Posted by wordwitch on November 18, 2003, at 14:40:06
In 2001 my doc (an internist) gave me a diagnosis of GAD and put me on Paxil. I stopped taking the Paxil back in mid-October. A few weeks ago I went back to see my doc on another matter and she said it was fine that I'd decided to stop the Paxil because it was obvious from my current demeanor that the anxiety I felt when I first sought her care was due to the situation at that time. Which is just ducky.
Except.
There are some negative emotions (symptoms?) that do, to some extent, interfere with my life.
1) I experience pretty much daily bouts of impatience that often escalates to irritability or even intense anger. For example, when I plan to go out, I get ready and go, whereas my husband spends hours getting ready and taking care of last-minute details before he actually walks out the door. Most of the time I'm about ready to kill him long before the car doors get opened and I think this reaction might just be a tad excessive. I guess what I'm getting at is that I feel my outbursts of annoyance are way out of proportion to the incidents that trigger them. (By the way, I don't stay mad--the anger goes just as quickly as it comes, and I often end up feeling pretty darned silly for getting so angry about a trivial matter.)
2) I'm VERY easily distracted. I can think of only two activities to which I'm able to give my undivided attention: reading a good book and watching a good movie. When it comes to any other activity, my mind wanders constantly. I'm forgetful, too...I'll walk away in the middle of doing dishes and forget that I left the water running or leave my office and forget that I was online. Naturally, my work suffers in that I take longer to complete a given task than someone who is able to focus. I also adopt, and then discard, hobbies with startling swiftness--sometimes I lose interest even before I've assembled all the materials I'll need to pursue a given hobby.
I've always been this way. Well, I've always been easily distracted (as a look at any of my school transcripts--or my employment history--will confirm), and I suspect I've always been impatient, too (my grandfather used to call it "not suffering fools gladly" and say that I'd got it from him).
This just doesn't sound like GAD to me. Any thoughts, fellow posters?
poster:wordwitch
thread:280889
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031116/msgs/280889.html