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drug induced depression / anxiety

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flying candy

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 1, 2004
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28
Hi all, sorry for posting about something which has already been discussed, but I though I would have a better chance of getting responses with a new thread as opposed to an older one.

I've always been quite an anxious person, and have a history of depression. However over the last few months these problems have increased, and i suspect its from an increased amount of drinking and drug taking.

Its gotten to the stage where i cant go out straight as i become anxious, nervous, and lose all self confidence. This is even around good friends. And as for scat days - they have become unbearable.

Any advice on a solution to this problem without having to hybernate inside my house?

Cheers on any advice.
 
The only way to stop this is to STOP TAKING DRUGS!!!!!!!!!
There was a time when I used too much speed and thought everyone was staring and laughing at me wherever I went.
I stopped using speed and KaaaBLAMO!!!, no more anxiety.

You need to make a RESPONSIBLE descion on whether you want to rid yourself of the induced anxiety or to continue down this track until it gets so bad you are totally crippled by it.
It's either your health or a temporary 'kick' that as soon as you're down from you'll be regretting more and more.

Good luck with that

*EDIT*
That's just for you 'John Candy' ;) :D
 
Last edited:
Psychadelic_Paisly, notice that flying candy said s/he'd suffered from anxiety symptoms before taking drugs too.

What I suggest has happened is that drug/alcohol use became a way of self-medicating for your anxiety. Unfortunately the side effects of the drugs will serve to increase that anxiety, so you're trapped in a vicious cycle.

It sounds like this is becoming enough of a problem that you should raise it with a doctor. There are a number of drugs available that treat anxiety (the benzodiazepene group, and especially diazepam, more commonly called valium), but they are dependency forming and a doctor will be VERY hesitant to prescribe them to you if he thinks you will abuse them. If you want to go this route, be aware that they are a short-term, infrequent patch-up job, not a solution.

A better option for you (if financially possible) may be to seek out a psychologist or counsellor and develop some strategies to deal with your social anxiety. Other things that might help are getting involved with people socially in a non-drug context, like joining a sports team or some other club where you're encouraged to interact.
 
"Aunty Establishment" - Hmmmm, no I didn't realise that they'd been suffering anxiety outside of drug use as well. Easy to 'scan' over certain things in posts...

You do raise good points, but a personal thing of mine is that medicating anxiety with more drugs, unless ABSOLUTLEY NECCESSARY can be more detrimental than helpful. This is where you part about seeing a psychologist/counsilor (sp?) comes into play.
 
Yes - I think I made it quite clear that medication is not the best solution. However, it may enable flying candy to avoid "hibernating" in the house, so I thought it was worth mentioning.

By the way, flying candy, you may get a better response to this in "The Dark Side" - there are lots of posters there who have had similar problems and are working to resolve them.
 
Stop eating gluten products (Wheat, Oats, Rye,Barley,Malt,) especially Wheat as they magnify anxiety disorders about 10 times.

Wheat is extremely high in glutamic acid, which is converted to glutamate in your body, and glutatmate receptors in your brain accelerate your brain like a turbo booster.

Try it, and I guarentee your anxiety wil be gone in less than a week.

Or you could try this diet:

www.13.waisays.com
 
thats a good point there dr beat

I certainly agree that treating the problem with yet more drugs is not a smart thing in the long term. The problem with many doctors is they tend to ignore the huge impact that diet has on a person's condition.

I am far from a healthy individual and could heed my own advice more often but my 2 cents are to research what foods and drinks may be causing upset and if possible as aunty said, try to strike up a relationship with a counsellor and talk about it.

Valium is ok for a quick fix but as others said, its bloody addictive stuff and coming off it after frequent use can be problematic to say the least
 
I reckon Aunties advice is good; but the dietary thing may have an impact. Whether you self-medicate on the drugs of your choice, or get a doc to prescribe, is probably a moot point - either way, it's a stop-gap measure.
Counselling
Dietary modification - even think about caffeine intake
Exercise
Social activity not connected to substance use
Yoga/tai chi/meditation
Self love :)
 
Diet can be a contributing factor but unlike Dr Beat suggests your anxiety problems will not simply disappear within a week of the ceasation of gluten products. Dr Beat makes a few assumptions in post that could be quite wrong. Give it a shot but I'd be very suprised if it made a significant difference. I'd advise against cutting all gluten products out of your diet simply because it is still important to have a well balanced diet.
Most have been on the right track with their advice thus far in saying stop taking (illicit) drugs, see a doctor for a stop gap solution of medication and when possible see a mental health professional.


Beech out
 
Anxiety is almost always and product of your mind state so you definately need to go and see and good psychologist/counsellor. I used to have anxiety and really mild depression which was slowly getting worse along side my drug use until I had a bit of a breakdown and was forced to quit drugs and see a pschologist. It ended up turning out really well because I sorted through all of my problems and it really showed that it was all mind related, not drug related. However, the longer you take drugs and try and escape from your mental problems the more they build up and get closer to a popping point where you get major anxiety, panic attacks, depression etc. If you've had a history of these problems before you even did drugs then you definately need to seek help.

Drugs to treat anxiety will only treat the physical symptoms while the real problem is in your head. It doesnt fix the problem so I would avoid them at all costs, they do not replace a psychologist.

Aside from that, depression is inward turned anger and anxiety is a product of you fearing something or a lot of things.

