lifelong anxiety - just got help at age 20.

[smorrow]

Hi, I am 20 years old and I decided to join this forum to get support and information from others who have gone through similar life situations to me, and who have been taken over by anxiety and fear as I have.

I can remember having irrational fears since I was a young child. I thought that I was having a heart attack, or cancer, or some sort of disease at a young age. I used to have fears of my mother getting sick and dying. When I was a child, it was all about death and sickness. Some of the anxiety seemed to go away until I was about 14 when I started to first get panic attacks. I would be so afraid that I had a major health issue that I would start to hyperventilate and often black out. Since then I have had countless trips to emerg thinking I am having a heart attack when really it is a panic attack every single time. I worry often, I lack confidence in myself even though people are constantly trying to boost my confidence and say wonderful things about me, I have a hard time in group social settings, and I always feel inferior to whoever I am with.

I am so ready for this to go away. I have dealt with it alone for so long that it sounds too good to be true that I will soon start to feel normal and really become the person I deserve to be.

My GP just prescribed Cipralex to me and I have only taken two 10mg doses before bed. So far I have had very strong side-effects. I have the most vivid colourful dreams, I have this hot tingly feeling in my body as I'm falling asleep, I have nausea in the morning, no appetite whatsoever, and constant dizziness. I can't stop my legs from moving either. Mentally, I have had little anxiety for the past 2 days but often I will go a period of time with no anxiety so this is not necessarily due to the Cipralex.

Anyways that is a bit about me. I look forward to recovering and to reading about all the success stories on the forum.

:)

[camel]

Hi and welcome

You will find a lot of support here, especially in the chat room. please check it out
I was on Cipralex for a year. If you are having strong side effects, you can taper the dose up by taking half a tablet for a week before moving up to the full dose. it might lessen the side effects.

I wish you luck and look forward to seeing you in the chat room

Take care

[tigerpaw]

I know you will find lots of support here. Let me remind you you can access the Chat Room, after (3) posts in the forum, and talk live to some of us here!  A great resource for you. Also you can post your favorite picture in the Members Gallery. Lots to do here~