Anxiety Question !?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Question

I'm 15 and i suffer from Generalized Anxiety disorder. I'm going back to school in about 2 weeks and i am seriously dreading it. I dread going to assemblies and talking aloud in front of people and things like that. I get all sweaty and my face goes all red and i think everybody is looking at me. My neck even starts twitching sometimes.

Iv been on 75mg zoloft for about 4 weeks now but i dont seem to be feeling a tad bit of difference. Sometimes when i smoke weed with my freinds it calms me down a lot and i feel much better and outgoing. Iv also heard that drinking some alochol can help calm you down and make you forget all your anxieties but i cant drink as im a muslim and its forbidden :( So are there any other things i could do to calm me down just before i get back to school???

Answer 1

well weed is also forbidden but that didt stop did it. Btw 75 mg sounds a bit ******** ridiculous. I think u got it wrong

Answer 2

Alcohol and weed is definitely not the answer, it will create adverse effects to your mental health and at 15 (GCSE's/A'Levels/University all to follow) these are your most important years that will determine how the rest of your life pams out.  If there is any history of mental health problems in your family again i advise to stay away from weed.  Smoking this creates paranoia.  Alot of teenagers and young adults discover if they are to deal with mental illness throughout their lives this is the most likely time it will start to show first signs of presentation and alot of these illness are drug induced.  So for your own sake stay away from the drugs.  I will enclose here an anxiety manuel, hope you find this information helpful.

Physical Anxiety

Here is a list of the distressing symptoms of anxiety.  Some people get all the symptoms, some only a few.  Some get symptoms not listed here.  Though very unpleasant they are not harmful.  No one has ever died of fright.

Feeling short of breath

Feeling tight across the chest

Chest pain

Dizziness or light-headedness

Tingling in the fingers

Palpitations

Muscle pains, including neck pain and headache

Shakiness

Feeling hot and cold

Sweating

Dry mouth

Blurred vision

Difficulty in swallowing

Sickness or wanting to go to the toilet

Please tick any that you get and write in any others in the space above

How Does Anxiety Cause Physical Symptoms?

Anxiety prepares the body for physical exercise.  Either to fight or run away.  It does this by:

1. Making us over-breathe

2. Putting a substance called adrenaline into the blood stream

This is fine during physical exercise but can cause the symptoms already mentioned if we get anxious at rest.

This how it happens:

Over-breathing.  When anxious, we feel we need to breathe harder, with quick deep breath through the chest.  This helps supply more oxygen to the muscles for exercise.  This is found during heavy exercise, but can cause problems if we get anxious:

(a) It can make us feel short of breath (or even suffocating).  Even if we do not actually need the extra air.

(b) The chest muscles can get too tense.  This feels like a tight band around the chest and may even cause chest pain.

Over-breathing at rest can alter the mixture of gases in the lungs and blood causing:

(i) Dizziness

(ii) Tingling in the fingers

(iii) Light headed or “floating feelings”

These feelings are distressing but NOT dangerous.

Adrenaline

Anxiety makes the body produce adrenaline which has the following effects.

(a) It increases the strength and speed of the heart beat to pump more blood around the body for exercise.  This can cause a feeling of the heart pounding which may be frightening but NOT dangerous.

(b) It increases tension in the muscles, preparing them to spring into action.  This makes us feel tense all over.  Muscles that get most tense are, the scalp, neck and shoulder muscles causing headache, neck-ache, or a feeling of a tight band around the head.  Sometimes the muscles tremble and shake.

(c) Sometimes adrenaline sends blood to the skin to help cool the body down.  Sometimes it drains blood away from the skin to send extra blood to the muscles.  This may make you feel hot or cold or even both.  You will have heard the expression “pale with fear” or “red-faced with embarrassment”.

(d) It increases sweating.  To cool the body when it gets hot with exercise.  People often find this a nuisance.

(e) Other uncomfortable feelings due to adrenaline are:

     Dry mouth, blurred vision, difficulty swallowing, feeling sick and wanting to go to      

     the toilet.

All this is very tiring and often leaves people feeling exhausted.

