Well, I'm Kelly and honestly, I've never really found the way to deal with my "undiagnosed" anxiety. I've always had sweaty hands, or I'll just start sweating and shaking for no reason. (Granted, I have a form of Parkinsons, anyways, but I don't need medication for it, but when I get anxious, it gets worse.) You can also tell when I'm either stressed or anxious because I get a red heat rash across my chest and shoulders. Plus, I seem to suffer from headaches a lot, and they won't be validated, like from allergies, change in weather, etc. At least once a week, I get a tightness in my chest, and it's like my heart resets itself, and my breathing speeds up for a second. I've never found out what that's about.....

I guess the best way that I've found is to just remove myself, physically, from the situation that's making me stressed. Once, my doctor gave me Klonopins, .5mg, and they did nothing. I still sweat, I still got the heat rash. Unless I can totally walk away (literally) from what's stressing me and making me have issues, I will have those physical characteristics.

Plus, it always sucks being the "sweaty girl". I normally wear black, or very dark clothes to somewhat hide the ever-so-sexy sweaty pit stains (because ALL men think that's hot..... ;-) lol )

Some things that seem to help me are music (and oddly, the heavier and louder, the better most of the time, but sometimes, the classics help, depending on the situation), walking thru a local Metropark or any trail..... those are my two biggest releases. And I can swear up and down that my basset hound, Fred, is my therapy dog. He always knows when I'm upset, and will constantly be at my side, trying to make me smile, laugh, or make the time to give him armpit rubbies and ear noogies. I can't do this a lot during the week because of my husband's and my work schedules, but I downloaded an app on my phone where it plays the sounds of the ocean. I put my noise-cancelling earphones in, set the timer on the app for 30 minutes, and I just let my mind go. I normally remember trips to Florida with my family and friends, and remember the warmth from the sun, the warm breeze, how it felt to sit in a short chair and put my feet in the sand and put my head up to the sun and smell the salt water...... it has such a great, therapeutic effect, and it helps me to shut out my stressful job, home-related stress with my brother (who is developmentally disabled, and lives with me and my husband), and other factors. I don't even realize when I fall asleep, but when I do, I just pull out the earphones, and roll over. Otherwise, on a "good night", it can take me almost an hour to fall asleep by the time my mind stops running.



....enough of my novel. Thanks for a great group, Brandon, and I look forward to meeting new people!!!

Hi, my name is Sue. In 2007 I was diagnosed BiPolar II with lots of anxiety. I'm on Lamictal (mood stabilizer), Wellbutrin, Klonopin, Clonodine and Xanax. My job was extremely stressful (IT, server support, always on call) I started cutting just to stop the pain inside of me. After my 3rd leave of absence, I quit my job in 2010.

Even with the meds, I still turn to food for comfort. I'm trying so hard to find alternatives other than eating and popping pills. I have arthritis and need to lose weight, dang it! And it's not easy, turning 50, going through menopause and the medications don't help the psychiatrist I was seeing tried to put me on Seroquel then Geodon and both made things worse not better. It seems like anything brings on anxiety and desire for something to make it go away. I have a wonderful therapist, but problems are not fixed over night and something always seems to come up just when I'm feeling good.

Advise, support, the knowledge that one is not alone in their struggles is a key to recovery, thank you Brandon for putting this group together.

My name is Sabrina, I'm 22, I have two little boys one is 3 and one is 6 months! I have had anxiety, PTSD, depression and bi polar disorders since i was a lot younger. They've caused a lot of pain in my life not knowing how to control them and having family that thinks I'm crazy instead of helping me! I have been off meds and not seen a doctor for about a year now and I am doing the best I ever have. I still get really depressed sometimes but i go day by day! Trying to get this weight off and also exercising has helped my mood swings and my anxiety!! If anyone needs to talk I'm here!

I'm Angie. I'm a 41 year old mother who developed a panic/anxiety disorder when my daughter was almost 2. She's going to be 14 in a couple of months. Mostly my anxiety is controlled, but a couple of times a year, it flares up and cause a lot of issues. I am medicated and have been on antidepressants (depression only) since 1991, and am now on them for depression and anxiety. I will most likely be on medication my whole life and I'm perfectly fine with that.

My main thing for this group is honesty. I don't sugar coat things and if someone has questions, please ask away, even if it's a private message. I feel like I have a lot to offer since I've been through (and continue to go through sometimes) anxiety and panic. Looking forward to some honesty and friendship.

One thing I'd like to mention is that perhaps the term "mental illness" could steer people away. I hate that term for some reason. Like my doctor says, it's a disease just like diabetes or high blood pressure and needs to be treated as such. Look forward to talking to everyone!

