I had this email from on of our readers who needed some reassurance because of her severe struggle with Anxiety. This is her email with names and locations changed for privacy. Please read to the end because the story gets much better.
Dear Jacob and Emma,I don’t really know what I’m doing writing this email. I wrote a very long comment on the article Managing and Diagnosing Extreme Anxiety Disorders, and then was too chicken to post it. I think I just need to reach out to someone who ‘gets’ it, you know?
Anyway. So, about a year ago, a bunch of really crap stuff happened in quick succession – a bunch of stuff I had no control over. I don’t want to go into detail about it, really, but the worst of the things that happened was my husband Continue Reading »
Question submitted by: Kenneth. Advice given by: Jacob Markusson
Q: I went to the hospital in the middle of the night with my wife at my side. I had a rapid heart beat, and pains in my chest. We were both frightened to death. When the doctor asked me all of my symptoms he told me I was probably just having an anxiety attack.
They checked my heart and my blood pressure, gave me a few pills, and sent me home. This led to some research on the Internet, and I think I may have an anxiety disorder. I’m scared and I sometimes I think I’m dying. Can you help me.
The good news is that you are taking action by seeking professional help from medical practitioners. Anxiety disorders are more prevalent now than ever before. You are not alone. I need to stress this. You are not alone. As soon as possible, book an appointment with a doctor, and tell him (or her) EVERY little detail as far as your symptoms go. Don’t leave out anything.
Your doctor will shed some light on your condition, but don’t just take one doctor’s opinion in this matter. He or she may diagnose your anxiety disorder right out of the gate, and guide you back to health quickly, but they may have very little experience dealing with a serious anxiety disorder. They might just throw some the drugs at you. That may be what you need, but you want to find out how severe your anxiety is. Find a good anxiety disorder specialist/therapist who can help you find out what level you are at.
Different Levels of an Anxiety Disorder
There are many different levels of anxiety. Below is a short list of different symptoms that are common to anxiety sufferers. Depending on your level of symptoms, you should be able to see yourself in the examples below.
Anxiety Symptoms - Level One (thought processing)
At the early stages of a growing anxiety disorder, it’s very common to have a strange feeling of listlessness, or lack of excitement for life in general. Activites that used to give you pleasure may no longer do so. You can have feeling of pulling away from others, yet they don’t think you are. You may find your temper is shorter, and you have very little patience for others in your workplace or home. A sufferer at the early stages of an anxiety disorder often see the world through what I call, “a dirty lens”. If a person could recognize this kind of thought processing, it would be possible for them to “snap out of it”, and avoid ever experiencing the higher level anxiety symptoms, including full blown panic attacks.
Anxiety Symptoms - Level Two (physical symptoms)
After a time period in which an anxiety sufferer is experiencing thoughts similar to the description above, they will often begin to notice some physical symptoms. They will likely experience the symptoms below one or two at a time, but only intermittently (in short spurts or every day or two)
Below I list some of these (what I call level two physical symptoms of a growing anxiety problem). All cases are different, but this list of symptoms covers the most common experience.
lack of appetite
lack of sleep
feeling of dread or impending death
discomfort around groups of people
a possible tingling sensation in the arms or legs
IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) constant diarrhea
extremely frequent urination
feeling like you’re losing your mind
scary thoughts (worried you may hurt someone) e.g. – afraid of knives because you imagine hurting or killing someone. Don’t worry….you won’t!
constant worrying about the worst possible outcomes in your life and others
early stages of agoraphobia and/or depression
self medicating with alcohol and/or legal and illegal drugs
rapid heart beat
nervous sweating
cramps in the stomach and abdomen area
dizziness
a feeling of being outside your own body (detachment)
fear of almost anything under the sun, and this includes the sun
thoughts of suicide
There are many other symptoms not listed here, so don’t be alarmed if you have other symptoms not in this list. You are not a special case. Don’t ask yourself, “why me”. Ask yourself, “when and where can I go to doctor or therapist as soon as possible”.
These are just some common symptoms in what I call “stage two” of a growing anxiety disorder. You may suffer from some of these, or perhaps all of these symptoms. If you are suffering from half of these symptoms, I want you to read this following sentence 5 times in a row, and breath as slowly as possible as you read this paragraph. You may think that relief from this hell on earth is impossible, but help is on it’s way.