Think about what you might be afraid of? Why are you down on yourself? That you don't have much confidence? A lot of people don't have very high confidence, you're not alone. As long as you've got family and friends there you'll be fine man. If you don't it'll be a little bit harder but as I said, a good psychologist will do wanders and you'll be waiting all week for your next session so you can be freed further from you problems.

For you anxiety, try a deep breathing exercise:
1.Breathe in not very deeply and hold it for a count of 5 seconds.
2.Breathe out taking a good 3 seconds.
Take a good 3 seconds for each breath in and 3 seconds for each breath out. Breathe through your nose if its not blocked :) Breathe from your diaphram letting your stomack rise and fall, don't breathe right into your chest and take massive sucks.
3. After every 10th breath, hold a shallow breath for 5 seconds again.
4. Keep going until you're feeling much more relaxed.

Do this when you're starting to feel the anxiety, its a little hard to do mid anxiety sometimes because your body is gearing up to go nuts for fight/flight but just do your best. It takes a little bit of practice.

Search for some meditation techniques and try Yoga :)

Take it easy man, let me know how you go in a PM :)
 
Dr. Beat said:
Stop eating gluten products (Wheat, Oats, Rye,Barley,Malt,) especially Wheat as they magnify anxiety disorders about 10 times.

Wheat is extremely high in glutamic acid, which is converted to glutamate in your body, and glutatmate receptors in your brain accelerate your brain like a turbo booster.

Try it, and I guarentee your anxiety wil be gone in less than a week.

Or you could try this diet:

www.13.waisays.com
Click to expand...

Would this in fact also help if one was not an anxious person but wanted to feel a little more alert in general? (Im sure anybody who takes drugs can identify with the cloudy haze days where it feels like your stuck in a bubble)
 
If you have preexisting mental conditions such as depression and/or anxiety then drug use is inherently more dangerous than someone without these conditions. Personally I suggest you take advice here with a grain of salt, go and see your doctor (possibly a psychologist may also be of assistance), and stop using drugs for a few months.
 
Over the last couple of years I've observed the effects of semi-heavy pill taking amongst friends etc. This isn't a very scientific analysis, but I've noticed that those that don't use 5-HTP have all had very adverse effects with severe depression - severe enough to have to seek out medical help. Those that do regularly use 5-HTP (post load) haven't had these problems.

Obviously there's bound to be other factors involved such as:
  • possible pre-susceptablility to depression and/or anxiety (why do you take pills in the first place? is it to lift your mood?);
  • other drug use (cronic dope smoking is meant to bring on depression; meth fucks with your brain big time);
  • poor health (those that see the benefit of taking 5-HTP may also see the benefit of good eating and exercise)
I guess it's not a simple thing - geeze, even the 'experts' still don't understand exactly how the brain works. Anyway, these are just some layman observations.
 
cheers everyone for the advice. It seems that possibly the best option is to have a long break from pills and everything else (just what i was afraid of)

aunty you're right in saying that drugs and alcohol have become a way of self medicating. I have always done these things because I love the feelings associated with them and also because I have always had fairly low self esteem (not many would pick it - its often those you least expect!) But yeah now not only do I love and want these 'highs' (or whatever you wanna call them,) I feel as though I need them in social situations to relax and have a good time. If not I feel anxious and increasingly depressed (a vicious cycle as you said)

Im gonna go visit the GP - possibly psychologist. Problem with that is that I wouldn't really know what to say - there's not actually anything really wrong or bad about my life that i can pin point - its more the fact that my mental health creates problems!
 
ive been suffering from depression too for the last 4 years, and when i started taking drugs pwoah did it quadriple in intensity! this was because i was smoking waaay too much speed every week for a long period. eventually after too many drug induced psychosis' and depression getting very very bad and to top it all off waking up hearing voices i stopped taking speed. and everything was fine after that, but it took a good month - 2 months to start feeling a little bit better, but every day u feel better and better... so my advice like psychadelic paisly's... stop taking the drugs :o) you will feel shit loads better soon, and im sure your depression will ease up.. also if u still feel down go to a trusted doctor and tell them whats going on and they might be able to prescribe something for you... as i did... but dont think its solving one drug problem with another, as anti-depressants arent addictive. (my doc told me that) so they might help! :o) good luck!
 
flying candy said:
cheers everyone for the advice. It seems that possibly the best option is to have a long break from pills and everything else (just what i was afraid of)

aunty you're right in saying that drugs and alcohol have become a way of self medicating. I have always done these things because I love the feelings associated with them and also because I have always had fairly low self esteem (not many would pick it - its often those you least expect!) But yeah now not only do I love and want these 'highs' (or whatever you wanna call them,) I feel as though I need them in social situations to relax and have a good time. If not I feel anxious and increasingly depressed (a vicious cycle as you said)

Im gonna go visit the GP - possibly psychologist. Problem with that is that I wouldn't really know what to say - there's not actually anything really wrong or bad about my life that i can pin point - its more the fact that my mental health creates problems!
Click to expand...

A lot of people have problems like this. I did too, I had some stressful and majorly shit events happen in my life but most of the problems I had were due to the way I thought about myself and things related to myself. Not wanting to get too deep about it anyway.

The drugs should not cause a problem if there is not already a problem to begin with so stopping the drugs for the time being is a good idea but don't just blame it all on the drugs because you could miss out on some really important personal growth.

When you go to the pscyhologist he/she should give you whats called a schema which is a long list of statements of how your feel about yourself. You rate these from 1-6 where 6 is very true of you and 1 not very. From there you begin talking about the different areas where you are having problems, what has caused them, how to change them, etc.

That first part can sting a bit but its all part of a good process.
 
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