I'm Rachel, and I developed Panic disorder/Anxiety after my ex-husband left in 2009, and a months long stomach problem that no one could diagnose properly until early 2010. (Badly infected gallbladder.) The latter left me with some mild health anxiety, but that's pretty much passed.

I agree with you Alastor that it's hereditary - my mother has anxiety and we only recently found out that my dad has been having panic attacks for years.

My doctor tried putting me on Cymbalta, which I had a severe reaction to, so now I won't go near an AD if my life depended on it. I do however have a lovely relationship with Xanax. Instead I wanted to approach this a different way. I did every commercial anxiety product out there - Midwest Center Attacking Anxiety (listening to Lucinda Bassett talk about herself constantly), Linden Method (my way is the only way), Panic Away (didn't learn anything new there, but he did have a lovely accent) until I finally had luck with CBT4Panic and have been doing my exposure exercises again since I am in the middle of a "setback" right now, but I'm coming down off the mountain. I am hoping this new workout program is going to help me more, since exercise does decrease my anxiety for the most part.

I'm just really glad there's a group for this now.

Hello! I'm Rusti. I'm married, 30 years old with 2 kids. I was diagnosed with PPD after my daughter was born in 2003. I medicated for a year and weaned off and did well. When into PPD again after my son was born in 2005 and I am still on medication. In hindsight I think I've struggled a bit with depression and anxiety all my life. In the begining it was mostly depression and has seemed to shift slowly to mostly anxiety now.

Since starting meds again in 2005, I have weaned off a couple times. I thought I was ready and weaned after a year on the meds (just as I did after my daughter). A month later I went back on meds. Took meds for another year plus a few months and weaned (always under a doctors care) and thought I was clear of it. I made it 5 months off meds and had a big crash. My husband took me to the ER and I was required to see a psychiatrist and additional psychologist. Both agreed that weaning off and going back on was hard on my body and that I needed to stay on the meds for a solid 3 to 5 years.

I'm not one who likes to even take a tylenol. I don't love the idea of being on the meds. I will, however, do it if that's what is necessary. I do use some alternative treatment so that I can stay on the lowest dose. I use light therapy in the winter, spend some time in the sun each day, do talk therapy and take theraputic doses of omegas. I've tried hypno-therapy, some herbs and oils but they didn't seem work for me. The two things I believe help the very most -consistent sleep patterns and exercise- seem to be the hardest to follow through on.

I like the idea of this group. It'd be great to be able to put things out there and discuss issues with people who have this extra burden to deal with just like I do. I'm tired of other people looking at me like they just don't get why I find it so hard to do this or that.

Thanks for putting this together Alastor!

I'm 30 and was diagnosed with general anxiety and panic disorder around three years ago. I've probably have had anxiety longer and currently not taking any medications for it since every med I've taken I always seem to get some adverse effect. One of the doctors basically stated it was in my head (he wasn't to nice nor professional) on getting adverse effects but either way even if its just me being paranoid I don't care for the feeling so I've been trying to manage it without meds.

I have no idea what have brought on the panic attacks but when I found out I had them I had gone to the ER thinking I was having or about ready to have a heart attack. I felt I couldn't catch my breath and got a sharp pain that went across my chest for a second and my pulse was racing, I took my blood pressure and it was pretty high so I went to the ER where I found out my heart is perfectly healthy and it was a panic attack and I've been getting them now every sense. The only thing I do to rest at night is take over the counter sleeping pills since they've been the only thing I don't see to have a reaction too and helps calms me.

I have been a bit recluse for the last 8 years from migraines and just recently they had started to settle down so I wonder at times if that has caused my anxiety or panic attacks but I really don't know.

I'm glad everyone is out in the open with everything... If anyone wants to, I have a blog that is specifically about panic disorder, and well... Most of the stuff NOT to do is pretty duh lol, but you never know what people do and don't know. The blog is called "Having Heart Can Be Hard With Panic Disorder..." As for depression, the way I have coped with it over the years is exercise. It really does do wonders, because not only does it release the chemicals in your brain to combat depression, it gives you a better sense of self-worth, and I think that in it's own is a big anti-depressant. My PTSD is tied to a very horrid thing that happened to me when I was 3 with syringe needles "Tattoo needles don't bother me, I have several." and since then, I turn into a vicious monster anytime someone has them around me. I am by nature, a calm and collective person, whom likes having fun and joking around. Anyways, I am glad so many people have joined the group. I hadn't intended in making it, until I did a simple forum post on anxiety that exploded even at 2 in the morning! I will be on here as often as I can, and hopefully if I can't help you, someone else can. I know I have been helped already, so I know that this group will do well for everyone else as well!

Thanks for starting the group. I was about ready to start a post today wondering about people weaning off meds and seeing if exercise was helpful. You're timing of starting this is uncanny...I'm super thankful!

I'm so glad that in this day and age we can talk openly about it. That's a HUGE help factor right there!