Need advice on how to talk to my mom about this?

A few days ago I realized I showed all the symptoms for GAD(Generalized Anxiety Disorder) and SAD (Social Anxiety Disorder).I took tests on it,read articles about it,watched videos on it. I could say I’m 100% sure about it but that would be false.I’m not sure until I know from a doctor. I want to tell my mom but I’m sure she will laugh at me. Plus,we don’t really have the money. But I need help. I’m glad that there may be a reason for my problems.I’m glad that I may be able to get help.I’m just worried that people in my family will treat me differently.I’m worried that my mom won’t help me.

Btw,if this helps:
My mom is in school to be a nurse.She is graduating in May 2011

Hypochondriac question really?

I fainted when I was pregnant [almost 2 yrs ago] & have been dizzy ever since. Now, I’m having difficulty breathing- & heart issues [which every heart test has come back normal- so they've ruled it as anxiety]

originally they passed the original passing out [which I did- twice in a row- my husband doesnt know if i stopped breathing or not- first he said yes then no then he couldnt remember- he tapped my face to get me back- & i had just come out of a hot shower with no food early in the morning] they ruled it as low iron- but my iron was fine the same day at the doctor then they ruled it as hormones.

well now im still dizzy- & theyve passed all the heart tests & called me with Panic Disorder & Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

they said id know if i had a head injury by now

are you inadequate if you feel easily intimidated at times?

im 32 and faced a few traumas, misfortunes throughout my life – i have had long standing ‘ severe ‘ anxiety problems for many years , even though ive been diagnosed with personality disorders – im trying to get an independent psychiatric test to see if i have co existing anxiety disorders, the disorders i suspect are ; ptsd – ocd and generalised anxiety disorder.

my symptoms are ; paranoia that society is socially persecuting me, alienating me and ostracising me – racing thoughts and obsessive worries everyday , rapid mood swings to deep depressions and severe anxious thoughts and worries , severe anger , difficulty controlling it . agoraphobia , panic and bad anxiety relating to going outside , hyper alert and paranoia when outside , Dissociation – feeling detached when outside .

those are my main symptoms even though ive made a lot of progress in the years.

for a long while ive felt an unfriendly atmosphere at times from people outside, in supermarkets or other public settings , funny , cold unfriendly looks , stand-offish behaviour – something i cant put my finger on why its happening …

i could understand it many years ago when i used to struggle with angry outbursts and an angry demeanor – but that was many, many years ago , and i lived in other areas then.

and i feel this attitude / behaviour by people in society is still going on – supermarket workers , members of the public etc.

i cant understand why it could be happening , im quiet , reserved , mind my own business, try to be civil and courteous to the people i come into contact with – i dont look out of the ordinary or stand out – im white , dress how i want , i wear old clothes , hooded tops, jeans – cant afford new clothes right now because i live on disability payment , 6ft tall . – im the sort of person who doesn’t follow society trends , if i dont have good clothes , ill go out wearing what i want , even if its scruffy.

my point is i dont behave out of the ordinary, dont look out of the ordinary except for my clothing – im quite self conscious because of my paranoia but i try to ignore it , i might appear uneasy in public or aloof myself . –

but i do try with people, to be civil etc – respect society’s rules , be friendly –

but i get these attitudes from people at times still and it does make me feel quite intimidated , which causes me to feel inadequate because i try to ignore anything negative outside.

anyone know how best to deal with it ?

Are antideppressants bad for you?

im 32 now , i was diagnosed with different personality disorders by different doctors years ago, im also pursuing a separate, independent psychiatric test because i know i have co existing anxiety disorders : OCD , PTSD and generalised anxiety disorders.

i have most of the symptoms for each, but more the ptsd and generalised anxiety disorder, if i have these disorders i feel its important for them to be diagnosed and recognised, so im pursuing a separate psychiatric test.

i was put on an anti depressant months ago by my psychiatrist and i have to say, its helped me quite a lot with the depressed , empty moods i get , but not fully.

i saw and heard reports recently that psychiatric medication can cause a lot of damage to the brain and body….causing diseases in the brain, can rot the brain.

this news worried me a lot, is this the case ? am i safe to continue taking my anti depressant medications ?

How do you cure yourself of reoccuring Panic Attacks?

I have had 4 major panic attacks this year since my brother passed way. I have anxiety usually everyday. Doc gave me paxil and buspar but its not fixing the problem. What are panic attacks caused by and how do I get rid of them? I’ve always been outgoing and very strong and now Im not at all! Help!
Thank you all, I will def try therapy!

