Anxiety:

[mightyjesse]

It's very strange... I've been very depressed and on edge lately for NO REASON. I mean, I'm always iffy about crowds, but people trying to congratulate me on my engagement at the stock pavilion, though unexpected (wasn't that like... a million years ago that we announced that?!) shouldn't have brought me that closed to an anxiety attack. Seriously I've never felt anything like it. I almost burst into tears and hid in the bathroom.

Depression I can handle. Weird anxiety attacks like that are a new beast.

I haven't the faintest notion what could be causing this mood slump. I have nothing but happy things to report... And yet I'm very, very tired and cranky as hell. I don't want to play with string, and even WoW seems too complicated to be worthwhile...

And OF COURSE this didn't start until the day after I had my doctor's appointment. What the hell? This smacks of hormonal imbalance, but which hormones and why? Nothing's really changed lately but my fiber intake... And god knows that shouldn't affect my mood this way... If Metamucil caused anxiety attacks, the old folks home would be WAY more entertaining to visit...

** The first person to suggest that I may be pregnant is getting poked in the eye with a sharp stick. Seriously. Leave off already.

Comments

[fencert.livejournal.com]

You been getting any exercise? My ritalin leaves me really really cranky and irritable when it wears off and the only thing that helps is exercise. How abouts vitamins? Eating right?

[lame-carrot.livejournal.com]

Sounds like someone needs a makeover!

[liz-bet.livejournal.com]

Could you be suffering from just an outright lack of daylight? I know January and February become tough for me just because I get to work before the sun is up and I don't leave until it's down, and I work in rooms with no windows. This throws me way off and I can sit on my couch completely unmotivated to do any of the things my over anxiety mind is racing through, feeing more anxious that I'm not doing any of them-and-dammit-they-should-be-fun-and-this-just-all-sucks-now-my-tummy-is-upset-and-I-want-to-hide-under-some-covers-but-I'm-too-unmotivated-to-go-get-them. It's this horrible divide b/w low and nervous hi. :P I can only imagine that, combined with trying to figure out thyroid meds, would be even worse.

What I reaized a few years ago, is that by Jan/Feb... it's been a few months since I've really seen the daylight.. and that completely messes with my body/brain. I figured this out as one day, I was so sick of not seeing the sun that I went for a short walk over lunch. I felt like someone had shot me with the best magic happy juice in the world. So I started walking 2-3 times a week, over lunch for just about 20 minute walks, and it helped a ton. Not completely, but it helped a lot.

My guess is that a full spectrum light would help as well, but just getting outside and moving combined with the sun seemed to be a really refreshing combo. And the walks don't cost any money investment either ;) Not to mention, walking down to the lake and back is a really pretty walk on campus ;)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I think that killing all the people who suggest pregnancy as though women of our age have never thought of it would cheer you right on up.

I have a list you can start on if you run out of your own.

[valkyr8.livejournal.com]

I recently added a multi vitamin every night before going to bed and have felt a noticable difference each day since. It's possible it is all in my head but I woke up Tuesday battling a cold and wondering if I would be well enough to go to 12th Night and I feel just fine today.

It's possible that you're stressed. Getting married is a lot of work (not that I know from experience, just observation). Perhaps you feel overwhelmed? It's completely understandable and logical.

I'm still going to congratulate you and give you a big squeeze next time I see you.

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

Right, but I'm used to the light thing... I have a full spectrum light in my house to cope with this problem. I have been taking vitamin D which has been helping a little bit, but not all the way.

No... Lack of sun makes me mopey and morose and a lazy lay-about... This whole panic attack think is new... People in large doses make me stabby and mean, not scared to death... At least they used to.

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

I've been doing an hour of video-game-geek-aerobics every day. Zig is proud of me for being so consistent, actually... Plus on Zig's recommendation I've been taking Vitamin D every day and on the doctor's recommendation I've been taking calcium and fiber suppliments.

And now that we've been to the grocery store, I'm eating right again... The beginning of the week was a little shaky, but an excess of pizza has never caused an anxiety attack. Thunder thighs, yes... Anxiety? Hell no. Pass the cheese...

[teffan.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's a delayed reaction to coming back to "reality" after the big trip? I seem to always get a sort of post-trip let-down where I don't want to be around anyone, not even to share the cool stories. So being overwhelmed by well-wishers would fit in with that...

[gwyneth1362.livejournal.com]

The vitamin D thing is important - Vitamin D deficiency is considered to have reached epidemic proportions in WI.

It might also be a delayed internal reaction to huge life changes. Even if they are good, they are still big changes.

[devikat.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

this

[krkhst.livejournal.com]

would have been my thought, as I have the same thing happen. When you add in the proposal, and the rush that would have added, I would have just guessed it was (at least in part) a let down from all of that.....

[jinglymushroom.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's an after-effect of being in France? You were in a new place, there was cool stuff, excitement, fun, relaxation... And now you're back to usual life. Maybe it's stressful, tiring, or just plain boring and some part of you quietly wants to go back and, now that it's had some time to build up, is reacting by being like this?
Maybe it's cause you were always going places and doing stuff in France and you didn't feel tired, cause it was new and neat, but you're body in fact was not used to it and the different sleep schedule, and now that you're back and have worked the tiredness is sorta built up?

Re: this

[jinglymushroom.livejournal.com]

Thirded!

[iarroganti.livejournal.com]

To follow on this, could the change of time zones also be a factor? I have fallen so far behind on keeping up with everyone, that I don't remember how recently you got back, but I can see jet lag possibly having an influence.

[itsume.livejournal.com]

More than likely it is just brought on by all the Thyroid problems.
Between the changes in your body chemistry and the drugs, you are bound to have some backlash.

I even had a weird moment last night, and I knew it was all chemical because nothing caused it. I was driving into Manhattan and got this weird anxiety/anger moment. It was making me shakey too, but it went away within an hour. I don't know what caused it but it was nerve wracking. So, I can understand how annoying the problem must be.

*hugs*

[alienorh.livejournal.com]

Well, I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which has and does get better with different factors. They told me that as a chemical imbalence thing it is often diagnosed with depression. I was treated for depression as an undergraduate and didn't go back to the UHS after that mostly went away. I came back as a Special Student and it was finally diagnosed as GAD. But there could be dozens of reasons in your case.

[dromeda.livejournal.com]

I have panic disorder so you have all my hugs. I can relate all to well to panic attacks. It could be your Thyroid. That's normally the #1 thing that docs check when panic hits. It could be a vitamin B12 deficiency. I take a sublingual Methylcobalamin form of b-12 that has helped reduce my anxiety quite a bit.

[ego-id-non-feci.livejournal.com]

Hugs. Whatever it is, this too shall pass.

No, honest, it will. I have guarantees. :)

(Also, people have said stuff to ME about being pregnant recently, too. I have come to believe that such conversation, while seemingly attached in the common mind to any intact uterus, ought to be banned.)

[alienorh.livejournal.com]

Etiquette hell's advice for such blatently rude suggestions is: "What an interesting assumption"