"atypical" anxiety symptoms - help desperately needed

This is basically a reference to a message I put up a while back in the Dark Side. [edit: spose it'd make more sense to put a link to it here: http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=82050&r=17 ] It's up the top there somwhere now - I just wanted to encourage as many aussies with similar past drug use (glory days etc ) to see it and see if it strikes a chord with anyone else out there. My current status is that I'd love to be able to come out and party the way I once did, totally losing myself in the moment and being a very positive person ... but this 'anxiety' is a big barrier between happy/carefree dancefloor fun and sitting at home 'self-medicating' with any downer I can get my hands on..

Anyway.. I'm not really after sympathy, but I am after empathy! The fact that I have not physically met/spoken to one other person, anywhere, ever, who's been able to empathize with the feeling(s) I've done my best to describe... wel, it tends to leave me feeling pretty lonely and scared.

There's a lot more I could say, but I'll leave it at that for the moment and just see what this brings.


Thanks,

Tom

Anxiety fucking sux hard dude, thats for sure. Im definitely not in the same boat as you as far as anxiety goes but I really do feel I can empathise with your situation, and I think alot of people on this forum could also.

For me anxiety rears its ugly because of the while drug scene in general and also as a result of guilt from drugs and the scene. I fuckin hate it - it's limits your happiness and experiences and seriously think is one of the worst side effects of drugs.

Hang in there......hope its not keeping you too withdrawn

I read your thread on the dark side.

I really cann't imagine how you are feeling.
I do have an anxiety disorder and I am doing ok on the medication i'm on.

Before I got help, I did realise how much worse it got after a night out.

I had gotten so bad I couldn't do my job I couldn't drive anywhere and when I finally went to get help I couldn't sit in the waiting room, I had to wait in my car.

This week I'm going to the anxiety clinic at St Vincents hospital. Ive also just started yoga, and exercising more. I feel that a combination of all these things will help me.

If you want to talk more about it PM me.

Good luck and take care.

chookie do u blame ur anxiety on moderate drug use or heavy drug use, and if either of these what type of drugs.

I always had a bit of an anxiety problem, so it didn't just come from drug use. I would say modreate use. It became alot worse after moderate use for 2 years. Only e and goey.

Just a bump - and also thought I'd mention that when I think about it, "anxiety" probably isn't the best word to describe this shitful feeling, as "anxiety" implies "worry". As far as I'm consciously aware, I'm not worrying about anything in particular, so perhaps anxiety is an inaccurate 'box' to put this feeling in. "Fear disorder" or "dread disorder", maybe.. it's a feeling but not an emotion, if that makes any sense at all..

Hey there isd i only registered because i wanted to reply to your post. I can definately empathize with you. I have suffered from pretty severe anxiety for quite a while. I have been to a doctor but medication hasn't worked (yet). IF you haven't been to do a doctor which i presume you have then i suggest you do as in the majority of cases it is treatable. Do you suffer from exhaustion or lack of motivation aswell? If you want do discuss this further then post a reply or send me an email/pm or something.

lds303 - a good friend of mine (known him over 10 years now) who has most of the same 'anxiety' problems you have, but maybe not as extreme as yours.

About 2 years ago he was going crazy from all the anxiety, and was heading to the mental assylem and begged me to help him as he felt like he was going crazy.

At the time I was reading a book from a docter in America who claims certain food is responsible for most mental problems, specifically GLUTEN (wheat protein)

If you favorite foods are toast, pasta, pastries, pizza, then I guarantee that you are gluten intolerant, and your body is converting the gluten molecules to endorphans, and probably 5HT2C agonists. (5ht2c agonists increase anxiety alot).

If you want to know more : www.13.waisays.com/zombie.htm

Just like some people get sedated from alcohol and some get high, the same with wheat - some get sedated and some get high.

Wheat contains huge amounts of exdorphans (external endorphans), oats alot, rye and barley a fair bit, and corn as well (even though it contains no gluten, it has exdorphans in it and is very low in tryptophan - bad for people with anxiety).

