You know, I heard that some people on antidepressants are on them for anxiety problems, not depression

Cite!

...

Oh, cite

You were supposed to say here and here and here and here and here.

Nyah nyah, fooled you!

I had a 5 minute session with a psychiatrist who dismissed me with, "I doubt you're depressed" but recommended to the daycare team that I stayed on my medication to reduce anxiety. Subsequent mental health specialists tweaked my medication and now I think I am as stable as any "normal" person.

I'm still a worrier, but I never had any idea how much anxiety ruled my life until I stayed on anti-depressants for long enough for them to take effect.

I still don't know exactly what I take them for, but I rarely - if ever - get the fight or flight physical reaction for non-physical reasons. Example I will not feel my stomach drop followed by nausea just because I get an unexpected letter/ Yes my finances are as rosy as they can be, but it's chicken and egg - I return phone calls and open letteres and deal with things before they grow tentacles these days.

Another example, I accept training and advice as just that. I do not go into school feeling sick to my stomach because someone pointed out a better way to do things the previous day. Constructive criticism no longer makes me physically ill.

And I have far less violent dreams :)

I do still get an adrenaline fear reaction if I trip slightly, or someone steps in front of me unexpectedly, my fingertips tingle. At its most extreme it gives me a jolt like putting the car into the wrong gear while driving - inside my head.

But even if there were a medication for that I don't think it would be worth bothering with :) It's just that so few people I know experience it. As I have said before, I am just easily spooked.

Oh I do. Its just like that feeling you get when you are falling asleep and all of a sudden you feel like you have fallen. You wake yourself up wondering if your whole body jerked or not.

Oh my whole body definitely does jerk. It happens at least once a week as I'm falling asleep, I violently jerk awake again for no reason. Mr. Clod thinks it's hysterical.

Well described, Pico. It's that violent.

Clod, I've never had anyone witness it.
I've jerked awake, but my partner has stayed sleeping, so I've never known.
So it's always made me laugh the idea that if you have a bad dream or you jerk awake you immediately sit up in bed because it's tv/ film shorthand for a disturbed mind.

I've woken enough people with my nightmares to know that my flavour of them does not match tv/ film at all! No sitting up in bed. No screaming. No mumbling of words or tossing and turning. Just a low "nh-nh-nh" noise getting louder and louder. In the nightmare I am trying to scream and find myself unable, as the horror approaches me.

And, no- if you heard it you would not confuse it with a sex noise!
Eventually I wake myself up.
In the distant past I was woken up by the person I had just woken up,, if you get what I mean. These days I wake up Mum in the room next door, she thinks "Nightmare" and goes back to sleep.

Y'know. It never occurred to me but, I take a regular medication to bring down the histamine response, which also acts as a mild sedative and can be prescribed purely as a treatment for anxiety. It's a way to short out that itch-stress-itch-stress escalation.

I do wonder if part of the reason I'm generally more stable in my moods over the past few years might be because of that medication.

Antidepressants are also prescribed to treat hot-flashes in women whose menopause is induced by chemotherapy. My friend eventually gave up and and took them and reports that they don't really work all that well for that. but she's a lot less anxious! :lol:

I didn't go to a shrink to be diagnosed with post natal depression and quite frankly, if i'd had to wait even a week to start getting the problem under control, I probably would have done serious harm to myself or my child, and that's no joke.

Yes, psychiatrists etc serve a good purpose, and I've seen shrinks before, but in some cases, the need is more urgent than their own importance.

I've had this theory that it's caused by television & advertising. Most TV shows portray a life filled with all the modern conveniences, gadgets, and fashions. The advertising during these shows is geared to cause you to think that you're a schlub if you don't buy the product being advertised. It can make you feel that if you don't live up to those standards, to that lifestyle, that you're a failure. Being a failure is so depressing.