GAD diagnosis

[Lici]

Hi, first time posting, hopefully someone can help.

So I went to a new doctor the other day (apparently he's registered with beyond blue) and he diagnosed me with GAD. The thing is I'm a bit dubious about this diagnosis as I don't excessively worry about things and have a previous diagnosis of PTSD which would fit most of my symptoms. His diagnosis consisted of asking me a few questions while I was there to see him for a shoulder issue.

I'm wondering if GAD can be diagnosed without the excessive worry and anxiety? The information that I can find on the DSM V diagnostic criteria states that the patient must have the excessive worry. The doctor has given me medication for treatment and I'm a bit nervous about starting a drug that's going to make me gain weight and be tied all the time while I'm at university (studying psychology funnily enough) and have spent a few years learning how to finally deal with things without medication. Should I ask to see a psychiatrist to get a definitive diagnosis before starting treatment? I'm really unsure what to do at the moment as I feel like the clinical psychologists and psychiatrists would have diagnosed me in the past if I had GAD.

Thanks for reading

[startingnew]

Hey Lici just doing a pop in, hope your going ok..

[Lici]

Hey startingnew 😊

I'm doing pretty well thanks! Had my first psych lecture of the semester today. I actually have a "friend" in this one which is nice.

I use "" for friend because I only met him last year so I tend to keep people at a distance for a bit longer than that these days. Isn't it funny how things like that happen after a while as things happen in life and you get older? I never really thought about it until now. Before the incident in 2000 involving "friends", people were my friend as soon as we started talking regularly. Now they're not considered friends unless they've been around long enough without screwing me over and earned the title. Funny how things like that can change.

How are you doing? I hope you're feeling well xx

Hugs

Lici

[Chloe_M]

Yay! Even if he is just a "friend", it is nice to have someone you are familiar with and can talk to. You never know, he might evolve from a "friend" to a friend in time!

Psychology and creative writing, now that sounds write up my alley (ha ha)! English is my strength, and I love to read and I write poems and stories and songs.

The best thing about writing songs it's that I can also then put them to music (with the help of my friend) and then we show them to the rest of the band and ask for opinions.

Well it's not really my band, it's our friends' band that i sometimes sing with and my friend plays keyboard for them sometimes. Usually at lunch we just go and do covers of Panic! At The Disco songs for school performances in the music roo. Or Twenty One Pilots. Or My Chemical Romace. And sometimes Fall Out Boy. We are big fans of the emo quartet haha! (But mostly Panic!)

the best thing about writing songs is I can get all my emotions onto paper, then I can sing my heart out and it's a huge release. And it's even better when I get my friends to turn up the bass and hit the drums as hard as possible. It gets really noisy but the music teachers don't mind. It's really good for my mental health.

well that's enough of my rambling 🙄🙄 hope you have a good night!

hugs😊

(I know I'm only 14 but I've been thinking about maybe doing something with psychology when I'm older. Idk, I just like the idea of helping people and also the mind fascinates me)

[Lici]

Hey Chloe 😊

English was my strength when I was your age too! (Still is apparently!) I used to write stories and poetry and songs too, but I never sang in a band... that sounds like so much fun!

I'm not sure if my "friend" will become a proper friend, he isn't looking at doing honours just finishing his degree this semester so in all likelihood, I'll never see him again. That's ok though, it's still nice to have someone to socialise with while at uni.

Definitely do psychology if it interests you! It can be hard and boring at times, but it's also really interesting and really worth doing! The same goes for creative writing really, I've had to read so many old boring books and there hasn't been as much story writing as I thought there would be, but it's been really interesting and fun!

I honestly can't believe that I'm in my last semester of my bachelor's and will be graduating at the end of the year! It's so surreal!

I hope you had a good night too 🤗

Lici

[Chloe_M]

Hi Lici 🙂

Yeah I agree, even if you never see him again, it's good to have someone to talk to.

next year (year 10) we have "careers counselling" where we talk to the careers counsellor about career options, apprenticeships, courses etc. if I'm still interested by then I'll mention something and check out the options.

