just anxiety or something else?

[lanay40]

my friend is 41 female divorced with 4 kids 3 at home. she suffers from anxiety disorder is all i believe they noted. to me it seems like more or maybe just not the right treatment yet. she doesnt work her husband did she was a homemaker. she doesnt drive(anxiety) after the divorce she remained in the apartment just living on support to make a long story short she had to move in with her mom she will not make any attempt to fill out applications,call her ex for help. i have to make her appointments she wont do a thing no matter how bad her life gets. is this all anxiety or and something else? she is going to be homeless and it still dont make her do anything to help her situation. she is on meds for it now. effexor and klonopin. i almost think she needs inpatient therepy. sorry so long. please any suggestions?

[suzi-q]

Not long at all!  She definitely is suffering from anxiety and depression, but she sounds like she definitely needs therapy...if she is already in therapy, then I suggest a new therapist.  Also, it doesn't seem like the medication is helping much...she probably needs an adjustment or a change.  Has she said that she continues to have the physical symptoms of anxiety or depression?  (eg: nausea, heart pounding, fear of losing control, feelings of hopelessness or helplessness, scared to leave the house, shakiness)?  Then she needs to discuss the medication...if there aren't any symptoms then it could be that she just is giving up...which I still feel a therapist can help with .  Let us know how she is...I hope this helps.

[hatgal]

I agree with the above post; however, I had a severe reaction to effexor. I began to have very bad depression and almost suicidal thoughts; I was in a state of desperation the entire time on it.  So, if she's worse since being on that, I'd say a med adjustment is in order and quickly.

Best to you and your friend.............

[BethanySublime]

I agree with the above posts as well.  it's definitely easy to slip into depression and give up on everything when your whole life is turned upside-down like that.  Hopefully she will be able to overcome it all and start living again.

hatgal, if you don't mind my asking, how old are you?  I have heard that meds can worsen depression in the way you descirbed in teens.  if you are over 18, then maybe it's worse than I realized.  is effexor for depression or anxiety or both?  I'm trying to find out about the different meds before I get on any because I get panic attacks when I take new drugs.

[hatgal]

I'm 42 and I've heard that with teens as well.  The effexor triggers two different "tonines" in our systems that the doc thought would be better for me; WRONG! I really don't have much depression - not that bad anyway - so the zoloft works just fine for the anxiety/panic and affects the "tonin" apparently that is off balance for my depression and anxiety.  Hope t hat makes sense. However, everyone is different as we have different levels of these hormones/chemicals and it's just hit and miss.  I was very lucky to have started on zoloft first and stuck with it.  It was just because of the lack of sexual desire that I tried the effexor.  That made me feel like I was non-existent, never mind a sexual being.  The desire is extremely important to me (and my husband, of course) and I never lacked it before.  But since trying effexor, I'll figure out another arousal method (LOL) and stick with my little blues!

Hope that helps.