Tips For Coming Of Anti-Depressants

This is a topic very close to my heart currently. Its fresh in my mind, because I am literally going through it right now. Lets just say it hasn’t gone quite to plan. I came off my Sertaline tablets a few months ago now, as I felt it was about time after almost 6 years or how ever long I’ve been on them. Its something I was meaning to do but I guess the fear of not knowing what I’d be like off them put me off. I finally took the plunge and stopped them. I wasn’t taking them regularly anyway so I thought why not, its no good for me to be taking them every other day anyway.

I noticed my anxiety and OCD gradually started to get a little harder to handle but this past few weeks to put it bluntly has been hell for me. I have really struggled to hold it together, certain anxiety and OCD issues I thought I was so over have suddenly appeared and graced me with their awful presence. I have now accepted me feeling like I do right now isn’t any quality of life and reluctantly have started to take my tablets again. This wasn’t the easiest decision to make because I felt like I had failed, and I now have to deal with the nausea and side effects of re starting the tablets. That being said, I don’t think this experience should stop or make anyone fear coming off medication, everyone is different and no two experiences will be the same. So I thought as I’ve just been through it all, I’d make you guys aware of some tips and thoughts to bear in mind when stopping your medication.

♥ Make sure you consult a doctor, its best to be safe with these things and keep professionals in the loop, just in case you have any weird withdrawals. Its also a good opportunity to ask any questions and bring up any concerns you have about changing or stopping your medication. Doctors also like to keep an eye on your mental health during this time, and make sure your coping ok.

♥ Always taper of anti-depressants and medication that are known to give you withdrawals. Stopping very suddenly after taking a medication for even only 6 weeks can give you some horrible side effects. For example : Irritability, nausea, feeling dizzy, vomiting, nightmares, headache, and/or paresthesias (prickling, tingling sensation on the skin). You will have a much easier ride if you listen to the doctors and gradually reduce your medication.

♥ Be prepared and clued up on withdrawals. I think its a good idea to be aware and talk to your doctor about possible withdrawals when coming of your tablets. You can then be prepared and less frightened if you happen to experience any unusual symptoms during this time. Try not to let these stop you from coming of your tablets because they will pass and its just something that if we want to come off our tablets we have to face up to. Some people don’t  even suffer with withdrawals at all, but I think its best to have knowledge of these things. It will be ok!

♥ Make sure you tell your family, friends and work. You don’t have to go around shouting it from the rooftop but it helps to know people can look out for you and support you. I know I was quite worried about coming of mine. It also helps to just alert work that you are taking steps to come off some tablets and to be patient with you. You may not need any time off but at least if you struggle or  need some time of  to get over any side effects of stopping, you have already made them aware of your situation.

♥ Allow yourself  some time to adjust to the change. Your brain will have had a little bit of extra help with its serotonin and altering your brain chemistry when taking certain tablets, so it can take a while for things to level out and see how you cope without them.

♥ Coming off them doesn’t have to be permanent, so don’t be afraid. If things turn to rubbish and you realise it wasn’t the right time for you, you can change tablets or go back on your old ones. Nothing is set in stone.

♥ Lastly, like me, don’t feel like if you have to go back on them that you’ve failed. You tried and now wasn’t the right time but that is ok. Its just a tablet you take everyday and accepting any help when you need it, is the right thing to do. It’s ok to swallow your pride and allow yourself to go back on them. No one is judging you and if they do, that is their problem not yours.

I hope this helps anyone taking the big steps to come of your medication.

Good luck,

Anna

♥

 

 

5 Tips For Anxious Minds & Panic Attacks

Today’s blog post will hopefully help some of you who suffer with severe anxiety or panic attacks. If you don’t suffer with those above things, this may be something to remember in case you ever find yourself in the situation, where you need to calm yourself down or someone close to you. The terrible thing about panic attacks is that there is no quick fix solution, no one can say ‘just calm down’, ‘do this or that’ and you will feel instantly better, unfortunately that’s not going to happen. What you can do is find ways to cope through a panic attack until you come out the other side and to try ease the symptoms. Never feel alone or embarrassed about having anxiety or a panic attack, it can happen to anyone.

