<p>My d, a college freshman, was recently disagnosed by her private psychiatrist as having GAD. the more I think about her childhood and especially the past two or three years, I am confident that he is correct. While some of the symptoms are identical to depression, I have never really believed her to be depressed as she speak optimistically about her future.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, life is very difficult for a college student with GAD. She does not sleep well, has a hard time getting out of bed and finds it difficult to make plans with friends. Her attitude about treatment is very negative and, although she promised to go to counseling at student health, she seems to be back pedalling on that one.</p>
<p>My strong preference is that she sray in school. (THere are a number of things she likes much more this year than last.) If she cannot, I have gound indivdual therapists in the LA area who specialize in teens and young adults with anxiety/panic disorders. Also, there are residential programs (nice settings not dirty dark hospitals) that sound amazing. Small private facilities with a well-trained staff of professionals.</p>
<p>Any information on how you dealt with this type of issue would be
appreciated.</p>
<p>You haven't told us what her shrink suggests, so it's hard to respond. For what it's worth, my son went into a downward spiral with social anxiety during his freshman year. Medication was a godsend for him. Although he had tried and abandoned it during high school, he finally fully appreciated the difference it made in his life and has been diligent about taking it for years now (and he's lackadaisical about everything else in life) because he knows how critical it is to his functioning. If successful, meds would ask much less of your daughter and disrupt her life much less than a commitment to therapy.</p>
<p>I'm so sorry you have to deal with this--it's so difficult when they are far away and you have to rely on their self-reporting instead of your own observations to assess their condition, and it's so much harder to make your influence felt.</p>
<p>Seconding the need to find appropriate medication. Hopefully there will be few side effects so that the correct type of medication and dosage can be found early. Also, continue to urge her to seek counseling at the student health center...the right professional can be very helpful in guiding her in dealing with these issues. </p>
<p>Hopefully your daughter will get to the point where she owns the problem and will be willing to try medications and counseling, taking some initiative in learning about options for drugs and therapeutic approaches. I wish you the best in supporting her in working this out with the objective of staying in school.</p>
<p>My 23 y/o D has GAD. She was diagnosed after a panic attack when she was 21. Like you, looking back at her childhood, it all makes sense. We always said she was "high strung".</p>
<p>In her case, she did not really need counseling. Her anxiety didn't lead to wrong thinking, it just led to her feeling all shaky and having lots of trouble sleeping. She wasn't anxious <em>about</em> anything; she was just anxious. I seem to remember reading that some people with GAD just have somatic symptoms (relating to the body, rather than the mind, if I understand correctly). In addition to the medications, she was able to come up with things that help her....yoga, for instance.</p>
<p>She takes Effexor daily and Klonopin as needed (she needs it most days...especially to sleep; other prescription sleep meds did nothing for her). She feels good now, though she is not doing what she could to help with her sleep problems. She sleeps till noon, then she can't go to sleep at night (duh!). Her H is in the military and they are overseas where it is difficult for spouses to get jobs, so she isn't working and has way too much time on her hands. I wish she had a job where she had to get up every morning, as I think it would help a lot with her sleep problems.</p>
<p>A few years ago my D went off to college 1/2 hour from home and started calling about how she hated the sh**t hole of a school, didn't feel like getting out of bed, didn't like her roommate (or anyone else), etc. We reasoned with her, sympathized/empathized with her, encouraged her to join in/participate, make friends, wait and see, stick it out, etc. She took a job in a local restaurant (closer to home than school), and that, rather than school, became the focal point of her life (much of this came out later as she was not entirely honest with us or herself about what was going on). She squeaked through her first year (barely) (she was an extremely bright kid, admitted to a prestigious BA/MD program even). First semester sophomore year she had a panic attack and simply didn't go to finals. When we found out (several months later) we were puzzled, angry, worried - went to counseling, etc. Finally found a psychiatrist (in Pasadena) who specializes in treating college students (also found a great psychologist with the same specialty). The psychiatrist diagnosed a mild bipolar disorder. With medication, she is now once again an eager scholar who has turned her 1.8 gpa around to a 3.7 (thank heavens for freshman forgiveness and tuition withdrawal insurance - for several pre-medication semesters she attempted to go to school and then simply withdrew when she couldn't handle it).</p>
