{"id":9848,"date":"2018-03-27T15:28:27","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T22:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeandhealth.wordifysites.com\/?p=8699"},"modified":"2021-09-27T14:01:25","modified_gmt":"2021-09-27T21:01:25","slug":"getting-help-for-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/lifestyle\/getting-help-for-anxiety\/159848.html","title":{"rendered":"Getting Help For Anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published in <\/em>November, 2017 on Lindsey Gendke\u2019s blog, Writing to My Roots.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Life held no joy. I dreaded every day. I didn\u2019t understand my behavior, so I couldn\u2019t help myself. And I was making my family miserable. Three weeks ago, I finally sought medical help for over eight months of what I\u2019ve learned was uncontrolled Anxiety (not postpartum depression, as some moms on a Facebook group suggested). And now I am able to breathe again. Able to sleep again. Able to cope again. Able to praise God, even in a time of vast uncertainty.<\/p>\n

On the day I finally decided to go to the doctor, I was hyperventilating, again. I hadn\u2019t slept well the previous night, again. The kids were demanding ten million things of me and I kept repeating, \u201cOh God, Oh God, Oh God,\u201d literally too paralyzed by anxious thoughts to be able to help them. I felt, as I have so many times in the last eight months, that I just needed to get away and have a mental breakdown. I needed a weekend away to regroup, or even a day. But when you have two little kids and no family around, you can\u2019t really do that. My course over the past year has been, instead, to explode. I have been a scary mommy. And a selfish wife.<\/p>\n

When things came to a head this past month, which they did after my husband was laid off (due to a merger), my explosions turned to sob sessions. I saw what my Anxiety was doing to my family (although I didn\u2019t know it had a name), and I knew it had to stop. I just didn\u2019t know how to help myself. Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to take some good advice.<\/p>\n

Two good friends, who have also been spiritual mentors to me over the years, recently revealed that they are getting counseling for emotional issues or life stresses, one of them also taking medication. Getting this knowledge was like getting permission to get counseling myself.<\/p>\n

The counselor I saw suggested my root problem was perfectionism (which cannot coexist with parenting toddlers), but she also said I might benefit from Anxiety medication. I agreed with the diagnosis of perfectionism, but was resistant to medication. One week after my counseling session, on the horrible day I described above, I decided it was time to put aside my Christian pride and ask for some drugs.<\/p>\n

Friends, it was the best decision I have made in a long time.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t been on medication for thirteen years\u2014and I don\u2019t feel it helped much in the five years I took it (ages 15 through 20). The healing I finally found for depression eight years ago (age 25) as described in my book, came through Scripture and prayer\u2026but guys, life has changed since then. My hormones have surely changed, as the counselor pointed out. I\u2019ve had two babies, we\u2019ve had two moves, lost the support of family nearby, and now we have lost a job and face another new start.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no wonder I\u2019ve had some anxiety. I just didn\u2019t realize it was anxiety with a capital A. Or that I could get help for it from a pill.<\/p>\n

Some of you will be curious, and I don\u2019t mind sharing (because that\u2019s what I do around here): I\u2019m taking Lexapro nightly, and Xanax as needed. The first week, I needed the Xanax daily to battle a beast that was raging out of control. During the second week, I needed it less and less, and now in week three, I haven\u2019t needed it at all. The Xanax, that is. But the Lexapro seems to be working wonders.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m happy to report that joy is returning to my life. Equilibrium to my emotions. And sleep to my mornings. Praise God, sleep is again possible from the hours of 3 to 6 a.m. I have not blown up at my kids for days, and I am starting to repair the damage I did to my marriage over the recent rough months, when I was too busy clawing my way through each day to lend any real support to my husband, who is now facing his own brand of (lower-case) anxiety due to job loss.<\/p>\n

I know there are deeper problems to face\u2014chief most my perfectionism, which has surely stolen much joy from my family over the years\u2014but right now I am simply thankful to be able to breathe. To be able to sleep. To be able to praise God because I\u2019m not hyperventilating. And to be able to parent my sweet, but explosive little people without exploding myself. Oh, thank you, Lord, for helping me to get the help I need, right now, in this uncertain time of life.<\/p>\n

Friends, if you are struggling like I\u2019ve struggled, and if it has lasted for months, and if you\u2019ve tried talking, praying, or making otherwise drastic changes, but nothing is working, don\u2019t feel bad if you need to seek medical help. A prescription is not necessarily forever. But it might be the lifeline you need for a particular season. That\u2019s where I am right now. I\u2019m going to keep praying through my perfectionism, but for now, I\u2019m thankful for the pills that are allowing me to cope.<\/p>\n

\n

Lindsey Gendke is a happy writer, wife, and mom who doesn\u2019t mind sharing that she used to be depressed\u2014and sometimes struggles with anxiety. Once afraid to share her story with family and friends, now she gladly shares wherever she can, including on TV, in magazines, and in her memoir Ending the Pain: A True Story of Overcoming Depression. You can follow Lindsey\u2019s ongoing story at www.LindseyGendke.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published in November, 2017 on Lindsey Gendke\u2019s blog, Writing to My Roots. Life held no joy. I dreaded every day. I didn\u2019t understand my behavior, so I couldn\u2019t help myself. And I was making my family miserable. Three weeks ago, I finally sought medical help for over eight months of what I\u2019ve learned was uncontrolled Anxiety…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":10862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,2],"tags":[173,200],"thb-sponsors":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-9848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-emotional-health","category-lifestyle","tag-anxiety","tag-emotional-health-2","post_format-post-format-image"],"acf":[],"views":516,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9848"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21291,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9848\/revisions\/21291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9848"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=9848"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}