A safe place for anxiety sufferers to share.

Loujoe

lastexitlondon said:

Ive gotten to an all time low. Im sick and tired and physically  ill with no answers.
Ive got a load of tee shirts i just unearthed all womens or kids . Very small unworn or worn  once. Anyone have kids they  want a tee shirt for i would like to give a few away to people who have helped me. And have listened when nobody else would. I cant be bothered working  out what  they are worth  and all that shit. 
Im very grateful to my friends here. I re read hedos message to me at her darkest time she told me keep my chin up. I feel i let her down by not being able to be strong in the face of illness myself like she and my dad were. 
If i had one bit of advice its live whilst you can. Use all your  limbs  amd move freely whilst you can.

Love you bud! F..k everything sometimes. Keep your chin up is ok to say, but sometimes you got to just sit in the sh.t to find your own way out. Love you my friend.  F..k it all for this minute. Maybe crack a smile the next. Take care

Loujoe

I'm sorry you are feeling sick.

lastexitlondon

Good people here. Thanks folks 

lastexitlondon

I wish there was  a way to switch this off

marjen

Hello. So i wont go into my whole backstory but needless to say i have suffered from anxiety for years. I have tried to convince myself i have it under control and it doesn’t really impact my life too much but really it affects so much of what i do. The main issues i face is around driving and heights. It makes vacations a nightmare. But it also has gotten to the point where I hardly drive anywhere anymore unless its backroads rthat i drive almost daily. The highway has become a nightmare for me as well as roads i am not familiar with. It started with a new fear of heights I acquired 20 years ago and got worse after i passed out from a minor heart condition i have. 

Anyway after a week that has gone really badly I visited my dr this week and agreed to go on Lexapro. I have major concerns about taking a drug daily, I dont really trust these things if i am being honest. I am concerned about side effects and other possible interactions. Which is something i wanted to ask about. I figure there are others here on Lexapro or something similar. I am someone who enjoys visiting breweries and usually have a few beers most Saturday nights and also when on vacation. I asked my Dr about it and he said just take the pill in the morning and it should not be an issue. But i dangerously starting looking it up online and see many hard nos for any alcohol and Lexapro. Does anyone here take it and also still enjoy a few drinks? I men i guess if this pill really solves a lot of the anxiety issues I could learn to deal with not drinking anymore but holduays, dinner with friends, concerts, i really enjoy a few beers doing those things. 

Thanks for any feedback. 

lastexitlondon

Drink and anti depressants  wont harm you but they  wont work as well.  Basically  drink is a depressant so its like taking both cancel out eachother. Ive found side effects  can be mild mostly but getting off them has been a nightmare.  Its very individual.  I guess try and see what happens. You can always stop one or the  other  
 Although  stopping drinking  is very hard indeed. I think any advice would be anecdotal but i dont know many if any. Maybe one person on here that has benefited  much from ssri . My experience and my family and friends experience is short  term you may become like an emotionless  wall of bluntness but as far as anything like a cure. My opinion  is no pills  can do that. But just my experience  not to be used as a guide or anything 

lastexitlondon

After re reading . I understand  if you had a heart issue that pills may worry you  too so an extra reason to think  longer.

a5pj

marjen said:

Hello. So i wont go into my whole backstory but needless to say i have suffered from anxiety for years. I have tried to convince myself i have it under control and it doesn’t really impact my life too much but really it affects so much of what i do. The main issues i face is around driving and heights. It makes vacations a nightmare. But it also has gotten to the point where I hardly drive anywhere anymore unless its backroads rthat i drive almost daily. The highway has become a nightmare for me as well as roads i am not familiar with. It started with a new fear of heights I acquired 20 years ago and got worse after i passed out from a minor heart condition i have. 

