I have physical sensations triggered by my messed up brain chemistry (sweating and racing pulse for example) but I was *interpreting* them as emotions (panic/fear) because that's what they usually feel like.
Cog/beh therapy helped me head that spiral off - to track it back to "I'm not scared of anything in particular - it's just that my pulse is racing and I'm all sweaty. Let's see if I can figure out what set it off and maybe try to do something about it, like eat something or stretch out and do a breathing exercise" , so it became more of a matter of heading off the physical symptoms, and that's where the medication came in. What SSRIs mostly do for me is smooth down the wheels so that bumps in the track don't totally derail the train.
But this strategy wasn't working when I started to show more "classic" symptoms like lack of energy, social withdrawal, and just plain blehs. That's what prompted me to ask about a med change.
So emotionally, I'm pretty much OK aside from being groggy and irritable. But physically I feel like crap. Oddly enough, caffeine seems to be HELPING with the shakiness. Maybe it's increasing blood flow somewhere in my noggin...
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2008-07-31 06:04 pm (UTC)I have physical sensations triggered by my messed up brain chemistry (sweating and racing pulse for example) but I was *interpreting* them as emotions (panic/fear) because that's what they usually feel like.
Cog/beh therapy helped me head that spiral off - to track it back to "I'm not scared of anything in particular - it's just that my pulse is racing and I'm all sweaty. Let's see if I can figure out what set it off and maybe try to do something about it, like eat something or stretch out and do a breathing exercise" , so it became more of a matter of heading off the physical symptoms, and that's where the medication came in. What SSRIs mostly do for me is smooth down the wheels so that bumps in the track don't totally derail the train.
But this strategy wasn't working when I started to show more "classic" symptoms like lack of energy, social withdrawal, and just plain blehs. That's what prompted me to ask about a med change.
So emotionally, I'm pretty much OK aside from being groggy and irritable. But physically I feel like crap. Oddly enough, caffeine seems to be HELPING with the shakiness. Maybe it's increasing blood flow somewhere in my noggin...