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Suggest Treatment For Intrusive Thoughts While Having Depression
Question: Hello im doing ok....i have days where i get bored because mainly i been off of work for the holidays. When im bored i get the anxious thoughts and scare myself. I get a little depressed. It is hard to motivate me to do anything. I just started 150 mg lamictal today as i am gradually increasing to therapeutic level. This is really only thing im taking. I will take a xanax here and there when needed. I see the psychiatrist next week to see how im doing. They say if it doesnt get better by 200 mg then they will add maybe something else like a ssri. As i stated before this is for gad and some depression.
Brief Answer:
Stress management
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for reverting back to me.
I am glad to know that things are improving but I feel we are missing one essential component of GAD treatment and which is stress management.
This is golden rule in anxiety and depression, is to never allow oneself to stray in the wild of thoughts. Unfortunately more you think there is more scary thoughts and which creates a vicious cycle. I understand that you are doing your best but the X-mas holidays has provided enough time to get bore and develop anxious feelings.
At this stage I will request you to do following things
1. Spend your time with family and friends
2. Create new hobbies which were part of your fantasy but never executed due to lack of time or other things
3. Find meaning with your work
4. Limiting your screen time to less than 2 hours in a day
5. plenty of water intake
6. Regular physical exercise of 30-45 minutes preferable in morning
and
7. Meditation- specially deep breathing exercises for at least 10-15 minutes every day
These are the simple things which are likely to reduce the generation of oxidative radicals in body and ultimately reduction of anxiety.
Now regarding the medications I would say one thing. Have the optimistic attitude. Lamictal have great potential in helping anxiety and depression and it is rightly possible that you will not need any more addition. I mean to say that have faith with lamictal. I am quite optimistic as it helped you over time to get the anxiety under control over the last two months and it is expected that you will be having good response with single medication.
I must state here that there is no harm with addition of SSRI but we do not loose anything while having optimistic attitude which helps us.
I hope this helps you further.
Thanks and regards.
Stress management
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for reverting back to me.
I am glad to know that things are improving but I feel we are missing one essential component of GAD treatment and which is stress management.
This is golden rule in anxiety and depression, is to never allow oneself to stray in the wild of thoughts. Unfortunately more you think there is more scary thoughts and which creates a vicious cycle. I understand that you are doing your best but the X-mas holidays has provided enough time to get bore and develop anxious feelings.
At this stage I will request you to do following things
1. Spend your time with family and friends
2. Create new hobbies which were part of your fantasy but never executed due to lack of time or other things
3. Find meaning with your work
4. Limiting your screen time to less than 2 hours in a day
5. plenty of water intake
6. Regular physical exercise of 30-45 minutes preferable in morning
and
7. Meditation- specially deep breathing exercises for at least 10-15 minutes every day
These are the simple things which are likely to reduce the generation of oxidative radicals in body and ultimately reduction of anxiety.
Now regarding the medications I would say one thing. Have the optimistic attitude. Lamictal have great potential in helping anxiety and depression and it is rightly possible that you will not need any more addition. I mean to say that have faith with lamictal. I am quite optimistic as it helped you over time to get the anxiety under control over the last two months and it is expected that you will be having good response with single medication.
I must state here that there is no harm with addition of SSRI but we do not loose anything while having optimistic attitude which helps us.
I hope this helps you further.
Thanks and regards.
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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