Worse in the morning but better past 4pm

Hi @Dothemo,

when I was very sick with depression and anxiety, I would find that my symptoms would ease around night-fall. By the time I went to bed at 9.30 pm, I would feel relaxed, if some-what disconnected.

Just going by what I've read about anxiety, it does tend to ease at night for a significant amount of sufferers. But I am not an expert and can only really offer you advice as a fellow sufferer.

Yes, you should definitely tell you doctor about this aspect of your symptoms. I think I told my doctor about it (it was a very long time ago.)

You should tell your doctor as much as you can about your symptoms.

I saw a psychiatrist but I didn't really receive a formal diagnosis. She just treated my symptoms with a variety of different medications. The medications more or less worked, but it took time.

As far as I can tell, with all the research I have done, I suffered from severe anxiety, panic attacks, major depression and possibly mild depressive psychosis. I am not in any way qualified to diagnose myself. I do not recommend that anyone tries to diagnose themselves! It's always a good idea to seek professional help.

I used to wake up in a panic with the predominant symptom being blind, white terror. It was over-whelming. I felt anxious, shaky, had no appetite and a dry mouth. I felt a bit disconnected from my body.

By the afternoon, I would be sobbing my heart out, in the foetal position. I felt overwhelming despair and sadness. It was all-consuming.

I also had increasingly paranoid thoughts about all kind of strange things. I had some fleeting, bizarre, disordered thoughts that did not make sense.

All this tended to settle down by night-fall and then I could 'act' normally, eat something and watch telly. I could carry on a normal conversation. My partner at the time thought I was inventing the whole thing!

I hope you are ok, @Dothemo.

Hi @Dothemo,

I hope that you find a good psychiatrist. The process of prescribing medication for mental illness can involve a bit of trial and error.... that's my understanding, anyway. What works for one person may not work for another, even if those patients have almost identical symptoms! Again, I am no expert on this... I encourage you to talk over your medication at length with your prescribing doctor.

I was treated with a very high dose of antidepressants. My psychiatrist had to ring the PBS to get approval for such a high dose! She then added a mood-stabilizer into the mix. I did not have Bi-polar Disorder symptoms, but mood stabilizers can be prescribed in an attempt to increase the effects of antidepressants.

She also prescribed minor tranquilizers to be taken as required - for anxiety. These were addictive, but they did the job. She then wanted to trial me on an anti-psychotic, as well as all the other meds, but I decided to persevere without it. In hindsight, I probably should have just taken it.

Never-the-less, I eventually did improve.

Hmmm... the paranoia is hard to describe. It was like extreme anxiety gone haywire. I can't really talk about the fleeting, irrational thoughts except to say they were horrifying and extremely bizarre. Only, I knew that they were not right.... I thought "Oh, so this is what it's like to be insane. Ok, now I know."

@Dothemo, everyone is kind of different and you need to get individual treatment. However, my psychiatrist assured me that when people go completely bonkers... they all go bonkers in amazingly similar ways. So you are not alone!

Happy New Year.

P.S. "Bonkers" is not an accepted medical term and she did not use this word.