Year help: im a 21 year old single mother of a 3 1/2 yr old.. - Help.com

I know exactly how you feel. In my case it comes from thinking too much.. I try to analyse every little thing in details and then start to scare myself. I’ve always had this fear of going sick for instance.. and every little thing I feel inside me leads me to think I’m not feeling well though I am. lol The truth is you are most likely just fine. You need to relax and concentrate on other things. Have you ever tried dynamic yoga?? It helps me a lot with that and anxiety/panic attacks. AND, it’s a really good exercise to keep toned and healthy so it’s perfect. :) Keeping a diary helps too. Whenever you feel anxious, write about it in, why you feel that way, how illogical it is, that things are not that bad and what you can do to avoid it.

Hope this helps.

hi Maegan,

I noticed another recent posting from you and then came to your profile to see this one. So I am replying to this posting of yours instead.

I also have anxiety panic disorder and some depression that goes along with it.
I’m on 30mg Paroxetine (the generic alternative to Paxil), one pill a day. It helps with anxiety & depression. Sometimes I cut the pill in half and I still do just fine. If things get really out of control in my life, then I use the full 30mg pill/day. I’ve been on it for several years now and I also have 1mg Lorazepam handy incase I have a panic attack and I’m having a difficult time calming down. The Lorazepam (generic alternative to Ativan) is like a tranquilizer when a panic attack comes along. A full 1mg can sure make me feel dizzy and I can’t drive a car, but instead I cut the pill in half and that seems to be good enough for me.

I find that when I’m in the middle of a panic attack, my way of thinking is so different and I tend to think thots that could bring on another attack or leave me feeling afraid for most of the day. My mornings were the worse because I was always afraid to start another new day with this problem. I felt like things were going to spin out of control for me. So, my panic attacks would happen first thing in the mornings.

The Lorazepam (Ativan) is usually put under the tongue when I was in the hospital, but now I take it as a pill and can cut in half. I find that once it calms me down, I can think a little more clearly and I just take one hour at a time and not worry about the rest of the day. Just live for the hour. Then once I have confidence to get through the day, I take one day at a time. Again, not worrying about what tomorrow brings or what next week brings.

For some time now I haven’t had to use the Lorazepam to calm me down. I’ve been able to keep calm on my own. The Paroxetine is all I need for now.

In response to another posting of yours, it’s possible that you need your bf because he DOES offer comfort to you at times, but be sure that you are in love with him too. Do you want a future with him? Is he supportive in other ways? Is he trustworthy? Does he really care about you and shows it in his actions and attitude?

It’s easy to look to certain things or people to keep us comfortable, but we need to learn to make ourselves comfortable, especially if those things and people ever disappear out of our lives. Don’t put too much focus and dependance on one thing or one person. Surround yourself with people who are encouraging, positive and outgoing.

Here are some websites you can look at . . .

Coping With Anxiety
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=c…

Anxiety Information with videos (right side of page)

Panic Attacks: Self Care

Answers To Questions About Panic Disorder

Cure Panic Attacks

Herbal Anxiety Relief
You might be able to find this product at your local Health Food/Vitamin Store or something similar to it.

I hope all this can be of help to you.

:)

If your afraid your becoming dependant on the xanax, you need to try the Panic Attacks: Self Care exercises in the link I gave you above. Try to take control on your own. It can be done gradually. If I found that a panic attack was out of control, then I would take the ativan, but I haven’t had to take it as much lately as I’ve been able to get more control over my anxiety gradually.

It’s nice to meet people like you who have the same thing I have. At least you don’t feel like your the only one out there living with this.

I wouldn’t mind joining a support group in my town, but there aren’t any available.
So it’s nice to find others on the internet who I can identify with.

I sometimes find myself avoiding situations and places that cause my anxiety level to rise. I do make a point to get outdoors and not closet myself.

When I had some panic attacks in the past, I would find it becoming a repeating cycle every day. My mornings were the worse. I would always end up waking up really early when a robin outside would start singing and I could see it becoming daylight out there. Then I would feel awkward about facing another new day.
I had a difficult time getting up for the day and my anxiety level would rise.
I would go through this every morning. So I had to take the ativan to help me get a grip on this and I had to learn to calm down and take just one hour at a time and not worry about the rest of the day. Just live for the hour and then eventually expand it to just taking one day at a time and live for the day, not worrying about tomorrow and next week, etc.

