More appointments and stuff

I have another doctors appointment this afternoon that I have to leave to in about 20 minutes so I'll have to squeeze this post in.

Staring at the ceiling in bed about a week ago I started to think about the holidays... specifically the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I started with Thanksgiving, thinking about we had gone to my Grandmother's house and the food. But then I realized what I was remembering was Thanksgiving the year before. As much as I tried, I couldn't remember an actual memory from this Thanksgiving. I mean, I knew what went on that day because I know what was supposed to go on that day. But actual memories, no.

I thought about it some more and realized, other than a few blips here and there, I know what went on because of what was supposed to go on, but I really don't remember anything between Thanksgiving and just before Christmas for this past season. I know it was the height of my stress (and ended in culmination with 40 hours of no sleep, a near psychotic break, a trip to the psychologist last minute before the office closed for the holidays and a subsequent visit to the doctor who prescribed sleeping pills for the time being). It was one, long, continuous anxiety attack. I can't imagine what would have happened if what triggered the 'finale' of insomnia, if one would call it that, hadn't happened. Would I have continued loosing time?

Anyway, I am up to 50mg of the Zoloft stuff a day. I dunno. Its not really having any affect on my anxiety and I don't notice any differences in sleep between the 25 and 50mg dosages. I'm sure he'll put me up to 75mg or even 100mg today. My muscles feel tight and tingly which I don't know to attribute to the Zoloft or just to my history of muscle spasms. My appetite has taken a nose dive and I've lost 6 lbs since being on it. I'm more aware of my heart racing when before I knew it was but I was more preoccupied with what was happening in my head... now I realize both.

I woke up about 6am the day after going up to the 50mg in a major attack. I felt terrified for no reason and I felt like I wanted to scream. I didn't. I laid in bed for an hour feeling awful. I knew if I screamed it wouldn't help and would just end up freaking my Loving Hubby and Sweetheart out. About 7am I knew my heart racing so long coupled with I hadn't eaten since 6pm the evening before that my blood sugar was low. It took me another 30 minutes to muster enough mental strength to move through the panic and get up to get something to eat.

At least once a day since mid-November I've had anxiety severe enough to call it a panic attack, though of varying degrees. I want to file for disability... but I can't muster enough non-anxiety to even broach it with my doctor.

Medication

As I was starting to go quite insane from the lack of sleep, went to the doctor a week ago Tuesday to discuss the lack of sleep/anxiety. He wanted me to try zoloft but worried that I might have a reaction to it since I've had issues with other medications of similar types, wanted to start me on an uber-small dosage.

So he started me on 1/2 a 25mg tablet a few hours before bed for a week. I didn't notice any difference but we really didn't expect much as a normal adult dosage is 50-100mg. Just looking for any side effects.

Didn't have any really (or at least that I connected to it). Kinda lost my appetite but after weeks of so little sleep, I really wasn't surprised by that.

Went up to 25mg this Tuesday after seeing the doc again. I actually got about 4 hours of sleep both Tuesday and Wednesday night AND actually hit rem sleep. I feel better in that sense but now its no longer just lack of appetite (in which I'd still eat just wasn't hungry), but food just sounds bad now. Just came back from dinner with my mom and brothers (it is my youngest brother's birthday), Loving hubby and Sweetheart. I ate maybe a 1/3 of what was on my plate and got the rest to go. And its a meal I normally would have been able to finish just fine. Now we are expected to go over to my aunt's house for cake/ice cream which I am sure I'm going to be expected to have some. Sounds disgusting right now.

I also have this weird headache which I had lightly on Sun/Mon but now is irritating to say the least. Its in the back of my head and radiates down into my neck and back of my jaw. Like the muscles are super tight and irritated. I'm supposed to call the doctor tomorrow and discuss the dosage and possibly going up to 37.5mg for the weekend to try for more sleep, but I think I'm going to stay at 25mg for a while. Lots of stuff I've read said most of the more annoying side effects go away after 2 weeks but being I was on such a low dose I want to give it a little more time.

As far as helping with the anxiety? Mentally... eh. At this point I think just getting the little bit more sleep I've gotten the last two nights has made somewhat of a difference. I feel kinda locked into a '2' on my scale; no real ups or downs which I suppose is good. But it doesn't necessarily feel right either. More like a fog slowing my anxiety down versus actually stopping it. Hard to explain. I don't like how my anxiety ups/downs make me feel, but I am not entirely sure I like how this feels.
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PS. Because after telling some people about being on Zoloft and the 'oh! it isn't making you feel suicidal is it?' I felt I needed to post this disclaimer. No, I am not feeling suicidal nor have I ever. Damn stereotypes.

Insomnia

Right now I get the feeling that if I could actually sleep for more than 10-15 minute blips in a four hour period I could actually function today.

The insomnia is just not relenting this time. I laid in bed awake most of the night... totalled about an hour of sleep. I even reset the alarm for later to try and get some more sleep.

Looking at me after I finally decided to forget laying in bed and trying to get something done, Loving Hubby said "I can feel your brain short circuit from here." Somehow his attempts at humor this morning did not amuse me... I give him credit for trying, but I've gotten all of 35 hours of sleep in the last two weeks... or averaging 2.5 hours of sleep a night.

