I come here with questions wondering wether any of you have gone through what I have gone through. I will try to be as brief and concise as possible. Last year 2016 I had what could be described as an acute episode of anxiety. I had no clue what was wrong and did not realize the feelings I was having was anxiety. I was constantly nauseated and throwing up. Honestly thought I had some sort of stomach ailment or cancer. Eventually found out it was anxiety visited a psych doctor. Chose not to take medication and rode out the worst of it. It had actually already started subsiding by the time I saw the psych doctor. Periodically after that I would have intermittent anxiety sometimes worse then others but nothing in comparison to what I had previously experienced.
Now fast forward to a year later. I was literally thinking how awesome it was that I don’t really suffer from these issues anymore and then out of no where I have a migraine. After that migraine I started have anxiety again and maybe depression. The two often go hand in hand. Its hard for me to distinguish between the two. Now I am curious to know could this migraine have induced this state in me. Perhaps jacked up my brain chemistry. Google search showed a correlation between migraines and anxiety/depression but not in the way that I am discussing here.
So have any you had experience with this and could share your experiences. I hate living with this. But on the flip side it has made me immeasurably more empathetic to those suffering from mental health issues or any issues in general. I used to be rather callous when someone told me they were depressed.
I am concerned because when it hits me and I am in the midst of an episode it takes every fiber of my being just to be normal or appear normal. I can still work but its much more difficult. I can’t learn or study. Almost totally incapable of socializing. I can barely show affection towards my girlfriend because I am constantly wrestling with this internal turmoil and trying to beat these feelings down.
I am supposed to be going to grad school soon and I am very concerned with having to deal with this while trying to study and excel in my academics.
Anyways please share your stories, thoughts and advice. Would appreciate anything you have to offer.
There are excellent medications available for this condition. I would encourage you to re-consider going this route, and to discuss your options in this regard with your psychiatrist. Best of luck in dealing with this.
I would agree, and remind you, OP, that there are side-effects to NOT taking medication, too. Such as having trouble with work, school, your social life, relationship, etc.
Which isn’t to say that you absolutely should take meds, but just to give you something to consider.
I agree with the above. Find a psychiatist you trust and follow his recommendations and take your meds. I don’t wish to share the details of my own history on here, but I came from a pretty f*cked up family and childood and it still affects me even now in my mid-40s. There were a good many years there where I used the anger to drive me through school and ridiculously long work weeks, but I finally realized it wasn’t allowing me to calm down and enjoy life. I was basically a miserable bastard and it was obvious to everyone but me. You want to find something that works for you as early in life as humanly possible and still forgive yourself for the inevitable missteps. Just don’t ignore it.
Sadly i have some experience with psych meds. Many can be very helpful and they’re there because they’ve been proven to work for what they treat.
So trying meds is a perfectly good option if you have recurrent issues without them.
The one thing I’d encourage you to do is:
*Research the hell out of any medicine you take
*keep a day/time log of doses
*keep a mood journal.
These things can help you evaluate how well meds work for YOU. They can also be very helpful when talking to any doctor.
Some stuff I took for a while, and I’ll not name it for privacy reasons, had some horrendous side effects when I decided to STOP taking it. Turned out it was about 8 months of hellish withdrawal. Had I researched the stuff before taking it, this wouldn’t have been surprising.
At this point I take zero meds for anything. And won’t unless it’s an emergency situation. Nothing wrong with needed medicines, but I personally hate the hell out of stuff that treats symptoms rather than the core problem causing them.
I suspect you’re the informed type cause if you aren’t you wouldn’t have asked the question.
Symptoms of a migraine prodome (onset) and postdrome (hangover) can include anxiety and depression, but they should be gone once you have moved out of the prodrome/postdrome stage.
Migraines are sadly not yet fully understood, but they can jack up your brain chemistry although should just be around the time of the attack. What sort of migraine frequency are you experiencing?
A lottttt of people have mental issues throughout life and you’d never know, you’re not alone.