Whose anxiety began with recreational drug use?

[xstalkrx]

Interested in hearing from those whose fight with anxiety began because of recreational drug use.  I would be interested in hearing their symptoms, what they have done about the anxiety, and all the details.  My anxiety was brought on by recreational drug use and while I am much better, I still have a little ways to go.

Thanks.

[riprock]

to make a long story short, i smoked weed / drank heavily from 13-20 with no problems at all... felt like the healthiest kid ever... then at 20 i started using ecstasy / ketamine and after about my 10th time using E i had a panic attack while on it and ever since i've been so messed up... I always feel exhausted, really dizzy / faint / lightheaded, and just an overall sense of dread... Usually these occur when i've pushed myself too hard or am in extremely busy places.

In all honesty the last year of my life since this has been absolute hell and i dont know what to do about it... I've been taking ativan and it helps a little bit but not much.. Doctor wants me to take celexa but i'm really scared to take an anti-depressant due to the sides but i think i'm going to as i cant live like this anymore :( :( :(

[xstalkrx]

yup I'm worried about taking an anti-depressant.  im worried about taking any medication really.

does drinking make you worse?  drinking makes me worse.

[riprock]

I still drink weekly to the point of excess.... before the booze kicks in my anxiety is really bad, but once it does it's virtually eliminated if i drink enough. The next day my anxiety is absolutely horrible though...like prime time for panic attacks...

What are your symptoms while having "anxiety"

i dont get like a tight chest or fast heartbeat or anything.... just feel like im insanely tired / going to passout / just really really tweaky in general. Ughhhhh

[xstalkrx]

My main complaint is that I have always been able to feel my heart beating in my chest/abdomen area.  When this first started 6 months ago, I had other symptoms such as panic attacks and feeling like I'm going to passout.  Used to, being around large groups/crowds/noise would really set it off.  Not anymore.

It has gotten so much better because I have completely cut out drugs/cigs/pot from my life and I am running 15-20 miles a week.  I have gotten drunk 3 times in the last 6 months and it always makes my anxiety worse temporarily.  If I can just have like 2 beers my anxiety won't flare up.  If I get drunk...its bad news the next day.

Do yourself a favor and cut out the alcohol and anything else you might be doing.  Work out, get yourself in shape.  It helps.  I'm still not back to normal but I am so much better and havent had a panic attack in months.

My only complaint now is the heartbeat sensation in my chest/abdomen area that comes and goes.

[xstalkrx]

also do you use AIM?  you know aol instant messenger?  my name on that is L3randonf

[nursegirl6572]

Yes....alcohol is about the worst thing you can do with anxiety and depression.  Especially if you drink to excess.  It definitely takes away the anxiety nicely while you're drinking...but the delayed reaction the days following aren't worth it.  Alcohol is a depressant and will magnify these symptoms every time.  A lot of anxiety sufferers end up turning to something to ease the pain...whether alcohol, drugs, gambling, cutting...etc.

It's often a secondary diagnosis.  I would recommend that people try very hard to avoid drinking in excess as much as possible.  

[xstalkrx]

I've noticed that after about a month I will start to feel pretty much anxiety free and then I will go out and have some drinks...then the next day is bad.

WTF.

Will there ever be a day when I can have drinks in slight excess and be ok the next day?

[riprock]

Yeah i workout / do cardio more or less everyday.... it helps but definitely doesn't cure anything. Feels like i really damaged a section in my brain by doing E as prior too my first  " panic attack" my body was a machine and nothing could set it off.... All i know is that this ***** big time ..

I only have msn man, no aim :(

[xstalkrx]

wtf get aim man! haha...

You know I said the same thing to myself...the whole thinking I damaged a part of my brain thing.  However, that is when my anxiety was at its worst.  I told myself I had a BILLION different medical conditions.

Staying away from the drugs and the alcohol for long periods of time has helped the most.  It is a night and day difference from where I was and where I am today.

You've got to stay away from that alcohol too.  It's hard because friends always want me to go out and have a few drinks at a bar or whatever, but I've learned to say no.  The couple of times I have said yes to drinking over the past 6 months, I have regreted it.

Keep me updated.

