Any Nurses With Anxiety Disorders?

[Susanna23]

Hi Everyone,

I was just wondering if anyone in this forum suffered from any form of an anxiety disorder. I have posttraumatic stress disorder and panic attacks can be quite troublesome. I had to withdraw from college two semester's ago because of my severe anxiety. I found it difficult to sit in a classroom without feeling any anxiety. On top of that I suffer from irritable bowel syndrome which sometimes requires me to go to the bathroom quite often. I'm going back to school this fall and only taking two classes to quickly ease myself back into the college routine. My anxiety is like night and day. However, it is something I do still think about quite frequently. Does anyone have any suggestions for overcoming anxiety in the classroom setting or if it would be of big hinderance in me doing well as a nurse? Any suggestions and answers would be appreciated.

[Glad2BAnurse]

Thanks for the encouragement Sheri! I really appreciate it!

[sharona97, BSN, RN]

Thanks for the encouragement Sheri! I really appreciate it!

My Pleasure!!

[ellieper4]

Hi Everyone,

I also suffer from PDST, anxiety/depression, what a continous battle, I was in 3rd semester clinical with only 3 hrs left do in the clinical and the instructor whom I've had before in another clinical aand whom I know truely didn't like me started riding my ass and screaming at me in the alcove outside the patient's room because I was running late in hanging an IV antibiotic med, she wouldn't even listen to the fact that the patient just got back from cardiac testing so that's why it was late but still within the hour allotment well from there things just spiraled downward big time I completely screwed up everything that I could possibly do I just couldn't think clearly, well to make a long story short she failed me out of the program for unsafe practices, it's devasting because from where I'm from it's very hard to get into another nursing program since your given an unsafe from another one. This instructor even asked me if I had a problem with anxiety and if I was getting any help with it I told her that I did and that I was in counseling and to please taker that into consideration, her reply back to me was "it's not meant to be" meaning nursing. So here I sit so depressing, and embarrassing to be such a failure I just feel that I've let down everyone like my family and especially myself big time. Any suggestions out there?

[sharona97, BSN, RN]

Did this nursing instructor put in writing why she deemed you purportedly unsafe? If not I'd get a letter if she refuses go up the chain of Deans of the school. Somrthing smells fishy here. You have rights concerning harrassment and she doesn't have to know your confidential medical history in the middle of the hall. Good Luck.

[nyapa, RN]

Hi Everyone,

This instructor even asked me if I had a problem with anxiety and if I was getting any help with it I told her that I did and that I was in counseling and to please taker that into consideration, her reply back to me was "it's not meant to be" meaning nursing.

Surely that is a form of discrimination? Are there laws in the US against it? If she specifically said that nursing was not meant to be because you had an anxiety condition then I agree with the previous poster and get her to put it in writing. And surely its a bit hard to be an unsafe practitioner when you have an instructor with you? That's what they are there for...

[nyapa, RN]

Speaking of which, I'm sitting here feeling miserable and a little scared myself. I am in the third and last rotation of my graduate year. I have become super anxious and every day I have just wanted to run. The last day I was on, I cried all day. I have to go back in tomorrow and speak to the clinical instructor and the Clinical Nurse Manager of the ward. I'm absolutely terrified. I had an episode years ago where due to a number of incidences (as an EN - LPN in Oz), I developed clinical depression. I was on and off work for 7 months and at one stage couldn't even walk into the building. But I fought back. And now I'm in my RN graduate programme. But I feel like I'm going backwards. I have increased my sertraline dose by double with the permission of my doctor, but I really don't think it is going to help...

[sharona97, BSN, RN]

Hi dar15,

Keep your chin up...look how far you have come ......

Easier said than done, as I too have those moments of anxiety and panick. I just keep praying that I'll get through that door.

Good Luck and be strong!:balloons:

[Glad2BAnurse]

Hey Yall,

I saw my psychiatrist and she adjusted my meds and wants to give me klonipin prn for anxiety. I found out this week that i got accepted to the transition program. I am excited yet scared to death they wont take me if they see my med list and i also have to pass a pharm test. im just having so much anxiety and i hate this! any advice?

[sharona97, BSN, RN]

Congratulations on the transition program!!!!! Take one day at a time and continued success in your future!!!!!!

[ellieper4]

Hi Everyone,

To the questions asked of me yes when I went in to get my final evaluation and clinical grade the instructor had written everything out that happened that day in clinical and she did deem me unsafe because of the late antibiotic IV,( the client wasn't on the floor to give it) and the fact that I was getting ready to dispense to the patient a cardiac med without knowing the patient's blood pressure (I had asked the CNA to take this patient's vitals and to let me know if their were any low values especially BP) I failed to check the record and if i had done a quality job i would of realised that a BP hadn't been taken so I was really at fault so i went ahead and took the BP as I should have earlier before I gave the med, so yes that was my responsibility and the instructor was right I was negligent. (I did talk to the CNA before I left the hospital that day and asked why she didn't take any of my clients vitals or do any of their cares and she told me that the instructor told her specifically not to do one thing for me or to remind me of anything that needed to be done).During my evaluation the instructor told me that I didn't have to sign it and could appeal it but that the staff already had a meeting and they thought i would be an excellent social worker /Alcohol and drug counselor but not a nurse, so that is why I didn't go to the dean also because I had gone to her (dean) in the past about how several students are signaled out by two specific instructors in the program and if they can't fail them in theory they get them in clinical she didn't believe that it would happen to me but i really feel that I was set up this instructor knew that I had a problem with anxiety because for theory exams I even tested out alone in a separate room from others she justed wanted to rattle my cage and break me down and she was sucessful so now i need to find another program where students aren't feed as snacks to cruel instructors.

[Glad2BAnurse]

Ellie,

Sorry you are having such a rough time with school. I hope there is someone there that can help you. Sharon, thanks for the support, i really appreciate it!

[ellieper4]

hey dar15

I truely hear you and wow i don't even know you but here is something to remember i can't even remeber where i heard it from but here it goes.

The real measure of a person isn't by what successes he has had but rather his failures and how he deals with them.

It also sounds like your in a situation similar to what mine was how horrific instead of instructors mentoring their students they torment them and play endless mind games for an education that we are paying them to give us, pretty damn sad that this is what higher education does to some and how those getting the abuse (ourselves) have to suffer through powerless,my counselor calls the program that i was in and where he counseled endless nursing students "sick academia" students are signaled out for no reason.Hang in there and remember you've come to far to let them defy who you are.