I have had mental illnesses most of my life, my first diagnosis by a psychiatrist was schizoaffective disorder 8 1\2 years ago. But I have had really bad anxiety since a child. I haven’t hardly been out of the house for the last 8 years, I have only been on the internet since September and would love a email friend.
1 Like
Good friends on the internet can be great, have one we text everyday, takes time to know people though and best to post for awhile, read other post. That way in time you can find someone with the same interest, and similar lifestyle.
Always best to play safe on the internet, not telling to much till you really know a person
3 Likes
Hey! I’m always available and more than willing to chat with someone. If you ever wanna talk about anything feel free to hit me up 
everyone on this forum is so lovely I’m sure you’ll make friends here! I’ve struggled with anxiety since childhood too.
Just a reminder about forum guidelines.
1 Like
Hi witch, I was unable to post you my email address , but I will get to know you and others in time.I haven’t posted on any website before, so I will be reading the otherwise posts .
1 Like
@Simonw. Mountainman gave some great advice. Try posting here for a while. You’ll find this to be a very supportive forum. 
2 Likes
Hi, and welcome to the forum! I fully agree with the others; I have been on here for only about a month, but I have found this to be a great place to chat, especially when it comes to the illness and the challenges that accompany it. As @Moonbeam said, though, please be cautious about giving out your name, email or other identifying information on, really, any kind of online forum. I never exchange phone numbers with fellow hospital patients for similar reasons. My ex did that with a couple people the last time she was in a hospital and it was disastrous. The one guy, though he was nice to her, told her she should leave me for him. The woman she exchanged numbers with would call/text her, crying and asking my ex to help her kill herself. We look forward to your posts, and chatting with you, though!
2 Likes
I have a whatsapp friend and he is one of the things which keep me going in life.
Do you have facebook?
I am not on Facebook, but I am really pleased I have come here, everyone seems really nice, but I think it will keep me up half of the night, it is after 2am and my wife wants me to go to sleep, but I am wide awake. I think it is boring going to sleep anyway.
Well, if you can’t sleep anyway, you might as well be on the forum. 
Do you live in the UK? I was just curious, on account of the time difference from where I’m at. I live in the US, in the eastern portion of the Midwest, but there are at least a few people from the UK on here, as well as people from Australia and various other countries. 
i definitely like making friends 
I live in the UK, so it is in the middle of the night here when it is the evening in the US, I don’t mind having a friend in any country. As it is not like a chat room where people have to be on at the same time.
I had severe anxiety for 10 years before the psychosis.
Fortunately, I only get bad anxiety when my depression is out of control. Well, for the most part. Right now my depression is under control, so yeah, very little anxiety for me right now. My dr won’t prescribe me anything controlled, and Vistaril did nothing for my anxiety when I was dealing with a lot of it, so her brilliant suggestion was to try half a tablet of Benadryl as needed. What a joke. She was of the opinion, though, that treating my depression would eliminate my anxiety, and she was right, so I give her props for that.
Depression and Anxiety can potentiate each other, and often when an antidepressant is given for depression it can reduce anxiety as well.
When your doctor told to take Benadryl for your anxiety, it is not as strange as you may think, as Benadryl contains a antihistamine called diphenhydramine, which has a mild sedative and ssri effect. Taking 50mg at night can help you sleep as well.
Oh, I know those things about Benadryl; it just wasn’t the greatest idea for my anxiety in particular. I say that not only because it didn’t work for me, but also because my anxiety only got to be unbearable when I was working at the pharmacy, and I couldn’t be taking something that would make me drowsy and sluggish while I was there. Benzos didn’t have those negative side effects for me when I took them years ago. The only problems with those, I’ve been on Klonopin and Ativan, was that they lost most of their effectiveness as I developed a tolerance. No dr has ever been willing to prescribe me something as strong as Valium or Xanax.
You can click on someone’s avatar and click message to send them a private message. Essentially it’s the same as email. You can write back and forth privately.
I didn’t know you could private message people here, thank you very much for telling me.
Forget about valium (diazepam) or ones like it, as since they stay in you system for a long time, and if you take them every day, tolerance develops.
The ativan (lorazepam) you have been taking have a half life of 12 hours, but even these will lose their effect if you take them for more than 2 or 3 days a week, as you have found out. Temazepam are short acting and are very useful to have for the occasional panic attack, insomnia or before surgery.
I use Ativan a couple of times a month, usually when I’m getting racing thoughts.