(Excuse the rant, everyone.)
(from our conversation
HERE )
Hi Ned, I wanted to respond to you here instead of on Raven's post since she probably doesn't need to hear more controversy that will just frustrate her further.
I feel like it's totally presumptuous of you to recommend that I go to Overeater's Anonymous.
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Originally Posted by nedgoudy
I still think OA would be a great place for you. With panic attacks and Anxiety disorder you could get out and share your story with understanding people who have been/there done/that and gotten on with their lives. This is meant with the best spirit of concern. You might wanna try it. It would help you get in touch with the CAUSES of why you have panic attacks RATHER than just treating the symptoms and it would be cheaper than therapy. (FREE)
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Why OA when I don't have that problem? Also, I am very familiar with 12-step programs, and I have nothing against them. I've seen them help many people, including my father, recover from debilitating issues. OA is just not something that even remotely applies to me, so why would you recommend I still go?
You are assuming, again, that I don't know the root cause of my panic attacks. I do. You are assuming again that money is an issue for me regarding therapy. It is not at all.
I don't believe I'm going to find a higher rate of people who have experienced panic attacks at an OA meeting than I would at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. So, why not recommend I go there?
It's just really a sore spot for me to be quoted, and then referred to as having a problem with overeating from someone who has absolutely no idea of who I am or how I came to gain weight.
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Originally Posted by nedgoudy
Just to give you the 411, I too have had panic attacks and I find that Benzodiazapines EXACERBATE the problem. AND I don't mind calling them the heebie jeebies because that was the experience I had when the pills started to wear off.
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I have never in ten years met a person for whom the actual benzodiazapine exacerbated a panic attack. If it did, then it was psychological. When you go to the emergency room with a panic attack, a benzo is the first line of treatment. Again, - and I'm not exagerating - I have talked with thousands and thousands of people who have, or have had, panic attacks, and I have never met one who experienced a upswing in their symptoms due to taking a benzodiazapine - other than those who later understood that it was a phobia of the pill itself or the effects it MIGHT have on them which caused a bit of concern at the beginning of treatment. (Usually their concern is exacerbated by people like you who write frightening/terrifying/false things about the medicines.)
And calling any part of a panic attack the "heeby jeebies" honestly IS demeaning to someone who still has them affecting their daily life - as raven_1501, who you were replying to, does. It makes light of a very serious condition at a time when the last thing she needed to hear was an offhand remark like that. I really, really am glad that you don't experience this anymore - but for people who are still going through it, or especially just starting to go through it, it's disrespectful.
You have to put yourself in her shoes...she has just been diagnosed with having an anxiety disorder severe enough to require treatment, and along with that comes horrible fears about your mental state of being...then along comes someone and tells her that it's the heeby jeebies. It's just like when you go to a friend and they say "oh, don't be silly - you could stop panicking if you just focused on something else." in the middle of a level ten panic attack.
Not only that - but if her doctor actually did suggest a benzo for treatment for her, then you just shook her confidence in her doctor. She needs to build a strong relationship with that doctor - and sure, now she has a good question to ask "Will I become addicted?" - but I'm sure that he'll say the same thing I did...if you take them every day you will have a physical dependency where you can't just stop them abruptly - not a psychological dependency where you are seeking out the drug for when you don't need it. This is the SAME type of addiction that she'd experience with an antidepressant. She couldn't just stop that abruptly, either.
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Originally Posted by nedgoudy
And I still stand by my assertion that Benzodiazapines are addictive. Read this information provided by a woman on the topic: http://tinyurl.com/cgkrw |
The woman who wrote that is an advocate for a drug free way of life. Of course she is going to write those things, but even she admits that her assessment of the addictive nature of benzodiazapines is different from many doctors and scientists. It's just like the bible...you can look and look on the web until you find the "answer" that suits you.
I can't apologize that I feel the need to so strongly speak out about this topic of benzodiazapine use for panic attacks.
I have counseled women who have been pregnant, their doctors would not give them anything for their anxiety, and they lost their baby or were forced into an abortion that they didn't want - and it all could have been prevented by taking an anti-anxiety medication that was fact acting. I have seen a man who was housebound for 4 years, living in a shack and using a public computer, unable to work, unable to see his children because his wife had left him, and unable to drive - go to being one of the top regional managers for an international distribution company, getting his family back, and buying a house. And I'll never forget the first time he drove again - after taking xanax and gaining confidence due to having a block of time where his anxiety was gone, unlike any day in the previous years. Where would he be without it?
I truly am glad that you no longer have panic attacks. I wouldn't wish them on anyone, and when I hear that someone has recovered from them that's always good news.
and that would be like reliving high school! 
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