ARP Pebble in the Road on Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Generalized Anxiety Disorder is a pesky bugger. 

It is worry on steroids. You worry about money; you worry about every ache or pain and worry about things in the past and the future.

There is nothing that you don't worry about, in excess.

And the amount of worrying you are doing can impacting your life. 

Or keep you from doing things you want to do because of the fear of the unknown is going to happen.

In this short episode, the symptoms of GAD and what you can do about it.

If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741.

Resources Mentioned: 

Generalized Anxiety Disorder: When Worry Gets Out of Control, a 12-page booklet that contains information about the condition from the National Institute of Mental Health.

From the ADAA.org site, a personal story, GAD Hard to Recognize by Meredith Arthur

The American Psychological Association has a podcast on mental health topics. Episode 173 Speaking of Psychology: What is anxiety and how can we treat it effectively? With Bunmi Olatunji, PhD

Disclaimer: 

Links to other sites are provided for information purposes only and do not constitute endorsements. 

Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health disorder.

This blog and podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this program is intended to be a substitute for professional psychological, psychiatric or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

 

Show 303 - Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners

In the introduction to this episode, I mention the financial bum rush of companies providing mental health apps to clients, patients and customers.

Still working on that tact thing.

There is a small but growing segment of entrepreneurs that see gold in them there mental health hills.

Some of those entrepreneurs have honest intentions about making mental health accessible. They have hired psychologists and psychiatrists to help shape their product.

Others vendors are more focused on building chat bots that provide rote services that can be sold to businesses.

 

Probably as a checkbox for saying "Hey, we have provided this mental health gizmo, saves you money and that will allow you as business person to give us money. Win-Win."

But sometimes, you need a living licensed professional that will meet with you and your problems.

HMO doctors ain't got the time or the training for that kind of service.

Psychologists will talk to you but cannot provide medication treatment or management.

Psychiatrists are in short supply. Many are ageing out of the profession. Those that haven't are either booked solid or priced out of the range of most people.

There is another option. Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners. That is the topics of this episode.

In the episode, I mentioned that I was going to post an image or maybe a video about accessing the two psychiatric nurse search engines. 

I'll figure something out.

If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741.

Resources Mentioned: 

Association of American Medical Colleges post about the psychiatrist shortage.

The Myth of Normal, Trauma, Illness & Healing in A Toxic Culture by Gabor Mate, M.D. with Daniel Mate. Published by Avery Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House.  

I also recommend that you check out a video that he talks a bit more about the myth of normal.

American Psychiatric Nurse Association page About Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing

Nurse Journal page on What to Know About Seeing a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner

The American Association of Nurse Practitioners web site has a Find a Nurse Practitioner search engine for those practitioners.   

Psychology Today has a therapist search engine. It also is a little fiddly but you can use it to locate psychiatric nurse practitioners.

Disclaimer: 

Links to other sites are provided for information purposes only and do not constitute endorsements. 

Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health disorder.

This blog and podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this program is intended to be a substitute for professional psychological, psychiatric or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

ARP Pebble in the Road - Medication Considerations 2022

Deciding on taking medication is a choice and a responsibility. 

If you have been diagnosed with an anxiety condition or disorder, you probably have been told that one of the treatment options is medication. 

As I mentioned in ARP 169, It is ok to decide if medication is right for you. 

It is equally ok that you don't want to take medications. First step is to get a through checkup to make sure it isn’t a physical health problem. Many anxiety symptoms are similar to a physical illness. 

Anxiety medications can help reduce your symptoms, but it's not a cure. 

Your symptoms are telling you that there is a problem. 

Your challenge is to figure out the underlying cause. 

In the meantime, your next step is to learn about the types of medication for anxiety: 

Short term medication can help you with embarrassing or symptoms that are affecting your work or personal life. They are in and out of the body quickly. It is sedative opioid level medication. 

Long term non-opioid medication takes a while to build up in your system, but once there it keeps you mellow for as long as you keep taking the medication. And you have to keep on taking the medication. 

Both types of meds have side effects and drawbacks.

Check out the resources below to get a dusting about medication options.

If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741.

Resources Mentioned: 

U.S. National Institute of Mental Health page on Mental Health Medications. There is an overview and then a listing of the various types of medications.

Anxiety and Depression Association of America page on Treatment Help. Talks about treatment, types of mental health professionals and patient's rights.

Disclaimer: 

Links to other sites are provided for information purposes only and do not constitute endorsements. 

Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health disorder.

This blog and podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this program is intended to be a substitute for professional psychological, psychiatric or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Show 301 - Self-Medication Pro and Con

Having to live with anxiety symptoms is not easy. I can't speak for you but I have sometimes been shamed, embarrassed or felt hopeless after a bad bout with those rascals.

My self-medication of choice is food. I kinda have to deal with that because it isn't an effective way to deal with the problem. I've been around this bend before so I know I can do it.

Will I? Probably.

You see my symptoms are flaring up again. Big time.

And yes, I do breathe. 

Go out side and walk a bit.

Fill my head with music so I can get from point A to B.

Most times it works, sometimes it does not.

I used to think that self-medication was a bad but understandable idea.  I’ve kinda moved to the center of “it depends, and what are your other options?”

So in this episode, the questions that I've asked myself and maybe you should consider is what are the benefits and liabilities of self-medication?

There are the obvious ones

• Stopping or hiding symptoms
• A rest period
• Ability to focus
• Relief

And the cons

• Dosage, how much and not knowing when it is too much?
• Dependency, could be adding on an additional problem.
• Financial, the cost of trying to control your symptoms instead of treating the problem. 
• Affect on the Body, does the treatment of the symptom cause more harm than good?

If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741.

Resources Mentioned: 

Post Covid Anxiety Is Real is on the Psychology Today website about how hard it seems to be to reintegrate back into the public space.

Helpguide.org is a non-profit organization and website that provides information about mental health issues.  They have a post on Self-Medication and there are some questions to be considered. 

You should know that they believe in investigating other options before taking medication. 

There is a page on the Good Rx website that talks about self-medication and alcohol. 

It is a good article, however the main purpose of the website is to connect users with coupons to use for medication from pharmacy vendors. 

Disclaimer: 

Links to other sites are provided for information purposes only and do not constitute endorsements. 

Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health disorder.

This blog and podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this program is intended to be a substitute for professional psychological, psychiatric or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.