Anxiety, Panic Attacks and Agoraphobia Part 2 By Joe S. Thomas

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Continued-
After many attempts and many hundreds of dollars lost, I finally made the emergency room doctors understand that I was having a legitimate problem and that I wasn’t faking for some sort of attention or wasn’t a drug seeker…  At the time I didn’t know what a drug seeker even happened to be…  This was before I turned to alcohol and other recreational drugs to help with the anxiety and horrible feelings I was having…  By the time I received proper help, I was at my wits end and would have damn near tried anything…  These were the first times that suicide entered my mind…  I simply did not want to live feeling the horrible way that I was feeling…  Nobody, let me repeat, NOBODY should get to this state before they are offered help in some real form…  I also lay this problem, at least partially, squarely at the feet of the doctors who seriously failed me and didn’t find it necessary to help me quicker than they eventually did…  They finally found it necessary in all of their wisdom (yes, I’m being sarcastic) to finally send me to a psychiatrist…  The young woman I went to seemed to be just out of college and at most probably ten years older than I happened to be…  This was unexpected, but I knew little to nothing about pharmaceutical companies, how they worked to sell medications and the kick backs doctors often get for prescribing said companies dope…  And it is dope…  Sorry, I get angry and tend to want to jump ahead of myself…  After spending less than 30 minutes with this lady and me being damn near in tears she gave me a diagnosis that follows me to this day.  Bipolar Depression with Generalized Anxiety and Panic Disorder…  She seemed to truly be concerned and was a kind person…  Just hearing that I wasn’t the only person suffering with these issues and that they were indeed real problems made me feel at least 50% better…  No joke…  The more I studied the problem and the more familiarized I became, the less the anxiety and panic seemed to have a hold on me…  It’s truly terrifying to think you’re the only person having these issues and nobody telling you any different…  I would tell you to take someone who comes to you with issues such as these very seriously…  Get them help as soon as possible because it’s a truly horrible and scary feeling…  The first step is believing the person in my opinion…  You would be surprised at the families who attempt to sweep such things under the rug so to speak…  I hate defending any sort of antipsychotic medication, but at times, and perhaps in short intervals, they are needed…  It seems to me, especially now, that many antipsychotics haven’t even been studied long term…  I was told by this young psychiatrist that originally treated me that I had a chemical imbalance in my brain (which has since been debunked), and was prescribed one of the many , many drugs that were eventually prescribed to try and make a dent in my issues…  I was scared to take medications and I let her know this…  I will  never forget what she told me, she said: If you were a diabetic you would take medication, right? Yes, I said. This is no different, it’s a medical condition that you have for which you will need to take medication for the rest of your life…  I’m sure she saw me physically deflate…  I think this is something she was likely taught at the time…  I don’t think she was simply trying to sell me medication, but the misinformation or flat out lies that have come out since the beginning of my ordeal truly leaves me bewildered and very angry…  If you feel you do need medication, please study this with your physician and I would even say consider it a very short term fix, if a fix at all…  I say this due to the side effects and the lack of true information on the findings of these medications…  There are some real dangers involving these things…  Again, consult  a doctor…  I am simply a person who has been through the ringer with this mess and I’m just trying to share my experience…  Absolutely make sure the benefits outweigh the risks…  The very little help I received from the medications (nearly all) were all in my mind looking back…  I was so desperate to feel normal that I told myself the answers were in this small green pill…  It just wasn’t the case…  It took me years of absurd side effects and suffering to come to this conclusion and while I do suffer from severe depression, I would rather deal with it on my own than fill my body with the poisons offered…  Again, this is just my opinion and my life…  Please do what’s best for you…  Just understand there are consequences…  Perhaps on both sides, but we face them everyday…  I think if a person has a good support system i.e. someone or perhaps a group of people that they can be 100% honest with, share what’s bothering them regardless of how crazy it may sound and do so without judgment, this is perhaps more helpful than any of the medications I’ve tried…  Unfortunately, I myself and many others do not have a good support system…  This alone leads one to seek out treatment in my opinion…  I sincerely wish I had an easy answer…  Life is very hard and seemingly getting harder…  There will no doubt be more and more medications flooding the market that claim all sorts of wonderful effects and doctors who will peddle them…  Please don’t buy in without weighing your options, doing some research of your own and understanding to the very best of your ability just what you’re getting yourself into…  As I said, I feel far from fixed but at the end of the day I have learned some coping skills that have allowed me to discontinue use of 90% of the medications prescribed to me for psychiatric use…  In fact, the only drug I use is Klonopin when I’m having an extreme panic attack that I can’t quite control…  Of course this medication probably hasn’t been studied long term either and who knows what it’s doing to me as I type this…  I sincerely hope the best for each and every person who deals with such issues and may come across this piece…  Thank you for reading…  I wish I could do more for you…  Please do not stop  taking your medications cold turkey or without consulting your doctor…  Thank you all…  Much love and respect…