[riprock]

lol i went out tonight and drank a bit but felt so messed that i left... life seriously ***** at the moment... everythign has been twisted upside down thanks to whatever 'this' is lol

[xstalkrx]

dont drink man. it makes things so much worse.

this anxiety **** takes a "lifestyle change" if we are ever going to get over all of it.

and ya its FRIGGIN hard for me to accept...because chilling and drinking/smoking with friends is priceless stuff....but I just can't do it at all right now.  Gotta cut it all out.  No setbacks.

Maybe one day in the far off future I can enjoy having a few drinks in excess..but currently...doing that only sets me back.

[xstalkrx]

anybody else have experiences?

[chrisok66]

Yeah. whe I was 17 i was heavily into pot, E, and coke. every thing was fine until one day i had a panic attack. i was in my room smoking some hash out of a bong and i started to freak out bad and i had to go tell my mom cause it was so bad :S.. i quit for 2 years and smoked a joint when i was drunk, i thought i was fine until the next day. holy i wanted to die.
My big symptoms is the heart racing, and like, the dreaded feeling of doom that feels like it lowers my body down and scared the **** outta me... I just had one writing that last sentence.

[scaredjo]

hiyaz yeah i feel like **** after too many beers at the time im drinkin i have no anxiety what so ever dont think once about my heart, but the day after omg its horrible i have a bangin heart, feel like i cant breathe etc. its too tempting though all my friends drink and its so annoying that they feel ok in the mornin. my friend thinks its because us anxiety sufferers lock on to every feeling we have were as "normal" people just get on with it lol so when we lock on to it it intensifies 100% and the **** feelings appear again.
as for drugs i gave them up when i had my son 14 years ago but when i took an E i truly believe thats what started my anxiety off cause i was sick but thought it was blood cause my brain was mashed!!!! so i think i worried that much thats what started me off- thats my earliest anxiety memory anyway

good luck, jo

[JSGeare]

Friends, let's get some perspective here, first of all. As human beings, it is our tendency to want to package and group and classify things. On the one hand, this makes life more convenient so we can all stay on the same page a little easier. But on the other, it becomes a way in which we train our brain and the ways we think. And depending on what classification systems and patterns we've established, we unknowingly set the boundaries to our perception and the options open to us in life.

The term "recreational drugs," was given to us by the media in the 1960's, and referred not so much to a class of drugs as chemicals as it did to the venues in which they were ingested and the desired results for the user. It is not as though the drugs, or the plants or chemical factroies from which they are derived have an intrinsically recreational purpose or effect. The drugs don't know what they are doing. They just sit there doing what they do. I could argue, in fact, the the first drug ever legally created from the get-go with a recreational purpose in mind is Viagra. Odd, when you think about it: whereas the drugs we call "recreational" are taken with the intent of creating an altered state of awareness or consiousness which we could not create on our own, the Viagra is intended to let us be the way we know we CAN be on our own -or once were. Go figure -what people really want most is to be the way they really are (or can be).

More broadly, let's set aside, for the time being, the whole notion of drugs as a sort of separate class of "ingestibles," and just look at everything that is or can be ingested: food, fluids, polluted or clean air, pollens, aromas, booze, dope, nicotine, caffeine -whatEVER. The idea of "recreation," then, properly lies quite literally in the eye of the beholder (ingester). You might just as well get your kicks from an aspirin and a coke. Odd, again, that the people who brought us aspirin are also the ones who brought us heroin and the gas used to kill millions of Jews in WW2 -the Bayer Company. Go figure.

My point being this: the classification of drugs according to desired or assumed properties for the consumer tends to make the thing ingested the pivotal focus for our present day situation. Fact is, you can ingest many kinds of things over time and should not be surprised that your body and brain are altered as a consequence of so doing. Nor should we be surpised when attempts to correct the presumed long term effects will be conditioned upon the particulars of each individual situation and whatever social and cultural imperatives may have motivated us to start and stop the ingestion. Long story short -it gets complicated.

More controlling on the question of "drugs-in, behavior-out" is the psychological foundation which supported or encouraged the ingestion in the first place -why was I doing that stuff? Why did I want to achieve some perceptive plateau or mental state that was not what my brain could do on it's own, but for the ingestion? I hold out to you that while there is great clinical and therapeutic importance in whatever is known about the impact of substances, so we may be treated properly -or at least not misdiagnosed- there is also much to be gained by looking at the circumstances and conditions which brought us to where we were and will give shape to the future.

Food (as it were) for thought.

