How to Get Help

H

Holly Golightly

New member
Hey everybody. I just found these boarRAB while trying to find good info on the internet and I'm hoping someone here can help me or that I can at least find some support here.

Last spring, I left NYC for a better job and generally better living situation in Boston. Everything about my life has been so much better since then. Well, almost everything.

In the end of June/beginning of July, I had four nights in a row where I was waking up after 2-3 hours of sleep and having panic attacks/anxiety attacks. I went to the new general practioner I had in Boston and she responded to my crying, shaking self by telling me to loose weight. I know I'm over weight, but now I'm having attacks with greater and greater frequency. My stomach feels like it's tearing itself apart and I'll be mid-way into hyperventilating before I even wake up. I thought that I was just being a drama queen about these things but my parents came to visit me this past weekend and when I told them about my troubles, they told me that my family has a long history of anxiety leading to depression and they said that a lot of the family blamed the two suicides in our family on anxiety issues and I feel like I need to do something about this.

I don't want to go back to the general practioner that I have. I want to find a new one or a psychiatrist or anything. I feel like I'm going to go insane if I don't get help, but looking through the rows upon rows of lists of doctors online that take my insurance (BC/BS) is making me feel like I'm on the verge of hyperventilating here.

I don't know anybody in Boston and I'm not comfortable asking my new coworkers for advice. Can anyone recommend a solid way online to find a good doctor? Or is there anyone in Boston who knows a good doctor? Or can anybody give me hints about how to figure out who is right for you?

Any advice or help would be sincerely appreciated. I'm really new to this and it's difficult to not feel like things inside my head should be things that I can control on my own. Thanks.
 
Check the phonebook. Also your GP should recommend different places that you can go. You don't have to go back to him, just have him refer you to counselors or psychologists that accept blue cross blue shield.
 
Hi, there is a website that I have found that will give you names of psychologists and psychiatrists in your area. They do seem to have a certain list though. For instance, the nearest doctor they recommend is not in my county. I don't know if they weed the doctors out by who is better or what.. but there is a website out there.. just keep googling and you should find a similar site. Also, I have suffered for three years now with it, and everyday I wake up and try to fight it.. the things that have helped me is medicine and talk therapy. That is the best help you can get. Also, I think you need to take a break from things, it helps to fight this by devoting 100 percent of your time to this. Easier said than done I know..
 
Thanks for the kind worRAB Bball92 and gemini89.

I will check the phone book. That hadn't occured to me. I don't know that I would trust any recommendation my current GP would make (or anything else she would have to say for that matter), so I might pass on that suggestion unless I can't come up with any other routes.

And, gemini, I think you're right. I think I need good medicine and talk therapy and I'm going to work on finding somewhere that can help me. These internet searches seem so vast and endless that it can get a little disheartening. It's all so terrifying to see all these names and pictures and addresses. How can you ever tell which one will be the person who won't just dismiss you or blame it on your weight or just on anything else they want to? How can you figure out who will actually put effort into helping and not just be dismissive out of laziness? I just can't tell and it frightens me.

I wish that I could take time off of work and life and just calm down and get myself together, but it's really not an option for me, unfortunately.

I will keep looking, though. Thanks for the support!
 
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