New

Hi I'm new. I joined about a week ago and didn't realize I was supposed to post in the intro thread.

My main reason for being here is anxiety, some panic attacks, and some mild depression. My two sources of anxiety are my arguments with my husband ( I grew up in a household with domestic violence) and my health. I also have a very demanding, high stress job with lots of pressure from deadlines, which doesn't help. I'm also in recovery for alcohol, which probably helped mask alot of my anxiety and depression since that was how I dealt with everything for a long time. I've been sober for just over 2 years now.

I had an episode in April in which I had difficulty forming words for several hours and wound up in the ER because I thought I was either having a mini stroke or an allergic reaction. The doc couldn't find anything wrong and so I have a referral to a neurologist. They're going to test for dementia. The thought of having early onset dementia scares me so bad (I just turned 50) and is the main reason for my anxiety right now.

The doctor said it's possible the episode was caused by anxiety, which seems weird to me because I just woke up from a nap when it happened and it lasted several hours. In the meantime, I just started meds for the anxiety and I have a counseling session next week.

I came to this site because I was hoping to find people going through similar experiences and to get support for my anxiety. I sometimes feel like I don't have anyone to talk to about this. I sometimes talk to my

husband and he's very understanding, but in many ways he can't relate and it's hard to talk to him when he's sometimes the source of my anxiety. I'm hoping to get more answers after my series of appointments next week.

Thanks for listening to my long, rambling post.