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Generalised anxiety disorder

Basically a welfare tutor at my uni thought I might have this. It would make sense but it was a guess on her part and she told me to go to the doctors.

for some reason, all the time, I just feel really worried and on edge. I can't remember the last time I felt entirely happy/relaxed and I often have trouble getting to sleep, but then have trouble waking up in the morning meaning a lot of early lectures are missed.

In the morning I often start the day with a sense of dread and I don't really know why. Even right now I found myself feeling upset/worried about something yet I have nothing to be upset/worried about.

It's affecting my life and only recently did I find it had overtaken my life somewhat.

I take a lot of comments people say very personally and I often feel paranoid I'm not wanted when I'm around people or that they don't like me when they actually do.

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Reply 1
I posted this too quickly, but really all I wanted to ask was has anyone ever had it and were your symptoms similar to mine? What do I do about it? What treatment did you have? Did the feelings go away? Thanks.
A nice joint should calm you right down haha
Is there anything causing it? Family, work stress...etc?
Original post by Anonymous
I posted this too quickly, but really all I wanted to ask was has anyone ever had it and were your symptoms similar to mine? What do I do about it? What treatment did you have? Did the feelings go away? Thanks.


Had it similar but not as bad by the sounds of it, when i moved school for the third time. Lasted quite long but after a while i just kept thinking of ways in which im awesome and everything thats great in my life to the point of being overly confident, i know this sounds really vain and dickish but doing so in private it helped me get over anxiety in public. Give it a go! What's great about you or your life? it doesn't matter how insignificant it might be, just do it!
I have the same thing, and depression at the same time. My dr put me on a medication made for both and although it calmed me down a lot, it has quite a few side effects, bad dreams being very much mine, like horrible. I do still get mini attacks, but nothing how they used to be.
Reply 6
Original post by mikeylfc1989
Is there anything causing it? Family, work stress...etc?


I've had a bit of a stressful year. My dad died, then I was so affected by it I ended up failing a year and having to retake it. My boyfriend of 8 months broke up with me at the beginning of the academic year and since that point I had a series of flings that were meaningless and got overly emotionally attached to the wrong people who ended up getting my hopes up then it never worked out and I ended up feeling worthless. I have exams in a couple of months and as such the stress with work is getting a lot higher.
My advice would to be to go and see your GP or perhaps a uni counsellor.
I suffer with a combination of depression. general anxiety disorder and social anxiety and have done for many years. I have been on medication for a number of years and since January have been receiving cognitive behavioural therapy.
I am very much the same as you in terms of behaviour and feelings and it has impacted on my life tremendously but am doing much better since receiving treatment.
Original post by Anonymous
I've had a bit of a stressful year. My dad died, then I was so affected by it I ended up failing a year and having to retake it. My boyfriend of 8 months broke up with me at the beginning of the academic year and since that point I had a series of flings that were meaningless and got overly emotionally attached to the wrong people who ended up getting my hopes up then it never worked out and I ended up feeling worthless. I have exams in a couple of months and as such the stress with work is getting a lot higher.


I'm sorry to hear about all that. I would say you probably don't have it though.
Depression more likely? Seems like you have a lot to work through there.

Good luck.
Reply 9
Original post by katephillips
My advice would to be to go and see your GP or perhaps a uni counsellor.
I suffer with a combination of depression. general anxiety disorder and social anxiety and have done for many years. I have been on medication for a number of years and since January have been receiving cognitive behavioural therapy.
I am very much the same as you in terms of behaviour and feelings and it has impacted on my life tremendously but am doing much better since receiving treatment.


I've seen a uni counsellor, she wants to get me in touch with a cognitive behavioural therapist (for the paranoid thoughts) but haven't heard from her about it yet.

Original post by mikeylfc1989
I'm sorry to hear about all that. I would say you probably don't have it though.
Depression more likely? Seems like you have a lot to work through there.

Good luck.


Why do you say I probably don't have it?

I've thought depression too but I'm not too sure about that. I'm more worried than feeling upset/down but it's hard to distinguish between the thoughts.
Original post by Anonymous
I've seen a uni counsellor, she wants to get me in touch with a cognitive behavioural therapist (for the paranoid thoughts) but haven't heard from her about it yet.



Why do you say I probably don't have it?

I've thought depression too but I'm not too sure about that. I'm more worried than feeling upset/down but it's hard to distinguish between the thoughts.


