DaVinci2

I know...another question...

I was thinking about this today. It's day 4 of Paxil. From what I understand, it takes a couple of weeks for the Paxil to kick in. Also, last night my wife and I sat down and worked out some issues and I felt as though a weight was lifted off my shoulders. There's going to be a little more understanding, patience and working together on problems and issues. I had a good day. Is it possible that I really don't need the Paxil? Is it possible that my anxiety all came from the fighting between my wife and her mom, her constantly being unhappy and not being able to tell her how much her pain is hurting me? I asked my doctor, and he said he didn't know. He doesn't know much, and other things he's said has had me considering a new doctor.

However, in the opinion of those with experience, would stopping the Paxil today...seeing how things go over the next week or 2, and if I have no panic attacks and no problems at home, I stay off the Paxil. If, for no reason at all, even with our issues being resolved, I have a panic attack, I get right back on? In the opinion of those here...until I find a better doctor or councelor.

margo

I think therapy in addition to your medication would be a good option for you.

screen_name

Most people's treatment involves a combination of the two--medication and therapy; this is well documented. Anxiety and other issues are not, say, infections that get treated with antibiotics.

I am in the situation of being able to go off my meds (two weeks now), but that's in large part to the therapy I began when I got on the meds, focusing on dealing with the things that needed to be dealt with. The meds just made it possible to think about those things without completely freaking out.

With the caveat that I am not a doctor and am not pretending to diagnose you, many people's anxiety issues do stem from life circumstances and the anxiety reduces or disappears when the circumstances resolve themselves. This may or may not be the situation in your case, given that you've just mentioned some recent stresses.

So, some kind of therapy is absolutely essential, as it gives you the necessary external view of your situation and helps you to a) think more clearly about things and b) smooth out or altogether change your perceptions of your situation that contribute to the anxiety.

Your medical doctor is not the person for this job. You need to seek out a therapist that is a) qualified and b) someone you're comfortable with. It may not be the first person you deal with, as being qualified is no guarantee that they're the person for you. You may need to go through a few of them, but you can't be afraid of that (it needs to be stressed that this is a very hard thing; we don't generally want to bare our souls to people and even less do we want to think about having to do it with more than one person). And because of these (quite natural) fears, there is a tendency to want to avoid it. We may incline (I did) toward trying to get it all out on, say, a discussion board. This support can help, but we can only tell you what worked for us and try to help guide you to the right solutions; we can't be the solution itself.

And it may be a combination of people. For me, it was a licensed therapist and a good priest. I needed the perspectives of both to help get me to the other side.

That said, I've been a bit impatient with you in other threads and for that I sincerely apologize. I got a bit testy when all you did was appear to object to nearly every suggestion I gave you. But I had to remember that that's part of it; I went through it myself; it's totally natural.

As you're going through this process, please very seriously consider my suggestion to begin some yoga and some zen-style meditation (meaning mostly breathing and calming of the mind, not mantras and whatnot). This will help more than you know and I wish I'd done it much sooner. It's hard to get started, but once you do, you'll be glad you did.

DaVinci2

I actually did ask about a therapist to my doctor. He said that there was a therapist in the same building that he had his office in. It was 100 dollars a session. Maybe I'm new to this, but man that seems like a lot of money. I'd almost feel like dealing with anxiety and then spending the money on some new camera accessories as a reward...but maybe not...I do have a priest of sorts. I just started reading the bible and looking for several different answers there. I really can't afford therapy...I mean 1 session, maybe, but not weekly...and I don't know that monthly will work.

screen_name

OK, well if it's not covered by insurance (have you checked?), then that's a different ballgame. And I'm sure the therapist your doctor mentioned isn't the only game in town. Most therapists, here anyway, are willing to work with people on a sliding scale when they can't afford the full fee. And if that doesn't work, your best bet is to go through churches. A caring pastor (regardless of his specific faith) will want to help a person in need.

You need to see what resources are available to you.

And if, at the end of the search, you still can't find anything that's going to work for you, then the yoga, the meditation, and other free tools are going to be that much more essential. I mean, start today. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Look for the book Minding Mind: A Course in Basic Meditation, translated by Thomas Cleary. The nuts and bolts of getting started with the kind of meditation I'm talking about is incredibly simple. It's the best way I know of calming your anxiety for free. Plus, the yoga. Just get a book, any book, and start from the beginning, taking it easy, about 20 minutes a day.

DaVinci2

Sorry, I should've mentioned this a few threads ago. I do yoga. It's part of my training. It helps with DOMS after a hard lifting day. It makes me very sleepy...then I have to go home. I suppose I could try doing it at home, but with everything I have to take care of when I get home, I may not get the same feeling of peace.

