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Anxiety Community
This patient support community is for discussions relating to generalized anxiety, anxiety and eating, anxiety and sleeping, mood swings, and phobias.
If you have a disability and are truly unable to drive yourself without having a seizure or some other problem that leaves you house-ridden, then I can see the need for it. If you are really to the point where you are house-bound though, find somebody who can take you and start getting you the proper treatment you need!! Don't resort to Social Security until you are SURE you can't handle it, even with meds. and Psychotherapy. Yet I think what you really need to do is START SEEING A PSYCHIATRIST/PSYCHOLOGIST to GET YOU ON THE RIGHT MEDS. SO YOU CAN LIVE YOUR LIFE AGAIN as well as START SEEING A PSYCHOTHERAPIST.
It sounds like you are in a state where you are in dire need of help, and I would go about trying to get help first before even CONSIDERING taking money from the Social Security Services. But that's my two cents. I would just love to see you trying to get your life back together. :( It really sounds like it has just been torn up with all of the anxiety and panic you are going through. Seeking help is the BEST option at this point. And I think you need BOTH the medicated and therapy route in your case....
~Crystal
I just want to see you get help...especially if you are that housebound. I mean have you tried therapy already and other forms of treatment first?? I just think there are other methods you could take before resorting to social security. And I am sorry to hear that you have breast cancer (you said you did, right)? :( :( I truly will pray for you and wish you the best.
I wish you the best, and again, I am sorry for my ventings. I just think you really should try alternative treatment first, but if it is what you want to do, then GO FOR IT!!! :) I wish you the best.
~Crystal~
I was diagnosised in 1994 with panic and anxiety disorder. Doctor said it was probaly from the Mitral valve prolapse I have. My heart will flutter and I go into a panic. But I am not sure this is the case. I believe there are allot of contributing factors. One the MVP, two I saw more violence in my home growing up than anyone can imagine (things most only see in horror movies), lost two brothers when I was young to murder. Back when I was diagnosed this disorder was swept under the rug. Most doctors/people do not understand this condition. I was told to read a book (The Feeling Good Handbook) and that I had suffered for so long with this that he did not think there was any help out there for me and I was sent home. He did warn me that it would one day turn into agorafobia and it has. Now I stay terribly depressed. No mention of therapy from this doctor. A year or so back I changed doctors. He did recommend therapy. The next month I found breast cancer and canceled the appointment with the therapists to deal with the cancer. My husband has taken so much time off from work that I dare not ask him to take off to take me to see a therapists. My daughter has been driving on her permit and will soon get her license and I plan to get an appointment just as soon as school is out and she can take me. Seems like I am a burdon to everyone.
I cannot imagine the difficulty of not only dealing with the attacks (as I am aware of as well) along with the murders of your brothers and all sorts of other stressors. Then your doctor tells you to just "stay at home and there is no hope for you now??" I blame the doctor on that one!! Everyone deserves to get treatment....I cannot believe what that doctor said to you!!! I am totally outraged by that!! I know for a fact you CAN get better, and yes, it takes time....but you WILL!!!
I advise you to go and seek help for yourself. I DID, and some doctors just laughed and ridiculed me and every doctor I saw tried to "tell me what was wrong with me!" Well ya know what?? I ended up figuring out for myself what was going on, and I am going about my OWN methods of seeking treatment and help. I don't rely on doctors anymore. I go after and seek the doctors I see "fit" for my syndrome.
Just so you know, I also have been diagnosed with Mitral Valve Prolapse. I was diagnosed almost 2 years ago, being 2 years in July or August. In October, during times of stress, depression, ya name it, I began experiencing these CLENCHING CHEST PAINS that were unbearable and led me into full-blown Panic Attacks and fears that I was dying, going to have a heart attack or something. I was given upteen amount of meds., yet the hospitals I sought help from kind of poo-pooed me away and told me "oh, you just have anxiety" and left it at that, and told me to take Asprin for the "chest pains." GOD, I was SO mad when I left. How could they just look at me like I was some lunatic???
I then went to my GP. I luckily had a good doctor, who at least cared. She prescribed me with Toprol XL, a beta-blocker that is cardiac specific. You may want to look into it, if you can get yourself to see a doctor. It abrubted majority of my chest pains and also a lot of my panic attacks.
However, I was still getting problems, mainly chest-related ones as well, which of course led to more panic attacks. I was then put on Zoloft....OOOHHHH BOY, did that med. mess around with me. :(
I then started getting electrical sensations/vibrations through my brain, my vision got blotchy, I had full-blown Panic Attacks, I sweated profusedly which then dropped my temp. until I got cold, I got PAINFUL electrical surges up and down my spine, ya name it...