Read now: I am experiencing a common “dis-ease” which is easily treatable, and I will seek professional help as soon as possible. I am not alone. Millions of people have experienced this same problem, and 99.9% of them recovered fully. I will trust the health professionals and make an appointment with an anxiety specialist tomorrow. I want to feel good.
Notice how I stress seeking help twice in that paragraph. You may be at a stage where you can’t even visualize feeling good again, but TRUST me, you will.
Anxiety Symptoms - Level Three (full blown panic attacks)
If you don’t seek professional medical help after experiencing the symptoms above, you may graduateto the third level of an acute anxiety disorder. Sufferers will experience all of the symptoms above on a more extreme level.
You may go for 2-3 days without ANY sleep. You may urinate constantly, and you may be in depression mode as well. Agoraphobia may be in full effect, and you avoid almost any activity, such as staying in bed period.
You may start having full blow panic attacks frequently until you only have a brief time between each anxiety attack. You can literally feel like you are falling into a black hole, in which you will never return from. This is the ugliest level of suffering, and some sufferers may consider suicide frequently. If this sound like where you are at, you need to read this paragraph below as well.
I am not alone. I am am much stronger than I think, and I am fully equipped to pull out of this. My body and mind are much stronger than I realize and I will seek professional help today. If I am reading this in the evening, I will go to a walk-in clinic tomorrow morning as soon as it opens and get help from a doctor. I will take the medication they prescribe, and I will not fear taking the medication. It won’t hurt me. I need to take action against this illness.
If you are in the third stage, I want to tell you something very important. It’s common to have a lot of “scary thoughts” in this stage. Yo may have extremely frightening thoughts of killing yourself or others, but DO NOT BELIEVE IT. This is VERY common and you are NOT going crazy. People suffering from this third stage anxiety rarely hurt ANYONE.
These scary thoughts you may be having are just a little survival trick your brain is playing with. Your brain will invent these extreme scary thoughts to replace the endless bombardment of worries you are harboring. Believe it or not, this is your mind trying to give you a break from REAL concerns that you can’t seem to deal with on your own.
This why you may be having feelings of detachment – like you are watching what is going on around you, but not in your own body. This sort of numb and fuzzy experience is ALSO a coping mechanism your brain has. Your brain is trying to give you a forced “time out” from your constant self obsession and worrying.
So please take some comfort in these words. You are going to be alright. You are going to feel good again. You are not experiencing anything abnormal. Millions of others have dealt with the exact same problem.
Do not be worried about your mind at this stage (I know you will, but take some comfort in these words as well. Your mind will not “snap”, and you will not be living in a rubber room. you are not going crazy. Your mind can handle this. You will get better and feel good again.
Do not be worried about your body at this horrible stage either. Your bowels, your stomach, your heart, your lungs, your muscles, your blood, your nervous system, are built to handle these symptoms. Don’t let any writings of doom and gloom add to your anxiety. Unless the writer has experienced an acute anxiety disorder (I have my whole life) they will not fully understand the reality of what you are going through, and they may seem way to calm as you try to explain that you are dying. By the way…..you are NOT dying. You have many year to go my friend, and there is help for you sooner than you think.
You may have lost weight to a really low appetite and a need to keep moving. If you have been suffering in the 2nd and 3rd stages of an acute anxiety disorder for an extended period of time, you may have lost between 10-50 pounds. Don’t worry about this either. You will get back on track and your appetite will come back. You may not believe me, depending on the stage you are at, but I assure you – you will recover from this.
Treatment, and Recovery from an Extreme Anxiety Disorder
Depending on the stage you are at, there is a few ways to approach your recovery. Some much better than the other.
Treatment One: If you are still in the early stage of an anxiety disorder you may be able to swing out of your funkby talking with others, making some changes in your life, educating yourself about stress (reading some good books), practising breathing exercises, etc. etc. You would be very wise to start some sessions with an anxiety therapist to help you even more. You may not need to take any medication, but it’s NOT a big deal if you do. Don’t let the ignorance of the general public con you into believing that the use of medication is a bad thing. It’s not.
