Anxiety Medication

If you are stressed or suffering from anxiety, please ask our experts your questions here.

Moderator: talkhealth

Locked
3 posts
User avatar
Wendy Green
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu May 24, 2012 11:27 am
Quote

by Wendy Green on Fri Oct 09, 2015 3:29 pm

Re: Anxiety Medication

Hi,

You don't mention whether you have tried cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a form of psychotherapy, endorsed by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) for anxiety, depression and other mental health issues. CBT targets the thoughts (cognition) and behaviour that can play a part in anxiety, and works on the basis that how you think affects the way you feel, how you feel affects the way you behave, and how you behave affects the way you think. This might be preferable to taking medication again - especially when you don't feel it made much difference to how you felt.

For example, someone who fails an exam and then thinks they are stupid and a failure might feel so negative about themselves and their ability to pass the exam they decide not to resit it. This would reinforce their view that they are a failure.

CBT aims to change people’s behaviours by helping them replace negative or unrealistic thoughts with more positive and realistic ones. For example, if the person who fails the exam still has confidence in their abilities, they are more likely to feel optimistic about their chances of passing it in the future and are more likely to successfully resit it – an action which will promote further positive thoughts about themselves.

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) is an NHS programme of talking therapy treatments which support frontline mental health services in treating anxiety disorders and depression. The NHS developed IAPT in 2008 in recognition of a national shortage of CBT practitioners. The service aims to make it easier for people to access CBT by providing more trained therapists in GP surgeries. If counselling isn’t available at your surgery, your GP will be able to refer you to a local counselling service for NHS treatment. If you prefer, you may be able to refer yourself, if that option is available where you live. You can find out what's available in your area by searching for psychological therapy services on the NHS Choices website.

You can also access CBT online through the NHS, if your GP thinks it's appropriate and refers you. NICE recommends two computerised packages:

Beating the Blues, which consists of eight 50-minute sessions (http://www.beatingtheblues.co.uk).

FearFighter, which is an online ten-week CBT course designed to help people suffering from anxiety or a phobia (http://www.fearfighter.com).

The availability of Beating the Blues and FearFighter services on the NHS varies from one area to another, but you can also pay for them privately.

Free online CBT courses include MoodGYM (http://www.moodgym.anu.edu.au) , e-couch( ecouch.anu.edu.au) and Living Life to the Full (http://www.llttf.com).

As well as trying CBT you should aim to follow a healthy lifestyle by combining a good diet with regular exercise, stress management and good sleep habits.

You may also find my book about anxiety helpful http://amzn.to/1L3KoCX

I hope this helps.
Wendy Green
Health Expert and Author

http://www.talkhealthpartnership.com/on ... _green.php

User avatar
Dr Helen Webberley
Posts: 96
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2015 10:31 am
Quote

by Dr Helen Webberley on Tue Oct 13, 2015 7:52 am

Re: Anxiety Medication

Hi there, anxiety can be terribly crippling and awful to live with. Clearly there is something unhappy in you which is niggling away at you and causing anxiety when it is not needed. Although SSRIs can help, and Sertraline is very good at anxiety treatment, they don't get to the route of the problem. Was it perhaps a bad experience or a difficult childhood?

Talking therapies such as counselling and CBT can be very helpful, hypnotherapy can also help to try and find the underlying cause.

Please don't suffer in silence, get some professional help to try and dig around and see what is causing this in you.

I hope this helps, and I wish you all the best, Dr Webberley
Dr Helen Webberley
NHS GP and Director of www.MyWebDoctor.co.uk
MBChB MRCGP MFSRH DipGUM DipIPM
http://www.talkhealthpartnership.com/on ... berley.php

Locked
3 posts