Mental Anxiety

When we get anxious, our minds can be full of all sorts of worrying thoughts and feelings.  It’s often hard to concentrate and think straight.  Sometimes the thoughts may be about various problems.  But they are often about the anxiety, particularly the physical anxiety itself.  This can cause lots of difficulties.  The most common thoughts of this type are:

“I can’t cope”

“ I’ll make a fool of myself, others will notice”

“I’ll faint in front of them”

“I’m going mad”

“I’m going to loose control”

“I’m having a heart attack”

“I’m dying”

“I can’t breathe”

“I’ve a brain tumour”

If any apply to you, please underline them and write any others you get in the space above.

Of course all these thoughts are very alarming.  Making a person’s original symptoms worse.  This confirms his worst fears, so he becomes even more frightened.  And so on.................

In other words, a vicious circle develops:

Frightening thoughts



Anxiety symptoms

If the symptoms get so bad that the person feels absolutely desperate this is called a panic attack.  Example: A man with fear of heart attacks feels his heart “pounding” as soon as he thinks about a heart attack.  This confirms to him his belief that  

Answer 3

Medication takes much more time than 4 weeks. I think In 3 months is when you start to notice it much more. I know that sounds pretty S****y, but if you are on a medication that works for you then it will be worth it.

Also you really should smoke weed to calm yourself, or for any reason. If you feel like it calms you from your anxiety then I am afraid you'll become dependent on drugs.

Somethings that you could do to calm yourself down are deep breathing, or think of a place that you feel at your most secure and calm.

Answer 4

I think that speaking with a therapist might help.. You can't drink alcohol why you are on Zoloft.  You might go back to who ever prescribed the Zoloft and have your dose increased.  If you do not feel any improvement after that perhaps you need to be prescribed a different drug.  These medications do require a lot of fine tuning and do not work for everyone,  

Answer 5

I personally wouldn't recommend weed. I'm a fairly shy guy but when I smoke weed it floors me. I mumble anyway but when I smoke weed I can barely talk. I go into myself severely and it definitely doesn't help. A friend of mine can't even leave the house now due to severe mental disorder after smoking weed.

I drink a h**l of a lot now and it seems to help. But of course, using a drug in a certain way borders on addiction.

As a teenager though, give it a go. You've got a bit of leeway (in the form of youth), so go for it. If smoking weed helps it's a temperary fix and you need that as a teenager. Once your older, social situations are a lot less pressured.

Good luck anyway mate.

Answer 6

I believe that medication isn't the answer for Anxiety. We create the anxiety which means that we can kill it. It sounds a little strange but believe me, I've conquered an anxiety problem. I was more or less a hypochondriac only minus the consulting a physician consistently but other than that, I was. I'm a smoker and would spit on my hand frequently to see if blood was in it because blood in spit is a symptom for Lung Cancer. I also would experience delusional thoughts about negative things happening to my loved ones and looking back on some of my experiences, I can laugh about it because I beat it. I also used to get very anxious in school, I would sweat so much that I smelled bad by the time I got to school even when I had a shower that morning. But it can be beat. I'm seeing a therapist and it helps. Just look after yourself in moments of anxiety. Check in with yourself and ask "how am I feeling". Anxiety feels like a best friend and worst enemy combined into one as you dispise it but you feel like you can depend on it to always be there. Good luck young man, if I can do it, then so can you.

Answer 7

Please do not smoke weed or drink as these things can worsen anxiety.Let the weed come out of your system(30 days) and continue with your medication and see how you feel.If no improvement after 2 months go back to your Doctor.It's a slow process.

Answer 8

so.... you can't drink, but smoking weed is fine....  interesting.  

if you are new to taking zoloft it can take 2-3 months for full effects.  you do realize smoking marijuana can cause paranoia and anxiety disorders, etc- right?  sure you feel calm at the time but it can cause many many health risks and mental health issues

Answer 9

you know man, i think you should just chill with ur friends and stop worrying about stuff. it works for me when i get all worked up. i just go hang with the people who are close to me...

Answer 10

Texas Nursie above has it right. Smoking weed and drinking alcohol are exactly the opposite ways to treat yourself for addiction.

Did someone just write you a prescription for Zoloft without any therapy? Anxiety issues respond well to therapy. If you have a therapist, call him or her. If you don't, tell your parents your anxiety issues are giving you trouble and you need to be referred to a therapist.

Good luck.