Breakthrough anxiety

[Cat Dancer]

The last couple of days I've been having that feeling in the pit of my stomach, that butterflies fluttering around, sick kind of feeling. I'm taking my medications faithfully. Nothing's really changed in my environment. Do the medications just work less well as time goes by? I have been having to do more driving and I wonder if that is the cause of the anxiety. It's frustrating to think you have something under control and then it rears it's ugly head again.

 

[ladylore]

Sometimes these kinds of things crop back up Janet. The best way I try to cope when panic comes up is to let myself know that it's my body doing its thing and that it won't last long.

I do agree, it can be frustrating but your doing everything right. Sometimes these things happen.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Medications are not meant to make it impossible for you to feel things but rather to help you cope better with the feelings, to make those feelings more manageable. Anxiety that is managed is an important alert that helps us to keep safe and to be vigilant to real danger.

 

[Cat Dancer]

So it's unrealistic to expect to feel no anxiety at all. That makes sense.

 

[ladylore]

It's a misconception I have had too Janet. When I first started taking medication I thought it would make all the symptoms disappear. But David is right, I still feel things but not as much to take me down.

Anxiety is a good warning signal that we do need to keep us safe.