Ativan takes a bit longer to take effect. Xanax works much faster.
I think your better off just using what works best for you.

Your gonna want to someday live without xanax or ativan or any other anxiety pill.
They could become addicting over time. The only times I used ativan was when my anxiety got so bad that I was having panic attacks. Otherwise, I have learned to deal with anxiety on my own without taking the ativan. I only needed it like a tranquilizer to calm me down so I could think better. It made me tired and even a bit dizzy but at least I could get better control of my extreme anxiety at the moment.

Maegan, I believe that much of the reason we anxiety sufferers struggle with anxiety and panic attacks is because we think about it way too much. Or we think about our problems way too much. The mind can be very powerful over the body if we allow ourselves to become obsessed with our worries and problems a lot.

I am just telling you this from my own experience. I found that once I began to focus on other things that were positive and delightful and even fun, I was soon able to overcome my panic attacks and now I have way less anxiety than ever before. All because of the way I think.

Before I was always re-thinking all my worries and plus I would become so stressed over everything. It’s only because I allowed myself to become that way. Every day I would wake up the same way and it kept repeating every single day until I finally tried to distract those thots I had by getting out and doing a fun activity often. Not just once, but often. I would do something entirely different and get out of that repeated cycle of worrying.

I have learned that all the worrying I do is not going to fix things. It will only add more problems to my health which will then cause me to worry even more and more. It can become a cycle that never ends. The medications never cure anxiety. They only help us cope through the really difficult times. The rest is up to us.

I believe that someday you can walk away from this and live a normal life again. It will not happen overnight. It will take some time. It’s like a child learning to ride a 2-wheel bicycle for the first time. At first they fall and maybe bruise themselves and then they choose to either try harder or they give into the fear of getting back on that bike again.
With a little encouragement and some practice, they learn to ride their bike successfully. The fear is still there at first but once they are confident on their bicycle, their fears go away and never come back.

What is triggering your anxiety? Are you worried about something every day?
Are you also worried about your anxiety too?
I use to get to the point where I would worry about having more anxiety, but that only made me worse. I had to stop worrying so much. I had to take baby-steps. What I mean is I would narrow my day down to taking just one hour at a time. I couldn’t predict how the day was going to go. So why worry about it. I lived for the moment I was in and I kept this up every day until my confidence got better.

Than I would expand myself from taking one hour at a time to taking one day at a time. I couldn’t predict how tomorrow was going to go. I could only live for today. So I thot to myself - why worry about tomorrow or next week or next month. All this worrying is not going to change anything. All it is doing to wrecking my health and keeping me from being relaxed and happy.

The choice we make can either be to spend hours upon hours worrying (which makes things worse) or we can spend hours and hours of NOT worrying and just have some fun and forget about the negative things. The fun and the laughter helped me get better over time. I had to learn to better myself by distracting those negative thots by making myself have some fun and do something creative or artistic or athletic or whatever - in order to get my thots on to better things. I replaced the ongoing negativity with ongoing postivity. My thinking began to change for the better and I was able to get thru my days much better.

The reason I am on the Paxil is also for anxiety, but mainly for depression. Due to a chemical imbalance in the brain, I end up in a depression. I could be having a perfectly normal and positive day, then suddenly be depressed for no reason. So I’ve had to remain on the paxil for years now.

The ativan is only there for me to take of I really get into a very bad panic attack that I can’t seem to control.

I find that I have a difficult time accepting big changes in my life. Or if an emergency comes up, I can sometimes lose control of my anxiety. I don’t like moving to a new home. It takes me quite a long time to adjust and I get anxiety easily over sudden changes that seem way out of my control. But I do try to adjust and accept changes, but it just takes me a bit of time. Eventually I get better and I think more positive thots. I tell myself that this is important for the sake of my health. If I go the negative way of thinking and remain that way, I will lose control and end up in really bad shape.

Please remember to look at all the links I gave you above. Also be sure to practice some Self-Care.
Panic Attacks: Self Care

Maegan, I hope you are doing okay lately. Please feel free to open up and share with me if you need to. I know what it’s like to go through anxiety and panic attacks.

How’s your son doing?
Are you still seeing your bf or have you had to break up with him?

Keep in touch. I care about you and want to know that your okay.

*big hug* :)

Maegan wrote:
i think id like to talk to you grego

My email is living2gift @ gmail.com (without the spaces)