anxiety/panic attack

Regarding your bulemia, it is a REAL illess that can be treated. Tell your doctor. Your anxiety and panic attacks will not be resolved with medications until the other side of your illness is addressed as well. There is no shame in having an eating disorder. I was overweight and finally obese during the first eight years of my treatment for depression and anxiety. I had a distorted body image, no self-esteem, and while I didn't realize it, that too was a major contributor to my other issues. I still have body image issues, but I did slowly tackle my emotional eating response over the last four years, and have finally reached a healthy weight for my age/size. It is still an issue that is occasionally front and centre, but I take it one day at a time, and most days are better than they have been in a long time.

So give your meds time to work, try to relax and be aware of "the feeling of impending doom", or what I call my "catastrophic thinking." Knowing that it's not real can take away some of its power to overwhelm you. And as you get stronger, remember that bulemia is a treatable disease, and find a way to tell your doctor. You may be surprised--he probably already has a suspicion and certainly will be there to help, not judge.

Hang in there. There's no instant fix, but if you reach out and be patient (boy I hate that word!) you will heal. All the best.

Try to do the best you can to delay your purging for at least a couple of hours after you take your Cit. It really needs some time to be absorbed by your system.

Be brave and take a few deep breaths when next you see your doctor, and tell on your disease. It will lose most of its power once you're not alone in the fight.

Best wishes. I'm already proud of you for having reached out here for help and advice. That was a BIG first step. It gets easier from here, as long as you're willing to continue to reach out: to your doctor, family, friends--whatever it takes. It's time to look after Sarah first.

Don't be to hard on your self.its that what got us in this mess. Tiny steps you will get closer to your goal.its hard to think positive .try to distract your self .I seaked help from hypnosis, that really helped . after all its only in our head and we cannot think straight when we are afraid 

Lastly and most importantly, an eating disorder is, as said before, a REAL illness and is definitely not something anyone will laugh at you about.  Your doctor will have access to a whole range of support methods to help you with your bullimia and your body image.  Once you have found the courage to speak to him that alone will be a massive weight off your shoulders that you do not have to deal with it alone.  No one involved in treating eating disorders these days ever belittles the problem or in any way criticises.  That first step is the hardest so once you've taken it, you'll know it will only get easier afterwards.

Your doctor can only help you if he knows the full extent of the distress you're experiencing and all its causes and symptoms.  We all tend to moan about the health service and GP's in particular not understanding our needs (I'm certainly guilty of doing it often) but if they don't know the full details of our health problems, they can't give the best treatment for you personally.  

You're already being very brave in discussing it on here, it's just a teeny tiny step more to give your doctor the same info and let him/her take some of the awful weight off your shoulders.  Good luck Sarah. xx

Yes, it's in our heads; in fact it's in our brains. There are chemicals messed up in there, and more and more research is discovering that there may even be structural and other physiological differences in people who suffer from so-called 'mental illness' or whatever the politically correct phrase is these days.

We (Sarah, Loxie, I, and millions of others) do not choose to be like this. It hurts both emotionally and many times physically. It destroys relationships with family and friends with that antiquated "it's all in your head" attitude, who are unwilling or unable to comprehend our illnesses and the daily battles we sometimes must fight. Despite overwhelming odds on occasion, most of use prevail and manage to put one foot in front of the other, endure a changing cornucopia of slow-acting drugs, often wrought with nasty side-effects, until we find a combination of behaviours and pills that give us back some semblance of our lives.

Sometimes we recover, sometimes we become resistant to our successful cocktail of drugs and have to try again, but freshly armed with the knowledge that something else may work and help us revisit that success again. And sadly, an unfortunate few never make it. They don't find support like these groups and forums, or other supports in their community. They suffer alone, don't seek medical help, never realize that they're not alone, that there are others who have had those same thoughts and feelings, and that there is help out there.

It's not all in my head. I can't just pull myself out of it. I am fortunate to have found help, support, and several years of recovery, but I am now fighting Round Two of my personal battle. After six years of recovery, a normal working life, and a good life overall, my particular drug cocktail turned on my body over two years ago, and began to wreak havoc with other organ systems. So I had to make a choice between increasing kidney/liver failure versus my mental health. I chose physical health, and another battle for emotional health and life. So two years later, those organs have recovered, I have just had major side-effects from a new antidepressant, gone through withdrawal from it and in another downturn as I'm in week two of the 2-6 week kick-in for the next candidate in line.

Oh well, TMI, I know, but it was the little "after all its only in our head" by gawen4321 that set me off. As a contributor, I know he couldn't have meant it that way, but it pushed my Big Red Button.

Ttthat's all, folks! lol

Loxie is right that we are very fortunate to be living in the 21st century, where our issues are recognized for what they are, illnesses, and are treated as such. We can get help, there are lots of treatments and support available, so go for it. Like we've all said, talk to your doctor, be honest and brave, and we're all behind you.

And by the way, I've also just started on Cipralex (escitalopram--pretty much the same drug, just tweaked a little so the Canadian drug company can extend its patent and make more money, as I under it) and I'm feeling no effect yet either. I started on 10 mg 1/day for the first week, 20 mg (2 tabs/day) for week 2, and I start 30 mg (3 tabs/day) tomorrow. Don't compare dosages because you're being treated for anxiety and me for major depressive disorder, GAD (general anxiety disorder) as well as panic attacks (for which I have an emergency supply of Ativan SL .5 mg).

(As an aside to all, if my spelling seems a bit wonky, it's Canadian, which is a bit of UK and a bit of US combined, for example, we use [u]ou[/u] for behaviour, but z for criticize, so I can spell--just not the same way as you.) 

Best to all.