It is literally something different every week.
My anxiety medication stopped working probably around 1-2 months ago but I am still taking it to avoid withdrawals.
Hi Everyone. I have a question and if anybody has any advice please let me know. My anxiety medication stopped working probably around 1-2 months ago but I am still taking it to avoid withdrawals. I’m also currently in the process of dealing with out of wack hormones/thyroid issues as well. Very soon I will be on medication for that which is the reason why I am holding off on starting a new Anxiety Med. For a while now I absolutely freak out over something different every week or two. One week I will be in a panic about going crazy/schizophrenic, the week after that I will panic about my intrusive thoughts, and then I will panic about how i look/feel. It is a viscous never ending cycle. And it is literally something different every week. The hardest to deal with is definitely the going crazy/schizophrenic thoughts. It gets to the point that i think me thinking in my head or self conscious is me going schizophrenic. If anyone has any advice and can relate please let me know. Thanks
Discussion
Lisa Speer
You don’t have to worry about getting schizophrenia.Its very rare and anxiety doesn’t cause it.It is a common fear with people who have anxiety disorders
Christina Reitter Cross
Crazy people don’t know they are crazy!
Élise Lucie Henripin
Yeah, I thought I was schizophrenic for a long time, especially since extreme panic attacks and BPD mood swings can cause psychosis with mild auditory and visual hallucinations. Doctors and psychiatrists told me countless times that I didn’t have it, but I didn’t believe them, so I started to demystify the disease, to understand what it was about and what were its symptoms. A book that helped was The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays by Esmé Weijun Wang.
I am lucky to know two people who are schizophrenic. With his treatment and medication, my friend functions normally. He has a job, a girlfriend, etc. My cousin developed the disease in his late teens and started self-medicating heavily with drugs. He has been sober for years now, found adequate help, and just moved into his first apartment. He’s very optimistic about the future.
It’s easy to think that schizophrenics and people with schizoaffective disorder are crazy and beyond help, but they’re not. Given your history of anxiety, panic and hormonal imbalance, I think you are imagining that you have schizophrenia, but it’s not the case. However, if you really did have it, you would learn how to manage your symptoms. Life would be challenging, yes, but not necessarily unbearable.
Joshua Kenyon
Getting in your body and out of your mind can help ground you. Mindfulness meditation, exercise, doing chores, etc with a focus on the body and it’s sensations as opposed to the thought about it is very helpful. This will reduce intrusive thoughts and anxiety.
You can also play with the following idea which helps some people but for others causes more mental confusion: ask yourself when having intrusive and “schizophrenic” thoughts “who is the I that is aware of these thoughts? If you are witnessing them and objectively aware of them, then that “you” is not the subject of them. It’s kind of like the idea that the awareness of pain is itself not in pain.
Also talk to a therapist if you can about all that you are experiencing. Cognitive therapy can really help with restructuring your thoughts that are triggering these states.
Jennifer Andersen
I’ve had this same issue recently!! I always assume there is some intense underlying mental health issue that’s going to emerge and that I’m going to go crazy and it’ll be too late for anyone else to help! I have to keep telling myself that it’s my anxiety making me think that. I also struggle with the intrusive thoughts and have found that the supplement/vitamin l-Theanine helps a little with that. Grounding techniques help me as well. I’m always available to talk if you need to!