blacking out

[denise04]

for many years i had many tramas happen in my life it led to panic attacks for years and afriad to go from house finally some type of nervous breakdown i blackedout didnt no what was around me had hallsunations and such docs said id have to have meds all my life as they diagnosed me with clinical depression that one nite went beyond depression my mind cracked i feel

[ewmon]

I want to believe that, with most people, medication is only temporary while they learn to better understand, and cope with, their traumas. Some doctors are satisfied with simply medicating their patients (perhaps for the rest of their lives) instead of actually helping them to solve their problems. Your doctors seem to think this way, so I suggest that you find yourself doctors willing to *really* help you. My general formula is that, the more entrenched the problems, the further back into his/her life a patient must examine.

[Psycho]

for many years i had many tramas happen in my life it led to panic attacks for years and afriad to go from house finally some type of nervous breakdown i blackedout didnt no what was around me had hallsunations and such docs said id have to have meds all my life as they diagnosed me with clinical depression that one nite went beyond depression my mind cracked i feel

Sounds like a version of Panic disorder which is formed due to you avoiding situations that caused the trauma in the first place and this is then extrapolated by the mind to irrationally include any similar situation even if these weren't the direct cause of the original trauma, the most common solution panic disorder is Beta blockers which stop the physiological effects of panicking such as increased heart rate with only fairly mild side effect, however these should be complemented with cognitive behavioural therapy (but normally aren't ) , in which the aim is to find the underlying cause of the problem in your mind and show you that it is an incorrect assertion to make and to change your thought process to have a more positive and realistic outlook on any situation you may come across in everyday life.

 

Panic disorder is often linked to depression due to the similar way of thinking involved in both conditions, in depression it has been shown that the mind goes over and over a problem looking for a solution and if it can't find one this process can go on for a long time, hence talking to people can help with depression as they can view the situation from a different perspective and maybe help illuminate the solution. This is the same as in panic disorder where you over think the problems that could occur in a situation and therefore convince your body that these bad conclusions are already occurring before the situation presents, this is also extrapolated by the fear of panicking in a normal simple situation enhancing your chances of actually having a panic attack.

[michel123456]

It looks like someone interrupted Denise.

[PhDwannabe]

I don't think it's generally appropriate to make diagnoses at a distance. Nor is it really appropriate--or sensible, or helpful--to attempt to make them based on two sentences of self-reported information about an individual which indeed appears to have been... er... interrupted. Nonetheless, as a general point of clarity for the purposes of unasked-for instruction:

 

Sounds like a version of Panic disorder which is formed due to you avoiding situations that caused the trauma in the first place and this is then extrapolated by the mind to irrationally include any similar situation even if these weren't the direct cause of the original trauma, the most common solution panic disorder is Beta blockers which stop the physiological effects of panicking such as increased heart rate with only fairly mild side effect, however these should be complemented with cognitive behavioural therapy (but normally aren't ) , in which the aim is to find the underlying cause of the problem in your mind and show you that it is an incorrect assertion to make and to change your thought process to have a more positive and realistic outlook on any situation you may come across in everyday life.

• First and foremost, panic attack-like experiences which appear to be rooted in particular traumatic events are most consistent with PTSD, particularly when they involve dissociate or hallucinatory (in PTSD, we usually call them "re-experiencing" to distinguish them from more general psychoticism) experiences (which panic attacks in Panic Disorder typically do not.) That said, we can't really tease apart a lot of diagnostic nuances with two cut-off lines of text, so don't take that as saying anything too specific about the OP.
• You're generally on-target in your account of the development of panic disorder, in that it's propagated by avoidance, and often spreads to broad sets of situations or contexts (we would refer to this as "generalization.")
• Beta blockers are sometimes prescribed for different sorts of anxiety conditions, although they're more commonly used in social anxiety or (this is of course not a full "disorder," just a phenomenon) performance anxiety. Beta blockers are not anxioloytics in a direct sense, they just interrupt the effects of catecholamines on the heart. Thus, the hormones of the stress response don't cause your heart to pound, and your brain doesn't have the kind of internal feedback to tell it to freak out. Far more common for panic disorder are benzodiazapines like Xanax or Ativan--they're big club-to-the-head anxiolytics. Essentially booze in pill form (no joke, they actually hit some of the same GABA receptors).
• You're also right that they should be combined with CBT; although I'd go a step further and say that CBT ought to just be the first-line treatment. CBT for anxiety disorders of nearly any kind has pretty terrific outcomes. Benzos, as well, are a rather imperfect long-term solution, for many of the reasons you can imagine. Particularly for panic, CBT also just plain works better (that is, gets more people panic-free.) Nonetheless, the forms of CBT used in Panic Disorder are often quite heavily behavioral, and less cognitive, in terms of the "flavor" of their interventions, so I wouldn't necessarily couch their active mechanisms in the terms you used. Sometimes the sort of thought-disputing tactics you mention are not even used for PD, and "exposure" interventions, which simply involve a gradual extinction of the fear, are efficacious just about exclusively. But the cognitive stuff is often very useful, too (I tend to be more of a cognitivist, so you won't find me trashing it at all).

Denise, to you specifically, it does sound like you're having a hard time with some things, despite being cut off a bit there in describing them. Unfortunately, it's not likely that anybody here will be able to do much for you, either in terms of "diagnosing" what's going on for you, or really offering any substantial help beyond what a friend or family member might provide (not that that isn't important too). I'm a graduate student in clinical psychology, and I can tell you that psychotherapy for anxiety disorders is really pretty effective much of the time, and it can be very helpful for depression as well (although I'll also warn you that there are some people on the forums who like to loudly insist otherwise, and they may chime in here). If you want, you can send me a private message. I certainly can't do therapy with you, but I can usually help you find someone nearby who can, if you had some interest in that. I wish you luck, either way.