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Anxiety

Does anxiety ever get better!? I've had it for ten months and I feel like I just treat it every day with supplements. On an antidepressant f and it helps a little but my anxiety scares me and all the help feels temporary and it just comes back worse every afternoon
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973741 tn?1342342773
That's terrible. Sounds like a viscous cycle.  Does your therapist talk about anxiety with you?  Perhaps the med you are on could be changed to one that works well on BOTH depression and anxiety.  There are coping strategies to implement.  Physical activity is excellent as a mood stabilizer.  No, it won't cure you but it helps.  Meditation if you can do it, breathing exercises, yoga, eating well, getting proper rest.  Journaling can help you find a trend or pattern that will help figure out strategies.  I would speak to your doctor/therapist specifically about this increased anxiety.  I've had anxiety and yes, it can get much better.  Keep the faith!
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Avatar universal
Thank you. I know my scary thoughts and fears contribute a lot
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Yes.  That is hard.  Really hard.  But remember, they are JUST thoughts and do not own you.  You can put them in their place and don't have to allow them to take over.  My son read a book on something like that.  Talking back to it and not letting it control him.  Sounds silly but the visual of being able to take control over your thoughts that way helps him a lot.  
Avatar universal
If you're an anxiety sufferer and don't suffer from depression, you might find the anxiety forum a better place to talk.  But I think most of us with either eventually get the other because neither is any fun and neither lets us alone to feel confidant.  But yes, a whole lot of people do get over their anxiety.  A whole lot don't.  So you can't predict this is going to last forever.  There is a form of therapy called CBT that is the most recommended for anxiety problems.  It doesn't go into why you got anxiety, it just tries to teach you how to not think anxious thoughts anymore.  It requires a lot of work.  It usually fails to work.  But when it does work, you're better, you don't need the drugs anymore.  Drugs never cure anything with mental illness because science hasn't yet figure out why it exists.  With time we can only hope we will solve this one.  But we do know that, as Mom said, a lot of people have successfully basically talked themselves out of it.  If you're the kind of person who can suspend judgment and logic and just do what the therapist says to do, if you can afford a good CBT therapist (most don't take insurance), and if you really really want to get over it badly enough to do the work and face your fears, there are again a lot of people out there who have beaten this.  No benefit in believing you're not one of them.
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And I should add, Mom is right, if you're on a drug that isn't working very well, try another.  They really are a lot different in how we absorb them.  Only two ever did much for me, and that wasn't a lot, the rest I tried I might have well have been drinking water.  It's just a difference in how well our bodies absorb them.  As to supplements, first, it can be a bit dangerous to use certain supplements if you're also taking medication.  You might say which ones you're taking.  But as a general rule, supplements come in two different categories, and we don't know which ones you're using:  the first is phophylactic, to protect your health from the drugs you're taking and the stress of the illness.  These are fine to take if you know which ones and you take ones that are made by reliable companies -- there's a lot of bogus stuff out there on the internet.  The second category are those used to combat the mental illness, and these are often not compatible with medication, as they can work on the same neurotransmitters.  If you truly want to tackle it with natural medicine, it's best to not be on medication so you can use more of what's available.  And you'll need a professional to guide if you lack expertise just as you wouldn't prescribe yourself a medication if you didn't have expertise in medication.  Natural medicine is used in combinations of things, and also includes diet, exercise, meditation, relaxation techniques, lifestyle changes, and therapy -- it wouldn't consist in just taking a capsule of something if you want best potential of it working.  
Avatar universal
Thanks I am being careful- the supplement I take is L-Theanine and was prescribed by my acupuncturist. I didn't know most CBT doesn't work. That's disappointing. I am using some cd's that use CBT. I do try strategies like breathing, affirmation and exposure. But I have mostly generalized anxiety which is harder to get a handle on than scenario specific anxiety I think. It does seem to be improving with the sertraline and therapy, but I still have really, really low or anxious days. Working on it.
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When I say most things don't work well, that's true.  Drugs barely beat placebo in trials.  Therapy is very hard to double blind test but CBT can be, as it relies on a pretty standard set of practices, and it works about 30% of the time.  Pretty much how well drugs work.  But that shouldn't be taken as the same as saying it doesn't work, it's saying the particular therapist or drug you're using might not work but another therapist or another drug might.  There are a lot of drugs out there, and a lot of different types of therapy, and a lot of different therapists.  If you find the right one, you only need that one to work, even if in general the type of treatment doesn't work very well.  That's why it's important to keep trying.  Therapy is much more art than science, and frankly, so is most of medicine.  GAD is a hard one, but the basic place we're all trying to get to is the same, which is not to think like an anxious person anymore.  Some of us will make it and some of us won't.  If you don't try, of course, you'll never make it.  By the way, acupuncturists don't prescribe, they suggest.  Taking one supplement is unlikely to work, but if it is working, that's great.  That one has a lot of research showing it does promote relaxation, but in practical usage it seldom works.  Might be a dosage thing, might be something else.  Make sure the company is reliable -- and make sure your acupuncturist is trained in Chinese medicine if they are going to use supplements -- most aren't, they are only trained in the use of needles and such but you will find them and chiropractors and others dispensing herbs without the expertise to do it right.  Usually, they are used in formula, meaning you work on different parts of the nervous system and the adrenals and other organs to try to balance the system.  I hope that supplement is working for you.  Some of the ones that work the best are not recommended to be taken when you're on an antidepressant, which makes it harder.  All the best.
