Help! Diagnosed with anxiety disorder? Curious about meds.

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I was just today diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, and to be honest I'm, well, freaking out about it.
Does anyone know what an anxiety disorder entails? Are there medicines I can take? What sort of therapy works best? I'm being told that I've had this my entire life- is that really possible?

Any information whatsoever is greatly appreciated; thank you.

(EDIT: On a side note, I already suffer from Bipolar disorder, PTSD, Asperger's and general depression, so I'm rather overwhelmed right now).

It's possible that the doctor meant you were anxious all of your life because of things like ASD.

An anxiety disorder is pretty much when your anxiety is so bad that is limits functioning. It's kind of like how clinical depression is, but with anxiety. Sure, people may get sad, or even depressed, but clinical depression is pretty much ongoing and gets in the way of your life.

There are both medications and therapies you can go through. I find that with anxiety, being medicated temporarily while going through therapy and exposing yourself to anxiety producing situations little by little is helpful. Depression is different, to me, because a lot of "treatment" is "changing your attitude" to "positivity", which doesn't work. With anxiety, exposure is horrible at first, but usually helps in gradually reducing your anxiety regardless of what your thoughts and feelings are. As far as outcome, I think that most anxiety disorders probably will never go away fully, but with certain treatment, they can be drastically reduced.

Personally, I have the following that is related to anxiety: OCD, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, PTSD, Panic Attacks (not panic disorder, but panic attacks)

Here is a POEM about anxiety that always cheers me up when I'm especially anxious. I hope it can help you in some way.

PS-You might want to ask your doctor for a medicine that can help relieve anxiety on the spot when it's particularly overwhelming. One such medicine is Xanax, although that and similar medicines can be addicting. If you have panic attacks or extreme reactions to your anxiety (physical) it can be of help.

Wow, thank you VERY much for all of that information. I feel a lot better just knowing more of the basics about the disorder, and the poem was actually very uplifting.

I am attending therapy so that will probably be of some help; however I am rather hopeful that my doctor will also prescribe something medicinal as well as I am still having a lot of trouble on my own. I know about exposure as well and thankfully a lot of my phobias are easy to be exposed to (driving, for instance) so hopefully we can work on that as well.

But thank you again for the info. and the poem; any other information by anyone else is also still appreciated, thank you!

I have generalized anxiety disorder and Aspergers mainly. I'm not sure if having just anxiety vs. having anxiety plus other conditions makes it any different but this is what it's like for me.

I have had trouble with anxiety for as long as I remember, and my mom recalls me having trouble beginning when I was a toddler. For me, my brain is simply hardwired for it and so I will almost certainly have it for the rest of my life. But I have improved a lot and I am learning more and more how to deal with it everyday. I take medication for my anxiety and I also work with my doctor and therapist on different strategies to cope with it. It had really helped me to understand what anxiety actually is on a physiological level. Simply put, anxiety is neurotransmitters in your brain and throughout your body going haywire. What a lot of anxiety medications do is to basically help slow everything down (NOTE: this is a grossly oversimplified explanation, but it would take far to long to explain it in detail.) I take medications daily to keep my general level of anxiety down, and then I have a medicine that I can take if I feel really anxious/panicky to prevent a panic attack (I've nicknamed it "my rescue inhaler for anxiety" )

For me, knowing what is actually going on physiologically in my body helps me to separate the event that triggers the anxiety from the anxiety reaction itself, and it has really helped me to understand and internalize the fact that I myself am not being a drama queen and blowing things out of proportion: it is my body's reaction. I do not mean to say by this that the anxiety is less real or that the event or trigger is less of an issue to deal with, it just helps me not feel guilty that I am "overreacting." Think of it this way. If you are allergic to peanuts, then when you eat peanut butter your body's immune system thinks it's under attack an so you swell up and get hives even though most people don't turn all red and puffy when they encounter a peanut. That does not make the swelling and hives less real, it's simply that your body reacts differently than other people's. When you know that you are allergic to peanuts, you can treat the reaction to them. Yes the peanut is still the trigger to be dealt with, but you can also work on treating the reaction so that it is not as bad when you next encounter a peanut.

There are so many strategies out there that can help with anxiety. Different ones might work for different people and during different situations. A therapist can really help you to identify what things work best when and with what triggers etc. Another thing that can be really helpful is to learn to identify when you are starting to get anxious which then allows you to do something before it escalates to far. Learning to do this can take time, in fact I am still working on this, but it can be really really helpful esp. if the anxiety is preventing me from being able to do something that I really need to do such as studying for a test.

I realize that I've given a whole lot of info already, so I'll stop here. (If you're like me you might get anxious seeing a really long reading passage, so sorry about that! ) I hope this can be of any help to you, and good luck! It does get better!

Wow, thank you for all the info. ImeldaJace! That was very helpful; especially the part about neurotransmitters. I will keep everything you said in mind, particularly when talking to my therapist. Much appreciated!