months. As soon as you take your first med and the chest pressure is gone you will love me. Dont feel bad for having no real reasons to be anxious and dont hide it from people close to you, if you are feeling anxious let them know, trying to conceal it only makes it worse. btw your panic attacks didnt bother you that much because they were mild ones, people who get severe ones faint and it can happen you while driving etc, anxiety is greatly underestimated

When i said my panics attacks don't bother me, its because it doesn't happen often. It actually is fairly intense and feels exactly like if i was having a heart attack, so its no fun, but something which happens once a month isn't a big deal (and yea, i don't faint ever from it). But i had one once at my job, and i essentially had to leave which sucked....

The doctor/psychologist doesn't seem to want to give me meds because they say my anxiety isn't bad enough and that it should only be done for severe cases.

There is one doc who prescribed me benzodiazepine for SEVERE cases when i really need it. When i take that, the chest tightness doesn't exactly go away, but it helps a lot with sleeping and removes other symptoms i could have.

I'm going to give 2 examples of times where i think it really leads to believe it is anxiety

1) When they did the echo, at some point, i decided to look at the screen. Everything was fine, and then, on the screen, suddenly a red explosion appeared on my heart.... then the tightness suddenly got worse and i had a stabbing pain....

2) when it gets really bad and i go to emergencies.... it usually gets a bit better once im there


That being said, i don't understand why the plane doesn't make the tightness worse.

On August 09 2015 03:50 ggplz wrote: From my perspective, having gone through almost exactly what he's going through and having solved it with a cheap magnesium supplement it's ludicrous to suggest seeing a psychiatrist, resigning to their care and taking drugs that may have side effects.

I can try magnesium because its obv cheap and not dangerous, but i kinda doubt a defiency in magnesium is causing this... i checked what kind of foods has magnesium, and i take plenty of those. still worth a shot i guess.

On August 09 2015 05:19 GoTuNk wrote: Start working out again. Heavy Squats and Deadlifts are a form of meditation.

Thats gonna sound really stupid, but everytimes i try to do intense physical activity again, the chest pain intensify a lot and i start to get dizzy

Last time i tryed to do jogging i got really light headed.
I try to do walking every single day recently but it isn't doing much for me yet.

But yea, both the doctor and psychologist strongly suggested i get more active.

btw why is there so many of you who can relate? Is it possible this condition is more frequent among competitive gamers or something?

Hey I don't know what is wrong with you but I want to throw out that a very real possibility is that some of this is a physical result of things that started as all in your head.

Like, people can create habits or ways of thinking that can physically effect their bodies (make their muscles tight, make them repeat movements, even make things that are normally autonomous behave differently).

In turn, this ends up exacerbating the original problem.

Just something to think about.



(what I am saying is not to be dismissive of the possibility that something that is physically real now has built upon something that once existed only mentally).

On August 09 2015 05:38 Floofy wrote: btw why is there so many of you who can relate? Is it possible this condition is more frequent among competitive gamers or something?

It's common in modern society to have way more recurring stressing factors than we were built to handle genetically. If you forcibly relax your body and your mind through techniques or pharmaceuticals you will simply release the built up tension. From my experience being overly anxious is common to many people in various degrees.

Yeah man, I have had all these problems, and muuuuuch worse. I tried meditation and exercise to get better and all it did was wear me out, and the meditation made me groggy and depressed. I fucked myself up by exercising the shit out of my body and meditating an hour a day for a year, it didn't fix my core psychological issue, it was just running from it. I would advocate a very light exercise program, with healthy but not too restrictive diet. Be easy on yourself and your body. Love yourself man

I would make sure it isn't physical, sometimes there are freak things that are, but it does seem like it is ruled out for you by the way you describe it.

I found out the hard way that the symptoms of a panic attack are deep shit. There is no way around it, there is an issue in your life that is causing this. Medication can help. But, you still have to uncover the root of the problem.

If you do meditation, I would advise seeing a psychologist (not a cognitive behavioral therapist) and try to find out why this is happening. Then, have meditation with an actual teacher in real life with other people. Meditation is NOT TO RELAX YOU. Meditation is to be present in reality. Meditation is some cool shit, you can bring up the fears in the subconscious and face them. Some beginners get severe panic attacks right away from meditation because they are actually doing it right!

So I guess if I could give you a tldr, I would just say find a way to be easy on yourself and nourish and love yourself. Find out what is causing you unhappiness and use all the support you can that can be provided. You don't have to be alone.

On a side note, it makes me angry that we don't talk about these problems with people in our lives. We have to see psychologists. If we could share our problems with friends and be more vulnerable maybe life wouldn't be so damn hard. It takes guts, but really share your problems in depth with people that are close to you. Tell them everything. Look at the people that want to listen, and the ones that don't. You can learn a lot from that.

I have found out that so many people have taken antidepressants and have had anxiety attacks and have gone to psychotherapists and they never shared the problems from a early point. Its a fucked up society where we don't prevent these problems because we are so emotionally .... errr... whats the word..... stunted? Scared? And its not really our fault because we were never taught.

Lots of good advice ITT, but I notice you didn't mention your diet(unless I skimmed past it).

Definitely make sure your protein/fat/fiber/nutrient intake is optimal, get some UV rays everyday, exercise. Medication does help a lot of people, despite the stigma.