I have another doctors appointment tomorrow. If I don't go insane before then...

damn it

I've been sitting here a while wanting to write a post. There are several things I want to get out but honestly, everytime I think about typing them it is like my mind says "fuck you, go to hell".

Today is one of those days that anxiety isn't so much about panic, but my mind acting like a stubborn 2-year-old and just outright refusing to anything of substance.

*cringe*

It is raining out. And I have to work today. It should be an easy day for me at least, since it is just sitting and watching more presentations and I know I will be fine if I can just get myself out of the damn apartment... and not float off into my own little world.

The extremes of the anxiety the last few weeks left me rather shut down yesterday afternoon and evening. I took a nap from about 4 to 630pm after coming home from the pet store, even though I didn't get out of bed until after noon yesterday. Then I went to bed at 11pm and didn't get up until about 40 minutes ago. Not that I even really napped or slept at all...

No, I was fucking day dreaming. I didn't really do anything yesterday. Other than the rain which I just plainly don't like more than it gives me anxiety, I felt generally fine. But my mind still kept wandering and before I realized it my mind was off in its own little fantasy land for pretty much the rest of the day and night. I know I was just coming down from all the stress of the anxiety, but keeping my mind off these daydreams once they start going is nearly as maddening.

I want to feel as relaxed as I am in the daydreams in reality.... which is kinda odd considering I am still a nervous person in the daydreams, I just either handle it better or everyone else does.

On Today's to-do list

Got up less than an hour ago, but feel pretty good today. Somewhere between a 1 and a 2 on the list. I really hope it stays that way because Loving Hubby is away today, Sweetheart can't drive and really should stay home (she twisted up her knee and is using crutches for a bit)... and the cats need food and we need toilet paper. It's always the basics that get you in the end. And it is raining. Blah.

But it was nice to see I have four followers to this blog now. I am still trying to figure out if/how I can respond directly to comments so in the mean time I will do so here. Going to kinda answer them broadly since the responses would likely be for more than just one person.

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Most universities (not so much community colleges any more, but some still do) have on campus licensed psychologists that students can go see for free or very, very cheap. I've found the doctors and psychologists at the university to be much more understanding/willing to help than average, probably because they are used to seeing students who with the help of their parents or something, made it through high school with relative ease only to open up and break down once they hit college.

I am also very glad to see other people are commenting with their feelings/thoughts regarding anxiety. It's nice to not feel alone.

Things that I should have pieced together (original to 1/22/2009)

Once I came to the realization that this anxiety was not normal I tried to peice together when I first started being anxious about things, whether they were 'normal' anxieties or not.

I kept coming to the conclusion that it was about the time I hit puberty. It was when I first starting actively using coping mechanisms to get through some days... but then Loving Hubby mentioned something he's mentioned before, but for some reason it was only now that I really thought about it.

I grind me teeth at night. And I have since I first started school. For a while in first or second grade, I can't remember for sure which, I even had a night guard retainer to help keep me from grinding or at least if I did, protect my teeth.... by the way, I chewed through it.

I was always shy and nervous in school, espeacilly when I was younger. I was always the shortest in my classes. I remember getting made fun of in first grade because I had afternoon reading, which was for the second graders. At my school we had the early schedule where kids came at 7 and left at 2 and the late schedule where kids came at 8 and left at 3. The point was to allow the teacher to pick a subject where she felt the students were fairly split on, the more advanced versus the less advanced, and use the hour to give the kids more attention. Long story short, the more advanced kids didn't have to be bored doing the same thing as the less advanced kids and the less advanced kids got the extra help they needed to keep up. I was in a split class, half 1st/half 2nd grade and reading was the subject that the teacher's chose to split. I was a first grader but was on the schedule of the 2nd graders.... lets just say the other kids suck and leave it at that.

But more onto the topic, I really didn't like going to school. I was bored, I didn't fit in and I absolutely H-A-T-E-D being the center of attention. I'd never tell my parents about those elementary school concerts so I didn't have to be on stage. The thought of being on stage made me sick. The more I think about it, the more I see I've always had anxiety, it's just gotten worse over time.

I think what kept me from labeling what I felt when I was younger as anxiety was that in junior high and high school I was in choir and thus was constantly on stage. I had a hard time with it in junior high and pushed myself through it, but the summer before I started 9th grade I decided that being 'me' wasn't working. I was too shy, nervous and didn't feel like I had control over anything. So I created a nickname for myself that I would insist everyone at school use, and tried it out while at camp that summer. Someone who was me but wasn't. Someone bolder who didn't know what anxiety was.

Happily or sadly, it worked. I went through high school like that. Yes, there where times when anxiety kept me from doing things. The anxiety created by my swimming coach (there are very few people I've met that I can truley label as I hate, she is one of them) kept me from continuing swim team the next year (and injuries after that).

Something that always stuck with me, was my counselor at the high school who I really did like. She said that one of the reasons she liked me was how even when stressed I could remain calm and not care what anyone thought (this was said on a day I wore maroon sweats to school... not cute ones, like Hanes brand sweats). All I could think of then was what a lie it all felt like.