From: My Day As a Mental Patient - Comments (edited)
There was a great story in the paper recently about a Pakistani man who started running at age 86 to try and cope with depression and is still running at age 100. Running is a healthier alternative than going into fight or flight.
Depression runs in my family. I never felt "normal" inside until I started taking propranolol. It is a beta blocker that also halts the fight or flight syndrome (slows down your breathing and heart rate).
For hyperventilation, take a bag and breath in and out of it for a minute or so.
Panic you can control by recognizing what it is and thinking rationally about the options.
If there is a specific thing that causes anxiety you can negate it by having a specific happy thought (like listening to the waves landing on a tropical beach) that you call upon immediately when you experience an anxiety inducing event.
These solutions would probably work on someone who doesn't suffer from major depression. I do, and believe me, it isn't that easy.
My anxiety problems weakened me so that I was susceptible to panic attacks, which I was able to contain by immediate recognition of the symptom, and a simple mental command "don't panic!" I know, it sounds simplistic, but in my case it works.
Avoid bogus, unqualified, expert advice. Imagine - for your clinical depression and anxiety, just think happy thoughts. This is what people actually tell depressed people for gosh sakes.
Drug side-effects are all too common. Mis-diagnosis is also very common and health professionals make mistakes. Did you know that depression is love denied?
I have been struggling with anxiety, panic and insomnia for 20 years and have been to the emergency ward on two occasions when I felt desperately suicidal. However, because I have no history of actual suicide attempts, I was sent home with more pills. The second time I was there, one of the attending psychiatrists actually wrote in her notes that I was trying to make people feel sorry for me. Never have I experienced such abuse! To be admitted to a psych ward in BC you literally have to slit your wrists or have rope burns around your neck.
I am treatment resistant too. If I ever feel bad enough to go to the psyche ward again I would kill myself. My one trip showed me how much they really care. The bullying by nurses of very ill people was terrible. A simple question got me a nasty response. There is nothing to do and that is deadly when your brain keeps focusing on the horrors. Watch TV? Someone will come in and change it to some garbage talk show. You cannot stay in your room. So everybody just circles the ward like zombies.
My last psychiatrist promised if she could not help me she would find someone who could and that she would find drugs that help After 2 years she acknowledged that she was making me worse.
Alberta pays for psychiatrists but not psychologists and therapy. Most psychiatrists do not do therapy. They just do drugs. Even the ones that do therapy are only required to understand Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and, so far, I have yet to meet one who was any good at that. They seem to think that their words are magic and if they can't help you, it is your fault.
I was stranded for a year at 2 times a week with a man who snored while I talked. I complained to my main shrink and he laughed. Very funny.
I am not supposed to keep digging through the past. Done that too many times and know there is no magic button buried that will cure me. Freud was an idiot and so are his followers.
"Treatment resistant" is what you are called when your therapist lacks the skills to help you.
I too was taken to the hospital for anxiety issues. I was stuck in a room that was not being monitored. Someone had just vacated but they hadn't bothered to clean up before sticking me in there. I waited for an hour and a half and then I realized that no one knew I was there so I just left. Yes, after being taken in to the hospital by ambulance with the possiblity of self harm I was able to just get up and walk out without anyone noticing.
Comments