anxiety disorder & fatigue

Posted , 7 users are following.

hi new to this forum, quite nervous about posting. i am looking for some feed back from other posters regarding there gad symptoms, i have always been an anxious person but three years ago i lost my job and things just went from bad to worse. i was diagnosed with gad for which i have been taking sertraline 100mg for over 7 months this has helped me regain some what of normal life again (what ever normal means) i still have anxiety but the most troubling problem i have is that i have contant daily fatigue i.e could sleep all day. never wake up feeling refreshed, making everyday tasks a struggle .

2 likes, 10 replies

10 Replies

  • Posted

    Hi Ross, I have just recently been diagnosed with gad too and I am the exact same with the fatigue symptoms I am tired all the time just want to sleep have no energy and zero motivation to do anything. My gp told me it appears I am suffering with depression too as the above are classic signs of depression. Sometimes I juat go to bed so I dont have to feel so down. I don't really know how to improve this but just know you are not alone, ive been told to try and keep active and busy but its difficult when you just don't have the energy to do anything! If you come up with anything let me know, sorry Icouldn't be much help. Liz
  • Posted

    Your medication should help you have a more sound sleep. I suspect you may also suffer from sleep apnea if you are overweight. Your medication tends to make your drowsy so you should take it at night before going to bed.
  • Posted

    thanks for the reply, its hard to get people to believe me when i try and tell them how tired i feel all the time, this can also can make me very irritable. which is effecting my ability to work and also my relationship.

    .

  • Posted

    losing a job is traumatic in these times. You could use some kind of an antidepressant to help focus your life and get back on track. Go and tell your Dr.
  • Posted

    elizabeth70142 i have asked about sleep apnea but doctor is convinced that it is a symptom of my anxiety/ depression, i believe that sertraline is part of the problem because of excessive rem sleep ie vivid dreaming.
  • Posted

    Sorry your finding it so hard to to return to "normal" after my meds started to have some affect i had to forget about what i once did and consentrate on what i could do achevible goals accept that who i am is not who i once was and things had to be diffrent cause i am diffrent not the person i once was or capable of doing certain things life became easier for me once i accepted....hard to explain but it works for me good luck i hopefully once you start living your sleep pattern will teturn
  • Posted

    Hi ross

    Ive been on 150mg of sertraline for about 3 years. Im always exhausted and I have mine at night time instead of day cause I would have slept all day if I could. Never attributed it to the extremely vivid dreams though. But It makes sense now you say it. To be honest the vivd dreams dont stop so I aint gonna lie. Maybe take it in the evening and if your not quite right go back to docs and they Might put you up to 150mg. I too lost my job and that's why I had my meds increased. It will get better and I had a good couple of decent years unfortunately for me they have stopped working so ive got to change them but same thing happened with citalopram so that's just me. I hope you get it sorted quickly and feeling better soon

    Take care

    Natalie

  • Posted

    Hi Ross, My energy levels have been a problem for 65+ years. Narcolepsy was diagnosed in 1966, medication helped with this auto-immune disorder.January 2010 welcomed prostate cancer followed by gallbladder pain (advice-remove it). A free helicopter ride in 2012 led to being told I needed a triple heart bypass. My meetings with consultants however made me wonder if I was just a number. My body was under attack on four fronts. The expert in one field new little or nothing about the other three. I decided to decline the offer of NHS standard procedures and have since trawled through huge amounts of medical info on the internet.

    Why did I end up this way? From all that I have learned, the most relevant is the importance of water. We are 70% water and if we fail to drink enough chemical free water every day (2 litres), we function badly. The bodies systems shut down. Fatigue is one result. On reflection, for the first 68 years of my life I drank very little of anything. Are you drinking plenty of water? (Do not go from zero to 2ltrs immediately) Also, what is your Vitamin D3 level? If it is inadequate you are not going to get well from anything. IMO it is dangerous to assume a medical person is aiming to cure you. Take control and ask awkward questions eg has the drug prescribed had all the known bad side effects published (unlikely) Good Luck!

  • Posted

    Hi Ross, I have suffered for depression and anxiety for many years. Doctors keep us on anxiolytes / anti-depressants. Therapy also does not help. But ultimately I found that the root cause lies in deficiency of certain nutrients. Once you correct the deficiency, the problem resolves miraculously. I advice you to check your vitamin levels specifically - B12, B9, B6, B1, D. Also test your magnesium and blood sugar levels. Vit B12 and vit. D deficiencies are very common. Most likely you have B12 deficiency as you are getting daily fatigue.

    If this does not resolve your problem, try to check your thyroid and adrenal gland functioning. Ask doctor to prescribe appropriate tests for that. All the best.

  • Posted

    Hi Ross, patient97 has given good advice. If you research on the internet to learn why you have become deficient in x/y/z, you have started a huge jig-saw! Gradually pieces slot in. Resolving any one is harder without a little knowledge of how they all interact eg a poor Vit D3 level does not increase if magnesium is absent. Nutrients is a key word. Time spent reading about nutrients will not be wasted. Modern farming methods have left the soil with few natural nutrients; today's crops have a lot less nutrients than 100 years back. Scientists have had their input, so that wheat for example is addictive (to increase sales). Sugar & sodium is added to manufactured food for the same reason-profit. Table salt has aluminium added to make it powdery. My view from research is that supermarket packaged food is lacking in nutrients. Someone like yourself will struggle to recover if that is all you eat. The additives add to the stress your immune system faces; the temperatures the products are heated to in the factory wipe out most of what goodness the crops had. Fresh fruit and veg are essential, along with adequate clean drinking water. There are huge profits made from drugs/medicines but this can only occur if people become ill. Is the supermarket food made with this in mind? Why are we not taught how to walk along a cliff edge without falling off? Are there too many with lucrative occupations treating (not curing) those who fall off again and again? IMO the more awareness of all these many factors you have, the better your chances of regaining and keeping your health.

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