Chow, Whatever you do, read up on your symptoms and look for natural healthy alternatives as opposed to being a pill popping machine. I was diagnosed with depression a few years ago and tried like 5 different kinds and was taking adderal on top of it. I could care less about depression at the time, because I was high as a kite. I have since quit them all and research less risky, non-addictive alternatives and feel better because of it. The way you feel can also be directly connected with your eating habits, so at least eat right first and see if it improves. If it is a matter of being in a rut, we all go through that. Best of luck.
Valium and Klonopin are great. Also if you want to go the natural route try Kava Kava. That is some really good stuff. Yoga and meditation are also good rememdies if you have the time.
This is an incredibly myopic view of a complex problem. I'm not sure how many patients you have seen with panic disorder, but I fathom its probably next to none. I'm with you that medications are poisons (to a certain extent), but so is the houston air we breath and the mcdonald's that we eat. This is why the risks vs. the benefits must be evaluated on a case by case basis (i.e. why I advised the OP to see his PCP). If the OP has a disabling panic disorder that is impeding his quality of life, then I think its feasible that he takes one of the "poisons" with the risk of causing some GI disturbances and insomnia (for instance). If the OP has mild anxiety with situational stimulus, maybe avoidance counseling or a referral to a good therapist maybe the better option. There are many treatment options available for this type of problem, and often a combination of a couple of different modalities works best. As an aside, I agree that the pharmaceutical industry are professional drug dealers; but real diseases like diabetes and hypertension exist. And these drug dealers provide tools to help people live healthier and longer lives. Don't get sucked into the trap that there are natural cures (or mind over matter) for every problem, b/c there aren't. Or you could trust that guy on tv (Kevin Trudeau? http://www.naturalcures.com/) for all your health related problems.
Thanks for your stance on what I said and also believe. I agree with you that my views can be "myopic", but if my view about going a non-medicine route to fix the problem before using a poison is "myopic" then the equation is also true for someone who is recommending the use of drugs. Just think about it, my views may be short sighted but at the same time the only side effect is a healthier body and clearer mind, rather than nightmares, increase of heart conditions, addiction, and the other side effects that the body endures while on the poison, and those are only the ones that can be seen or noticed. Your reference to the unhealthy Houston air and McDonalds foods is null. Yes, our air is polluted, so everyone in Houston might already be unhealthier than people in less pollutant cities. The fact remains that we have to breathe in order to live, do we have to feed the pockets of the medicine industry to live? That's what the drug dealers want you to think and that's why it's such a rich industry. McDonalds may be considered unhealthy when compared to "healthy" foods, but our bodies are able to handle the unhealthiness as long as it is balanced with nutriets and minerals and taken in moderation. What balance can we supplement our bodies with when we are taking poisons that imbalance an imbalance? I don't support the health TV shows or any of the money-backed media in regards to buying a "package" or "healthy living kit", I'm all about thinking FRUITS and VEGATABLES before TYLENOL or ADVIL. I agree to a certain extent that disabling panic disorder must be held up with more drastic measures that might include drugs, but I will also stick to my point that if the person was on a healthy diet or balanced diet that point would not have been reached. But we aren't going to get into "what ya shudda done" but rather "what to do next" and this where I agree with most on here, seek professional diagnosis but also spend time doing self research and never just go with what the Doc says to you, the smarter one is or appears the more crimes one is able to commit. I am not saying all doctors are criminals but I am also not saying none of them don't become lazy or quick on the trigger with medication, feeding their stock trades. I am living now with an evacuee from Beaumont with a serious diabetes problem and last week we had 12 paramedics over here and a night in the hospital after an allergic reaction to a new medication... it is fresh on my mind.
Your posts have been good reads, but take it from someone who HATED the fact that I had to resort to medication to solve my problem. I suffered for years with bouts of depression. I read books, watched Oprah and consulted my Pastor but ultimately I used meds to remedy a problem that was not only driving me crazy but everyone around me. To each his own I guess, but having been there it's a lot easier for me to recommend the meds than for me to watch people suffer with what I KNOW to be a very destructive ailment.
Thanks for not taking anything i'm saying as offending or bashing people who use meds, because I know there are times where meds just have to be used. The thing I am trying to point at is that meds need to stop being the FIRST thing people think about when they aren't feeling well. I haven't had a tylenol in 6 years, I haven't had any type of diarrhea medication (eating an apple works in minutes) in forever. I battled a common cold without anything other than Vitamin C and a green diet and a lot of blowing of the nose It was not always like this for me, I was raised where a tylenol was carried in the purses of my family and every type of unpleasantness was "cured" by taking medicine... little did I know medication means nutrition rather than ingredients.