My anxiety attacks occured during the day mostly, out of the blue. Do you think that by doing meditation and yoga everyday (Instead of the 2 or 3 days I do of just yoga) would take away from my panic attacks?

screen_name

This has been my experience. Everyone is different, so you may feel more or less relief. Limit it to about 20 minutes; then do 5 minutes of "yoga breathing" as a way to maximize the relaxation.

You're not going for the intense hour or hour and a half that you get in classes, just enough to get your body relaxed (which is what is going to relax your mind, which is what is going to contribute to a reduction in anxiety) on a daily basis.

If the therapy things seems unworkable at the moment, I would do this every day for a month and see where you're at.

And I should back up a bit on the therapy thing. I should say that it's OK to say, "I'm not ready for therapy yet," if that's how you really feel (realistically, if you were ready and felt it essential, you would move heaven and earth to make it happen; and, as you'll see, that's not a criticism at all). Treatment happens in steps; we take the ones we can take, as we're ready to take them.

I haven't been meaning to imply that if you don't immediately get into therapy that you're doomed. I think it's essential if you have access and are ready, and if you don't have access or are not ready, that's OK. There are plenty of things you can do (like the yoga and meditation, in addition to the training you do--that was my first step, too) to help yourself.

I think what I've learned most through all this is that my belief that the human being is cohesive whole, and not just a collection of parts, is no longer just a belief, but a demonstrable reality. IOW, there's more than one way to skin the cat, because this "illness" has more than one source. As a result, it has an equal number of treatments. The body interacts with the mind, and is affected by it (we all know that stress can cause physical illness). Well, it turns out to be a two way street. What we do with the body (ie, weight training, yoga, etc) has it's effect not only on the body, but the mind. I'm sure I don't have to tell you that weight training, for example, doesn't just strengthen your muscles.

"Normal" people have recognized that endorphins, etc, produced during physical activity have a positive impact on how the mind feels. So all we're doing here is operating on the same basic principle.

Also take a look at your diet. How much caffeine do you ingest every day? Nicotine? These, obviously, are stimulants and not only affect sleep, but mood. If I could just manage to quit chewing tobacco, I would be the coolest cat in the universe. Not that medications aren't often necessary, but let's face it, it's much easier to pop a pill than to make some of these very difficult lifestyle changes.

Point being, get "holistic" about it. Again, unless you're bipolar, or have some other really serious issue, medications for issues like this are usually temporary. And to avoid having to take them again in the future, we can get our bodies into the kind of shape to where our mind benefits and isn't as subject to periodic panic attacks, etc.

In addition, I think we should be very concerned about, or at least aware of, how the taking of one medication so easily leads to the need for another. What woke me up, no pun intended, was when my anti-anxiety medication led to a lack of sleep, which led to an Ambien prescription. I'm by no means the only person around who's ended up on multiple medications, having them constantly adjusted, adding a new one to compensate for the side effects of the original one.

This is *not* a criticism of anyone here on multiple medications. I'm speaking generally, not particularly. In general, we don't look to basic things like diet and exercise first because a) we're not convinced that such simple changes can have any meaningful effect and b) it can be very difficult to make such changes. Again, it's easier to take medication.

Sorry for the ramble. I guess I went from trying to answer a question to giving a sermon.....

DaVinci2

I don't smoke, I don't drink (At least not anymore, I was drinking at social events though). I do drink caffeine in the form of diet coke, but no coffee. Green tea tablets too.

As part of my lifting routine, I have a proper diet. All unprocessed food (Which is hard since the staple food in Japan is rice). I get plenty of healthy food though, solid food (Not all supplements). My training program is solid, and the yoga I do at the gym is relaxing. I'll see if I can get a DVD for yoga at home.

I just found a councelor in the phone book. 250USD is what she was asking. I don't think I can afford it. I'm going to have to go another route for now with therapy.

After talking with my wife the other day, we did come to the conclusion that a lot of the stress was between her and her mother (Who lives with us). My wife works full-time and then has to take care of her mother. I do my best to do what I can as well, but my wife has lost her patients with her. My mother-in-law does things she shouldn't, not because she is old and frail, but because she has become lazy. She has the ability to walk, and to do every day things but often just lays in bed.

Anyways, long story short, I think it's time we put her in a home. When she stays in the hospital for any period of time she always seems happy. She has 'roommates' and is very talkative with the staff. She doesn't get that at home because by the time we get home she's ready for bed and we're ready to sit and relax. It's going to be tough though...Japanese aren't very well-known for their homes. Still, my wife has done a lot to take care of both her mother and father. She deserves her time.