ClickSometimes we tick along being able to cope with mild anxiety, soothing it, finding calm with various techniques we've learnt over time which is brilliant ....... and occasionally we can be confronted with a huge panic that just needs that little bit more help. Anxiety is usually brought on by stress, whether built up over time or as a shock. We each can only deal with so much stress before it builds up and often results in anxiety which can feel quite frightening. Its at this point that we can become afraid of that feeling, which then in turn produces more anxiety and you can get stuck in an anxiety cycle - anxiety / fear / anxiety etc. Anxiety produces many side effects which can be strange thoughts, racing heart, headaches, nausea, aches / pains, depersonalisation etc etc which the sufferer can become afraid of too, especially the thoughts. Being afraid of these produces even more anxiety - the very thing you're already afraid of. All this adds to the anxiety / fear / anxiety pot. Starting medication can also be difficult as it usually makes the symptoms worse to start with, and you don't just get better like you would on other prescriptions meds, but instead go through wave after wave of anxiety mixed with feeling good making the sufferer very confused. The meds are very good though - if you can stick with them. 2.5 months on meds is quite early still. Feeling up and down is perfectly normal and shows the meds are working. Having those periods feeling great followed by anxiety is exactly how the meds work throughout recovery. Yes I've had such bad anxiety bouts that its affect my stomach too - really not nice. So yes - you will get setbacks all the way through recovery, and sometime afterwards ..... but they get easier. I based my recovery time on the time when I stopped waking up with anxiety - the first I woke up feeling good was 6 months from the start of taking meds. I still had setbacks from there on but they were nothing by then and coped fine with them as by that time you're having weeks and weeks of feeling good and the setbacks are mild. They do eventually stop altogether. Recovery seems to be 3 steps forward and 2 steps back all the way. You will get these waves anxiety hit you every so often mixed with period of feeling well. Don't worry as this is perfectly normal, and seems to be the way the meds work. The setbacks are awful and they completely change the way you think, because thats a side effect of anxiety. It will go - the thoughts will go too. Not many people who go on to feeling really well don't return to the forums to chat. Its good so many recover biggrin Some return for various reasons and often find some I know. Yes there was a time when I couldn't sleep - thats a side effect from the medication too, and sometime the anxiety. I didn't take any sleeping aids though know some people do. This side effect usually wears off though. Something else to help is to not use a phone, tablet, laptop, computer a few hours before bed as the light emitted interferes with our sleep hormone. Even a Kindle can disturb sleep. I know even now if I've used my laptop too much before bed, I wired and lay awake for hours and watch each hour go by on the clock eek 😜 Yes when I recovered the intrusive thoughts stopped completely. They are a side effect of anxiety - thats all (hard to believe I know as they dominated my life at one time). When you're suffering with anxiety you will be intrusive thoughts, and as you recover and the anxiety starts to ease, so too will those thoughts. When the anxiety is no longer present neither are those thoughts. I can think of the thoughts that used to bother me and they no longer have that hold over me that they once did. They don't produce anxiety, so don't frighten me. When you're better everything gets put back into perspective. here to edit.
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