Anxiety with emphysema

Hi . Unfortunately, you are not alone in experiencing anxiety with your COPD. Here is a wonderful article from one of our health leaders with some tips for managing it. While both gabapentin and vallium will calm you down, they are not really great long-term options for COPD anxiety. Both can make you super drowsy and less able to function. Have you seen a psychiatrist for your anxiety? There are lots of different options out there that might be more effective for you than sertraline. I hope you get input from others in the community. Thinking of you. - Lori (Team Member)

Oh the woes of chronic illness. I suffer from Gold stage 4 COPD and have anxiety and panic attacks and disorders. For the most part my anxiety is under-control using antidepressants like you, but over the years (since 1996) The medications had to be strengthened and / or changed for our body gets use to them, is how it was explained to me. Yes, I do have an "emergency" plan if an attack gets out of control, with lorazepam, similar medication to those you mentioned. I have been to see a psychiatrist and then counselors, they gave me some really good coping ideas / skill to try, some work and some don't that depends on the individual of course. Still check in with them every few months or as needed. The medications that you mention and the one I take are considered "controlled substances" they should be monitored regularly with use, for they are addictive. Thus if given some from one of your doctors, don't be surprised on how little you are given or how often they might want you to visit with them. As Lori stated above, there is side effects that you might have to deal with, but that is like many medication either way. The one I take I do very well on, but in the ER Room I have been given vallium 3 different times now, my side effect to that is, that I am highly functional (even fools my family) but I do NOT recall a single thing at all. SHORT TERM memory LOSS... yip I have agreed to a few things that I might not have done if I was "totally with it" so to speak. Just my thoughts and experience, counseling was very helpful and still is as needed at times just to keep me on track.

I so wish you luck and wellness, anxieties can be rough on us....

I take gabapentin for a pinched nerve in my back. I recently noticed having a lot of thoughts about death and dying, and feeling really anxious. My doctor prescribed a really small dose of an antidepressant and it has really worked.

Hi. I really do sympathise. I take 2.5mg diazepam a.m and again at bedtime and feel a lot of benefit but we aren't all the same. I think as little physical exertion as possible and pacing yourself in everything you do is a must. Breathing exercises (hard to start when you are gasping in panic) do help. I also have one of those neck fans which can blow enough forced air up your nose to help you calm down and start to get control of your breathing, if you aren't already on a prescribed method.