Anxiety | Table for Five

Me 3.0 – Now With Triple The Effexor

September 22, 2011 By Elizabeth

Back in March I wrote about my ongoing struggle to manage my chronic depression and anxiety and how my doctor prescribed 37.5 mg. a day of Venlafaxine, the generic form of Effexor. 37.5 mg. is the lowest dosage, and for a while, it was enough. Since I was first diagnosed with chronic depression in my 20s, my depression has always been seasonal. I needed medication from around October until around May and skip it in the summer. Well, this past summer showed me that my depression is no longer seasonal. Things were so bad this summer that I couldn't even blog about it, because I was just trying to get from one day to the next. I was a mess. I couldn't sleep more than a few hours a night, which I know didn't help. I was just angry, all the time, about everything. The slightest thing could set me off, I was yelling, and constantly bursting into tears. And it took me WAY too long to ask my doctor for help. It never even occurred to me that the problem was not … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: Antidepressant, anxiety, Effexor, Major depressive disorder, medication, mental health, Venlafaxine

Struggling.

March 27, 2011 By Elizabeth

It used to be that when I saw a character in a TV show having a meltdown and it turned out that it was because they weren't taking the medication they needed, I would think to myself "jeez, how hard is it to take a pill every day?" Hypocrite, thy name is Elizabeth. I certainly don't wake up in the morning and decide that I just won't take my medication. The bottle sits on the kitchen counter in plain sight. But since we went down to one car, the days that I do have the car are spent running around trying to get errands done that can't be done on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I'm house-bound. For newer readers, back in February of 2007 I had three moderately severe anxiety attacks. My doctor changed my antidepressant to the generic form of the antidepressant/antianxiety medication Effexor. If I take it every day, the fog I would walk around in otherwise lifts, and I can participate in and enjoy life. Problem is, I get to a point where I've been feeling good for a while so … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Health, Welcome to my Life Tagged With: anxiety, depression, medication, mental health

Stupid Social Anxiety

February 26, 2010 By Elizabeth

I want to be like everyone else. Or at least, I want to be the way I THINK everyone else is. I want to be someone that other people want to be around. I want people to be excited at the prospect of meeting me, of spending time with me. I want to be invited, included. I was okay right up through college. I had great friends in high school, we did everything together. College was a little trickier for me, but I got invited places, friends wanted to hang out with me. I didn't realize I had a problem until I hit my mid-20s and went to work at an office for the first time. Everyone was nice to me, always, but no one, and I mean NO ONE, ever invited me out to lunch. Or for after work drinks. Sure, they would chat with me in the elevator or at my desk occasionally, everyone knew about my pregnancies, about buying my first house. But no one asked me to go on lunchtime walks or hit the mall after work for new shoes. It bugged me, a lot. I tried to reach out, make … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal, Stuff I think about, Welcome to my Life Tagged With: anxiety, mental health, Panic disorder