BE NOT AFRAID -- Catholics Living With Anxiety Disorders

You are very much welcome, cheezey, both for the suggestion, and as a new member of the group! I hope, as I'm sure others here do as well, that it will be of benefit to you. Also Janey, Stephen and Lisa. Sorry that it got a little inactive - that might have been due to the holiday season!

Anyway, here we all are. And our loving Savior is with us - "where two or more are gathered together" we can be assured He is among us. Also our Blessed Mother can't be far away either! And all the Saints and Angels.

We come from different backgrounds, our anxiety manifests in different ways, some is from trauma, some genetic, some hard to pin down. For us ladies, sometimes hormones play a role. Modern life demands a lot of us and especially since the economic recession there's more anxiety all around us. Even folks who weren't anxious before can become so after a job loss, a foreclosure, etc. Competition for the jobs that are there is fierce. Or if we are awaiting a disability determination, it can be so lonely and frightening as the money drains away and we wonder how we can pay those bills.

I can only share my own experiences - there have been ups and downs and times I was sure I wasn't going to make it - either I'd end up a bag lady when the money ran out, or I'd just have one huge panic attack which would get me locked up in some psychiatric institution or worse. But I would pray, and God got me through it somehow, step by step.

Here's an idea for tonight - read Psalm 130 - the "De Profundis" it's called - and it begins "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord" - we cry to Him out of our fears and anxieties and woundedness. And we persist, and learn to trust and believe.

Also, anyone who has a favorite Scripture that helps them through the really hard times, please share! God bless you all, have a peaceful night and a blessed day tomorrow.

I am new to this group, old to anxiety and PTSD and all that that implies. Thank you 3Doctors for this suggestion.....much needed and grateful

I am new to this group. I have generalized anxiety disorder.

Wow....thankyou God for helping me to find this forum...literally.

I've delt with Free Floating Anxiety pretty much my whole life. There

was alot of abuse when i was a kid and even later........so i know I have the syptoms of PTSD.

And my Mom died recently........thought I was going with her. I had no

idea it would be so painful. She was my Rock in the last 10 years.

I have been disabled for 12 years haven't been able to work.....have a wife and a son.

and am way to sensitive.......so i get hurt easily.

Funny thing....was i thought it was just a lack of faith.

Prayer does calm me down.......I will say 100 hail Mary's if I'm freaking out.

Well nice to meet you all and i hope I can keep up

God bless
Stephen

Hello, I 'm new to the group. Is this an active group?

Hedy and Bill,

I agree on both points. It is difficult for other to see the problem sometimes. Like Bill says even a spouse cannot sometimes see the problem. Professional help doses make a difference too. It is great to have a place to vent. Support groups sometime can be frustrating though too if not run professionally. You have to make sure it isn't just turning into a big ***** session. There are a lot of things that should be done daily to help control anxiety. Members should be accountable to staying on task with things like eating well, good sleep patterns, taking medcation, exercise, etc.... If the support group just become a place to complain then it becomes a drain on the others.

I have found amazing results from journaling too. There is another website I visit and I have learned to use it to journal my experiences. Like Hedy, I have been able to calm my mind down many times just by writing things down. There is something about organizing your thoughts into sentences and paragraphs that is very soothing. My wife is a teacher. When I discussed this with her she told me that journaling is control method for kids with ADD.

God bless everyon in their efforts to control this disorder. I have tremendous respect for anyone who admits their issues and has the guts to work on them.

hedy,
My experience is the same as yours in that people who do not have this type of affliction simply do not understand it (with the exception of professionals in the field as you point out). My wife would accuse me of 'being lazy' and 'trying to escape (responsibility)' and would get very angry with me. This would just make me feel worse about myself, leading to more depression/anxiety and being able to do even less....and this became a cycle of continued worsening of anxiety/depression and worsening of my ability to work or perform simple household tasks.

An occupational therapist gave me a notebook and suggested I write down positive things about myself and to write down small, achievable goals to help reverse the negative cycle and start a positive cycle. I haven't done this yet but have consciously thought of positive things about myself and rehersed them in my mind the way I used to reherse thoughts of failure, worthlessness, that my anxiety would always prevent me from functioning even close to normal, etc. I am going to a program with some groups this week and early next week that should help me learn coping skills which I hope to utilize and practice over time.