Even something as trivial as a heated plastic bottle can release BPA and possibly affect your hormones and your brain/body.

I really think it comes down to making +EV decisions every day, even though that is difficult sometimes.

Try Cannabis

Baal's post is great and you should take his advice and pretty much ignore all others. There's nothing wrong with meditation, eating healthy and exercising, but those things are not substitute for medication.

I don't understand the fear for antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications. If you take em like your doctor tells you to they are completely safe. If you get side effects from those you simply quit taking them and try another medication until you'll find one that works for you.

On August 09 2015 05:19 GoTuNk wrote: Start working out again. Heavy Squats and Deadlifts are a form of meditation.

the main thing people get by heavy deadlifts are heavy back injuries :D

On August 09 2015 11:10 spugru wrote: Baal's post is great and you should take his advice and pretty much ignore all others. There's nothing wrong with meditation, eating healthy and exercising, but those things are not substitute for medication. I don't understand the fear for antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications. If you take em like your doctor tells you to they are completely safe. If you get side effects from those you simply quit taking them and try another medication until you'll find one that works for you.

Many people wouldn't feel so at ease trusting doctors. Remember that traditional medicine cures symptoms not the cause, and it does so by substituting them with other symptoms.

On August 09 2015 13:20 ClouD87 wrote: Show nested quote + On August 09 2015 11:10 spugru wrote: Baal's post is great and you should take his advice and pretty much ignore all others. There's nothing wrong with meditation, eating healthy and exercising, but those things are not substitute for medication. I don't understand the fear for antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications. If you take em like your doctor tells you to they are completely safe. If you get side effects from those you simply quit taking them and try another medication until you'll find one that works for you. Many people wouldn't feel so at ease trusting doctors. Remember that traditional medicine cures symptoms not the cause, and it does so by substituting them with other symptoms.

As said both my the psy i saw and my doctor think meds is bad idea at my age and since its "not bad enough". I can see other docs, but then they say it has to be my family doctor to prescribe meds.

On August 09 2015 07:08 asdf2000 wrote: Hey I don't know what is wrong with you but I want to throw out that a very real possibility is that some of this is a physical result of things that started as all in your head. Like, people can create habits or ways of thinking that can physically effect their bodies (make their muscles tight, make them repeat movements, even make things that are normally autonomous behave differently). In turn, this ends up exacerbating the original problem. Just something to think about. (what I am saying is not to be dismissive of the possibility that something that is physically real now has built upon something that once existed only mentally).

Thats possible man. WHen this all started, i think its almost 100% sure it was anxiety. I think it was actually caused by playing too much CS GO and being really hardcore on it (like getting your heart to beat faster because you play very intense). The symptoms i had back then really pointed out to anxiety. Now they changed a bit, and its mostly chest tightness, along with some left arm pains, and occasionnal panics attacks like once a month.

On August 09 2015 10:40 goose58 wrote: Lots of good advice ITT, but I notice you didn't mention your diet(unless I skimmed past it). Definitely make sure your protein/fat/fiber/nutrient intake is optimal, get some UV rays everyday, exercise. Medication does help a lot of people, despite the stigma. Even something as trivial as a heated plastic bottle can release BPA and possibly affect your hormones and your brain/body. I really think it comes down to making +EV decisions every day, even though that is difficult sometimes.

Diet could matter because i noticed it often comes back after i take things like a big a starbucks cofee lol. Maybe just random.

All in the head. Practice general wellness and you'll be "cured."

On August 09 2015 05:38 Floofy wrote: btw why is there so many of you who can relate? Is it possible this condition is more frequent among competitive gamers or something?

It is because almost everybody can relate, people just don't talk about it. My sister's a psychologist so I may be biased, still I think medication should be last resort and you don't seem to be in that bad a condition. I agree with psychologists who say medication is needed only when anxiety is so intense it stops you from functioning normally like not showing up to work.

I will tell you what worked for me. I had anxiety problems because I faint relatively often, and since anxiety gives the same symptoms as fainting (dizziness, blurry vision, light-headiness, etc.) it got scary all the time. I thought I would faint whenever I had 2 seconds to think about it (in the metro, in any possible waiting line, while driving, etc.) What kind of cured me was being thought the science behind anxiety. More precisely, to understand that those anxiety feelings I had were the result of previously thoughts.

This is very important. You don't think about, and fear, your health problems because you feel something in your body, you rather feel something in your body as a result of thinking about it at the first place.

Healthy person: FEELING - THINKING - REACTING (then may or may not feel stress)
You: RANDOM EVENT - ANXIOUS THOUGHTS - STRESS RESPONSE - REACTING (always stressed)

I suggest reading about psychological treatment of anxiety (cognitive therapy), it is magic. The single sentence that helped me the most was the following:

* The [anxious] patient believes that worrying is a useful strategy to adapt to his new problem. *

Isn't it? Stop worrying, problem vanishes. Sounds stupid, but once you understand that worries come FIRST, not in response to anything, you will find there is no basis for worry in the first place.

Really hope that helps, good luck with this, you are far from alone in that.

EDIT: Oh btw I felt chess pain and all that shit too. Stress is a really nasty drug.

caffeine could be a significant contributor. i feel much more calm when i stop, however i'm an addict so i always come back.