Treatment Two: If you are in the 2nd and 3rd stages of an acute anxiety disorder, my advice is to get yourself to a good doctor and a good anxiety therapist ASAP. Do not refuse the medication they give you. It will not hurt you! When you hear stories in the media of people “flipping out”, and they were on a particular medication, take it with a grain fo salt. In most case when you hear about some extreme case where a person “wigged out and lost it”, it’s because they STOPPED taking the medication they needed. Usually they stopped taking their medication the wrong way, which is cold turkey. Listen to your doctors an follow the pharmacist’s instructions exactly. Ask lots of questions and educate yourself.
The first time I started taking anti-anxiety medication I read all the side effects on the bottle, and enclosed documentation, and it frightened me deeply. I thought I was experiencing ALL of the side effects, when this was just my anxiety ridden imagination causing more physical and emotional stress. I actually stopped taking the medication before it had a chance to work.
The next time I tried finally listening to the doctors I stayed with the medication and tried to have more faith in the therapist’s and doctor’s words. Within three weeks I started to pull out of the ugly third level stage I was in. I begin sleeping again, my apetitie kicked back in again, and I was slowly on my way to full recover. So don’t fear the medication. Anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication is MUCH better now. The world is long past the pill bombs such as Prozac. Paxil (which is considered old now too) , and Effexor are extremely effective if taken as prescribed. There are even BETTER meds being developed now.
Avoiding Alcohol and Mind Altering Drugs While Using Anti-Anxiety Meds
This is a VERY important discussion. I’ve witnesses friends and family start their anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medication and it did not really help them. There are two reasons for this.
One: They kept using mind altering drugs such as alcohol, and/or illegal and legal drugs, while they were using their meds. My advice is to STOP using any of these self-medication techniques. It will hamper the recovery from your anxiety disorder greatly. If you are addicted to alcohol and/or drugs (D&D – drinking and drugging), get yourself to an AA or NA meeting as soon as possible. You must deal with your addicitions if you want to recovery fully from an anxiety disorder. This will be very difficult, but you can do it. Say these words; “I want to feel good, and I am ready to make big changes in my life to do so”. You can DO it friend. Seek help. There is a virtual army of people with a similar background who will help you.
Two: Their symptoms were not really that extreme in the first place, and they were (or are) simply in the early stages of an anxiety disorder. Do you see the pattern here? If you have mild, and early symptoms of an anxiety disorder, you may NOT need medication. See a doctor and therapist as soon as physically possible so you can get professional help. Find a friend or family member that you can trust and talk, talk, talk. Just opening up about your suffering is a great start on the way to a full recovery.
If you are addicted to drugs and/or alcohol, it’s imperative to address this, be honest with yourself, and get serious about feeling good again. If you still have it in you to continue ”self
medicating”, you have likely never experienced the hell of the 3rd stage of an acute anxiety disorder. Don’t continue on with such a destructive lifestyle. STOP seeing the people you are drinking or drugging with right away. You need to take back control of your life, and make some big changes. Try not to be afraid of losing your friends. You don’t need or want addicted friends. You will never be alone. Repeat…..you will never be alone. You can perhaps start here with NA or AA.
If you see yourself anywhere in this article, I hope you seek out professional counselling and medical advice. I hope this article shed some light on what you, or a loved one, is going through. Anxiety disorders are VERY treatable now, and remind yourself this condition will be temporary.
If you believe in a higher power, remember that you will never be alone in this universe, this world, or this eternity. Don’t fear the changes you will have to make in your life. The circumstances of your lifestyle and/or your family history are likely what set you up for this anxiety disorder you may be fighting.
You can adapt, and you can recover fully. You are MUCH stronger than you realize. You are born of light and love, and you are a miracle of beauty. Keep learning.
Jacob Markusson
P.S. – I’ve just touched on anxiety disorders in this article. I will be covering aspects of anxiety in other Q&As.
I had this email from on of our readers who needed some reassurance because of her severe struggle with Anxiety. This is her email with names and locations changed for privacy. Please read to the end because the story gets much better.