panic and anxiety

You are not alone. I too suffer from severe anxiety and was officially diagnosed with GAD, Generalized Anxiety Disorder at the age of 18, I'm 23 now. I have suffered from this extreme anxiety since I was a baby though and the older I get the worse it gets. It's crippling. You are not alone. :grouphug:

Many psychologists believe that adoptees (and their mothers) suffer from PTSD to some degree. Inner child work, journaling and channeling anger seem to help immensely. I personally know 6 adoptees that were misdiagnosed with several disorders that are now living without anxiety and depression and no longer require medication. Two of them had been taking medication in various forms for over 20 years. This is the book that started them on their healing journey - written by a psychologist adoptee. There is no one size fits all but it is worth a read. [URL="http://www.amazon.com/Adoption-Healing-path-recovery/dp/0967839009/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342431509&sr=1-1&keywords=Adoption+healing"]Adoption Healing...a path to recovery[/URL]

Another good book is -The Primal Wound by Nancy Newton Verrier

I think general anxiety is pretty common for adopted people.I did some family constellations work and that has helped enormously, infact its the single thing that has worked and helped the most and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who has adoption in their life.

I have struggled with anxiety and depression my whole life. I would never have thought to attribute it to being adopted... I take prozac, it seems to help, but i think my dosage needs to go up due to still feeling a little on edge many times. I also take clonazepam if my anxiety seems to peek.

honestly that^

Yes! I have suffered with anxiety and depression all my life. I am in therapy, and I take medication. I also had PTSD after my first child was born. I am so relieved to know that there are others that share this in common with me.

I've always suffered from anxiety and depression. Growing up I didn't know what was wrong with me in new stressfull situations my heart would race and I would begin to feel like the world was going to end and I was gonna die ect. Most of the time the feelings seemed worst then the stress that triggered them. I was diagnosed with ADD as a child and took Ritalin for a while then when I was older I took Dexadrine (?) anyhow It helped me to focus but it made me a zombie so I stopped taking it. After I met my birthfamily m aunt told me that she suffered from anxiety and m birthmom did too. It's nice to know that I'm normal lol I didn't know about the PTSD comment I saw in other replies that is very interesting and I never really thought about it before. I was on prozac for a time but that was just living with m family and working at their restaurant full time. Soon as I moved out on my own I didn't have to take that.

Do you ever wonder if you'd be less anxious around your birthmom than with your adoptive family? Sometimes when I speak to her it seems there is simply a basic level of understanding that isn't there with my adoptive family. Has anyone else experienced this? Might anyone be willing to take the Adoption & Personality Survey linked below? Anxiety and depression are something I've dealt with my entire life also, and part of the reason I'm going into psychology. I'm curious if these things differ between non-adoptees and adoptees. Your responses will help a lot and this is completely anonymous. [url]https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zo0sNrGMNDhiJQn6wODS2hJzKDX9txPyE0_V1kRt1Cs/viewform[/url]

I'd create a new thread. Not good manners to hijack a thread. Since i wrote my last post I have been diagnosed with adhd. The thing about being a zombie doesn't fit from my perspective... I have talked to people who have been on medication since an early age, and let me tell you how successful they were convincing me that medications are bad. Yeah, try living with it for 26 years without the meds and tell me how great it was. Hate self righteous people. Anyhow, found out there is alot of the same dysfunction in the rest of the family. Look quite a bit like my birth family and have almost everything in common... almost frightening.

This is difficult to explain, but its easy to relate to all the other posters in terms of anxiety and depression.Altho a male adoptee, there was a great deal of outside stimulus that triggered the anxiety. The depression came as a result of feeling trapped in a situation I could never change.There was the uncertainty that went with the adoption and the fact that I was living in a family that regarded me as alien, but more importantly an "outsider." I was nothing.I had been told I was tainted and suspect and at 7 years old, I accepted the sentence and somehow knew that neither i or the sentence could be changed. I was afraid of adults, and there was a major trust issue because I knew that sudden abuse of any type could come at any time.My a-family contributed daily to my anxiety. I knew I had no one to help or take my side.As I grew older and graduated from school, I began to feel the development of strength.In later years, i journaled my story. Altho it took 6 months, and there were untold buckets of tears, when it was finished i was able to tie off the adoption, and subsequent long term abuse attachments, and begin to heal. I was able to go to the source of the overwhelming anxiety and end it. I got a divorce from my a-family. No longer would I be required to deal with their selfishness or demands. Altho shocked, they remained silent in the hopes that the slave would come back. But, I never did.After leaving my family, when problems arose, I broke them apart and looked at them in terms of how much involvement was required. In most cases, it was a matter of knowing what the situation was and not getting involved. My emotional state became peaceful. I became an equal with my peers, and I didn't allow anything to create a disturbance.That is just my way of handling what worked best for me. As an adoptee I know the attachment to grief and loss is a part of the sentence and it lurks in the background, but it is not a part of the daily operation of what happens in my life.What I know now, is that if I had had a mentor, just someone to show guidance and train me on how to live, much of the long standing emotional train wreck would have ended.I wish you the best.

Hi Christa I know you posted this a long time ago but I want you to know you are not alone. I also have anxiety issues. After going to counseling for a few years it was traced back to my adoption. My parents spend a lot of time making comments like. "People in our family don't act that way". So I grew up with the constant fear that if I did not "act like a member of my family" than I would not be a member of my family. As a child I was an incessant people pleaser. Up until I entered High School I was the good girl who would do almost anything to make my parents happy but I was barely noticed. After trying to get attention for several years I began having emotional panic attacks as a teenager. It took several years before I got a handle on them. I can not say weather it was a genetic tendency that was brought out by parenting mistakes. Or weather it was just the stress put on a child of being adopted. But I suspect there are more people than will admit it that have dealt with anxiety.

I have almost stopped the anxiety and panic attacks completely by working with Joe Soll for only three weeks. Whenever the attack starts (even at that just starting to get warmer) mentally I go back and see myself screaming and crying for my mother when we were separated. As my adult self I place my open hand on my baby body and tell my baby self that it is is NOT OUR FALUT and that I will take care of us. That's it. It has gone away. That and I have really limited my wheat and dairy product intake. I hope that this helps.

crista, now you are old enough not to panic about it. as you spent most of your life without spread any thing. i am sure rest of your it will be hide. don't worry. have fun. enjoy life.

Tiffany, this thread is from the year 2012. The original poster never returned, so I doubt she'll see your comment.