Anxiety experiences and support

Hiya.. not been on this thread for a whiiiile.. Hope everybody is all good
I was mooching around on UCAS and found in the personal details section theres a disability bit where there is 'Mental health condition, such as:...anxiety disorder' (didnt even think about it until I saw it on the list!) . I guess I fit into this category buuut my college has no idea about my shizz and they're obviously going to see my ucas form and I know they'll probably bring it up and 'talk about it' and try to 'help'.. but I'm getting help and tootling along nicely right now and would not appreciate it.. and I dont want it to affect how they'd support my decision to apply for medicine at uni.. I know I can do it, but the whole 'anxiety disorder' doesnt look that great
Just wondering if I should or shouldnt put it on the form and what have other people's experinces of school / college / uni knowing about stuff??
Thankies

I've never experienced this, actually. I occasionally worry about breathing or not being able to breathe, but not usually associated with exercise. Have you had any counselling to help you through?

Well it's not just while exercising, but I'd consider it the most prevalent and difficult then. I'm doing CBT and that's helping a bit but it's still quite hard, especially when losing sleep. I don't think I slept at all last night : / but thanks for the concern anyway.

For me: 1. when they invade my personal space. Like hugging, or standing too close. There's someone out here who, while sitting next to me, just casually leaned her head on my shoulder Just so long as they don't touch me, look me in the eye, or otherwise invade my space.

2. being open and friendly, but not patronising. Oh, and if they talk first and take the initiative in conversation so I don't have to think about it. I also sincerely wish that people would just leave me to not participate if I choose not to. There are some things I can't make myself do.

Umm I get it from my GP. The first time I got prescribed it I was only given 7x5mg tabs because it was the first time I'd had them and due to their addictiveness I wasn't permitted to take them for more than a week. I then saw a different doctor (back home - not at uni and so they didn't have my recent records) and played it cool saying I'd taken them for 4 months and I take 5mg prn which equalled out to about 1 per week just to help me. He seemed fine with this and prescribed me 28x5mg.

I took them within about 10 days and got addicted, tried to withdraw and went cold turkey and had really bad withdrawal symptoms (loads of sleeping, shaking, twitching, sweating, severe headaches) so I went back to the doctors and they had to prescribe me some more so that I could take them and then slowly ween myself off of them. It didn't take me long to ween myself off of them so I had a lot left over.

And lately I've had terrible sciatica and was prescribed some more valium (28 tabs) to help relax the muscles in my back and numb the pain. I was also prescribed painkillers, 30mg codeine, 20mg dihydrocodiene, 50mg tramadol and also 750mg methocarbamol so I've not actually used any valium at all. From being prescribed them in the past and keeping them I've got about 10x 5mg tabs and 35x 2mg tabs tucked away - so a fair amount.

That said, for anxiety, doctors aren't going to dish them out willy nilly (or other benzo's for that matter). If you REALLY want them, they're usually one of the first medications prescribed for sciatica so depending on how good your acting skills are...

There's a similar drug on the market called Etizolam which is chemically similar to diazepam. It's widely available online (about £1 per pill) and I've heard fair results about them - although I'd prefer paying £7.40 for a prescription of 28 pills as opposed to £28 + postage for unprescribed medication off of the net...

Well I haven't been there, as I'm younger than you, but I'm gonna stick my oar in anyway

In my opinion, you should definitely mention it. They might be able to offer you extra support like taking your exams in a different setting, or someone to take notes for you in lectures (I think insignificant got offered this, among other things ). The college will probably see, but frankly, it would be extremely unprofessional of them to let it affect how they think you would cope. They have known you for two years so far (right?) and clearly they haven't told you you couldn't cope with medicine before, so I doubt they would change their mind just because of that.

As you say, the important thing is that you know you can do it, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. If they try to 'talk' to you or convince you out of it, just calmly explain that you've thought about it a lot and you know that's what you want to do. Lots of people go to university with 'disadvantages' (bad term), and the college wouldn't dream of telling someone who was wheelchair-bound that they couldn't or shouldn't do medicine, so it should be no different for you.

I did it, and therefore applied for disability student allowance, where they offer you lots of help so you don't get to uni, feel overwhelmed and have a breakdown, they give you support such as a mentor to see a couple of hours a week to voice any problems and talk about how you are doing, lots of stuff..

I just put the I'm taking medication for Anxiety and don't need any extra support from my chosen Universities.

I don't want to get there have some problems and then them turn around and say well we didn't know about this.

Hiya.. not been on this thread for a whiiiile.. Hope everybody is all good
I was mooching around on UCAS and found in the personal details section theres a disability bit where there is 'Mental health condition, such as:...anxiety disorder' (didnt even think about it until I saw it on the list!) . I guess I fit into this category buuut my college has no idea about my shizz and they're obviously going to see my ucas form and I know they'll probably bring it up and 'talk about it' and try to 'help'.. but I'm getting help and tootling along nicely right now and would not appreciate it.. and I dont want it to affect how they'd support my decision to apply for medicine at uni.. I know I can do it, but the whole 'anxiety disorder' doesnt look that great
Just wondering if I should or shouldnt put it on the form and what have other people's experinces of school / college / uni knowing about stuff??
Thankies

did you put it on in the end? i hadnt even realised that there was a section for it and now i think its too late to put it in. i dont know whether i should start uni with a clean slate and just try not to think about it or tell the uni so that they would know about it. or i could just tell people when it presented itself and as im in london get medicine or a counselor. im just so terrified of starting uni in london by myself

What uni are you going to? I'm sure they'll have an on campus counselor you could talk to. A lot of people will be feeling the same as you.

Hope it turns out that uni becomes a brilliant experience for you.x

Whenever I get anxious (eg. in interviews) I speak in a strong Irish accent, and I don't know why. It's not that I physically can't stop it, but I can't make myself want to stop it (if that makes any sense) because when I have the accent I find myself with much more confident and with the ability to speak much more clearly and concisely. I think it might be a psychological disorder. The strangest thing is a have no Irish connections whatsoever, no heritage, I've never visited Ireland, but it's very clearly an Irish accent. It's not a massive problem, but it can be awkward explaining to people once I get to know them better that I'm not actually Irish in any way.

Any advice guys? Should I see a doctor about this or...

did you put it on in the end? i hadnt even realised that there was a section for it and now i think its too late to put it in. i dont know whether i should start uni with a clean slate and just try not to think about it or tell the uni so that they would know about it. or i could just tell people when it presented itself and as im in london get medicine or a counselor. im just so terrified of starting uni in london by myself

I'm off on holiday for two weeks tomorrow. I may be online at some point, or maybe not, so if not, I shall check back in after that (get back on the 20th). Don't forget about me!

Have a lovely time! Relax relax relax.. do nothing but relax!

On a side note, today I created an e-petition to petition the government to include education on how to try and help have good mental health, and to educate students on the different types of mental illnesses. We are always taught how to have safe sex and how to stay healthy, but never about our mental health. When it has been approved I will create a thread, and would be really grateful if you could all sign it as it is something that needs to be done!

I'm off on holiday for two weeks tomorrow. I may be online at some point, or maybe not, so if not, I shall check back in after that (get back on the 20th). Don't forget about me!