Anxiety - worth talking to GP

[Wizzbangfizz]

My dad died last week, it was a very distressing end and since I've come back to home and now work I'm feeling on the verge of a panic attack most days and I'm struggling to sleep and cope with the level of grief/expectation from others.

Is it worth speaking to the GP, can they do anything or will they just try and put me on antidepressants which I absolutely do not want.

Sertraline can really ease panic attacks IMO but perhaps look at cruse bereavement services in your area

I think be kind to yourself and give yourself time. See your GP if you need to but don’t make yourself feel like this is abnormal - your loss is so recent and sudden and your mind and body will be experiencing so many different things. I’m so sorry xx

Really sorry for your loss. I remember the state I got into after my Dad died and it took a good year for me to really come to terms with it. I suffered anxiety attacks and depression as a result. I also didn't want medication but I think for how bad I was I really should have got some. I didnt have a very supportive partner for reasons of his own and did go and see a counsellor and felt that talking helped me.
A few years back I started suffering from anxiety again and with now 2 children of my own didn't want to try and battle this one without some help. I started taking Sertaline and it helped alot. It really just helped 'cushion' how I was feeling which I felt so relieved about.
A friend also said to me just after my Dad died that 'time is the best healer' and he was so right. I wish I had just tried to be kinder to myself over this time and not work as hard and relentlessly as I did to block it all out.

I am certainly not encouraging you to necessarily go down the medication route but just sharing my experience.

Be kind to yourself, you are going through an incredibly difficult time x
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Hey :). It's absolutely worth speaking to the GP. ADs aren't your only option - counselling could work well, too.

However, please don't dismiss ADs completely. I suffered with my anxiety for 12 years because I was so determined not to go on them, and thought I could handle it myself (I tried so many diets/exercising/mindfulness etc). Turns out I couldn't. I started Sertraline in January, and I'm a new person. I haven't had a panic attack or burst into tears for months. I can cope with life. It's brilliant.

Thanks for your kind replies and sorry for your losses.

I have to discount them as I tried them in the past and they didn't work, or they did but I hated how I felt and I never want to feel like that again, I'd rather feel like this. I am going to get counselling but just for sleep/crushing feeling or panic I feel I want to try something. I'm back at work today so feeling particularly overwhelmed.

@Wizzbangfizz I am so sorry for your loss. I was you in March when my dad died, also a very difficult end without support due to Lockdown. I felt a strange calm which unseated me then a sense of emotional and physical overload much like panic which unseated me too. I recognise how hard it is to manage others who are grieving too or who respond in peculiar or insensitive ways. It’s such a difficult time .

I think what helped me was trying to do the basics, eat well, get out for a walk each day, accept that some hours will be better than others, and then some days will be better than others, but each day just put one foot in front of the other. I found that it helps to read about grief and to understand other people’s experience who are further down the road. If you can, talk to people about your Dad. If people close to you find it difficult think about talking to a counsellor (perhaps if your dad was in a Hospice or hospital they have someone to recommend?). Or join a forum (I joined a Macmillan one where I could be honest about what was going on among people who got it). You may find that once you’ve been back at work a while the structure of it and the distraction are somewhat helpful.

I’m a CBT therapist so I know all about panic! ADs can take the edge off anxiety and different ADs affect individuals differently. Keep an open mind on those but it’s such early days OP, it’s not surprising you feel the physical manifestation of overwhelm and it will pass. It’s your body and mind processing the shock, trust it to do what it needs to do. Though I’m sure normal life reasserting itself will help, is it possible at the moment for you to have reduced hours in some form so you can spend some time looking after yourself?

It does get easier in that one gets more used to what’s happened. I really wish you well on what I know is a very hard road.