Support/Chat thread for Panic Attacks, OCD, Obsessive Thinking, Depression, PND, come one come all!

[ibroughtcake]

Hi Everyone

I have been thinking of starting this thread for a while so here goes. I am hoping that it will turn into an ongoing thing where we can all get to know and support each other through whatever difficulties we are facing.

Firstly about me, I am mummy to DD 2 and DS 7wks. I have suffered with panic attacks and obsessive thinking for about 5 years now. There have been times when I have been free from it and times when it has been easier (ie when I was on fluoxetine!). I have tried CBT and SSRI's both with some success, but I am really in the midst of a bad time with it at the moment and noticed many other posts about similar things so thought we could all meet at the same place IFSWIM!

I finally went back to the GP to ask for some help yesterday and she has referred me to the Mental Health team and given me a script for Fluoxetine (Prozac). I haven't started taking them yet as I am breastfeeding. I know that they are safe to take whilst bfing but I have anxieties about that too!!

So please come and join, share your tale etc and hopefully we will be able to support each other and offer our own experiences to help some others.

Ibroughtcake - Good for you. Hope you're doing ok! Let me know later. Still haven't done it. Will get there eventually!

morning all . hope i can join this! im in my late 20s with a 21 month old dd. i have ocd which mainly is in the form that i clean obsessivly and wash hands frequently. [my dds hands too] i have obsessive thoughts and am very anxious and on edge a lot . do i qualify? nalso i was wondering if any one else needs constant reasurance with the children? if my dd knocks herself i keep asking everyone if thwey think she will be ok .xxx

Morning everyone. hope it is OK to join. I missed the trad as I have been on holiday.

Little history - I have 2 lovley DS' (2.6 and 15 months). I have suffered from depression since my father died in an accident 6 years ago. I have greif councelling and Serosat for 6 months and was OK. I then had my boys and well I got in to a right state.

So I am currently on 225mg of Zenaflaxine and 25mg of Quetapine for sleep. I also am having CBT one a week at home and see a phy at least twice a month. I have been very lucky and got the treatment I needed very quicly due to the severity of my illness this time round.

Only my MUM, DH and BF know how bad things are, but I am working on getting well

Can anyone help me with this bloody dizziness? Its driving me insane!! Its not really dizziness as such. My face feels really full and as if there's pressure along my cheeks and eyes. I'm still getting these moments where i get a kind of rush to my head and it makes me feel a bit off balance. The room doesn't spin or anything like that. Its so wierd to describe. My head feels like cotton wool. Is this an anxiety symptom or do you think its a sinus thing? Doc says not sinuses but it feels like that. I know its not a virus cause i've been getting this on and off for years.

Elliemac - I'm being treated at ther hospital for dizziness. Could it be something to do with your ears? Have you had any ear infections in the past? If so it could be labrynthitis or crystals in your ears. Either way it can be helped by doing special exercises.

Hotcrossbunny - Have had labyrinthitis in the past about five years ago but as i say this has been happening on an off since then. Doc thinks its anxiety but as i said previously in this thread - i don't think it is cause i've got this horrible pressure and bunged up feeling. Is an ENT specialist you see? Might have to see about something like that myself.

Yes ENT department. Definitely worth finding out about. Apparently labrynthitis can cause damage to the inner ear and cause dizziness. You need to train your brain to compensate for the damage. Google labrynthitis - there is a really good website which might answer somequestions.

I just want to say hi and wish everyone a very good morning and can I join please. I have been lurking for a couple of days but have found the courage to join in, I'm shy in the real world and it seems to have transferred onto here.

I seem to qualify on 2 accounts I have clinical depression, anxiety and a social phobia (this is a lot better now) but I also have menieres disease which is similiar to labyrnithitis, postural vertigo, tinnitus and I'm deaf in my right ear (since 1993) but I can hear the buzzing which is rather irritating. I also have numerous other physical illnesses I'm registered disabled.

I'll just tell you a bit about myself (otherwise we will be here all day) my mental health problems were diagnosed 10 years ago, they were brought on by a variety of things I have also been shy, quiet and anxious even as a child, bullying at work and family problems lets just say 'my mother will be the death of me' is something I can relate to. At the moment I take Amitryptyline 150mg but they are looking to add carbamazipine as well (its a mood stabilizer) I take 10 different medications a day for a variety of illnesses.

I can really relate to so many of you on different levels, I have been a frequent visitor to many NHS departments so please feel free to ask any questions as I would really like to help if I can - I have spent 17 years visiting ENT doctors.

Well that was a long brief introduction

I have to go out now but will call back later to see if anybodies around.

Hi morgansauntie

Elliemac, the dizziness could well be part of your anxiety but I agree with what the others have said. It could well be something to do with your ears.

Some of the physical symptoms with anxiety are just awful.
I know when I was at my worst, I would ache from the top of my head to my toes just from the way I held myself.
I never really noticed until my CBT lady pointed it out to me.

Is anyone watching what they eat to help with their anxiety? Have you found it makes a difference?

just wanted to sat hello to morgansauntie

i am having a farking awful day, keep telling myself that it is just the tablets kicking in and it will stop soon but still so panicky, i will be back tonight hopefully feeling better

hope you're all having better days

Hi Guys, im having an OK day today. Ibroughtcake - i'm really pleased you took the tablet actually. Sometimes i think our seretonin levels get so low that it is impossible for us to help ourselves without medical help. If you have a back injury you wouldnt expect to get better using physio alone, you would welcome any medical help so try to view the SSRIs as the same sort of thing. I think the weekend before i started on the citalopram was the lowest ebb for me. Firstly i was in a bad way anyway and then i had basically been shook around the neck by the nurses at my local clinic and my doctor and i finally had to accept that i really wasn't well. So, i spent a while agonising about the pills as i was scared i was going to get worse. They are not a miracle cure, even though some of us like to think so (me included) but a crutch to help level things out until we can chase the demons out of our heads.

www.bluepages.anu.edu.au

I've just stumbled across this link, my doctor recommended it to me, in this site there is a link to moodgym, online CBT which my doc says is very effective, and free!