And ya know what the doc. told me?? "It's not the med., it's just Panic Attacks, and it is probably just coincidental these new problems started. Stay on the med., it will do you WONDERS!!"
Well, for the next 4 weeks, my life was in hell. I received constant electrical sensation attacks that surged throughout my brain and up and down my spine, that AGAIN led me to the ER. Of course CT Scans and blood tests up the ying-ying showed nothing, and I cannot even COUNT how many Thyroid tests I have had done, I am just SICK of them now!!!
Well, my nice yet somewhat dimwitted GP told me to quit the Zoloft "cold turkey" since she was NOW convinced it was causing my problems...and it turned my life from Hell to WORSE!!! I had bouts that were SO severe, it felt like I was going to go into spasms, I had leg and arm tremors, I had times where it felt like my brain was going to go HAYWIRE (I can't even describe how horrible it was), worse panic attacks, limbs (arms and legs) going NUMB and some LIMP to the point I couldn't even MOVE them, ya name it!!! :( I thought I was going to go into a seizure or have a stroke one day there soon....it was just that horrific....
I searched and searched for doctors who could describe these new symptoms and what was going on with me. I know how hard it is for you, and how afraid you are to leave the confinements of your home, but it is the ONLY step you'll need to assure your road to SUCCESS!!! Look at me...with all that I have been through, I have NOT GIVEN UP!!! And yes, maybe it is partially due to the fact that I never became fully agoraphobic (I was for a time, yet I PUSHED myself to outgrow it). Yet I too am afraid to drive alone, esp. long distances in fear of having an attack, I am afraid of being alone in my home and having an attack, but you know what? I am not going to let that let me down and stop me from living. When I think of how silly it is, and in the long run I am a LOT better off than I was!!!
I started seeing a Psychiatrist, who is sorta a quack and has a one-set mind towards things, but at LEAST he helped me by giving me a med. to ALLEVIATE my symptoms until I can see a REAL doctor who can help me with what I REALLY HAVE. Yes, I suffer from panic attacks and anxiety also, as well as depression resulting from it, yet what I suffer from is something that is the cause of all of this.
You may have heard of it, maybe not. You may want to look into it yourself. It has CHANGED my life around!! And you sound like another candidate for it, as was I. I believe I have a condition called Mitral Valve Prolapse Dysautonomia, or Dysautonomia is the simpler term. It has also been called the "Mitral Valve Prolapse Syndrome," but it is entirely different and separate from the MVP completely. The only way they are related/correlated is due to the fact that the malfunction of both the Autonomic Nervous System (or ANS) which causes Dysautonomia and the formation of the Prolapsed Valve occur at the same time during the formation of the fetus while it is still in the womb, hence why the two are linked and hence the name for the disorder/syndrome.
For me, it explained everything: I talk fast, for instance, and people have problems understanding me. I also get cold hands and feet easily, whereas the normal person has no trouble adjusting their bodily temperature to warmer or colder climates. Even in warmer climates my hands always have a cooler feel to them than most people. I also suffer from panic and anxiety attacks, as well as am a perfectionist (for me it was schoolwork: I perfected EVERY DETAIL of that research paper, for instance, to assure I would receive a good grade, but my room was always a mess, so I was never a clean freak :P).
It described a lot about me, as well as my new onset of symptoms. Not everyone with MVP has it. Only 30-40% are believed to have Dysautonomia, but those that do suffer the symptoms are said to have it due to this malfunction in the ANS.
First, though, I think you really need to start seeing some doctors. I'd recommend a Psychiatrist and GP or Cardiologist to start out, as your main complaints seem to be the Panic Attacks and Anxiety and Depression. Also, since you are agoraphobic, the anti-depressant meds would be of great help to you to at least get you on your feat, and they also help eliminate majority of your anxiety and panic attacks as well.
I am sure you won't have the same problem I did on SSRI's. Even most people with Dysautonomia have no problems on the drugs. I am an oddball, and my ANS is over sensitized/over stimulated and the SSRI just aggravated it in my case. More than likely you will do fine on an anti-depressant. I'd recommend, if you want a mild one, Lexapro or Celexa. Zoloft would be the next option, but those two, esp. Lexapro, produces the least side effects and seems most effective (I hear) in patients with panic disorder, along with agoraphobia and depression