Just don't start taking the Xanax as a preventative unless you know an attack is coming on.

As long as you maintain a healthy fear of Xanax and only take it when absolutely necessary with the understanding that the more you take, the more you need, you will be fine.

Xanax withdrawl is ugly - similar to heroin and can even be fatal so definitely keep your guard up.

Anxiety is a future state mindset. Try to stay in the moment.

If you looked at the list of top 10 most common reasons to have a panic attack, I had 6 or 7 when I was a senior at A&M. I'm better 20 years later but still go through an attack or two per year. The key for me was becoming hyper aware of what led up to each attack.

My panic is all about my health. When I have an attack, I feel like the room begins to spin or my left arm starts to ache. The left arm one particularly scares me because I think I'm close to a heart attack. Once i go back through the previous day, though, I can usually find where I lifted something heavy or threw batting practice for my kid's baseball team. Being panicky about your left arm is especially frustrating for an old left handed pitcher whose neck / shoulder muscles tightened pretty easily and send radiating pain down the arm.

Once I can rationalize why I am feeling the way I do, I can usually deep breathe my way out of them.

Fully. Anxiety drives you to a feeling that you are incapable of handling life which leads you to feelings of general inadequacy which feeds into depression. At least, that is how it has happened to me in the past. Things that helped were to identify the sources and eliminate them. Social media was one for me. Watching others put their best foot forward (while hiding all the sh*t life makes them shovel) can mess with your mind when you are in a weak place. It might be different for you, but finding triggers is a good way to help you navigate.

You're not alone, my friend. Many of us have been there. There are better days ahead. They just take a single day at a time to reach.

Just so you know, the active ingredient in all the PM meds is simply diphenhydramine (or, Benadryl). So, you can just take a Benadryl and avoid the acetaminophen in the Tylenol.

azulAg said:

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Admittedly I did experience depression when I got off lexapro. Probably cause I went cold turkey on the stuff, but that lasted a few days

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My wife was on Lexapro for over 10 years and just recently got off. It was extremely difficult for her and she doubted her decision numerous times when her withdrawal symptoms would intensify. However, she stayed the course and has been completely off for about two months now.

What has really helped her with depression symptoms recently is picking up golf as a hobby. I had always played off and on but she really wanted to learn and we started playing together recently. She absolutely loves it because it gets her outside, requires physical activity, and lets her focus her thoughts on improving her golf swing.

I have been on Lexapro since January. The symptoms were awful for a few weeks. No sex drive, no appetite for food, couldn't sleep (on melatonin to counteract insomnia). They did finally settle down and I am "back to normal" so to speak symptoms wise.

I had pretty severe anxiety (to the point where asking someone a question sent me into the sweats), and with this and a therapist, I have made large strides since January where I can do and say more things with little anxiety. Some days are rougher than others, but I am picking up an exercise regimen and it is helping as well.

Just wanted to share my experiences.

Been battling it myself on and off for a while. The main, and really only, driver is my stomach. I have a bad stomach. My friends in college called me "Mr. Poop". Been to a couple docs through out the years and found nothing wrong, so I've been lumped under the umbrella of IBS. It affects everything I do in life. For instance on road trips I basically don't eat. 9 hour road trip to Florida? I'll wake up 2 hours before we have to leave so I can eat breakfast, have time to go to the bathroom, and then be positive my stomach has had time to settle. Then I won't eat or drink a thing the entire day until I know we are at our destination and "safe".

This past weekend we went to a friends parents lake house on LBJ. They had just bought it last year so I had never been. In total there were 12 people (6 adults/6 kids) and 2 bathrooms. That was factor one. Factor two was the lake aspect of it. The idea that at any given moment someone might say "Let's jump on the boat." It made for a horrible first day were I was just anxious and reclusive all day as I got a feel for things. After the first day I was my normal self because I figured out that the two bathrooms were both easily accessible (I was worried one would be a "master" bath that was tucked away in my friends parents room, effectively leaving only one bathroom for the other 10 people). And I had also figured out that it was no big deal for me to bail on boat rides. But that first day our friends were asking my wife if I was ok, and the second day my friends mom said "I'm glad you're feeling better" even though I had expressed no illness to her.

Another example was a couple weeks ago we went to a escape room. I figured you could easily just knock on a door and say "I need the bathroom" but when we got there we discovered the bathroom was actually across the shopping center and that the lady in charge made it seem like you couldn't get out of the room without disqualifying the entire group. I literally broke into a sweat and told my wife I wasn't going in. I freaked out inside. Of course my wife clarified that I could leave at anytime and the only consequence would be that I couldn't rejoin the group, but the group wouldn't be disqualified. I ended up doing it and being fine, but for those 5-10 minutes I was a frantic mess inside.

Anyway. I recently have started to tackle my stomach by switching my diet. That is step 1 to eliminate meat and as much fat as I can, and to increase fiber and healthy foods. From there I might see a nutritionist to look at tackling a diet targeted at maybe figuring out what my "trigger foods" are. I feel like if I had a normal persons stomach then I might be just fine. Of course it's a chicken/egg thing too. My stomach actually acting up causes anxiety, but anxiety about my stomach acting up can cause my stomach to feel like it's acting up.

Lastly, I was drawn by the title of this thread and just had to post this song. Jason Isbell is one of my all time favorite artists and this song is from his newest album (which won the Grammy for Best Americana Album). The first time I heard it and heard the first line, I was like Holy sheet! Yes! . Give it a listen. I don't think I'll be alone in identifying with the lyrics. I also love the way he does the arrangement. The chaos of the music to start, the break, and then ending in chaos. It just mirrors anxiety itself to me.