Venturing into the world of treatment

I have been misdiagnosed several times as having OCD, PAD, and depression. I hadn't even heard of Generalized Anxiety Disorder until several months ago when I was reading up on anxiety disorders on WebMD. When I saw the symptom list, I was so relieved and happy to see that there was actually something that explained all of the symptoms I had. All throughout my childhood I was called a baby and hypochondriac because I worried so much about everything. If my mom was ten minutes late coming home from work and didn't answer her cell phone I would call every member of my family asking if they knew where she was because I would assume she had gotten in an accident and maybe died. I still think the same way, but at least now I know that I'm not just a baby and it's really not in my control to stop these thoughts. I have been on Zoloft, Celexa, and Prozac, but none of them worked out. Zoloft made me really nauseous for weeks, Celexa didn't really have any effect at all, and Prozac made me suicidal. What other medications are there that can treat my GAD effectively?

You got mis-diagnosed with depression? I've never heard of someone being mis diagnosed with that as it's simple to diagnose... didn't seem to me that you had a very good doctor there...

If my mom was ten minutes late coming home from work and didn't answer her cell phone I would call every member of my family asking if they knew where she was because I would assume she had gotten in an accident and maybe died.

I was the EXACT same way.
This was when I was younger & if my parent's went out and they were a minute even off their time when they were suppose to come home i'd be in hysterics thinking they were killed or in an accident.......

Zoloft will make you feel nauseated how long did you take it for?

A lot of medication's help with GAD actually a HUGE Range of them.

The medication i'm currently on is Effexor XR, it helps me.

In the past I was on:

Zoloft - 8 yrs
Celexa- awful side effects etc
Remeron- bad side effects helped for about 6 months, made me gain a ton of weight, though it came off when I came off it.
Ativan- which i have currently and only used once, it's for need as only basis
Clonazepam- was on it for a short time only

No medication's can get rid of anxiety, and all medication works differently for everyone, as Effexor works good for me, i've been on it now for over 4 yrs, but it doesn't help another person. Meds only help with some symptoms of anxiety, which is better then nothing when you feel overwhelmed.

Are you on anything now?

it's really not in my control to stop these thoughts.

It's always in your control to stop the thoughts my friend, it truely is you just got to learn the different methods to cope with them so you aren't so anxious anymore... I still have automatic irrational thoughts, as they pop up even if I don't want them too, because my mind is used to different scenerios... but they can be controlled..

Have you gotten into talk therapy for the G.A.D or just for medication only?

Also, what about self-help books? There's a lot of good ones out there to help you understand it more.

I've been dealing with G.A.D for 12+ yrs now, it used to be overwhelming but rarely is any longer...

Take care.

I was diagnosed with depression because I was miserable. I was constantly being put down for "overreacting" and "freaking out all the time" when it was GAD amplifying my thoughts and making me worry at all time. Technically, I was very depressed, but it wasn't depression, it was vicariously caused by the anxiety. Doctors always tell you not to self-diagnose yourself because you need a professional to be sure, but I've been to many doctors, and all along my self-diagnoses had been dead on.

By "not in my control to stop these thoughts" I meant in continuation with the rest of the sentence that there was a real problem (GAD), not just me being a weak crybaby like I was told many times. I was always being told, and still am, that I need to grow up and handle things "just like everybody else does", but people don't understand that my mind doesn't react "normally" or like everybody else's. I am also an extreme codependent which adds more problems to the mix--in addition to worrying excessively already, I take on the responsibilities of others and worry about those too. I can't say no to anything and I feel the need to exert an unreasonable amount of care and effort for others, and then feel rejected and hurt when they don't acknowledge my efforts. It's textbook codependency and it sucks. There's no doubt that both of these issues stem from being taken from my dad when I was four; I was born in Japan, but my mom couldn't live there anymore because it was really hard on her health and she was very sad being so far from her family and friends, so when I was four we moved to America. Little did we know my dad didn't end up coming like he said he would, and my heart was broken and that must have been when my codependency and anxiety issues began.

I'm not currently in any therapy because I am still in an everlasting search for a decent therapist. When I find one, though, I'll hopefully be able to work out some of my daddy-abandonment-issues and maybe subdue some of my anxiety and codependent behaviors.

I think I'll try Zoloft again soon because I was only on it for about a month, but I was getting over the flu and it made me too sick to the point where I couldn't get out of bed so I had to stop.

You should maybe look into getting on to Amazon or going into a bookstore to the self help section and looking over the anxiety books they have, maybe something will catch your eye and give you some good coping methods etc to help you with your anxiety while you wait for a therapist.

I'm always recommending this book to people because it's one book that helped the most in terms of understanding anxiety is a book called [b]Don't Panic: Taking Control of Anxiety Attacks by R.Reid Wilson PH.D here is what the book looks like...

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Don ... -item.html