Had my first session yesterday.  It was a weird feeling as I walked in the door.  There was the couch that we have all seen in the movies.  There were toys and books on one side and on the other, a middle aged woman wearing very tight clothing.  Yes, it was hard to keep my eyes off of her….shirt.

Session began with an introduction.  She was very surprised with how much information I had for her regarding why and what I thought caused my anxiety.  Actually, she said it sounded like I was fine before I took paxil.  She kinda supported my belief that Paxil was the cause behind these new anxiety symptoms.  She said that Paxil was known to have a "trigger" mechanism that kicks in when people go off the drug.  She stopped short of saying that it was intentional to keep people on the drug. 

Session continued with some more fact finding and me staring at her shirt (eeps)  She stated that she thought I may have a panic disorder rather than an anxiety disorder.  I told her my PCP put me on Celexa which I haven't started yet and she sgreed that it was the better of the SSRIs.  I am still hesitant about going on meds especially after the Paxil debaucle.  Plus I have been reading about all these side effects with Celexa.  The ones that really concern me are less sex drive, rage, suicidal tendencies, and vision loss. 

Other than the recommendation I got for Celexa, the only other thing I got out of the session was to practice breathing throughout the day using diaphram techniques (oh and some stickers yay!).  Funny though, it nearly put me into panic mode this morning on the way to work.  I will practice at it.  I did notice though that when I was doing it at the doctors office I felt really good when I came home.  So whats with the heart palpitations and panic feeling this morning?

I have another session next week.  Next week is….family history.