Hi guys thank you for your welcome I just thought I would see how everybodies afternoon is going, I've just been shopping with my mum if we do things her way we get on fine but she is rather overbearing and can not be in the wrong according to her not me. I'm going on holiday on friday so do not have as much time to spend online as I normally would have.

Sometimes it really is hard to distinguish between which phyiscal symptoms are related to anxiety and which are a genuine physical illness IYKWIM at it's worst I couldn't eat with other people or put my hand out for change in a shop because I shook so much anxiety can be very debilitating and restrict your life so much, luckily I seem to be over the worst but life never seems easy and every day is a struggle.

I am single and live alone and I'm happy with that, my family have never wanted to discuss my mental health problems even though I've tried so I'm not sure if they really realise how bad things have been, I do not know if anybody else has this problem.

I found it really hard at first with regards to taking the AD's but how I'm happy to take them for the rest of my life if they help.

Forgot to say I can not have children but I'm very involved in the upbringing of my nieces and nephew because their parents work full-time and I can not my nephew is 14 and my nieces are 6 and 3 and a half, I think I've spent more time with them than their parents have especially the girls.

I think the thing that i get most anxious about is the fear that i'm going to pass out. I fainted a couple of times when i was pregnant and i'm absolutely terrified that my dizziness is going to cause me to pass out. NBG - Haven't done anything with my diet but my doc reckons that a good diet along with some exercise can really help

Excuse my ignorance - Hiya morgansauntie & welcome!!!

Any room for a latecomer?

I have 2 dcs aged 6 and 4. I suffer from emetophobia (fear of vomiting) for which I am now receiving CBT on the NHS. My lovely fantastic GP has prescribed valium for when it gets really bad - ie. when either of the dcs is actually ill!

Is valium the best prescription for me, do you think? I don't know anything about other anxiety drugs.

I know what its like to be trapped in a world where you constantly think the worst is going to happen and battling very hard to concentrate on the positive.

I only pop in and out of Mumsnet, but promise to keep an eye on this thread and offer any support I can.

I am a bit over-fascinated by the ladies with cleanliness OCD. Is your fear of germs rooted in a fear of becoming ill? I make both dcs wash their hands when they come home from school or nursery, but am not fastidious about it. Don't want it spiralling out of control so that I make them wash all the time, because I do believe that some dirt is good for immunity. I wash my hands about 8 times a day and I don't want that getting out of control either!

Fantastic idea for a thread OP. Well done for starting it.

Elliemac, that is exactly my fear.
I am so so glad that I am not the only one!!!

Mine started through my last pregnancy when I passed out after I had my 28 week bloods done and then about a week after I had a bit of a dizzy spell when I was on my own and since then thats all I can think about.

So when I found out I was pg again when ds was 5 months, I was an absolute wreck.
I was told that it is actaully physcially impossible to pass out when your in the midst of a panic attack or anxious because your blood pressure rockets. Its only when you have low blood pressure that you actually faint.

Do you worry about going out on your own incase you feel like it?

elliemac thats ok hiya to you as well
My dizziness and light headedness seems to be worse when I'm in large places like my local indoor shopping centre I'm not sure if this is because of all the noise and my partial deafness or if its because I still get anxious when theres loads of people. I take Buccastem tablets when the dizziness is bad.

NBG - I used to be scared about going out incase i passed out and preferred to be in my own house. Now i'm the opposite - i prefer to be outside. That way i know there will be people there to help me if it does happen - i feel like an absolute idiot!! ibroughtcake Hope you've had an ok day - hang in there!

hello everyone, hello hew people, sorry, im having a bit of a hypo (low blood sugar cos im starrrving!) but putting that to rights with croissant and coffee, as you do!

Anyway, my day has been quite good, but heres the thing, my poor dp hes so stressed, trying to be ten places at once, i thought, i konw, i'll cook him a lovely meal - so i make sausage casserole, on account of thats all we have in the fridge, so i chop the onions, fry them, brown the sausages, stick them all in the casserole with some tomatoes and tomato puree and mushrooms then take DD on a trek to mini tesco to buy some potatos, get the shop, buy a tin of three bin soup to put in the dinner - lovely, i think, im very excited about this, lovely mashed potatoes, phone DP say, dont be long, dinner is nearly ready - then i come home and realise YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO TURN THE OVEN ON [SHOCK!!] i did do that, but i think when i put the casserole in i switched it off. Honestly, im a danger to myself i tried to poison my family only last week with a raw chicken!! Never mind eh, so its beef in ginger and spring onion sauce for me tonight, or should i have chicken with cashew nuts. At least i can use my tablets as an excuse

now elliemac I used to be like that and now I'm the other way round as I think I can just run to my bed in case I feel like it

Now I'm not usually one for "Me, me, me, look at me!" and am not taking it personally, and realise I came into a well-established thread, and that people get "stepped over" all the time

but

just quietly hoping someone might have read my post and have something to say to Daphne...

lucyellensmum You'll not be changing your name to Delia anytime soon then!! What are you like? daphne Hiya! Don't know much about your phobia sorry - bear with me! Is it a fear of yourself being sick or is it a general fear of sickness, by that i mean are you scared of other people vomitting too)?