I am new, looking for advice

[jccflorida]

Hi,  here's my story.  I'm 27 years old and have had anxiety (panic attacks) for the past 7 years.  I've been to many doctors, been on different meds, but the problem persists.  Within the last year, I developed hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).  The doctors thought that was the entire cause of my anxiety, because when your sugar gets low you can have panic attack like symptoms.  However, although it is true this happens, the anxiety also happens when my sugar level is fine.  I have had considerable weight loss as well, but this is easily explained by my change in diet to a low carb diet due to the hypoglycemia.

Lately, I have become more convinced that perhaps all of these problems are only signs of a much larger problem, and fear that perhaps I have some cancer or disease and am dying.  This fear is somewhat fueled by my psychiatrist who also feels that these things are caused by a larger problem.  He wants me to have a full body CAT scan.  But the reality is, it is much more likely that these problems are not caused by something catostrophic.  Though I still worry about it alot. 

Do any of you have any suggestions that might help?  I really appreciate it.

JCC

[apple]

I do have a lot of advise only its going to take a while to sort it out.
I had panic attacks at LEAST 4 times a week for a few years and I have been panic free for 3 years now. I have a package that I worked thru and it worked. Let me know if you would like me to scan it and e-mail it to you?

I no longer have panic but I am still working on generalized anxiety disorder...although I am very close now to where I want to be

apple

[Jamie]

I would say try Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and learn to use the TEA form exercise and it will help you a lot. I would also be interested in hearing more about what worked for apple. By chance was it CBT as well?

[apple]

Yes I am in behavior therapy currently...down to once a month now rather than every week. this has made the most dramatic change since I did a workbook coping with panic. Still not where I want to be but I am getting close..

Apple

[Jamie]

I am happy to hear that apple and it sounds like we are at similar stages in our recovery. I have several panic and anxiety workbooks already which one are you referring to? Most of the exercises have been helpful to me but I am getting the most out of using the TEA form exercise daily. Which exercise is helping you the most? Take care.

[apple]

I guess I have been using TEA without knowing it...yes this is truly helpful.

My last stage in recovery now is quitting smoking...last time I did this for 6 months and I hurt soo bad from tense muscles I couldn't stand it anymore.  I was on medication but that didn't help. However after getting so far with behavior therapy I'm going to try again.
maybe I could talk to my doctor about putting me back on the anti-psychotic Risperdal, maybe I can be successful this time?  I don't know..the longest I've gone without medication was 1 year, then I tried to quit smoking and kicked my anxiety back into gear only full throttle...if I can't I guess smoking may be my only way to cope?

Apple

[mbabynz]

OK what is this TEA thing  :question:apple what are you on for meds, we have similar things going on 1 the head thing  I'm interested in seeing if it could work for me i
mbabynz

[apple]

I guess TEA is where you take an anxiety situation, write down what your thinking and then replace the thoughts that are not really going to happen and replace them with positive or actual reasonable thoughts.

Risperdal is an anti-psycotic, its the only thing that works for the head thing for me, and I've been off of it for 4 days. the head thing is back.

Risperdal is used for schizophrenia, bi-polar, and severe cases of anxiety. It is a scary med because in the beginning for 4 days I slept in every day and my tongue waggled (felt too fat for my mouth). Then I found that if I took it at 4:30 I was able to go to bed around 10:00 and wake up feeling good. There are other side effects that are scary, if you look it up you will understand.  However for me after 4 days I was fine and I didn't experience the other side effects it said.

I figure the good out weighed the bad.  Hopefully the doctor will put me back on.

Apple

[mbabynz]

Sorry to hear your head thingy is back (I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL) hopefully the doc will sort it out take care
mbabynz

[Jamie]

Glad to hear you are having success with TEA forms whether you called them TEA forms or something else Apple. The more I use them the more they help me.

This is a copy of my reply to mbabyny on another subject about TEA fiorms:
TEA is the acronym for the Thought Error Analysis form where you put your upsetting thoughts into one then list all the thinking errors in the thought and finally counter them with more rational thoughts in the analysis section. It is a fairly basic exercise that I learned how to do them in the book by Sam Obitz titled Been there, Done That? DO THIS! It has examples of them and lists all the common thinking errors that cause anxiety. The more I wortk at them the more they tend to reduce my anxiety and I have come a long way from where I was when I started using them.

[mbabynz]

thanks for that im trying really hard to put the good thoughts in and with lots more practice im gonna get there 
mbabynz

[Jamie]

You're welcome and I am sure if you keep working at them you will have the same kind of success I have had so far :)