Seems like your stress can be explained by your situation i.e. it's normal to feel like this considering what you've been through.

You may still have it, I don't know. Depends whether all this predates the last year. Seems to me you're just stuggling to cope at the moment, effecting your mood/sleep and making you anxious.
Reply 11
I got diagnosed with this last week so i understand where youre coming from, i havent got a cluie what to do now. I get paranoid about little things and my hands shake quite a lot too, im generally a happy person but i have quite a good front. I havent got a clue what to do now, i really want to get it sorted :frown:
Original post by Anonymous
Basically a welfare tutor at my uni thought I might have this. It would make sense but it was a guess on her part and she told me to go to the doctors.

for some reason, all the time, I just feel really worried and on edge. I can't remember the last time I felt entirely happy/relaxed and I often have trouble getting to sleep, but then have trouble waking up in the morning meaning a lot of early lectures are missed.

In the morning I often start the day with a sense of dread and I don't really know why. Even right now I found myself feeling upset/worried about something yet I have nothing to be upset/worried about.

It's affecting my life and only recently did I find it had overtaken my life somewhat.

I take a lot of comments people say very personally and I often feel paranoid I'm not wanted when I'm around people or that they don't like me when they actually do.


I had a friend who had the very severe version , doctor gave him some drugs but he couldnt be on them for long because their addictive. I think you should go to the doctor. I get this but only certain days for like no reason.

Have you tried yoga or white noise from that website.

http://www.soundsleeping.com/

And camomile tea and eliminate caffiene from your diet and cigarettes and alcohol.
I feel the same way, I always feel on edge and I am constantly thinking ahead. I meticulously plan what i'm going to do, and rehearse what i'm going to say, if someone changes what i've planned in my head, i start to feel uneasy...

im always paranoid that no one likes me, and i go red atleast 100 times a day, as well as shaking... im too ashamed to go to to the doctor :frown: trying to find a way to battle it myself...
Original post by Anonymous
I posted this too quickly, but really all I wanted to ask was has anyone ever had it and were your symptoms similar to mine? What do I do about it? What treatment did you have? Did the feelings go away? Thanks.


You feel exactly the same way I do! I didn't know there was anyone else out there. I'm sometimes like, why am I worried? Life is better than before and am always trembling and paranoid. I thought my best friend hated me and feel everyone judges me. Do you get the physical symptoms aswell? :smile:
Reply 15
Hey guys, this is especially directed to those who said they were struggling with this themselves, please, please PLEASE go to the doctor. I went, after some encouragement by the dean of the medical school, and they gave me medication. I'm on 20mg/day of citalopram, and whilst the effects of the citalopram itself are a bit horrific (at first it makes the symptoms worse, and often there are horrific physical side effects such as wanting to vomit/being really tired/feeling tired all the time) but eventually it starts working properly and whilst it's not a cure but just there to reduce the symptoms, it's entirely worth it. I feel a bit like a zombie sometimes, but that's much better than I felt when I had the symptoms.

The doctor diagnosed both depression and anxiety. They tend to go hand in hand.

It might take a while to realise the treatment is actually helping, but when I read this thread, I realise how much it has progressed. I'm going for cognitive behavioural therapy after the summer, as I have exams and then I'm going to africa. Hopefully the CBT will cure the deep-down psychological issues I have, but I'm also trying new things and meeting new people, including travelling with people I've never met before this weekend (with a charity), and it's helping me solve issues myself. I've confronted head on what was wrong, and I've started to be more honest with myself and with my friends about what I'm feeling and it's made me realise that I wasn't acting normally for a while.

When I read this post back, I realise how much I've progressed. Whilst I do still struggle to get up some mornings, I'm much better than I was. I've been to more lectures. Not all the anxious/depressive feelings have gone, but they're much reduced. I'm not constantly on edge anymore, I'm getting up earlier and I'm getting back to the old happy, fun, outgoing Jess. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I used to get up at 1pm/2pm. Now I class 11am as late, and I'm getting up progressively earlier. I made it into a 9am lecture a while ago, today I voluntarily got up at 10:30am despite having no commitments to get up for, and I'm generally feeling better in myself. I've felt genuinely happy again, this weekend, when I spent some time with some old friends and met some new friends in a training weekend for when I go to south africa. If I'd have done this a while ago, I would have been terrified to meet these people and I'd think they all hated me. I took it all at face value and everyone really got on with me, and I got on with everyone there.