Anxiety and panic attacks have so many symptoms and they can appear different for different people from mild to severe. Here are some of the main symptoms…

♥ Intense overwhelming feeling of panic, fear, dread and anxiety.

♥ Feeling sick

♥ An uneasy churning feeling in your stomach

♥ Heart palpitations (racing very fast heart beat)

♥ Difficulty catching breath, fast breathing, shortness of breath, tightness of chest.

♥ Ringing in ears

♥ Hot flushes and chills

♥ Shaking

♥ Feeling of loosing control or going ‘crazy’

♥ Feeling faint or dizzy

♥ Pins and needles

♥ Sweating

♥ The need to remove yourself from your current surroundings

Here are some ways I think can help you through a panic attack and calm you down..

1. Take some time alone with yourself. If you’re the kind of person who wants to be alone and escape from the situation you’re in then do it. Take a second out to gather your thoughts and compose yourself.. Forget about what people might think etc, if it helps you to calm down that’s all that matter. You might recover faster and be able to return back to the situation calmer, if not that’s okay you win some you loose some. It’s okay to say ‘I’m feeling very anxious, I’m going to take a second on my own, please nobody fuss over me’ you’re human, do what you need to do to help yourself, don’t worry about everyone else, taking yourself away for a second means you may be able to calm yourself down without feeling self conscious of others watching you and being fussed over by them.

2. Take headphones in your bag and when things get too much on a train, bus, walking, in a car where ever it may be, put those headphones in and shut out the world. Play relaxing, soothing music or sounds. There is a great app called ‘Calm’ where you can pick a live, realistic scenery with sounds and music to go along with it. Focus on that scenery and the sounds, imagine you’re here, Ignore your racing thoughts and bring your mind back to the scenery and sounds on your phone.

3. Slow your breathing down. I know this is hard when your heart is racing and the panic is building up inside you making you breathe faster, but take control and breathe in and out slowly. Holding your breathes in and slowly breathing out. Another brilliant app for this is ‘Relax Lite’ the free version has a breathing counter, where you can focus on your breathing and watch a little pie chart telling you how long to hold and release your breaths and how often. You can even change the settings if the timings set aren’t right for your breathing. Forget how fast your hearts beating and focus on how much slower you can get it, don’t rush, slow everything down.

4. Take a second to take in your surroundings WITHOUT using your thoughts. Use your 5 senses, eyes, touch, smell,  taste and listening. Look around you, where are you? is there any real danger in front of you? or is your brains fight or flight responses miss firing again. No matter how scared your brain is telling you are and how scared you feel, is there danger in front of you? don’t let your brain tell you you’re in danger if you’re not. Your eyes won’t lie to you, if there’s no danger you see, your brain is miss firing. Touch something and focus on what it feels like, smell a sweet lip balm you have and focus on what it smells like and reminds you of, anything along those lines. If you’re at home light a candle and watch the flame flicker, notice the smoky smell, the warmth and how it moves. Have a warm bath, shut your eyes and focus on the feel of the water against your skin, the smell of the bubbles and the sound and warmth of the water. When your brain sends you tons of thoughts, let go  and refocus on your senses.

5. Remember you’re ok, no matter how frightened you feel during the mist of anxiety and panic. It will pass, emotions can’t last forever. Your body and brain is simply trying to keep you safe by triggering your fight or flight response, our brains can do this when there is no danger. It’s just a chemical reaction within our body’s and brains, it can’t hurt us, it can make us feel temporarily terrified but that’s all. The less fearful of what you’re feeling you are, the calmer you will become and the quicker the emotions will leave. Fearing it will undoubtedly bring more fear. Out logic your brain, you know your gong to be ok, thank your brain and body for keeping you safe when it’s not even needed.