Hahah exciting!! Do you have a big graduation ceremony? Do you get to wear a trencher?

😜

Hugs xo Chloe

[Lici]

Hey Chloe 😊

Yep we wear the whole graduation getup and have a ceremony. I don't know much about it because I haven't been to one to know what it's like, but I'll find out soon enough!

[Lici]

Sigh. So it's week 3 of the semester and for the past week my shoulder has started aching again. At first it was just when I went to bed at night, but today it's been aching all day and it's really distracting. I'm figuring this is how anxiety is going to rear it's head for me now. Mentally I'm feeling ok, I'm not overly worried about anything. But I have two assignments coming up that I have to start soon, so I'm figuring that my anxiety is playing up because of that.

I'm not sure what I'd prefer really, mentally being anxious or having these physical symptoms. It's super annoying being in pain all the time!

[startingnew]

Hi Lici,

that sounds really annoying. i know what its like to be in constant pain all the time. is your gp able to prescribe something to take the edge off abit more until the flare settles down or speak to your physio/specialist about what might be happening?

if its the cold, maybe a heat pack would be helpful for you?

[Doolhof]

Hi Lici,

I've not read a great deal of your thread, so please excuse me if I miss something you have already written.

Do you have a previous injury that is causing your shoulder to hurt or is it related to anxiety and worry?

Like SN has mentioned, have you tried heat on it or maybe some gentle stretching? Can a physio help do you think?

Can you make plans for when you will start your assignments? Is it possible to break down what you need to do and when? Do you have a plan when you are studying? Is it possible to set up some sort of reward system for yourself so you gain a greater sense of achievement?

Sometimes we have to do something nice or special for ourselves to help us feel a little better about life in general.

Hope you manage to get through this week okay.

Cheers from Dools

[Lici]

Hi startingnew and Dools,

startingnew: I've got an appointment with my gp in September for a checkup to do with my anxiety, if my shoulder gets worse I'll make one before that. The physio has already said that there's not much else he can do apart from the stretching exercises that he's already given me so I'll just keep doing them. I'm pretty sure that it's just anxiety related because it comes and goes.

Today it's been ok but I had a bit of a PTSD trigger yesterday. It's funny, I know what the girl looks like now, I know that she doesn't look like she did back then, yet I still got triggered when I saw someone at uni yesterday that looked similar to how she looked back then. I guess her face really resembled the girl as well. It really freaked me out and I had to spend a good 15-20 minutes calming myself down so I didn't start crying in the middle of the uni library. My shoulders and neck were tense and sore afterwards and I had sciatic pain last night (which I haven't had in months now) so it kind of confirmed that the pain is anxiety related. Funny how the brain can influence stuff like that.

Dools: I did have bursitis in my shoulders and couldn't move my arm properly for almost a year and had lower back problems with sciatica etc but since being on anxiety meds the pain has mostly gone which I'm figuring means that most of it's anxiety related. I've seen a physio and he gave me stretches for both my shoulders and back so I try to do them as much as possible.

The psych assignment is done now. I catch up with some of my classmates for study sessions after our Tuesday lectures so we went through the main points of the assignment yesterday and I spent a few days last week going through everything and had it all typed up yesterday afternoon.

I have a close reading assignment to start working on soon that's due on the 24th.

That one's a little more difficult because it's looking at a gothic test in terms of technique etc and I'm not very familiar with gothic texts but once I work out on paper what I want to say I'll have that done in a day as well.

That's what gets me about my anxiety, I don't have trouble with my assignments, I've never received a bad grade for anything and haven't received under a credit since first year (I'm in third year now). I honestly sometimes feel like my anxiety is a separate being that takes over and makes me physically in pain for absolutely no reason.

I hope you're both having a good day 😊

Lici