What causes panic attacks?

i have been waking up with panic attacks. It was the most horrible thing i have ever experienced. I felt very dizzy and faint and thought i was going to die. What should i do if this happens again. It really frightens me. please help.

How can i stop having panic attacks caused by homework??

Ok…i have a LOT of homework. Problem is I really wanna finish it but i cant.

I get so overwhelmed (especially from AP physics) that i cant focus…i literally eat my nails off, and start panicking. Pretty soon…i start pacing, trying to think of a problem. However…i CANT, all can think about is how much homework i have!! I get so stressed…these have to be panic attacks.

is there anything i can do to calm down and get through my homework?

Can panic attacks cause excess levels of catecholamines in urine tests?

Can panic attacks cause excess levels of catecholamines in urine tests?

I realise that excess levels may indicate a hormone or adrenaline disorder, but in simple, plain panic attacks/panic disorder – is this likely to raise catecholamine levels?

is there any ways to help ease an anxiety disorder without medication?

I took an online quiz, which I know isn’t as nearly accurate as a doctor but alot of the symptoms of which they asked have applied to me. Such as feelings dizzy or and an abnormaly high heart beat. I’m such a worrier but I thought that was just the way I am, but I really think its something more serious then that. I’m going to get this checked out by a doctor but in the meantime do you know of any home remedies or over the counter medicines that can help me with this? Thanks it would be greatly appreciated

I have Bipolar and Social Anxiety Disorder. What is the best medications to treat both?

whats your experience of taking medication for an Anxiety disorder ?

im interested to hear from anyones experience of taking medication for anxiety disorder or an anxiety related disorder.

what was you taking ?
any side effectc ?
did it help ect ?

many thanks

General anxiety disorder: what medication worked best for you?

I’m really stressed out due to difficulties to find a job. Unfortunately I’m very anxious and tired. If you have experienced the same, could you tell me what worked for you?
Any sensible reply will be highly appreciated.
Thanks.

I have Schizophrenia and now my friend wants to “Copy” me. :-/?

Hi there,

I have a long history of being a Mental Health System User with the Mental Health Services since ChildHood. I had a lot of Psychological problems after being abused at age 4 by a Family Friend. At age 13, I was diagnosed with Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (BorderLine P/D) or B/P/D. This was changed last year to Paranoid Schizophrenia as with my history of hearing ‘The Voices’ and seeing Demon’s and Satan and my new Psychiatrist felt that my original diagnosis was COMPLETELY wrong and it was changed. My other diagnosis’s are: O.C.D, Uni-Polar Depression, Generalised Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Self Mutilation Disorder and Insomnia/Hypersomnia along with Chronic Asthma and Moderate Mobility Problems.

Anyway, I get quite a substantial amount of money through Benefits that currently go into my Mother’s Bank Account as she is out of work and only gets £400.00 herself. I get £1,100.00 from Incapacity Benefit (With ‘Age Addition’), Income Support Premiums: Disability, Severe Disability and Enhanced Disability and Disability Living Allowance: High Rate (CARE) and Low Rate (MOBILITY).

Anyway, to get to the point. My friend says he doesn’t see why he should have to work £40 hours (P/Week) to get paid £950.00 when I get what I do for nothing. His exact words were “You’re on to a good crack and I want some”. This left me lost for words because what he doesn’t seem to realise is I’d gladly swap places with him ANY DAY if it meant I could function normally. I was quite upset really as he thinks it’s all about the money. Well that money helps me with my day to day expenses of having a Disability such as paying someone to clean for me, paying for meals on wheels, paying for a Carer to take me out, etc..

He said he’s gonna jack in his job and go on E.S.A and make out he see’s Ghosts and Zombies and God know’s what. He said he wants me to “teach him what to do”… Like WTF! Why would ANYBODY want to pretend to be a Schizophrenic. The ridicule and the funny looks because people think you’re a fruit-loop and don’t want to associate with you!

He has started out by going to his Doctor telling him he is having suicidal thoughts and feel’s severely Depressed. (He isn’t. There is nothing wrong with him). He is in the process of going on E.S.A at the moment and I think he was awarded it for a year, last week.