 Don’t get frustrated with yourself. I know sometimes you feel angry about what you’re feeling because there is no reason to be feeling scared, frustration will raise your heart beat even more and stress you out. It’s okay to not know why you’re panicking, don’t try to work out why you are, think less and breathe deeper, when all those rushing thoughts pop into your head ‘why am I panicking’ ‘your stupid’ ‘this or that might happen’ ‘people will think I’m weird’ etc, ignore them, don’t entertain them this will only make them stronger and raise your anxiety levels, notice them, let go of them, refocus on breathing or any of the above steps. Being able to try to control your panic and anxiety won’t happen over night, practice makes perfect. I hope this helps someone even a little bit.

 If you have any good tips for panic attack and anxiety sufferers, leave them in the comments, lets help each other!

Stay strong,

Anna

♥

 

 

 

Lets Talk Brows..

Brows, bushes, caterpillars, slugs whatever you nick name your eyebrows we all have them and we need to make sure we pay attention to them during are daily make up routine! For a long time I was one of those girls who thought ‘What’s the point?’ ‘Will it make any difference?’ ‘I can’t be bothered etc I didn’t think they we’re any big deal. I used to over pluck my eyebrows and never bother to fill them in but I’ve realised what a difference giving your some TLC can do. Eyebrows play a massive part in how our eyes look and they frame our faces,  so I thought I would share my latest eye brow routine with you and show what a difference your eyebrows can make to your face!

 

Maybelline Brow Drama Sculpting Mascara In Medium Brown

The Vintage Cosmetic Company Slanted Tweezers

Soap & Glory™ Archery™ Brow Tint and Pencil in Brownie Points

First of all I would recommend seeing a professional to either wax, thread or pluck your eyebrows into a tidy shape, without a tidy shape its hard to fill in your eyebrows as there’s not much of a guideline. I get mine waxed and its one of the best decisions I made and its definitely worth paying some money rather than plucking them yourself and risk over plucking and loosing your natural eyebrow shape! In between waxes I just pluck out any really noticeable hairs with my Vintage Cosmetic Tweezers.

I brush my eye brows through with an eyebrow brush before doing anything to my brows, so the hairs are smooth and going in the same direction, this makes it a lot easier to fill in your eye brows and follow your natural shape. To fill my eyebrows in I use the Soap & Glory Archery Brow Tint and Pencil, this is a rather new purchase and I am really enjoying it. One end has a pencil for any bigger areas you may want to fill in and the other end has a very delicate precise felt tip like end. I start with the felt tip end and concentrate this on outer thinnest area of my eye brows and around the edges as I can get a really precise application with this. I use little brush strokes to apply this creating an almost hair like texture, giving your eyebrows a more realistic less drawn on look! I then go in with the pencil to finish off any larger areas or where there are any gaps, the great thing about this eyebrow duo is the colour is very faint which means you can build the colour up making it easy for you to control how much colour your applying so you can achieve a natural result, without them looking to harsh and drawn on!

Last but not least I take my Maybelline eyebrow mascara and apply this to my brows. I start at the thickest part of my eye brow and brush the hairs  in there natural direction and up slight at the arch of my eyebrow then taking it down the thinnest area of my eye brows, this will make sure your eyebrows will be looking neat and tidy all day, also adding a little more definition to the hairs and shape of your eyebrows. You can also apply a little bit of highlighter just on your brown bone to make your eyebrows appear lifted and your eyes more awake!

Down below I have taken some pictures to show the real difference between filling your eyebrows in and not. On the left side of the pictures my eyebrows will be natural and on the right I will have done the above steps to them!

The right where I have filled in my eyebrows, makes my eye look wider, more awake and lifts the whole of my face. On the left side you can see where I have’t filled them in, my eye looks much smaller, less awake and that side of my face doesn’t look at lifted.

 Above is the finished result of both eye brows being filled in, it really does make a huge difference to the shape of your eyes and framing your face!

Comment if the word eyebrow looks and sounds weird now I’ve written it so much, does to me!

Anna

♥