I started to have such severe depressive feelings that I became completely insular and didn't tell anyone about my feelings, I just thought they were to do with me. I'd blame myself for being a boring/miserable bitch, or for not being as outgoing as everyone else, and I'd hate myself for it. I blamed me not getting up and not being as interested in things I used to be on me being lazy. I genuinely believed all the anxious feelings I had, I thought people were working against me and I was doomed. I started to hate my medical school (when it has been the best thing that has happened to me and I love it), and wished I was somewhere else. I couldn't see the good things in my life. I'm also embarrassed to say this now, but I started to get suicidal thoughts. Which gave the doctors a huge warning sign.

I think this is something I have been suffering with all this academic year. It started off mildly, and then progressed until it became debilitating. I told my medical school about it, and they've moved my exams back so I have time to get back on my feet and do some more revision to compensate for the apathy about my education I've felt all year and also through fears I might have had a mental break down if I sat them too early.

People I knew wouldn't have known it. They maybe thought when I was upset, I was having a bad day. When I was scared/angry/suspicious of people, I was just being moody. When I missed lectures, I was being lazy. Nobody noticed the change in me, and the few people I have told about the diagnosis have been completely shocked, and thought I was just such a happy/outgoing girl because I put on a facade of happiness most of the time because I thought that's how people wanted me to act.

I've de-annoned myself so people can read this and maybe PM me if they want to. Please, please PLEASE go to the doctor and talk about it. They don't judge, my doctor was lovely and we had a chat. They see it all the time. At least 50% of the population have a depressive episode at some point in their life. Don't let it ruin your life. It's not your fault. So yeah, PM me if any of you need a chat.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 16
Just as a side note, as soon as I sent this post, Foo Fighters "on the mend" came on the shuffle on my playlist. I thought it was quite appropriate. :p:
Reply 17
Original post by Jessaay!
Long awesome post that showed great courage to write for the world to see.


You have no idea how much rep I wish I could give you for this post. :smile:

It's great to hear that medical schools are willing to make changes like those to make your life easier. I've been panicking about it quite a lot, worrying that I'll have a severe episode/get hospitalised/lose my motivation in the middle of the year and won't be able to catch up. Hearing first hand that they'll go so far as to delay your exams is a massive reassurance. :biggrin:

Sounds like you've been through a lot, but hopefully you'll carry on heading in the right direction. :smile:
Reply 18
Original post by houseelf
You have no idea how much rep I wish I could give you for this post. :smile:

It's great to hear that medical schools are willing to make changes like those to make your life easier. I've been panicking about it quite a lot, worrying that I'll have a severe episode/get hospitalised/lose my motivation in the middle of the year and won't be able to catch up. Hearing first hand that they'll go so far as to delay your exams is a massive reassurance. :biggrin:

Sounds like you've been through a lot, but hopefully you'll carry on heading in the right direction. :smile:


Thank you :smile:

And they are. Medical schools are often very sympathetic to this type of thing, for one thing it's something that happens a lot to medical students due to high demands/stress (though I don't think that was the cause for me), but also because they realise that this is something incredibly important that affects so many people and it would be hypocritical for them to teach one thing and treat their students in a different way.

One of the doctors I have seen told me how she had depression in her first year, and thought it had made her a better doctor, and without antidepressants she wouldn't have even been a doctor.
Reply 19
Original post by Jessaay!
Thank you :smile:

And they are. Medical schools are often very sympathetic to this type of thing, for one thing it's something that happens a lot to medical students due to high demands/stress (though I don't think that was the cause for me), but also because they realise that this is something incredibly important that affects so many people and it would be hypocritical for them to teach one thing and treat their students in a different way.

One of the doctors I have seen told me how she had depression in her first year, and thought it had made her a better doctor, and without antidepressants she wouldn't have even been a doctor.


That makes sense. :smile: I guess there's always been that nagging little feeling at the back of my mind that says, "the official guidelines say no discrimination, but in practice that can't always be the case, right?". But it honestly sounds like it's not like that. Result! :tongue:

I totally understand where she's coming from. Without bipolarity I probably wouldn't have the faintest interest in psychiatry/neurology.
(although I suppose it's easy to say that the illness has done me good when I'm in the middle of a stable period, eh? :biggrin:)

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