Hi everybody!
I have been reading posts in this forum for a while and I'm glad that I found such a positive and supportive community here.
A little bit about
myself...and this is long!
I'm a female, 43 years old. 2016 has been kind of rough year. My first experiences with anxiety started around July, after we have to hospitalized our daughter for 9 days. Thanks to GOD she is fine now and have been fine for the last 4 months. Kids have an amazing way to recover and continue with their lives with no regrets
Needless to say that her hospitalization was hard for my nerves and my mind. I felt that I couldn't control things and I wanted her to feel better. My husband took this better than me, thank God. During the month of August, I started having little anxiety attacks since I was worried about
her all the time but I decided to talk to a therapist and she helped a lot with only one consultation. Plus I had a weekend long visit from an old dear friend which helped a lot as well. After this, my anxiety attacks went away and I was living a normal life but then I was also drinking too much wine which started to nag me as well. I completely stopped drinking my dear wine as soon as I started the antibiotics for a sinus infection and has been a month without wine so far, which is a positive.
Fast forward to November, I had a nasty sinus infection that didn't want to go away after the first course of antibiotics so I started freaking out about
this since I thought that I was having something worse. The classic start up of anxiety problems as you all know is thinking and believing that you are dying of something. So I Googled about
sinus infection that are hard to get rid off and I found everything from rest and take your meds and you will be fine soon to you may die of a brain infection, ugh. Never again, I will Google any diseases. I will stick to plain doctor consultation. I went to the walk-in clinic doctor again and he prescribed me another course of antibiotics and Prednisone. The days that I took the Prednisone were truly horrible. I didn't sleep for days and the combination of not feeling well, the Prednisone, the antibiotics, Google searches, lead my first experience with a horrible panic attack which ended at the ER. I thought that I was dying from a heart attack. At the ER they checked everything and other than a slightly elevated heart rate (due to anxiety) and somewhat high HBP everything was fine. They did and EKG, full blood work,x-rays and I went home with a prescript
ion of Vistaril and a recommendation to look for psychiatrist help.
After that panic attack and the ER visit, even though I knew I was fine, I was also worried about
upcoming panic attacks and my anxiety was thru the roof. This lead to a bit of depression and everything that comes with this. I had a few episodes of depression in the past that were related to major events in my life: after moving to a different country, having my first baby and after my daughter was sick. I described them situational depression episodes and I was able to get out of them on my own without help. But this time is different since I never experienced a full panic attack like I did three weeks ago and that was scary. So this time is different.
After searching high and low I found a good therapist near my home which I have seen twice so far and she is doing various therapies with me (can't remember the acronym, lol). A psychiatrist on the other hand has been more difficult since all of them were booked until February of 2017! But I finally found one that will see me next week but yesterday I went to get my annual done with my general practice (GP) doctor and I explained to him all this ordeal and he prescribed me Lexapro. I was dealing ok with the Vistaril and coping techniques but nowhere close to how I really are. The mornings are specially hard and around 2pm something clicks in my head and I get to feel more calmed and being able to have good evening and nights with my family. But still, not feeling like myself so he told me that I have the same amount of anxiety and depression so he gave me Lexapro starting with 5mg for 7 days and them up to 10mg for 7 days and go back to the doctor to talk about
it. He encouraged me to talk to my psychiatrist as well which I have an appointment next week.
I have never had to take and AD before so I'm struggling with this but at the same time I want to be back to myself, the same person that I was a month ago! My husband thinks that I don't need them. Today I will see my therapist to continue with my therapy, I took the 5mg of Lexapro with instructions to take the Vistaril if I feel too anxious and seeing a psychiatrist next week, so I think I'm covered in addition to a few coping techniques like: reading, watching HGTV, learning how to breath in/out and learning meditation. But I can't help to think that maybe, just maybe its possible for me to get out of this rut without medication?? But this has being going all for three weeks so I may truly need Lexapro help for a short period of time. Maybe three months? Anxiety and depression runs in my family as well.
I appreciate any input that you can provide and Happy Holidays!
Post Edited (tupuedes) : 12/22/2016 10:00:48 AM (GMT-7)