<p>I tried to get someone at the school involved early on when we saw our daughter's behavior changing 180 degrees - unfortunately, the response was "all kids go through this, it will pass," (i.e., "back off mom") and wanting to believe them, we did (to our D's detriment). Hopefully your D's school will be more supportive.</p>
<p>Bottom line - never in a million years did we expect to be going through something like this. And don't be afraid of her taking time off - it was truly necessary in my D's case. Good luck!</p>
<p>palmalk, at first the dr. thought our D had bipolar but decided on GAD. Truthfully, I am not sure the bipolar isn't there, but I'm pretending it's not, because I don't want to think about it. As you know, bipolar disorder is pretty awful. In any case, since she's on meds and doing fine, it doesn't really matter about the diagnosis. She is also lucky that her H is military and medical insurance won't be a problem.</p>
<p>Maybe you know something about one of my concerns. I am sure my D will want to have children at some point. She really can't be off these meds. These meds aren't approved for use during pregnancy. So....why did the psychiatrist not address this at all with her? He didn't even caution her about pregnancy or tell her to let him know if she decides to become pregnant. Do you know anyting about happens with women who need these meds when they become pregnant?</p>
<p>Truthfully I haven't thought much about that! Egads. I suspect that there probably are safe alternatives to Effexor and Klonopin (not so sure that's true with the bipolar medications which are more limited and there are some that definitely did not work so well with my D). It always amazes me that doctors just whisk folks in and out and it's up to us to be sure to address these issues with them! (or do our own research on the 'net).</p>
<p>P.S. "Luckily" my D has Bipolar II which is a milder form. Like you, but in reverse, I actually wonder if my D may be more GAD than bipolar! But the meds are working so would hate to rock that boat!</p>
<p>My D is on lexapro, which she started in the Spring. It took the edge off the anxiety but it is still there. It originally began as school/test/performance anxiety but may be moving into social anxiety as well, although she has always had friends. I saw her wanting to stay close to home in her free time this summer, perhaps because being out made her anxious. (She had a 40hr/wk internship that she attended and accomplished amazing things.)</p>
<p>I am trying to get her to go to the anxiety clinic at school while she is feeing calm. After the bad incident on the weekend, everything has sounded great. Loves her classes and her friends and she is exploring new activities. A much better place that last Winter at school.</p>
<p>Her treatment is complicated by stimulants she takes for ADD. She is very fearful of giving them up. I have concluded that her marginal ADD is really inability to focus due to anxiety. </p>
<p>Bottom line, until she "owns" the problem, my options are very limited. As long as she functions (3.9 GPA) and doesn't want to quit school, I won't force it, but I have come to accept that if she needs to quit (i.e., take time off) I will support it.</p>
<p>Anxiety is often what is felt in response to facing requirements for performance never before encoutered. The difference between the real (or perceived) requirement and past behavior in similar situations usually corresponds to the degree of anxiety felt. There are three solutions other than drugs, 1) lower the bar (lessen the requirements), 2) raise the performance, or three get of the track. The latter is usually accomplished by a phobia. One thing to own is the understanding that it is normal to be anxious in many situations and not "fight" it. Another is to understand where the requirements are coming from, self, parents, peers, etc. What is the consequence of not making it over the bar (which can be social relationships with family and friends as well as academic)? GAD tends to go along with social requirements, it tends to be seen by others who then back off, giving the anxious person a little more control. In this sense GAD tends to be a sensible behavioral response, though somewhat costly for other reasons. Addressing these issues tend to have a rather good effect on GAD and anxiety in general.</p>