TW: health, anxiety, therapy/psychiatry(?) TLDR: I’ve been feeling anxious on and off for the past 6 (or so) months. I had seen 3 therapists within the first 4-ish months. Not sure if it was helpful. Is there something more? How do I know if I need a psychiatrist rather than a therapist? Hello, everyone. I’ve been feeling extremely anxious the past 6 or so months. It started with my sister’s health. She had like 4 infections at once, which obviously gave her a lot of symptoms. It was so scary; she had to be hospitalized. During this time, I saw two therapists. J didn’t feel comfortable with the first one, so I switched to another one. I stopped seeing the second one due to financial reasons. Either way, both told me that I basically need to stop thinking negatively and focus on the facts and think positively. I stuck with that for a month or so, but I didn’t feel much better. Due to the length between sessions, I had to see a third therapist, which again, he said to think positively, so I figured if all 3 therapists told me the same thing, I’ll do that. So, that’s what I did for the next 2-3 months. Well, I don’t think it’s working too well. I still have random episodes of anxious thoughts and things like that. Sometimes, it can be very overwhelming. I’ve tried grounding techniques that I learned in therapy, but I don’t feel that it works very well. I know that my mental state is like a “muscle,” and it needs to practice grounding techniques, but it’s been a couple of months now, and I still feel very paranoid and trying to “prepare” myself for bad things. I wonder if I need more help? How can I know if I need to see a psychiatrist? I’m worried that I’d be prescribed medication, and it completely changes me. Does anyone have experience with this? Thank you so much in advance for your time and help.

I’d definitely recommend trying talk therapy again but sticking with it consistently for a few months. A handful of sessions isn’t going to change your life unfortunately. I personally think “think positively and ignore negative thoughts” is pretty low effort from a therapist. It sounds like you haven’t found the right therapist for you so I definitely would encourage you to keep going and finding someone who asks deeper questions to get to deeper solutions.

@bluerose9 thank you so much for your response!! I’m glad you agree! I felt that yes, it was pretty low effort, but since 3 therapists said that, I thought.. maybe that is all I need to do. Thank you for your advice. I’m going to start looking into talk therapy again

I find that understanding where the anxiety comes from is a huge help in dealing with it. You could try journaling, getting your thoughts and worries out on a piece of paper can be a way to feel less overwhelmed and can make it easier to reflect. Or you could read some self-help books or listen to podcasts where people talk about their experiences with anxiety and what techniques helped them. Know that you're not alone, and it's going to be okay. Anxiety is just your body's response to various stimuli and stressors and there are ways to lessen the effect. However it's not easy and it takes a lot of effort and time but you can do this 💜 I'm a very anxious person myself and it's a non-stop struggle dealing with it but it's gotten a lot better :)

@Mizzy_ Not to be that person who throws around psychiatric terms but I think it’s important to deduce whether your anxiety stems from real problems (e.g. ‘making a mountain out of a molehill’, overthinking a future event etc, having panic attacks) or if it is not routed in real issues (e.g. u mentioned ur therapists encouraging you to ‘look at the facts’), if the latter is true you may want to consider investigating ocd, i only say because i’ve experienced both ocd and anxiety in my life and the overlap can be confusing. for a long time i was only seeking treatment from anxiety which didn’t work because my fears weren’t routed in reality and some were irrational, and then one day i did some research into ocd and changed to seeking treatment for that, it improved my mental health massively. i also have a brother who has had very extreme ocd for most of his life, and at first therapists labelled it as ‘attachment anxiety’, so there can often be confusion between the two. obviously i don’t want to scare you or give you any more anxiety theres a very big possibility this is not the case at all for you, but i’d advise doing a bit of research because if you do find ocd symptoms a possibke cause for your anxiety you could speak to an ocd specialist. again, not to freak you out i’m just always preaching ocd awareness as my whole family have had struggles with it and i think it’s often overlooked and misunderstood.

@belle_123 honestly, I’ve considered this all my life, since I was young. I was always worried of just being one of those people that hear a couple of similar symptoms and believe they have that. I still think it’s a possibility of me having OCD, but I honestly don’t know, and I don’t even know how to get into that. I decided to book an appointment with through grow therapy, and I selected OCD (and anxiety) as a preference for the therapist to have experience working with, so let’s see what happens tomorrow at my appt. Could I message you to ask more about your experience with OCD?

@Mizzy_ Of course, I’ve learnt a lot about OCD by now haha so feel free to ask me any questions x good luck with your appointment!

@belle_123 thank you! I sent you a message request 😊