why doesn't anxiety go away

[michaelmyers24]

To make a long story short, i was diagnosed with GAD after 5 years of having it. It all happened after a stressful life event and me worrying about my health. I moved across the country and changed schools and thats when i developed very bad social anxiety. My doctor put me on zoloft and it helped my anxiety immensely, but it started making me feel very apathetic and i couldn't stand that feeling so i stopped taking it.

After stopping the medication my anxiety was still alot better. About 8 months after i stopped the zoloft a stressful event happened and my anxiety came back. Its been about 5 months and my anxiety is still here. Has there been damage to any neurotransmitters? because this just doesn't make sense to me. The anxiety should go away once there is no reason to be worried.  

[specialmom]

I'm sorry you are having a tough time currently.  The statistics show that people can have episodes of anxiety but the more episodes they have, the more chronic anxiety can become.  For some people, they battle anxiety always.  Now, anxiety for many is normal and part of life ----  but that is just intermittent bouts of nervousness, worry, etc.  But if the anxiety is impacting your life significantly, it really IS important to treat it.  You've done so in the past and with success!  Medication isn't perfect and has its drawbacks but it sure has helped a ton of people.  Maybe it is time to consider meds again?  Other things that help are talk therapy, a good, clean diet, exercise, journaling looking for triggers and working through them as well as release of emotion, volunteering, plenty of rest, etc.  So, maybe it is time to talk to your doctor again about treating this anxiety to see if you can kick it to the curb.  good luck

[Paxiled]

Chronic anxiety is perpetuated by the way we think.  There is no known cause and no known cure other than those who spontaneously get better and those who learn to change the way they think.  Most do this in therapy, with a therapist who specializes in anxiety treatment.  You don't mention if you've done therapy, you only mention a drug.  Drugs don't cure anxiety, they just suppress it by changing the way the brain works naturally.  If you want to treat the disorder solely with drugs, then the fact one bit of stress put you back into chronic anxiety suggests you aren't ready to be off the Zoloft.  Or you can try therapy and see if you can learn to get rid of it for good.  In your case, you say you know what triggered the original anxiety -- most of us don't -- and so that's what you should have worked on in therapy, probably instead of going on medication, but you chose the medication route.  I'd suggest at least trying to fix the problem through therapy, but of course it's your choice.  Now, as for damage to your neurotransmitters, if there were, you would have noticed it as soon as you stopped the Zoloft.  The fact it only started up again when you faced stress again suggests it's just the same old same old.  Taking meds can alter the brain's ability to function without drugs -- sometimes the brain just can't re-adapt to functioning without medication.  But again, you'd have noticed that upon stopping 8 months ago, so I don't think that's what's happening with you.

[michaelmyers24]

I have tried therapy but it didn't do anything, i wanted to see a psychologist but my doctor told me that i had to try the zoloft first. The reason i thought i had neurtransmiter damage is because im constantly tense, my vision is weird and i feel like im in a daze, like im drunk or high all the time, but i dont do drugs or drink.

[Paxiled]

Did this start right when you quit the Zoloft, or did it start months later?  If the former, it could be withdrawal symptoms continuing.  It sounds like you stopped the drug cold turkey, which can exacerbate withdrawal problems.  And listen, no doctor can force you to do anything.  Your doctor cannot force you to try a drug before seeing a therapist.  As for therapy not doing anything, that's often the case, but did you try a different therapist?  And it has to be a therapist who specializes in anxiety treatment, otherwise they'll just talk you to death for ten years.  Most psychologists do not specialize in anxiety -- most focus on relationship problems.  It's a whole lot easier.  It's also possible, of course, that something is going on physically with you, so it wouldn't hurt to see a physician to get a thorough check up.  But these drugs don't damage neurotransmitters, any damage would be much more indirect in that many researchers believe that some people who use these drugs for a period of time have difficulty ever functioning again without taking drugs because their brains just can't adapt to working without them again.  But if this happened to you 8 months later, that isn't the case with you, and it's almost impossible for anyone to know if that's the case with them because there's no test that can tell you if that's true with you or not.  Every try CBT?

[michaelmyers24]

This basically started after a bad anxiety episode, i just haven't felt the same but the zoloft made me feel normal. The disconnected drunk feeling and weird vision only happens when my anxiety is bad. i might give CBT a try but i just dont see how any kind of talk therapy will help me because i feel as if there is a chemical imbalance or something wrong with my nervous system from all the prolonged anxiety.

[specialmom]

You know, you sound like you did fairly well on Zoloft.  I'd give that another try.  and talk therapy does help in conjunction with medication because it helps identify triggers, talks through what's happening, helps go through ways to handle it.  So, I'd consider doing both at this point.  Good luck

[michaelmyers24]

The only reason why i stopped the zoloft was because it made me feel apathetic and it made me feel trapped in my own mind, its hard to explain but i never had that feeling before until i started the zoloft :( otherwise i would still be on the medication. Another thing that really helps me anxiety tho is a multivitamin. It works almost as well as zoloft.

[Paxiled]

If taking a multivitamin helps with anxiety, it's either a placebo effect (and they're the best things, really, because no side effects) or you have a nutritional deficiency that is causing you to feel anxious.  There are many nutritional deficiencies that can do this, including lack of Vitamin D, magnesium, B12, B6, taurine (a psuedo-amino acid), tryptophan, etc.  Also know that there is no known chemical imbalance that causes anxiety, including from prolonged anxiety.  Pharmaceutical companies, especially Eli Lilly and its champions when it first came out with Prozac, started that theory, but if there is a chemical imbalance that causes it nobody's found what it is yet.  As I said, it is possible for prolonged use of antidepressants or benzos to cause the brain to be unable to work naturally anymore, but that does not seem to be the case with you because of the time considerations.  What prolonged anxiety does is what Mom told you, you get used to thinking like an anxious person and it becomes chronic.  There are biological changes that go along with this, no mistake, but it's not the doom of a permanent chemical imbalance.  CBT isn't really talk therapy, by the way -- it's doing therapy.  You learn some tools, then you go try them out.  It's not easy, it may not work, but it is worth a try because drugs will never cure you but therapy might.  Mom also might be right about the Zoloft -- it's not easy finding a drug that works, and sometimes with some work you can overcome side effects.  So if nothing else works, it isn't the end of the world if you need to take Zoloft to enjoy your life.  My concern is you seem to be saying you weren't able to fully enjoy your life on that drug because the side effects made you numb, which is why I'm emphasizing therapy as something to really try hard to make work to avoid that.  Peace.