Anyway after a week that has gone really badly I visited my dr this week and agreed to go on Lexapro. I have major concerns about taking a drug daily, I dont really trust these things if i am being honest. I am concerned about side effects and other possible interactions. Which is something i wanted to ask about. I figure there are others here on Lexapro or something similar. I am someone who enjoys visiting breweries and usually have a few beers most Saturday nights and also when on vacation. I asked my Dr about it and he said just take the pill in the morning and it should not be an issue. But i dangerously starting looking it up online and see many hard nos for any alcohol and Lexapro. Does anyone here take it and also still enjoy a few drinks? I men i guess if this pill really solves a lot of the anxiety issues I could learn to deal with not drinking anymore but holduays, dinner with friends, concerts, i really enjoy a few beers doing those things. 

Thanks for any feedback. 

My internet opinion, try the pill, trust your dr, don't go looking for horror stories cuz you'll find them. Give the pill a good trial and see what happens. If you have a few drinks when on the pill and it doesn't work don't do it anymore. Worrying about what might happen is probably worse than what will, but I'm no dr. If you have other med issues talk with your other dr's and pharmacists. 

I tried a pill for a while when I was really down, it worked, took 6 or 8 weeks like the dr said, but yea it worked. I got better with therapy and life situations and weened off the pill. I may need it again, who knows. fyi I stopped drinking during this time too, not totally, but realized it's not worth the after effects for me...

Hoping it works out for you

lastexitlondon

Ive been encouraged to try a couple new meds and i must admit im giving it extra thoughts  as i really have nothing  to lose the severity of this now. Its very hard to decide 

Gern Blansten

lastexitlondon said:

Drink and anti depressants  wont harm you but they  wont work as well.  Basically  drink is a depressant so its like taking both cancel out eachother. Ive found side effects  can be mild mostly but getting off them has been a nightmare.  Its very individual.  I guess try and see what happens. You can always stop one or the  other  
 Although  stopping drinking  is very hard indeed. I think any advice would be anecdotal but i dont know many if any. Maybe one person on here that has benefited  much from ssri . My experience and my family and friends experience is short  term you may become like an emotionless  wall of bluntness but as far as anything like a cure. My opinion  is no pills  can do that. But just my experience  not to be used as a guide or anything 

I benefitted greatly from Paxil and Effexor. I was on it for a few years and eventually stopped taking it. That was about 22 years ago.

I kind of feel like I might need to consider it again to help with anxiety and self esteem, etc. It worked wonders before.

marjen

Thanks. Yeah I don’t plan on drinking at all for at least the first few weeks as I want to see how the medicine works without anything handicapping it. Have read a lot of stories where people drink and for the most part have no issues. I also know alcohol can work against the drugs so will see how things go. Right now my anxiety is at an all time high. I cant really even drive right now as I had a panic attack behind the wheel last week. This stemmed from a situation mountain biking the week prior where I passed out. It’s not the first time, it’s happened twice before over the last 20 or so years. It’s supposedly related to a minor heart issue I have. But mountain biking is usually the thing I do to manage my anxiety and now that is just blown up. Tried to ride twice last week and did short slow rides and every time I got out of breath was worried about passing out again. So now the anxiety has just taken hold. Very frustrated and defeated at the moment. That’s why we’ll discuss the incident with my dr I decided to finally try anxiety meds. I think anxiety has potentially played a role in the passing out as all e times i has having anxious days. Not to see I haven’t had a ton of other lol, but think just the perfect storm hits and it can impact my condition. 

I started on the Lexapro Sunday. Some minor side effects which sound normal and I realize it will take a few weeks too hopefully work and man do I hope it does. 

a5pj

marjen said:

Thanks. Yeah I don’t plan on drinking at all for at least the first few weeks as I want to see how the medicine works without anything handicapping it. Have read a lot of stories where people drink and for the most part have no issues. I also know alcohol can work against the drugs so will see how things go. Right now my anxiety is at an all time high. I cant really even drive right now as I had a panic attack behind the wheel last week. This stemmed from a situation mountain biking the week prior where I passed out. It’s not the first time, it’s happened twice before over the last 20 or so years. It’s supposedly related to a minor heart issue I have. But mountain biking is usually the thing I do to manage my anxiety and now that is just blown up. Tried to ride twice last week and did short slow rides and every time I got out of breath was worried about passing out again. So now the anxiety has just taken hold. Very frustrated and defeated at the moment. That’s why we’ll discuss the incident with my dr I decided to finally try anxiety meds. I think anxiety has potentially played a role in the passing out as all e times i has having anxious days. Not to see I haven’t had a ton of other lol, but think just the perfect storm hits and it can impact my condition. 

