View Full Version : Social Anxiety Disorder.
Hey everyone,
Quick question for anyone here who knows about this
Does anyone here suffer from Social Anxiety Disorder, or know of anyone who does?
I have it....unfortunatly, have done for many years and it's getting to the point now where it's basically destroying what life I have left.
I went to the doctor for the first time today, after putting it off for 3 months or so, all he did was prescribe some anti depressant/anxiety tablets and sent me on my way...which really didn't help matters, because I have a mortgage to pay, have no job because of the SAD (lol, interesting) and now i'm stuck not knowing what to do..
Is there just the one doctor at your surgery?
Sorry to hear about your problem - here are a few sites that have some relevant info. The first one is probably most relevant as it is UK-based.
http://www.social-anxiety.org.uk/
http://www.socialfear.com/
http://www.socialphobia.org/
Has your doctor given you the "old" type depressants - these take a couple of weeks to kick in, so you need to give it some time.
Do you have any mortgage/health insurance that could help cover your mortgage whilst you are unwell?
Good luck.
The tablets are called "Sertraline", 50mg, 28 tablets.
I might try and see another doctor, him and another guy there are really cold towards their patients.
The tablets are called "Sertraline", 50mg, 28 tablets.
I might try and see another doctor, him and another guy there are really cold towards their patients.
Well that is the usual drug of choice to be on but the problem here seems to be that your Dr has only addressed half the problem......the symptoms. The drug will ease the symptoms but not address the cause. Sadly the NHS is not resourced to deal with the volumes of patients that present with depression and other disorders so you do get this form of filtering. The drugs are comparatively cheap but treating the cause is more expensive and there simply aren't the resources.
You are basically left to treat the cause yourself......
I'm no expert on this but I believe that cognitive behaviour therapy and particularly NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) have been successful in treating this but you'd probably have to fund it yourself....
......... your Dr has only addressed half the problem......the symptoms. The drug will ease the symptoms but not address the cause. Sadly the NHS is not resourced to deal with the volumes of patients that present with depression and other disorders so you do get this form of filtering. Is 'filtering' a polite word for 'cr*p treatment'? :D
Errr..Is this related to the seasonal anxiety disorder..the one where a lack of sunshine causes depression?
I have had depression since I was about 14 when my Dad and nan died. I know what causes my depression, so counselling and all that hoo-hah has not done me any favours. Some people may find it helpful to talk over what is bringing them down, some people just want guidance on how to get back to 'normal' - I just tell other depressives that you have to take things slowly. You will get better, but you really have to take baby steps again- I know sometimes it's a struggle to even motivate oneself to get up in the morning, let alone get washed and dressed, do your hair, etc. Even if you do one thing a day, it is progress. I want to get back to work, but at the moment I still find it hard to walk over the road to the shops on my own. (I'm shaking thinking about it right now!)
I have found that although sertraline / lustral / seroxat worked very well for me in affecting my day to day being able to function, these type of drugs can have nasty side effects like making you have more bad thougts, including the obvious, and wanting to hurt other people as well as yourself (not just my opinion, several mates are on anti-depressants too, and one of my best mates is a mental health nurse, convenient, huh!?)
I would say - seek out a second opinion from another doctor. And if you feel it might benefit you - ask about counselling, and always ask about the side-effects of drugs & the alternatives if you don't like the sound of something. Hope this helps. :tu:
Flobajob
13-07-2006, 16:49
Errr..Is this related to the seasonal anxiety disorder..the one where a lack of sunshine causes depression?
I think you're getting confused with Seasonal Affectation Disorder which is something entirely different.
Errr..Is this related to the seasonal anxiety disorder..the one where a lack of sunshine causes depression?
I think you're getting confused with Seasonal Affectation Disorder which is something entirely different.
Well with all the acronyms in the world you would think they would have come up with a different name because that is called SAD as far as I know.It makes life confusing.:(
I want to get back to work, but at the moment I still find it hard to walk over the road to the shops on my own. (I'm shaking thinking about it right now!)
I'm glad i'm not the only one
I've been suffering from it for about ...well, since I left high school really
I started my first job at Worthing Hospital down here in the south and it was hell..
The guy who was in charge of me (I started as a trainee computer tech) used to belittle me and criticise everything I did
Even with 3/4 other people putting in official complaints and myself included, he got promoted
I put up with him for some 4/5 years and didn't realise what damage it was doing (And yes, it really did do alot of damage)
I put on a ton of weight, became depressed and started fearing any/all social encounters, even with family :(
It's the same now, unfortunatly, but worse because of the stuff going on at home (See other thread about brother/father/house situation), lots of stress, mortgage payments looming that I have no money for and looking for a job is...well, it scares me just to think of going outside, it's gotten that bad.
Chrysalis
13-07-2006, 17:32
ask to see a counsiller, this may help or may be useless but I think it should be better then anti depressents.
Flobajob
14-07-2006, 09:27
Well with all the acronyms in the world you would think they would have come up with a different name because that is called SAD as far as I know.It makes life confusing.:(
I swear they make up new names for psychiatric illnesses every day, when I was a kid most of them weren't even known about let alone treated, I remember a friend of mine who was put in a childrens home as his parents couldn't cope with his behaviour, later on in life he was diagnosed with autism.
I know a few people who have it, I myself have Aspergers Syndrome and am on Anti-Depressents, I cope well enough but I have my gf who understands me well and is their for me.
aliferste
14-07-2006, 21:05
Hey everyone,
Snippy snippy
Your GP is being the jack of all trades master at none (although no offense to him), he should be refer you to a psychologist as well. Medication is effective alongside a course of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Go back and tell him to refer you.
