Am I doing the right thing?

[duv05]

I am a 21 year old male.  I have recently been having very serious bouts with depression, panic and anxiety attacks. Chest gets extremely tight, And it almost feels as tho there are so many things racing through my mind I cant think about one thing at all (if that makes sense)   I have gone through a similiar bout with depression due to my first girl friend dumping me about 3 years ago and just dealt with it.  It took me almost a year to 'come out of the funk'  

The thing is, I can almost take myself out of my body and look at my situation.  To be quite honest, I should not have anything to be depressed about.  I'm 21, in the prime of my life, have a decent paying job, one year left before I graduate with my engineering degree, a family that loves me, recently met a good girl who I have been dating for a month or so.  It's almost as though I feel guilty that I am depressed and have anxiety and panic attacks.  recently I have gone to see a counselor and to a doctor who prescribed me xanax for my anxiety and zoloft for depression.  The zoloft side effects have hit me pretty hard and I've only been on them for 2 days. No sex drive, insomnia, and it almost seems as though the anxiety is getting worse.  Last night I may have gotten a total of an hour of sleep and did not take the xanax due to a fear of becoming addicted to it.  I have always been against the use of prescription medications and did not use them in my last bout with depression.   I have been doing a lot of looking around on the internet.  Reading forums such as this.  Considering The one move technique.  I am also considering stopping taking the zoloft.  It is almost as tho I have been reading so much and trying so hard to figure out what is wrong with me that I have convinced myself I have all these disorders, GAD, OCD, depression, etc.  I show many of the symptoms however.  Does anybody have any advice on what I should do.

It is almost like I am worried becuase the last time I felt like this it did take me a year to come out of it.  I also got the worst grades I've gotten in school so far.  The anxiety is affecting my work, personal life, etc.  

one side of me thinks I can try to conquer this without the use of anti-depressants, and the other side is scared that I wont figure this out by the time school starts.  does anybody have any advice out there?

[Jikan]

Namaste,

Your overthinking the whole issue, which in turn, is compounding your symptoms. This is a common occurence for those of us when we first have to deal with our disorder(s).

I can sympathize with you concerning your hesitation to use medication(s) to control your symptoms, but I think you'll find that once you find the proper medication or combination thereof, you'll feel so much better.

No one , including your psychiatrist, can promise you that you'll start seeing positive results immedicately.  It took me over 6 years and a lot of trial and error with various medication, to find the combination of medications, which finally keep me somewhat "normal" and I use that term loosely.

Don't expect a quick fix because it doesn't exist, as for trying to resolve your issues on your own, you can try that approach, but I found that each time I tried to go it alone without medications and counseling I ended up in the hospital, twice for suicide attempts.

Regardless of what you decide, I sincerely wish you the best.

I would encourage you however, to seek the advice of a qualified mental health worker and place yourself in their hands, so that a proper treatment plan can be developed and executed.

Michael(Jikan)

[riprock]

Hey man, i'm going through more or less the exact same thing as you... started like 8 months ago after using a bunch of recreational drugs. I haven't opted to go on anti depressants and am just trying to deal with it daily, but it's extremely hard and has been limiting me in numerous areas. I just want to go back to feeling how i used too.

May help to chat about things as i'm guessing alot of our experiences are pretty similar (im 21, scared about having the anxiety once university starts up again, and am a really normal dude besides all this) .. So yeah private message me if you want my MSN and we can talk... should help

[duv05]

Do you think stopping the use of zoloft would be a good idea?  The thing with all this is that at time when I am somewhat mentally stable I can say all of this.  But believeing it and saying it are 2 different things.  IT is almost as tho this is a constant battle.  People that do not suffer from these things I think have a very difficult time understanding what it is like.  do you suffer from anxiety, panic, depression?

[margypops]

You probably hit the nail on the head and you are trying to solve how you are feeling,try another Tac,every time you feel that ole anxiety creeping up, tell your self you are okay ,and dont go there, get busy ,switch off, Its our thoughts that make us anxious, take each minute as it happens, distract yourself  with anything get on the phone and have a chat to a friend, watch TV,by your post you have insight into it, Accept you are feeling anxious and tell your self it wont last long, Nip it in the Bud.