u/treestarsos

Today my primary care doctor, who I generally have a good relationship with and generally like and trust as a doctor told me these things about my lifelong "severe anxiety" (which I do have):

1. I think it's bad now, but will be much worse in another 10 years, and used takotsubo cardiomyopathy as an example of something that could happen. Already knowing that I have white coat htn from anxiety at the dr office and probably at other stressful places doesn't help.

2. Told me that it seems like I'm giving up on myself. Tried to push me to see a different psychiatrist because they might be different/helpful than the prior ones. Also told me I'm his most anxious patient.

3. I felt like he basically ignored my own lived experience of SSRIs causing a huge exacerbation of anxiety for the previous 6 years -- when I explained they put me in fight or flight mode, he said that's how I am now too and that I should try non-SSRIs.

4. Told me that I need to be on medication for my anxiety, despite having really bad reactions to about a dozen psych meds (mostly SSRIs/SNRIs/buspar). I don't think I have it in me to recover one more time from bad side effects.

None of what he said is untrue, and it was not said unkindly but more matter of factly, but it was a lot to deal with at once when he didn't really offer solutions/suggestions aside from the general yoga/meditation/breathing/psychiatrist/therapist. Obviously I don't know how to solve it and no professionals have helped me very much so what does he expect me to do when psych made it worse.

I've been crying for the past 3 hours since the appointment because it seems like I've reached a tipping point where only really bad things will happen if my anxiety isn't cured soon. Doubly sad because I'm not sure if it's in my best interests to keep seeing a physician who's so focused on my anxiety (although I've had a bunch of health issues lately and been sick most of 2026 and he's thoroughly ruled other things out before considering anxiety as a factor).

Has anyone managed to live a healthy life with chronic anxiety or did it eventually affect your health? Not sure what else to ask but I'll take any advice about anything I wrote.

Just since the beginning of the year, fundamental things about me have changed, anyone else?

I now can't even look at gloomy dark weather and rain, which used to be my favorite and happiest weather and used to be calming. Also I had to put away everything blue because now it makes me sad (after being my favorite color my whole life) and now like only apricot and some other pastels (no neutrals b/c they make me sad now too). Gave away so many paintings and other things that I just don't want around because they make me feel bad now,

I wake up at 2-3am every night and never go back to sleep, so am exhausted and short tempered every day. I currently take the combo pill but it obviously doesn't help me with this.

Has anyone switched from the combo pill to HRT or vice versa? I'm especially interested in feedback from anyone who's used both the pill and HRT and how well each worked to prevent these hellish nightly wakeups, but also feel free to share about either.

Has anyone else developed chronic nausea, early satiety, a general aversion to eating, excessive burping, or any other gi issues? I developed all of these issues after taking 2 antibiotics in January. Now almost 4 months and several bottles of various probiotics later, still have the same issues.

Trying to figure out if perimenopause might cause or exacerbate these issues, I've never really had gi problems before. Annoyed that my PCP is going through some cookbook medicine checklist but I'm scared to see a gastroenterologist. Did anyone end up with something like h. pylori or have to get an endoscopy to figure it out?

Is your workplace flexible for using sick time, or is it counted against you?

My work has recently started using a points system (usually used for preschool aged children, not for full grown working adults). Now calling out of work is counted as a point against you, even for a one day sickness without a doctors note, so now you're just screwed when you hit 5 points.