Alistair
Yea I agree, i'm seeing another doctor Monday, a lady doctor who my mother recommended.
Yea I agree, i'm seeing another doctor Monday, a lady doctor who my mother recommended.
:tu: Good Luck for Monday - fingers crossed for you. tell her everything - I know it seems like whinging or whatever, but the more of your 'whinges' you have on your medical record, the better, especially how you are actually feeling, how long you've been feeling like this, and that doing the training is causing huge anxiety and making you physically sick. oh and that your doctor is cr*p! i mean, being unsupportive in not recognising your increasingly worse symptoms... :soapbox:
Thanks :)
Yea the original doctor I saw didn't really seem concerned, probably because their medical system had crashed and he had to write the prescription out, he wasn't happy
Very off putting, heh
The squeaky wheel gets oiled.......
AdamD, 8 months have past since you created this thread, how are you feeling?
I have found that although sertraline / lustral / seroxat worked very well for me in affecting my day to day being able to function, these type of drugs can have nasty side effects like making you have more bad thougts, including the obvious, and wanting to hurt other people as well as yourself
The side effects in the first 2 weeks were less than pleasant [yawning when I wasn't tired, nausea, & sudden lack of energy], but after that I didn't have any probs with them. I was concerned about the possibility of them making my temper worse, as I already have quite a bad temper, & had seen a documentary about Prozac which cited a number of cases where it had caused increased violent tendencies, but was assured by my Dr that whilst Sertraline was in the same class of drugs [SSRIs] as Prozac, it was newer & improved with less side effects.
oh and that your doctor is cr*p! i mean, being unsupportive in not recognising your increasingly worse symptoms... :soapbox:
Speaking of crap doctors, there's 1 at the surgery I go to that I refuse to see unless it's an emergency & I have no other choice. I used to know a girl who had OCD, & apparently he told her to watch the movie "As Good As It Gets (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119822/)", & said that that would cure her of her OCD!!!
Vlad_Dracul
28-03-2007, 09:13
I swear they make up new names for psychiatric illnesses every day, when I was a kid most of them weren't even known about let alone treated, I remember a friend of mine who was put in a childrens home as his parents couldn't cope with his behaviour, later on in life he was diagnosed with autism.
I must say i have to agree with you. This is not a personal comment about the OP or anyone else posting on here as i do not know them and i do not know their personal circumstances. I can only draw from my own personal experience and my own perceptions.
It does indeed seem to me that there are new "syndromes" and conditions springing up all the time.
In the medical profession it has always been the tradition to use ten words where one would do or to use latin derivatives,simply becuase of the traditions,evolution and history of the medical profession.
We have all sorts of vague conditions which have been given all sorts of important sounding and long winded names but for which,often times,there is no actual physical evidence to be found to indicate the condition.
Many doctors do not recognise ME or ADHD for example and i cant say i blame them for i think they are both pie in the sky complaints also.
Take for instance one of my relatives. She has been creaking and groaning down at the docs for ages about this pain,that pain or the other pain. There was no obvious phyiscal cause and so he diagnosed here as having Fibro-myalgia and told her it was a relatively rare condition. Shes happy now,she has a diagnosis and she parades it like a badge of honor! No doubt if she was of working age she would be able to sit on her ****(bottom!) and get all sorts of benefits and even a disabled parking badge.
Fact is that a lot of these so called illnesses,syndromes and conditions are IMHO,simply psychological reactions to the stresses and strains of modern day life and the un-natural condtions in which we live our lives.
We have heard an awefull lots about slavery this week since it is the anniversary of abolition. Let me say this, slavery has not been abolished, it has just evolved. Most people in this and other "developed" countries are just as much slaves now as those poor unfortunates were a few hundred years ago. Most of us still work for little return to feed a bigger machine that rakes off the big money for our labours.
We then return home to our over priced battery cages which we will often not truly own until we are near the end of our lives, we then sometimes struggle for something to do other than sit in front of the idiots lantern, that great cerebral vacuum which dominates most of our homes, and vegetate or drink/smoke/take drugs until we fall into our beds only to repeat the experience all over again until we retire,at which point the state would like us to die as soon as possible.
I digress but it has some relevance.
So then, whilst i am part of the slavish process as described above, just as most of us are, it is natural that our bodies' react as they do. I often feel like i have anxiety,depression,ME,ADD and ADHD at varying times and in varying amounts and I am sure i am not alone in this respect.
I expect that most of us who are reasonably intelligent and toe the line have similar issues BUT we just get on with it becuase there is nothing else to do. We ARE slaves,we either keep going or drop. That is or was the simple choice, survive or die.
There is now of course a third choice for a growing minority.
Get yourself an ailment,preferably one with a tricky sounding names-even better-a syndrome. That sounds all sci fi doesnt it?
When you've got one of these,make sure that you eventually cannot work,get benefitted up to the hilt,kick back and relax and your days of slavery are over.
I;m not criticising mind you-its the way to go, either get yourself a syndrome,become a raggle taggle Gypsy,get yourself long term sick,or be unemployed and work in the black economy.
Speaking for myself I manage to keep the lid on all my syndromes, i have written several times to the national Gypsy council asking how i can integrate ( i have Irish parentage and roots you know) but htey havent responded,i am not yet unemployed though when /if i do become unemplyed i will adopt the latter option.
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