Question:
I had this panic-anxiety disorder starting nearly 26 years ago. After reading
and experiencing, my conclusion is that panic disorder or continuous crippling
anxiety is a symptom of atypical depression.....that is depression where anxiety is the first characteristic to appear. Back then, there was no connection made between the panic disorder and depression. The shrinks gave valium etc, saying you had free-floating anxiety....like it came out of nowhere. That was precisely the wrong thing to give as it took the depressive further down than he would have ever gone left alone. These shrinks put hundreds into hospitals with downers on top of
their depression. Only when the depression appears, in addition to the anxiety,
and the two symptoms alternate, was the diagnosis of depression made. Today if you have more or less constant anxiety, or a peculiar uncomfortable feeling; or you get panic attacks, often occurring when you are tired, you've got depression, even though the knot in your throat and chest may have yet to appear. Don't take downers. Find the right anti-depressant for you, and your good feeling will return as quickly as the proper anti-depressant goes to work.
Answer:
I beg to differ. Although PAD and depression are often comorbid and depression also
seems to sometimes originate from long-term PAD, it's not true that PAD as a rule
is a *symptom* of depression (although in some cases there may be *underlying*
depression this is not typical). *Downers* (tranquillizers like benzodiazepines)
have proven most fruitful in the treatment of PAD. I respect your personal
situation and your personal ideas but they shouldn't be peddled as gospel here
because then it's misinformation which may scare people off potentially life-saving
meds. This man has a very valid point. I see both your point and his, and they
are both worth some thought. However, when dealing with these disorders
there is no medical approach that will appease everyone. I do agree that
certain anti-depressants (preferably SSRI's), can and will help anxiety and
crush depression, and if depression happens to be the cause of your anxiety,
then you will be symptom free!
The benzo's do have their place, but they are by no means a fix. Benzo's
can only mask the problem, (which thank-god we can at least do that), but
they are not a "healing" type of medicine. I would recommend benzo's but I
would only recommend them with some sort of therapy, or combo with an
anti-depressant. Being on benzo's all your life isn't the way I would want
to live, and I know many other's feel the same way.
I was only saying that it is not a rule of thumb that anxiety is the result of
an underlying depression. To say so would be misinformation.
Everybody is free to think about meds as they want to. I think that with severe
Panic Disorder people are probably to be on meds all their lives. I expect to
and, as someone here so aptly put it, I'd rather be addicted to Xanax than to my
house. I don't see any meds as just band-aid but as redressing a chemical
imbalance so that I can have a life. Kernodle in his book "Panic Disorder. The
Medical point of View" stresses the fact that there may be three possibilities:
PD is mild and people can live without meds and maybe use some CBT, PD is
moderate and meds will be taken from time to time as the disorder tends to come
in cycles with periods of remission in between or PD is severe and medication
will remain necessary.
It's not black or white, IMO. I hope you belong to the first category, I belong
most certainly to the last one but my meds (a TCA and a benzo) combined with CBT
give me the opportunity to lead a fulfilling life and I am very grateful for
that.
