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Comment by fgonzag | Hacker News Reader

You don't understand what having extreme anxiety at that age feels like.

As someone who lived through that, I refuse to let him. All of memories of school are just feeling anxious about everything, just tight and suffocated, always in a panic. I started living when I started taking anxiety pills at 39 years old, and I can see my 2 year old having the exact same anxiety ticks and fits I have.

I don't know at what age I'll medicate him, but I'll do it as soon as I notice he isn't coping and happy anymore.

Horrifying is forcing him to experience that because you can't comprehend us.

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I'm sorry that you're dealing with this - it was my greatest fear at that point. That my daughter seems to not have my disposition and seems happy go lucky is the greatest thing ever. There's no rhyme or reason to my depression and anxiety, it's completely maladaptive and I'm relieved, that knock on wood, she stays happy and light while not having to shield herself from the horrors of the world.

The main issue I see is that the anxiety pill is a way to treat the symptoms, not the cause.

Do you think that there is a way to treat the underlying cause and not the symptoms?

How do you know an anxiety pill is treating symptoms only? What if the cause is physiological, and the pill treats that? It is entirely possible to sit in your therapist's office and mutually shrug because neither of you can find an underlying reason for your anxiety. Sometimes anxiety just is.

I had severe anxiety/depression and majorly recovered from the anxiety component through a year of dilligent transcendental meditation. It changes the brain structure and neurochemistry.

I was on medication during that period and it complemented my practice, provided a stable base to apply meditation and other recovery protocols.

I had panic attacks every morning before school. God, I hated school. Mainly because of the other kids, and when I was older, because of both the kids and the teachers. I remember telling my IT teacher I am using Linux (I forgot why I told her) and she was very condescending. I have a lot of other stories but yeah, school was an anxiety-inducing nightmare.

Often the cause is things that most people can handle, without being able to easily wield the tools to handle them. Having a pill that dulls the symptoms gives space to learn and become adept at the tools

What if there is no rational cause?

Beyond obvious tumors/lesions/clots/abnormalities, we are not even close to being able to identify the cause of organic anxiety or mood disorders even if we wanted to.

We can say certain behaviors, experiences, illnesses and some genetic identifiers can trigger the conditions, but not the underlying cause. We can say things like some therapy and medication can help with the illness, but not the cause.

Not to trivialize therapy, but for many illnesses, not just mental, a portion of it can be described as ways of learning to live with the illness, not necessarily treating the underlying cause.

> Not to trivialize therapy, but for many illnesses, not just mental, a portion of it can be described as ways of learning to live with the illness, not necessarily treating the underlying cause.

Yeah, I feel like it's fair to describe the cognitive behavioral model. We're not necessarily looking for the cause of these thoughts and beliefs, tho they may come up, we're simply going to challenge them at face value and reinterpret the situation.

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