Anxiety: Causes & How to Help a Friend

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  • Thread starter JERGLOVE
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In summary: Paranoia?The summary is that my friend suffers from severe anxiety, her mind tells her that bad things are going to happen, like sicknesses, or other things, and she sees actual pictures in her mind of bad things that she is afraid of happening. She knows that this is unrealistic, but is so afraid that if she doesn't take it seriously, the bad things will happen. Her anxiety is most likely a result of a chemical imbalance in her brain, which can usually be corrected with SSRI's. If her anxiety is severe enough, she may be offered dopamine inhibitors or antipsychotics, but cognitive behavioral therapy should be the starting point for treatment.
  • #36
Mickey said:
You'd rather mess about her life doing armchair prognoses? :rolleyes:
My comment didn't address what the OP should do at all, it's merely discussion. The OP should not take any of this as advice - except "get her to her doctor".
 
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  • #37
DaveC426913 said:
My comment didn't address what the OP should do at all
You said drugs help, if you stay on them. You're saying that if the OP's friend goes on medication, that she should stay on it, because it will help. That's an armchair prognosis. You really have no idea if it will help.
 
  • #38
Mickey said:
You said drugs help, if you stay on them. You're saying that if the OP's friend goes on medication, that she should stay on it, because it will help. That's an armchair prognosis. You really have no idea if it will help.

Of course not, let's reiterate first port of call is your Dr, everything else is anecdotal and/or speculative, might be helpful might not; we're all guilty of either arm chair prognosis, prescription or personal observations. As I said in the first post I made, go see a Dr, he'll hopefully recommend a specialist, the rest is just a little bit of advice that may or may not be useful, feel free to mention a pinch of salt here.

At the end of the day we're all trying to be helpful, and that's never a bad thing if we define our observations merit and recommend the alternatelly obviously better step, have I mentioned a trip to the Dr.:smile:
 
  • #39
Mickey said:
You said drugs help, if you stay on them. You're saying that if the OP's friend goes on medication, that she should stay on it,
Nope, don't put words in my mouth. I'm saying that, independent of the advice to the OP, I know for a fact from personal experience that it helps in the long-term - (though that does not mean it helps everyone).

It would be foolish for anyone (including you) to interpret a discussion of long-term effects as pertaining directly to the OP's question, since, duh, they'd first have to get on the meds.
 
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