What do you take for your anxiety

Hi, how long were you on flux for? I'm on citalopram but had to give them a while to kick in. Did you give them a good chance? Dont feel alone, theres always someone to talkt o. be strong. x

I think they will only prescible diazepam  as a short term fix,they have never agreed with me, but I do remeber years ago when I was trying to get the right AD that worked fo me and it took 4 years but I was given diazepam for I week as a respite to try and help me sleep.

All it did was give me vivid nightmares,but what works for you may not work for me

Go and speak to your gp

I take Xanax. I take it both as a regular med and PRN. I take half of one at 5am, half at 11:15, and a half OR a whole one at 2:15, depending on my needs for the day. Sometimes, I'll only take half then and I'll end up needing the other half later. My prescription allows for me to take up to 3 whole ones each day. So, i almost always have extra for if I need it. But, taking more than 2 a day knocks me out dead asleep.

You need to talk to your doctor. Explain when you have your worst feelings. It may be at certain times of day. I found this to be true in my case and we narrowed it down (after months of self-monitoring) to a thirty minute window of when my daily PA's occur. I also have trigger situations, and stress of varying degrees will cause some days to be worse.

Lots of folks get frustrated with thier doctors becuase their doctors don't seem to understand. After 24 years of being a daughter, a wife, a mother, and a friend to people who have all sorts of mental irregularities, in addition to myself, I have a big secret to tell you.

When you see your doctor, all he/she can REALLY see is a snapshot of your condition. Basically, your physician has a chart for you. In that chart, is notes from every appt. If you see your doctor once a week, they will see how you were last week compared to the week before and so on, along with how you are TODAY. The less often you see them, the less actual info they have to go on.

Well, this isn't such a terrible problem for someone with a strictly medical condition. Cholesterol, blood sugar, these things can be monitored and averaged in most cases. Even then, it's not strictly true. For some people, an a1c - which is an average of blood sugar levels over a period of time, can give accurate results. But, I have diabetes. And I ALWAYS have a perfect a1c. That's becuase my blood sugar will goo super low. AND it will go super high. When averaged out, this comes out to a normal a1c. However, when I began taking my blood sugar three times a day as well as any time I FELT bad, and recording it.... I brought those results to my doctor, and he was able to SEE the problem. The a1c combined with taking my blood sugar at a three month appt, was only a "snapshot" of the overall issue. I hope you can understand what I am saying here.

Now, if you take that same principle and apply it to a mental health issue (still a MEDICAL condition but one that is much much more difficult for your doctor to analyze because HEY there is no BLOOD TEST for how you are feeling today nor is there one to even give an average of how you have felt since your last appt), your doctor is dealing with a snapshot of your condition. And with mental conditions, that snapshot is ever so limited. What can you do? It's frustrating to not be able to convey your actual issues to your dr. It's actually REALLY frustrating for them too.

Take notes. Every day. It will seem ridiculous at first. And difficult. Especially if you are using pen and paper. (HINT: there are literally thousands of health and mental health tracking apps for every platform of device. Whether it's your phone, computer, etc. I am really trying NOT to put links in my posts too much becuase I don't want to get in trouble. Lol. But, if you need help finding something, let me know!!)

The idea here is to have something more CONCRETE and CONTINUOUS to hand your doctor at your appt. I often in the beginning would simply write in a note pad document on my phone. It was a single document, each new entry marked with date and time. I would note what I was feeling, thinking, what circumstances where going on, what physical symptoms I was having (lack of breathe control, ringing ears, shaking, crying, etc) and when it started, and when it ended, and I would give it a rating on a scale of 1-10 and ANYTHING ELSE I COUld think of. I started this WITHOUT my doctor knowing about it. When my next appt came up, I ipened the document and handed him my phone. He was not only impressed, but he was thrilled. NOW, he could SEE more than just that little snapshot of my life that he got every three months. He was able to begin right away addressing my needs. He was able to put two and two together and say "you don't actually have A. You have three different symptoms going on here that TOGETHER suggest you actually have something else entirely. In that case, it ended up being fibromyalgia. I was put on a medication for THAT. Things started inproving dramatically. That was about three years ago. Am I healed? Nope. I won't ever be. But, since that day, I have found a myriad of resources and methods for accumulating data, journal entries, research I do on my own, and now.... I have a way to combine all of that data into one email, and I send it to my doctor two days before my appt. he reviews it. I used to go to my doctor and in 15 minutes, I could give him two symptoms, with a brief dialogue, get my meds refilled, vitals taken, and that was it. I always left feeling short changed, frustrated, and like progress was inpossible.

That is not the case anymore. I was worried at first. That he would be offended. That he would say "I don't want or have time to read all that crap". That's not what happened at all. (And if it does happen with your dr. I suggest you find a new dr.) In fact, my dr. Says I am one of his favorite patients now.

If you want your doctor to be able to use ALL of their resources to actually HELP you, you have to start helping YOUR DOCTOR. It's YOUR LIFE, YOUR HEALTH, AND HE CANT SEE INTO YOUR LIFE MINUTE BY MINUTE!!! Unless you give him a way to do so. So, I encourage you. Take this step. It's called becoming PROACTIVE. Instead of simply reacting to your life, engage your issues and fight back. Give your doctor the opportunity to see ALL OF YOU. Even if they suck, and you need to find a new doctor, there is a huge bonus to all of this.

YOU WILL BEGIN TO LEARN ABOUT YOU. THIS IS A HUGER THAN HUGE DEAL. Becuase no one can save you, just you can. But, you can "study yourself". Learn about yourself. And if you need to change doctors, that's okay. Becuase when you find a new doctor, they will not only receive your records from your old doctor, but they will be presented with your own documentation. That is a wealth of information for them AND FOR YOU. I promise. Just start small. Say:

Date:

Time:

Issue: I feel like 💩

Possible factors: mom is driving me nuts and my foot hurts

Scale: 8 (I always do 1 as best and 10 as worst but do it how you want)

What I did during: smoked four cigarettes and ate a bar of chocolate and cried on my bed listening to tori Amos.

Did anything help or make it worse: oh of course, it was the chocolate.

Time over or felt better:

That is my original TEMPLATE. I Would use it whenever I was having issues.

Today, I do entries throughout the day at certain times. The entries are more complex, but sometimes all I can get into them is "I am having a panic attack!!!" Lol. But I also notate lots of other things. Water intake, food, meds, sleep times, levels of stress, factors of stress, the weather, esp barometric pressure, and on and on. I have lots of this automated at this point. I also include articles, research, notes and questions I want to ask. I leave nothing out. Everytime we meet, my doctor says he would give every patient of his 100 bucks if they were as proactive and involved with thier own health as I am. I always ask him "where's my 100 then" and he laughs and says he doesn't carry that kinda cash with him at the office.

I went on and on. I have a tendency to do that. But, I hope what I have said is of some value to you and others.

All the very best,

Chrys

I was on sertraline which worked great but found i sweated a whole lot on them so now i've switch to citalopram and found they're just as effective a sertraline without the sweating.