I should say to be clear, I meant that an acupuncturist can just get certified to do the mechanical things they do.  Others will go farther and study much longer and also become doctors of traditional Chinese medicine, or TCM.  Naturopaths study all forms of natural medicine.  Herbalists know the herbs they learn, usually by a combination of study and apprenticeship, and don't know the ones they don't use regularly.  Every culture in the world has a tradition based on the herbs that grow near them and the ones that they learn through trade with other cultures -- a lot of herbs used in TCM, for example, are not Chinese at all, but have been incorporated over the centuries from other cultures and then given a Chinese name which doesn't mean they are grown anywhere near China.  Herbalism has become a global thing, like allopathic medicine has, with a lot of sharing.  Theanine is a pseudo-amino acid modern science found in green tea.  Isolated, it has relaxation properties in studies.  A modern practitioner of natural medicine uses a lot of things that are not ancient or even old but are from modern science, such as isolated amino acids and nutrients.  A really experienced and well-trained professional thus has a lot more tools in the kit than just the plants that grow in their region.  Peace.
Avatar universal
Try going on anti anxiety meds and do some dbt it really helps ive suffered with anxiety since i was about 5 years old and im 19 now , altho mines quiet bad lately im not on any meds but my dbt skills from being in hospital are really helping me
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973741 tn?1342342773
I'm a traditionalist when it comes to treatment for depression and anxiety.  I have seen great results.  But it's so individual.  And that factor makes things difficult to say what affect someone will have.  There are SNRI's if SSRI's aren't working well for you.  I personally find many holistic medicine and alternative medicine doctors to be full of hope based on nothing.  Talk about not having science to back up your practice!  My family was badly burned by an actual MD that had an alternative medicine practice. They took a lot of money for absolutely nothing.  I'm very careful about such things because there aren't checks and balances that should exist in the natural health/holistic/alternative medicine world that would make it safe. If they had to live up to same standards as traditional medicine, much of it would never be able to do so.  Just my opinion.  

Katie, I know you are trying so hard to feel better.  I want that for you too sweetie.  There is no magic pill unfortunately. Whether you take traditional medication, alternative medication, do therapy, etc. . . . a lot of work is involved in recovering from depression and anxiety but your life and well being are worth it.  I am on the other side and want you to have hope you will get there too!
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There are opinions, which are based on something or nothing, and there is experience and research.  Most of the drugs in the world were developed from plant medicine.  They did this because they knew the plant medicine worked and they wouldn't be wasting their time.  All medicine that is practiced by trained people is based on science.  I think you don't understand what science is, a common problem on here.  Science isn't the same as facts and it certainly doesn't equal safety.  Science is a process to find facts.  With mental illness, we don't have the facts yet, we still don't know what biological processes cause it, and so there is no cure other than therapy or spontaneously having it go away much as it came or some other way of changing the way you think.  If you're a traditionalist, Mom, you favor natural medicine -- it's the one that's traditional, it's been around since humans have been around and there's century upon century of experimentation behind it.  Allopathic medicine, which you consider "traditional" has only been around for a short period of time, and pharmaceutical medicine has only been around for a breath of time.  How many docs who practice allopathic medicine take our money for practically nothing?  The problem is thinking there's a guarantee in life, and there isn't.  Some of us get better and some of us don't and we all end up dead.  That's life and how it renews and refreshes itself.  Being badly burned, to me, is having a doc that wrecks your life by mangling you.  That is the reason for the opioid epidemic, much of that are botched orthopedic surgeries.  I think that's about 50% of it.  Plants and amino acids and nutrients might not work, and for severe mental illness probably won't, but they don't have the same history of destroying lives that your version of "traditional" medicine does.  As for checks and balances, there aren't any in the allopathic world either -- anyone ever had anyone audit their psychiatrist?  Any other doc?  I thought not.  The best medicine is the one that works best for the particular condition and person without causing more harm.  All forms of medicine have their strengths and weaknesses.  All forms have their charlatans who are just out to make money off of us.  No form has a monopoly on success or failure or honesty or ability.  To close off options for people who need them doesn't seem to me to make sense, it seems more like faith than science.  Just think of the marketing -- the age-old and tried and true is called alternative and the brand new and invasive is called traditional.  That's marketing, Mom.  I'm for inclusiveness.  Everyone gets to decide for themselves.  And remember, every doctor swears to the Hippocratic Oath.  Hippocrates was an herbalist.
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