Have you ever struggled with anxiety or depression? What has helped you? Therapy? Medicine? Exercise?
UPDATE - Thanks for all of the great advice ladies...I appreciate each of you taking the time to answer me, and it's nice to know I'm not alone in this. I struggle with anxiety, and it's been getting worse lately. It's mostly related to my unhealthy obsession with eating right, exercising, and losing weight. It's pathetic that my anxiety is related to my own self rather than my special needs child with a chronic illness...I'm kind of embarassed to say that, but it's the truth. I never dealt with this until after he was born...I became so obsessed (in an unhealthy way) with getting fit, losing weight, wanting to look a certain way, etc. I'm very rigid with my son's schedule as I have to be, and I need to get myself in a better schedule with my eating, tracking, etc. My anxiety has gotten worse over the past 2 months, and I've even had 2 panic attacks. I am seeing a therapist who I LOVE, and I've seen her since right after Brady was born. I don't really have any depression, but depression runs in my family like there's no tomorrow, so I've been taking 20mg of Celexa for the past few years. I call it my "happy pill":) It helps me to stay balanced, focused, and positive. I have been toying with the idea of asking my regular doctor for something for the anxiety but really don't want to take another medication, so I'm working with my therapist on ways to treat this anxiety without adding another medication.
I tried a medication for maybe 3 days but it made me SO tired. I couldn't care for a newborn and take it. So I just quit taking it and had to deal with it.
I was hospitalized for depression as a teenager after an attempt. Had 6 years of cognitive behavioral therapy and use that to manage it. It works very well for me. I have taken meds off and on but only when I really have pulled all the strategies out of my coping toolbox and just can't hack it (w. my miscarriage and when my fiance passed, etc). No issues with anxiety.
Being very regular with my sleeping, eating, and exercise definitely helps but unable to do that right now because of work - I rotate 12 hr shifts days/nights.
Yes.
A combination of things:
Eating more intelligently (coffee for two meals out of four does not make for sane mommies!)
Getting enough sleep ... even just rest in bed rather than staying up waiting to 'feel like' going to bed.
Byron Katie's existential system 'The Work.'
Meditation, exercise, hypnosis ... a lot of reading.
Yes. I feel like exercise helps me sooo much with it. I don't need meds if I exercise regularly.
( I did take meds for a few months when I was having the roughest time after my mom's death. I personally feel now I am on the border of these issues. )
When I don't exercise, I notice I start feeling more sad and anxious but I feel better after I work out again. That is me personally and I reccommend to others to talk to their doctor if they are having problems.
Yes I have anxiety, depression, mood disorder, and borderline personality disorder, I take Celexa which helps a lot and I also just learn to cope and deal with it....stress makes it worse.
I have struggled with EXTREME anxiety!
I found an EXCELLENT Cognitive Behavioral Specialist (who is also a Christian - as I am and it was important to me).
She has really given me techniques to help me as well as change my thinking that's been ingrained my whole life.
I also cut out gluten (and dairy) which helped almost IMMEDIATELY. Crazy actually.
I see a nutritionist who has given me supplements that are calming.
I have deepened my faith.
I also exercise.
I also bought a hypnosis CD (which is just a calming CD) by Michael Gurgovich, and studied a book called When Panic Attacks, by Burns.
All of these things have worked together to put me one a path (FINALLY) where I feel semi-human again.
Darby, I think you ROCK. If I can be of any help at all to you, let me know.
I have had depression since I was a child. Early this year, I had what we used to call a Nervous Breakdown. It's called a Major Depressive Episode nowadays. I was partially hospitalized for 3 days and then went to intensive out patient therapy 3 days a week (4 hour sessions) for 8 weeks. My official diagnosis was Major Depressive Disorder, recurrent, severe with anxiety and no psychotic features.
I hesitated to writed that, because even though I know better from all the therapy I've had, I still feel people may think less of me in some way if they know. I fight that fear because I believe that monsters live in the dark, and we have to shed light on the subject or else people will suffer in silence, afraid to get help. I have learned so much over the past 9 months. And am happy to be able to share my experience if it will help someone else.
It's hard to know exactly what is going to work from one person to the next. For mild depression, eating right, exercising regularly, taking vitamin B12, B6, Omega 3 and Folic Acid supplements are a good idea to start. Clinical depression is diagnosed when someone has low moods, feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, etc. for 2 or more weeks. That seems like a short period, but that is the medical standard.
I would say that if you try the things I mentioned before, and you don't feel better within 2 weeks, to see a doctor. Studies show that for clinical depression (and axiety disorders) what works best is a combination of the things I already talked about, plus medication and therapy. Cognitive behavior therapy is [probably] the most common type.
I personally have been on several medications and am at the moment working with a psychiatrist to get the combination of meds and dosages stabilized. Don't be discouraged if you go the medication route and the first one doesn't work. Getting the right meds is part science and part art and part trial and error.
Dang, that was long. Sorry for that. Just skim it if you need to, lol.
My best management has been with eating clean and exercising, but I wish I could add therapy to it. I feel that would be the perfect trifecta for me.
I was on Celexa for a good 2 years, but I HATED the way it felt, and the VA wouldn't offer me counseling, because it wasn't PTSD-related. I can't afford counseling otherwise. =(
Suzanne
"Don't sacrifice what you want most for what you want right now."
taking Docycycline during 1st trimester of pregnancy
- darbyakeep45
on Dec. 14, 2012 at 4:56 AM