I feel so ANGRY because this is totally mocking the entire Benefit’s system! What do I do? I don’t particularly feel like having him as a Friend any more and am CERTAINLY *NOT* going to be giving him any pointers as to how he can defraud his Psychiatrist and other Doctors, etc..
So what can I do? Do I report him? Can I keep MSN logs and E-Mail’s and print them off and send them to D.W.P? What would you guys do in my situation?

Thanks everyone.

Lin. x

I have Schizophrenia and now my friend wants to “Copy” me and defraud Benefit system :-/?

Hi there,

I have a long history of being a Mental Health System User with the Mental Health Services since ChildHood. I had a lot of Psychological problems after being abused at age 4 by a Family Friend. At age 13, I was diagnosed with Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (BorderLine P/D) or B/P/D. This was changed last year to Paranoid Schizophrenia as with my history of hearing ‘The Voices’ and seeing Demon’s and Satan and my new Psychiatrist felt that my original diagnosis was COMPLETELY wrong and it was changed. My other diagnosis’s are: O.C.D, Uni-Polar Depression, Generalised Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Self Mutilation Disorder and Insomnia/Hypersomnia along with Chronic Asthma and Moderate Mobility Problems.

Anyway, I get quite a substantial amount of money through Benefits that currently go into my Mother’s Bank Account as she is out of work and only gets £400.00 herself. I get £1,100.00 from Incapacity Benefit (With ‘Age Addition’), Income Support Premiums: Disability, Severe Disability and Enhanced Disability and Disability Living Allowance: High Rate (CARE) and Low Rate (MOBILITY).

Anyway, to get to the point. My friend says he doesn’t see why he should have to work £40 hours (P/Week) to get paid £950.00 when I get what I do for nothing. His exact words were “You’re on to a good crack and I want some”. This left me lost for words because what he doesn’t seem to realise is I’d gladly swap places with him ANY DAY if it meant I could function normally. I was quite upset really as he thinks it’s all about the money. Well that money helps me with my day to day expenses of having a Disability such as paying someone to clean for me, paying for meals on wheels, paying for a Carer to take me out, etc..

He said he’s gonna jack in his job and go on E.S.A and make out he see’s Ghosts and Zombies and God know’s what. He said he wants me to “teach him what to do”… Like WTF! Why would ANYBODY want to pretend to be a Schizophrenic. The ridicule and the funny looks because people think you’re a fruit-loop and don’t want to associate with you!

He has started out by going to his Doctor telling him he is having suicidal thoughts and feel’s severely Depressed. (He isn’t. There is nothing wrong with him). He is in the process of going on E.S.A at the moment and I think he was awarded it for a year, last week.

I feel so ANGRY because this is totally mocking the entire Benefit’s system! What do I do? I don’t particularly feel like having him as a Friend any more and am CERTAINLY *NOT* going to be giving him any pointers as to how he can defraud his Psychiatrist and other Doctors, etc..
So what can I do? Do I report him? Can I keep MSN logs and E-Mail’s and print them off and send them to D.W.P? What would you guys do in my situation?

Thanks everyone.

Lin. x

Could someone help me with some psychological issues?

I know this question might be intense/surprising to my contacts, but please bear with me. I also know it’s a long question, but it’s covering some important points.

In the past decade, I’ve been diagnosed with major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. One of my psychiatrists suspects I might actually have bipolar disorder. Psychiatric illness runs in my family (my uncle committed suicide, my sister has panic disorder, my mother has depression), but I also have childhood trauma that I’m working through that makes it worse. Out of the people in my nuclear family, I have the worst psychiatric issues and it causes my family a lot of pain, especially since I live so far away so they feel like they can’t help as much as they would like.

I’ve been taking medication (Fluvoxamine, 300mg – the highest dosage) for three years now and it’s really changed my life. I don’t experience overwhelming obsessions and compulsions because at such a high dose, it relieves my OCD symptoms. It also has really stabilized my mood so I’m a functional person. I’m doing well in college, I’m pretty popular at my school and have good friends, I write for the school newspaper, and I have an awesome job to help bring in money.

However, I ran out of medication last week and went into severe withdrawal. My psychiatrist’s receptionist wasn’t answering my calls for the three previous months, even as they grew more desperate (because I was running out of prescriptions). I began having “the shakes,” hallucinations, and a severe depression. I haven’t self-harmed since I was 15, but because of my withdrawal, I cut myself 50-60 times on my thighs and abdomen. I attempted suicide by trying to slice my ephemeral artery.