Dairy also contains exdorphans so give them up as well, especially if dairy products are your favorite foods.

Any foods you crave (like chocolote and coffee) give up. Food you crave is not healthy for you.

If you want to know more just ask.

I will give you $100 if your diet change has no effect on your anxiety.

Good luck, because if you do choose to give these foods up, you will get cravings for at least 1 year after, and you will have to battle hard. Giving up these foods (wheat protein is a drug in my opinion) is as hard as giving up drugs. I am not joking.

Dr Beat
Not sound advice at all in my opinion. Your friend may have found that altering his diet helped his problem but this does not mean it will work for everyone.
You have just advised someone to give up some very healthy food - Cereals, pastas, grains and dairy products. Not a wise move, these foods are popular and common healthy foods for a reason - because they are good for you. To eliminate the foods you mentioned would be to eliminate two of the most important nutrients in anybody's diet - Carbohydrate and calcium. I'm assuming through your comments that you have no solid grounding or background in health and/or exercise science or dietetics and nutrition.
To say any food you crave is bad for you is rediculous. I have quite a good diet and if i get hungry i often crave vegetables or fruit. Does this mean I should give up eating fruit and veg? Certainly NOT. In the interests of harm minimisation please dont give advice based on a poor knowledge base or an isolated experience.

Beech out

surely u r both right (bout the diet thing). Dont eliminate certain food groups entirely, but look into it and experiment with different foods using dr beats post as a guide to get u started...and see if there is a connection 4 u. Im not qualified for this advice, but it seems common sense.

also, whilst u should definately see a doctor, i feel "eastern medicine" is v helpful in these situations - try and get ur body and mind as tip-top as u can. do proper exercise daily, and stay off illegal drugs. i dont agree with the laws, but they r there for a reason, and their ability to affect u mentally is the main reason they r banned in my opinion. (this even fits my favourable conspiracy theory - drugs tend to make u more left wing, which is the mental change they fear!).

on a side note - did u or anyone see the program on the Japanese "hikikomori"s - a large amount of young men in Japan completely withdraw from society, and spend years locked up in their room, refusing to even speak with their parents (who continue to bring them food in their room). and this problem apparently only happens in Japan! once again i dont try and pretend to understand anyones feeling coz im quite happy 95% of the time. But when i do have a bad day, i usually feel like im the only one in the world with my problems. Im sure the Japanese guyz feel this way too. I also have a friend whose anxiety problems have recently resurfaced - not sure if they r like ur problem, coz he wont talk about it too much. i dont think most ppl do. which means u r almost certainly not alone, u just dont know it!

anyway, im rambling now, but just wanna say take care of urself and live life mr lsd, coz thats the best remedy imho.

beech said:

Dr Beat
Not sound advice at all in my opinion. Your friend may have found that altering his diet helped his problem but this does not mean it will work for everyone.
You have just advised someone to give up some very healthy food - Cereals, pastas, grains and dairy products. Not a wise move, these foods are popular and common healthy foods for a reason - because they are good for you. To eliminate the foods you mentioned would be to eliminate two of the most important nutrients in anybody's diet - Carbohydrate and calcium. I'm assuming through your comments that you have no solid grounding or background in health and/or exercise science or dietetics and nutrition.
To say any food you crave is bad for you is rediculous. I have quite a good diet and if i get hungry i often crave vegetables or fruit. Does this mean I should give up eating fruit and veg? Certainly NOT. In the interests of harm minimisation please dont give advice based on a poor knowledge base or an isolated experience.

Beech out

Click to expand...

I am going to have to waste my time educating you. Here we go:

For millions of years we were hunter gatherers. We ate a hunter gatherer diet. We ate NO DAIRY and NO WHEAT

We have only been drinking milk for less than 10,000 years and eating wheat for probably less than 5000 years.

Our bodies are not 'used' to it. Most peoples bodies do not like it.