I started on the Lexapro Sunday. Some minor side effects which sound normal and I realize it will take a few weeks too hopefully work and man do I hope it does. 

That's great news!! Hope it works for you.
I will share from my own life that I never knew I had anxiety, thought it was normal, walking around near panic attack all the time, yippie. So therapy really helped me, 1st year was really just recognizing it and what causes it. 2nd year really found strategies to manage and deal with it. And we keep it moving from there.

HughFreakingDillon

marjen said:

Hello. So i wont go into my whole backstory but needless to say i have suffered from anxiety for years. I have tried to convince myself i have it under control and it doesn’t really impact my life too much but really it affects so much of what i do. The main issues i face is around driving and heights. It makes vacations a nightmare. But it also has gotten to the point where I hardly drive anywhere anymore unless its backroads rthat i drive almost daily. The highway has become a nightmare for me as well as roads i am not familiar with. It started with a new fear of heights I acquired 20 years ago and got worse after i passed out from a minor heart condition i have. 

Anyway after a week that has gone really badly I visited my dr this week and agreed to go on Lexapro. I have major concerns about taking a drug daily, I dont really trust these things if i am being honest. I am concerned about side effects and other possible interactions. Which is something i wanted to ask about. I figure there are others here on Lexapro or something similar. I am someone who enjoys visiting breweries and usually have a few beers most Saturday nights and also when on vacation. I asked my Dr about it and he said just take the pill in the morning and it should not be an issue. But i dangerously starting looking it up online and see many hard nos for any alcohol and Lexapro. Does anyone here take it and also still enjoy a few drinks? I men i guess if this pill really solves a lot of the anxiety issues I could learn to deal with not drinking anymore but holduays, dinner with friends, concerts, i really enjoy a few beers doing those things. 

Thanks for any feedback. 

I went back on lexapro last spring. I went against my doctor's advice to start out on 5mg and taper up after a few weeks. I said to myself "ah, fuck it, I've been on this before at 20mg, just going to start with 10". BIG MISTAKE. really bad GI issues for 5 weeks before I finally quit. But my anxiety got so bad I decided to give it another go as of this summer. started on 5mg for two weeks. tapered up to 10 after. Been fine the whole time. anxiety pretty much gone. 

yes, you will read horror stories on the internet about everything from taking an advil with lexapro to drinking. it's all individual. I avoided advil for the first while (which sucked), but then realized, I used to take it occasionally years ago when on lex, so I did again when I'd have a headache or muscle inflammation, and no issues. 

and as others have said, having drinks while on it won't harm you, it just may lessen the effects of the drug. 

HughFreakingDillon

I have one small teen daughter Rob that may like a PJ shirt (my other daughter wouldn't wear it lol). what do you have?

lastexitlondon

I gave them to my brothers  kids. I may have a couple left.  Im really in the  shit atm. I will try get my shit together asap

HughFreakingDillon

lastexitlondon said:

I gave them to my brothers  kids. I may have a couple left.  Im really in the  shit atm. I will try get my shit together asap

no worries man! take care. 

lastexitlondon

I wont post much for a bit its all come on top and im unable to function.  Take care

JPPJ84

lastexitlondon said:

I wont post much for a bit its all come on top and im unable to function.  Take care

Hang in there, Rob 💛

lastexitlondon

Thank you to eachand every friend here for listening to my ramblings and fears all year. Truly.  Thank you. 
Hedo if you are out there. Thank you too.

Loujoe

Love you all. Nice thread to release all that garbage keeping good people all tangled up. Stay well. 2023 is coming. Shoot we olllld.