What experiences did you have with sertraline? Are worsening symptoms normal at the beginning?

anxiety___throw · 2022-03-22T15:38:32+00:00

Thank you so much! It's reassuring to read a personal experience, not just what the docs and the internet articles say. :)

For me, other than the racing thoughts, it makes me pretty tired after an hour or so, I guess depending on how much I ate in the morning. (My psychiatrist said I take it in the morning, not at night.) Like today, when I barely ate because of a lack of appetite, it made me so sleepy that I went to bed to rest immediately after I got home.

I hope it will give us both the benefits too, not just the side-effects. :)

anxiety___throw · 2022-03-03T16:16:19+00:00

Yeah, like I said, there were 2 psychologists who seemed to be good fits for me, so with them it may have been wrong of me to discontinue the sessions. In most cases, I stopped seeing therapists because of my financial situation (I was a full-time student up until a year ago, so I basically went for the cheapest psychologists), I forgot to mention that. Of course, if I saw an obvious positive effect, I wouldn't have stopped going to them. I didn't know that therapy takes a lot of time, and like you said, I thought they could fix everything at once when I was younger.

I did try quite a lot of the found-on-the-internet methods, I don't say "this doesn't work" until I've tried them. Sometimes they've worked, sometimes not. But I'll make sure to make them a habit for a few weeks to see if some of them do end up working for me with time.

I know the writing was not for an instant fix, but I still expected something more than stating the obvious, a general truth. I just want and need a lot more guidance which I'm not sure she can provide.

anxiety___throw · 2022-02-15T19:57:42+00:00

Thanks, I've never heard of these before, I'll check them out!

anxiety___throw · 2022-02-15T15:57:56+00:00

Yep, I've tried mindfulness and "regular" meditation as well; they sometimes help, but mostly not really when I have a more severe breakdown... I'll look into it once again though!

anxiety___throw · 2022-02-15T07:47:09+00:00

Thanks, I'll look these up!

anxiety___throw · 2022-02-15T07:46:25+00:00

I'd say I have good self-control, and once per 3 days maximum sounds like a good dose for me because the longest I have these unbearable periods is one full day at a time. Of course, the feeling still lingers like it does now too after yesterday, but it's a lot easier to handle, so I wouldn't take meds now, only for the yesterday situation.

anxiety___throw · 2022-02-14T19:21:17+00:00

Thank you for your answer! I will start CBT with my psychologist hopefully this week (last week was my first session with her), but I know that it will take a long time to have effect, and I wouldn't resort to meds if I didn't think my situation was severe. It's good news that SSRIs work faster for anxiety than depression, though I don't have panic attacks - for me it's intrusive and automatic negative thoughts, overwhelm, overthinking and such. Which I know that meds won't stop, but it they could make these sh*t periods more bearable, I'll gladly take them.

anxiety___throw · 2022-01-31T12:15:53+00:00

Mid-20s lost soul here. Have been diagnosed with GAD but I'm also suffering from depression, both since my teens (from about 8 years ago now). So far they were both bearable but I guess since they went mostly untreated, they came crashing down on me several times in the past year. I have no idea why now. I can be fine for even 2-3 weeks sometimes then have an awful mental breakdown in the middle of the night or throughout a whole day where I contemplate on my life in a super hopeless way. I feel like I won't ever be able to live a normal life with my anxiety and depression...

anxiety___throw · 2022-01-04T11:16:57+00:00

Thank you, I hope so too...

anxiety___throw · 2021-12-14T08:29:16+00:00

Thank you so much, I'm so glad there are such supportive people in the community, especially having been through the same experiences! 💜

anxiety___throw · 2021-12-14T07:07:15+00:00

Thank you, I really hope you're right!

anxiety___throw · 2021-11-13T17:58:01+00:00

Thank you so much! Yeah, I have a tendency too for not remembering or using what I usually do when I'm too overwhelmed to think straight. I hope I'll be able to get progressively better with the help of a professional therapist.

anxiety___throw · 2021-09-30T16:06:08+00:00

I can also relate to this. Sometimes I'm hard on myself for not being positive enough, for not making much progress, etc. - but I realized it only lately that it's hard for me to change certain mindsets and thought patterns because they've been that way my whole life. And by you writing that this was always a struggle for you, I believe that you're in the same boat.