I wish everyone the best.
God Bless,
Bill

I'm new to the group; didn't expect to find a group for this malady. I'm 76 y/o and have suffered from both an anxiety disorder and depression since I was 21. Over the years I have experienced many phases of these mental illnesses. My daughter tells me that currently these entities are officially known as "mood disorders". Be that as it may, it's been very difficult for me during my lifetime to experience the various aspects of these disorders, and I'm so happy to find a place where I can just "tell it like it is." I note that most people who suffer from panic attacks and agoraphobia, don't like to talk about their experiences. I know I don't and I think the reason is that normal people don't understand my experiences in any framework except that of normalcy.

My experience has been that the only people I know who "get it" are the people who have it, and if you're like me, talking about it with anyone but a professional is not helpful. Consequently, I've found that journalizing about what I've experience in terms of symptoms, and my feelings about them can be helpful in easing anxiety as well as the soul sucking feelings that depression brings.

Another benefit of writing about my experiences is that I get distracted from my feelings as I focus on attempting to characterize them in a way that is honest and truthful to myself. I've written myself "down" from a high level of anxiety to something much more bearable in a few minutes time. I hope this is helpful to anyone who wants to find an additional, more holistic approach to these maladies.

May God Bless us all as we continue to work on healing ourselves with the aid of the Holy Spirit. Peace

Hello robertmidwest,

I have experience with various medications to treat anxiety. The one's I have used are: xanax, ativan, klonopin, clonodine, and buspar. Xanax and ativan are quick acting but not having a long lasting effect to control anxiety. They are medications typically used to help a patient manage panic attacks. They are both addictive if taken on a daily basis. Buspar is, I think, a non addictive medication to treat anxiety. I took that 3x/day and found it to be a little helpful. I have taken xanax and found it to be helpful but it is not as long lasting as klonopin. Klonopin is the medication that is most helpful to me, I have severe chronic anxiety (not panic attacks, terrible anxiety most every moment of most waken hours) Klonopin is a long lasting medication and this is what I like about it and think this is why I find it to be the most helpful.

Clonodine is actually a blood pressure medication which is sometimes prescribed for anxiety. A sister medication, tenormin, has been used by something like 80% of doctors as a PRN (dose as needed) prior to them giving a speech to an audience. Tenormin is risky for someone with asthma to take, hense I take clonodine. I have found it to be a little helpful.

Buspar, I think, is non addictive. Klonopin has been a God send! The psychiatrist I have been seeing would not prescribe it to me because a sub specialty of her's is addiction and she does no tlike to prescribe addictive medications. However for 2 months out of the past 2 and 1/2 months I have had such severe anxiety (accompanied with my stomach feeling as if it was folding in on itself I lost 40 lbs. as I was not eating, just drinking milk and pedialite., it was extremely annoying and uncomfortable and that was one of anxiety's physical manifestations. I went into a psychiatric hospital for the past 2 weeks, I'm 45 and have been on antidepressants for the past 20 years but this was the first time I was in a psychiatric hospital. They gave me klonopin and I began eating as the feeling in my stomach went away. I gained 38 lbs back in the 2 weeks I was in the hospital. (It was also not filled with 'crazy people, only a few of them, which was a surprize to me).

I will be seeking out another psychiatrist who will prescribe me klonopin, I can not see me living without it at this point. I also attended CBT classes (cognitive behavioral therapy) and relaxation classes in the hospital and found them very helpful as well.I am looking forward to beginning exercizing on a regular basis as it is great for depression and believe it will burn off some of my anxiety as well.

I hope some of that was helpful. God Bless,
Bill

Kaylynn7800,

I agree with what you say about the tenacity of the disorder. I was thinking about this earlier today. Getting control means a whole lifestyle change. I compare it to a diabetic. It has to be dealt with daily, not just a trip to Dr. every six months. I think another good comparison is weight control. Someone who need to lose a lot of weight can't cut out one food and expect the problem to change.

Anxiety control is a whole paradigm shift. Exercise, diet, sleep patterns, organization skills, communication skills, medication, meditation, professional help... etc. I can't just cut out caffiene and then say "ok, now my anxiety is under control."

My goal lately has been to establish a habit of daily meditation, and exercise. So far so good.