Struggling with GAD again...

[Titflaps]

I've got GAD, and ordinarily I'm able to get by and have coped using mindfulness techniques. But the last few months I have been struggling to cope and have been verging on panic attacks because of really minor things - eg close to tears just because I was talking about myself

I haven't yet been to the docs because I know he'll suggest ADs, and I really don't want that again - I'm not depressed just really anxious all the time. I have tried Kalms, but they don't have any effect at all. I had diazepam once and it had a limited effect - perhaps a higher dose would be helpful? I've had cbt and didn't find it much help at all.

AD cymbalta really helps my GAD. ADs help both depression AND anxiety :-)

I don't really know what I was asking in my OP, to be honest... I guess just thinking out loud. I need to go back, but the nature of my anxiety means I'm too afraid to go and ask.

I was diagnosed with GAD last year after a referral to time-to-talk services by my GP for PND / suicidal thoughts.

I didn't want to take Sertraline because I was still bf and was extremely anxious about DD and didn't wabt to give up bf as it was the only part of motherhood I felt like I was succeeding at.

Time to talk group and one on one help plus the overcoming worry book, asking for help, learning to be be extra kind to myself and making life style changes all really really helped. I don't really feel like anxiety is something I can beat but I can definitely manage it better now. And of course good days and bad days. The CBT really helped (I didn't think it would but it was the only option I had). And being able to identify triggers.

What do you think has triggered your anxiety at the moment.

Sorry you're going through a tough time

I'm not sure what has triggered it this time around, I can't pin-point any one particular thing, it always seems to peak and trough but never seems to completely go away. Things are actually pretty good in my life at the moment, I'm one credit card payment away from being completely debt free, I've just achieved a promotion at work, we're almost ready to put our house on the market, I've got a wonderful happy, healthy 5yo ds, who although is challenging like most 5yos, is wonderful and amazes me every day. That's the weird thing I think about GAD, there's not always a reason for it.

I can't bear the thought of talk therapy or ADs, and that's what is putting me off of asking for help from my GP. I feel like a real failure for not being able to get on top of things on my own and have been self-medicating / self-harming with food and I'm now at my all-time heaviest and am very morbidly obese (23st) which is adding to things and making it worse. I had cbt for my compulsive eating disorder a year ago and didn't find it much help truth be told. Gah, I feel like the queen of first world problems, I know there are people who have it so much worse than I do, and I'm still such a mess.