My roommate came to the rescue and took me to the urgent care unit, where I received two layers of stitches (sub-cutaneous and cutaneous) that totaled 17. Needless to say, I was completely batshit crazy last week. I finally got on some medication and am back to normal now, but I’m terrified something like that will happen again and that I will succeed in killing myself.

I know that that tortured person I was last week is still inside me somewhere – I can feel it. However, I also know that the happy-go-lucky and driven social butterfly that people see me as is ALSO who I am. How do I reconcile these two drastically different personalities? Is the person people see me as who I really am, or is it just the medication? Am I actually the lunatic I was last week? If so, that really frightens me.

I’m so embarrassed about my psychological history. I don’t tell ANYONE about my self-harm history, or that I’ve had to go to the hospital before for cutting myself. I’m afraid people would think I was just another privileged “emo” white girl looking for attention. Furthermore, I’m afraid of people thinking I’m “crazy.” Is there any hope of me living a normal life, like everyone else?

I’m terrified of ever getting married or, even worse, having children. What if something like that happens to me again, especially if I have children? Should I just never have kids, despite the fact that I love children? Am I the sort of person who should remain alone, in order to limit the emotional pain that my condition inflicts on others? I have NEVER had a desire to physically harm others, but I know that people tend to bond with me, and if I committed suicide, it would be a huge betrayal.

I just feel so incredibly guilty for trying to kill myself again, even if it was withdrawal. I love my family and close friends; and I’m so angry that I was willing to put them through so much agony in order to satisfy my desire for self-destruction.

Continued in added details…
So, to summarize, these are my questions:
1. Is the self-destructive person I was last week who I REALLY am? Does my medication make me someone I’m not?
2. If who I am on medication is a real part of me, how do I reconcile that with the tortured person that I was last week?
3. How can I avoid reaching the state I was in last week, so that I can avoid causing my family and friends pain? What are some ways to ensure I never run out of medication?

Continued in more added details…
4. Since I know that I become dangerous to myself when I’m off my medication, how can I ever trust myself to be a good parent? What if that situation arises again, especially if I’m in charge of their welfare?
5. When I first started taking this medication, I was told I would have to take it for at least a decade. Will I have to take it my entire life? Will I ever be able to function independent of it?
6. Let’s say you met someone who you found to be functional, responsible, intelligent, caring, friendly, upbeat, and funny (all terms people describe me as). How would you react if you found out they have the problems I do? Would you have a negative opinion of them? Would you lost trust in them (i.e. think of them as “crazy”)?
7. Why do some depressed people self-harm? Why do they feel a drive to do it?

What could be wrong with my Grandma?

(Before anyone freaks out and says “take her to the ER right now!” she’s already at the ER waiting to be seen, I’m just really concerned and want to know what might be wrong with her)

My grandma is 73 years old. She’s in decent health for someone her age, apart from bad IBS, high cholesterol, being like 80% deaf, bad sinuses, generalized anxiety disorder, allergies, osteoporosis, having a MRSA infection in her bladder, and being a bit senile. A few days ago, she showed me something that she thought was a bug bite on her leg. I didn’t say anything to her, but it looked almost identical to the MRSA infection I had on my leg 6 months ago ( we don’t tell her when we suspect anything like that because of her generalized anxiety disorder which makes her dwell on everything until she’s physically ill). I told my mom though, who has power of attorney over my grandma. She said she’d make her an appt to get it checked out. Today, the “bug bite” on her leg doesn’t look like MRSA anymore, but rather a bruised lump. She also has numerous other bruises on her legs, and her legs hurt her so bad she can’t hardly walk or move them. Her blood pressure is sky high ( 188/110). She feels achy all over, almost like she has the flu (she’s been this way for a couple of days now). She also has a horrible headache, and according to her general practitioner whom she saw today, her brain is swollen (I have no idea how a general practitioner can tell that though). Also, I have no idea if this is relevant or not, but the night before last she said she woke up in the middle of the night and was just completely drenched in sweat, like someone had dunked her underwater, even though it was like 70 degrees in her room. She’s also very anemic.

Two things that I’m concerned about are she has a history of deep vein thrombosis (she almost died from it when she was in her 40′s) and many of her symptoms are very consistent with Leukemia. I’m just very, very scared, I already lost my other grandma to cancer just 3 MONTHS AGO, I can’t go through losing my other grandma (and last grandparent, both of my grandpa’s are also dead) this soon…