[Lolita466]

The first time I ever experienced a panic attack was about a year ago, while I was on ecstacy. And I've been getting them ever since. Before that I had taken E at least 10 times and nothing like that had happened, now I don't think I'll ever do it again (maybe that's a good thing, haha).

Anyways now I get panic attacks when I'm in stressful situations. I get them at least once a week and it's the worse feeling, especially when I'm with other people. I really don't want to go on medication, I'm hoping they will just stop. Is there anything else anyone has tried besides medication that helps?

[duckandcover]

Yes Absolutly.  I was "nibbling" up to 40 mg of oxy a day purely for recreational use.  I was very strict with myself that if I ever wanted to do more then I would quit.  I started out on much lower amounts and built up to that dose.  Well towards the end I was still keeping to 40/day but my body wanted more.  I was in a state of near constant withdrawal but stuck to my pledge.  Then wham!  My first panic attack.  It was more of a quick flash and it scared me.  So a week later I came clean with my family and quit cold turkey.  

Now I really don't have cravings for opiates but I've battled anxiety on and off for 5 months.  I'm on my 6th day of Lexapro today and hopeful that it will get me past this but who knows...

I feel like it's God's exclamation point for my incredible stupidity.  I was an absolute rock of a man before I ever touched an opiate and now I'm paying for it.

[xstalkrx]

I am wondering if our anxiety, caused by the drug use, will go away on its own without prescription drugs?  I am wondering that, if we just stay away from the substances that started this, we will get back to normal.

I am wondering if there will ever be a day in my future when I can have several drinks and not be a mental case the next day.

[chrisok66]

Hopefully! I want to get out of this trap I caged myself in.

[scaredjo]

hiya maybe some therapy could help you realise you haven mangled your brain lol i take beta-blockers which arent addictive they just help keep you a bit calmer and i haven had any side effects off them, im not keen on taking meds either.
the thing is when you have a beer the mornin after the trick is to realise your feeling so bad cause of the anxiety i just try and keep myself busy and it usually works
good luck and let me know how your keeping :-)

[xstalkrx]

I'm really going to try to stay away from meds because I am extremely active.  I lift weights hard, and run long distances.  I'm afraid meds will, by their nature, alter my performance in some way or another.

[xstalkrx]

Well I'm doing better than ever now and its from staying away from the stimulus that started this in the first place....recreational drugs.  I feel about 95 percent of the old me and its a great feeling.  Working out...running...biking...harder than ever.  I'm a firm believer in working out and getting/staying in shape to combat anxiety.  It has really helped me.

I feel great all the time but the other night I was drifting off to sleep and then suddenly jolted awake with this instant sense of fear...it was gone in just 2-3 seconds though...and I was able to get to sleep soon after..  Weird.

[guttermouth]

I'm not sure if rec drugs have caused me to have anxiety now that I'm 30. I can't really think of anything that would cause me to be nervous and have panic attacks without warning. As a matter of fact, I was a bartender for almost 6 years...one of the more public/social professions I can think of; constantly chatting, meeting strangers, dealing with split second decisions and dealing with high stress of weekends!
I was a cocaine user from about 19-25, never smoked marijuana or used meth. I have tried my share of psychedelics of varying potencies and quantities but never had a 'bad trip'.
The odd thing is that I have the anxiety feelings while doing normal things. I do not work and am home most of the time. My fear of having a major panic attack is a great fear of mine which is one of the reasons I do not really leave home unless necessary. I have been told that exercise physical activity would help me out some, but I have a very hard time getting motivated to do anything lately.
I'll try to start being active and see how it goes.

[XKARMAX08]

So this is funny that you brought this up.

I have had anxiety for 8 years and was wondering why I even began o have these symptoms.
I started getting panic attacks when I was 16.
This started right after I had taken E a few times.
I make myself sick and panicky just thinking that I brought this on all on my own.

But then again, I think that it may be inherited because my whole family has it.
I would hate to think that I messed myself up for the rest of my life because I was a stupid teenager.

[xstalkrx]

Karma....I had the EXACT same thoughts.  I made myself very panicky thinking that I had done this all to myself...and I was very hard on myself for it.  E never causes a panic attack...but cocaine did.

Anyways, I've stayed away from the stuff now, work out a ton, and everything is a lot better.

What's your story karma?  How have you progressed and what are you doing to help yourself?

[xstalkrx]

Is it possible that cocaine could somehow cause a chronic over release of adrenalin that could last for months or longer?