DaVinci2

I suffer from anxiety/panic disorder. However, that has now been replaced by what I think is depression. I still feel anxiety at times, and it's mostly there when things go wrong at home. However, because of all the anxiety and previous panic attacks, I think I've started to suffer from depression as well.

My doctor said that the medicine should help with depression as well as the anxiety and panic attacks. It hasn't helped with the depression...and it only seems to be getting a little bit worse day by day. It's come to the point where I feel that I need to leave my marriage and my life, get on a train, and just keep going until it stops at the end of the tracks, get on another train and keep going until there's nowhere left to go but back.

I love my wife too much to do that. Much of the passion in our life is gone though (Due to the stress her mother causes her...and then me). There's no one else to help, no senior homes (That we could find to this point) where we can put her. I feel like our life is on hold and the longer it gets left on hold the harder it will be to get things back to where they used to be. I don't want to end up living a life of depression because of a mother-in-law that has decided to be a lazy person who expects everything to be done for her without putting any effort into her own life.

Leaving my wife is out of the question. I will work until I die of a heart attack/stroke or go crazy trying to make it work. We're trying to see what social services are available that will take care of my mother-in-law. Other than that, I don't know what to do, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. I do stretches and breathing exercises to help with how I feel physically at times, which can help my depression, but only a bit, not to the point where I can sleep well or anything. So any further advice would be much appreciated.

shutterbug

The depression most like has not "replaced" the anxiety, but rather is more out front than the anxiety right now.

Are you seeing a general doc or a psychiatrist. A pdoc can do evaluationa testing to work toward figuring out what the root diagnosis is that causing your issues....as they are the symptoms.

Lately, how has your sleeping been?
Before the depression...how many hours did you typically sleep?
Any possible addictions to alchol or drugs going on too?

Live

Anxiety and depression most often do go together...one coin, two sides of it.
Meds will help you cope and feel better, but really the root of the problem needs to be worked out somehow...that is MIL

indigo

All the above.

indigo

DaVinci2

I am seeing a psychiatrist. One big reason is my mother-in-law, which is something that I'm trying to get that figured out, but so far nothing.

My sleep has been messed up for years because of my work. Sometimes I work 12 hour days, sometimes 3 hour days and 8 hour days at different times of the day. So my sleep cycle is all messed up. I was technically addicted to sleep meds but tappered off myself down to half a pill of a very minor benzo. It was after that that my anxiety panic kicked in again BIG TIME...

I typically try to sleep 8 hours, but sometimes that can be 5...and sometimes it can be 12...depending on the day. Naps in the day that are unavoidable at times (As in if I don't take them, I can't function). No other addictions...alcohol WAS a social thing for me, but I cut that out years ago...now it's just a "If it's there, and someone offers, I accept" kind of situation.

shutterbug

Do you snore very much?
Possibly have sleep apnea?

Sleep deprovation can cause some pretty bad depressions and anxiety issues.

Have you asked your pdoc for a full evaluation? He/she could recommend a good psychologist you could go to to take a battery of tests that could help guide the pdoc toward a proper diagnosis.

Also...what about therapy? For you and/or you and your wife? A good pychologist or therapist could help with the mother-in-law issues.