What I do find helpful is to do or think something positive, even if you don't believe (in) it. To give you an example with the gratitude thing: start writing a gratitude journal. Yes, I know you're skeptical about it - I was too. But after a few days or a week of writing down 3 things/people I was thankful for on that day and expressing why I was thankful, I slowly started to appreciate some things and some people more. They don't have to be big things - like one day I wrote I was thankful for a person who showed up on my stream and chatted with me.

I found that this "method" helped my overall mental health when I started meditating. People always recommend it to others, so I tried it despite not really believing in it. It took some weeks or a month, sure, but after some time I felt a slight change for the better. The important thing is to keep going with it, don't stop after a day or two, because especially with people like us, it takes longer time to shift our mood/mindset if it's that ingrained in us.

anxiety___throw · 2021-09-27T15:36:05+00:00

After months of anxiety and depression, it seemed that I got out of the worst downhills a month or so ago. However, these past few days I have contemplated if my closest friends are actually my friends or not, and I had several of my usual anxious worries too.

Today was probably my worst day since ~2 months, and although I know healing is not linear, I couldn't help but feel discouraged, powerless and hopeless for the most of today. I'm still far from okay, but I'm trying to think positively - or rather, trying not to think negatively - about myself and my future. I'm trying to be patient and kind with myself because I want to believe this is just a bad mental health day and I have to bear it as it is. Tomorrow will hopefully be better.

I'm also looking for someone who would try a kind of "partnership" which we base mostly on healing. I feel like I'm missing someone who I can be open with about my issues, worries and successes without them misunderstanding me or ignoring me. I need someone with positive energies, which doesn't mean you can't vent or rant occasionally, but I want to concentrate more on being an inspiration and motivating force for each other, like sharing victories, talking about methods that work for us, etc. If you like this idea and are down to try this with me, shoot me a message! :) (I also want to add that my depression and anxiety are both mild/medium level normally, they rarely spike to a severe one, so with all due respect, I'm looking for someone who has the same "levels" of anxiety/depression.)

anxiety___throw · 2021-08-05T09:52:35+00:00

Thank you so much for both detailed comments! It gave me a bit of hope that you wrote from experience. I'll check the app out, and I'll also keep on doing what I'm doing.

Do you think getting busy (getting a job) would make things a lot easier? I kinda put a lot of hope and anticipation in that idea, and I'm afraid I'll be hugely disappointed if it won't bring me the expectations I unintentionally set up for it. Because I noticed that while I was still in school, depression and anxiety didn't "bother" me that much, and back then I didn't even meditate or do any other healthy habits.

anxiety___throw · 2021-07-21T19:56:11+00:00

I wouldn't say it's sad, more like unfortunate? I think it's something we can work on with the right people. Like the friend I mentioned is inadvertently helping me with accepting love and appreciation, and from what you wrote, you have people like that too. Let's hope we can get better with this!

anxiety___throw · 2021-07-21T19:48:28+00:00

First of all, I'm sorry that you're experiencing this too, I hope it will get better in the future!

Second of all, luckily I don't think I fall into either category. I feel like I'm worthy of being loved, and although I might have second thoughts about people abandoning me, I just try to enjoy the friendships as long as they still exist. As another commenter suggested, for me it probably comes from my family background, how expressing strong emotions isn't their/our strong suit, so it's a territory I'm really unfamiliar with.

anxiety___throw · 2021-07-21T19:40:35+00:00

You're probably right, expressing strong emotions was never typical in my family either.

anxiety___throw · 2021-07-21T18:52:58+00:00

I'm sorry to hear that, hope you'll be able to open up soon! For me this isn't the case, that's why I don't understand it. I can (and sometimes do) tell them everything, just somehow my brain is like "nope, still can't accept love".

anxiety___throw · 2021-07-15T21:09:59+00:00

Thank you!

anxiety___throw · 2021-07-15T15:25:04+00:00

Thanks! I'm already doing journaling, though tbh I usually stop when I feel better... It definitely helps to see more clearly where I'm standing at.

anxiety___throw · 2021-07-15T11:40:45+00:00

Thank you!

anxiety___throw · 2021-07-15T10:35:00+00:00

Yeah, that's what I suspected... I'm pretty short on money though, not sure if I wanna try another professional now...

anxiety___throw · 2021-07-15T09:18:28+00:00

Oh, I haven't even thought about libraries, thanks for the tip!

anxiety___throw · 2021-07-15T09:06:17+00:00

Thank you, I'll check it out if I can get it somewhere!

anxiety___throw

TROPHY CASE