The Wheat we STARTED growing 5000 years ago (millet and barley was first about 6000-8000 years ago depending on where you lived), was WILD WHEAT which looked quite different to the heavily MODIFIED wheat we eat now. We eat a 'super strain' that has very high yeilds.

go to www.13.waisays.com to read about a 'healthy' diet.

There are many books in this subject, so why dont you go read some and try to think outside the 'square box' for once.

i myself have limited not totally excluded these things from my diet for about two years now .I find that when i do binge on these things( chocolate,pizza, pastas and other dairy) i find myself in a really shitty situation .I battle depression and have seen a nutritionist and they have pretty much said what dr beat has been trying to say your body is not made for these things all i can say is it works for me try it for yourself see a doctor ,nutrisionist ,naturopath whoever you want but alternative therapies were once the only therapy we had

I don't mean to write off wat Dr Beat has said - the could well be some truth in it - i have no idea. But if u want people to take ur opinions seriously refrain from making such sweeping generalisations as this

Dr Beat said:

If you favorite foods are toast, pasta, pastries, pizza, then I guarantee that you are gluten intolerant,

Click to expand...

Wat ever happened to liking pizza or pasta cos it tastes nice?

Nice Tits

Dr Beat
You really have no idea. Correct we have only been eating dairy for a small period of time in the grand scheme of things and yes we do descend from hunter gatherers. However people these days are all too quick to attribute a behaviour or action to our evolutionary origins. We WERE hunter gatherers and unless you are living as a traditional aboriginal in the bush or native american or whatever then I'm pretty sure as shit that you do not live a hunter gatherer lifestyle. Believe it or not we have evolved, we are not a primitive unit that can handle only raw meat, nuts and berries.
True many people's bodies cannot handle dairy whether it be for lactose or any other constituents found in dairy.
I dont know what background you have in health sciences Dr Beat but reading up information on half arsed websites isn't really a great grounding. Maybe a university degree with honours, experience in the industry and involvement in research would be a good grounding???

I really couldn't be shagged pointing out all the holes in your theories/advice. But the most blatent of condradictions in your logic is that you claim we still function as hunter gatherers yet we should ignore urges/cravings to eat certain foods. By part of definition a hunter gatherer is one who acts on instinct to seek out food when required and provide enough for his tribe/clan/group/whatever. So if we are all still operating at a hunter gatherer level then we should act upon our instincts and eat whatever it is we have the urge to. Obviously these days the things were are going to crave are dif to those things craved in early evolutionary days.


Basically, if you are for some reason you are unable to consume dairy, such as lactose intolerant, thats fine, find a substitute - soy or just lactose free products. The food in itself that you are consuming may not be the direct problem LSD303, if it is dietary related then it is more probable (not saying definate as some foolish posters would) that it is the preservatives or artificial agents that may be present in the food your eating. For instance do you eat much processed foods such as processed meats, some canned goods etc. If so it may be a good idea to cut back on those sorts of food. Another option would be to go onto a biodynamic diet where all foods you eat are produced naturally, no pesticides, herbacides, not even touched with anything that is not found naturally in the earth. This means biodynamic milk is not mixed in a stainless steel vat as stainless steel is not a naturally occured substance. Biodynamic food is great as it tastes better because it is in no way processed or grown for looks, its like eating vegies out of your own garden. The only downfall is that it can be quite expensive to buy biodynamics and they do not keep as long as normal foods because they are not processed in any way.

LSD303 it is important to take all advice on board but then dismiss that which seems fucking rediculous and ill informed.

sorry the post is soo long

Beech out

oh yeah Dr Beat I just had a look at the website you seem so fond of. I hate to break to you buddy but anyone and I mean anyone can write up a 2bit attempt at an informed piece of research and put it on the internet. My 12 year old brother could do this. It might be a better idea to conduct your research in books, medical journals, published journal articles, reputable websites.
Just an thought

Beech out
ps take a look at the references on your great piece of literature, most of those references are old and many of those studies are outdated and antiquated.