Anxiety Disorder's 'Diagnosis' transcript
Amber (diagnosed 4 months) - It felt good actually, to be diagnosed, to know what I was experiencing and to know that there was help and that there was probably 60% out of 100% that felt the same as me. I didn't feel so alone anymore and I didn't feel so weird, or whatever you want to call it [laughs].
David (diagnosed 3 years) - I went and saw my GP, Fred, and told him what I was feeling, and he had a chat to me about some of the... I guess he sort of said that the anxiety was probably coming on as part of my depression.
Anne (wife of Keith, diagnosed 25 years) - These panic-attacks, etc. suddenly developed worse, than - he'd always had them, he used to have them at times of exams, when he was sitting for exams, etc. but they got extremely bad. He went to the doctor, and from that, went on to the psychiatrist.
Luke (diagnosed 5 years) - I ended up going to my local GP, to my local doctor. I walked in one day and I started balling my eyes out. I guess you don't know what's wrong with you. They ask you a series of questions and then they referred me to a psychologist.
Karen (diagnosed 2 ½ years) - To even find out it had a name! I didn't even know I had GAD, I didn't even know I had an anxiety disorder; I just thought I was having crazy thoughts. That they weren't normal, I knew they weren't normal, and just finding out that there were other people out there who had the same thoughts as me. It wasn't so unusual.
Amber - You've got to kind of look in yourself, and say, I'm feeling like this, and you've got to ask yourself why? And to take yourself somewhere to be diagnosed. It is hard, of course, because you're scared to sort of go in and say, ‘hey, I've got this and this, am I crazy?' or ‘what's going on?'
Karen - I said, "I get so stressed, and I don't know what I've got to be stressed over". That's basically it. And she said, "well, you don't have to live like that, you know? There is something you can do about that." That's when she referred me to a psychiatrist for assessment, and I've been seeing a psychologist for two years.
David - He suggested that I take some medication, which he prescribed to me. Which works very quickly. He said, you know, I'll only give you a certain amount, because they're very addictive. He would prescribe them, and I would have an anxiety attack in the morning and I would take one and to the point where I had two last week in the first time in four months.
Karen - I think, really, just getting my thoughts out and not feeling alone, because you do feel alone when you're having these thoughts and you can't share them with anybody, and you're constantly thinking that you're crazy. So, you think you're alone.