I was becoming pretty depressed over the disease Im battling, I was recommended a B Complex vitamin and it seems to be helping. You have to take it religously though.
In the study of psycology, you will find that everyone is different and works best under different situations. Therapy did no good for me, but about 5 months of a pill pulled me out. I will agree that we are over medicated, but some medicines are not always bad.
Maybe all you really need to do is to let it all out. I know you feel weird sharing some of this stuff on a forum, but what better place to vent out your frustrations than with a room full of sympathetic and anonymous strangers? There are lots of asian immigrants here, so I think you will get a lot of understanding and sympathy. I don't have any siblings, but I also grew up in a very oppressive Asian family. When I got my first girlfriend in high school, I had to hide it from my parents because I knew they wouldn't approve. My parents also never allowed me to go anywhere fun. I ended up joining several extracurricular activities and used them as excuses to get out of the house. Till this day, my parents still think I went to some science fair in Ohio, while in reality, I went to Vegas with a bunch of my friends. Don't end up hating your parents because they cannot understand your situation. This transition to America is much harder on them than it is on you. Your're a kid, you adapt much faster than your parents. Don't resent them because they are trying to raise you in the traditional way. Just be respectful of their ideas, but also don't be afraid to break some rules in a creative way. If none of this helps, keep in mind that when you go off to college everything will be much better. Good luck, man.
Make sure you get some time for yourself to relax as much as possible. Good news! You can learn to deal with negative emotions. Check into some meditation techniques: http://www.vipassana.com/ http://www.wildmind.org/wtcmettatxt.html So staying in touch with your emotions, I’d like you to wish yourself well. And you can do that by repeating the phrase, “May I be well, may I be happy, may I be free from suffering.” And you can imagine yourself well and happy. So just keep on repeating those phrases, “May I be well, may I be happy, may I be free from suffering.” Noticing what effects those words, those phrases, have upon your heart. CONSTANTLY REMIND YOURSELF TO LAUGH & SMILE.
Something that nobody here has discussed is the nature of the anxiety. That is tremendously important. Is it a constant, generalized phobia? Is it an acute reaction to a specific situation or stimulus? Benzodiazepines (Xanax, Valium, Atavan, Halcion, and others) work in a more specialized way on the GABA receptors which deal with alcohol. They lack some of the nasty alcohol side effects, but this means that sometimes the worst symptoms, like memory loss, sneak up on you. They also have really nasty withdrawal symptoms from chronic use. The Ashton Manual details how nasty they can be. They should only be used in response to accute attacks, and even then they tend to make you drowsy and sluggish. They are like a cognitive sledge-hammer. Antidepressant SSRI's like Paxil, Zoloft, and Lexapro work by making your brain "more plastic". It gives you the ability to change the triggers, but requires cognitive work on your part to truly work. They can also take 4 weeks to reach full effect, and sometimes cause a worsening of symptoms in the first few days. SSRI's can be thought to act like "emotional analgesics". As aspirin dulls to physical pain SSRI's dull severe emotional effects. You still have to do mental work to eliminate the issue, however. An easier, similar way to approach the problem would combine tension reducing physicaly exausting or tension reducing activities like exercise, or massage, or time in a sauna with behavioral techniques like biofeedback and breathing exercises also work well. There are a number of studies that show that to some degree excessive moods are responses to physical symptoms, and placing them in situational context. This then feeds back and amplifies the response. The James-Lang theory of emotion is defined as follows: From Wikipedia: The idea therefore is to do things that reduce or disassociate the autonomic responses. Without these, the triggers aren't powerful enough to start the emotional cascade, and break the Pavlovian-type response/association. These techniques tend to work better with anxiety that has a clearly defined source or cause. as an aside, L. Ron Hubbard's hatred of psychology stems from rejection by the profession of his electro-shock brainwashing techniques around the e-meter. They rejected him so he developed a whole false mythology. If you are thinking about Scientology, do a web search for Xenu to give you some philosophical background. Then one for "Operation Clambake" will detail some of the political/materialistic aspirations of the movement. If you do this and aren't dissuaded, then perhaps Scientology is for you.
