shamrockerin
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2012
- Messages
- 752
- Location
- New Hampshire, USA
I think a lot of it has to do with my dentist making small talk and distracting me or talking to me reassuringly...she can usually snap me out of my phobic state and bring me back down with a little conversation if she catches me at the very beginning and I typically stay pretty relaxed throughout the appointment. If she doesn't say anything and just goes to work, it tends to get gradually worse and my anxiety escalates. I guess I just get caught up in my own head .
Yeah I get that. My dentist will usually say hello to me, although he doesn't talk a whole lot. I think that's because I have never been particularly friendly/talkative and since I also asked them not to make any jokes, they assume I just want to be left alone. The one bad appointment I had, he didn't even greet me, and just started w/o saying anything to me, and that was just setting me up to be anxious and panicked the whole time. it didn't help that the whole staff seemed like they'd had a bad day (amazingly I didn't take their brusqueness personally) and it had also been my first day at my new job, so I was already a stressed out mess. At the end of the appointment, he started talking about the RCT and I really started to panic. He could see how I was reacting though and he backed off, which I was grateful for.
My anxiety leading up to the appointment isn't as bad as it used to be. It used to make me physically sick to my stomach now I obsess quite a bit about it but I don't get too anxious til I get to the parking lot. That's when the real doom and gloom comes over me.
I get anxious just driving by the office, even if my appointment isn't for a month/week/whatever.
Appointments always take a lot out of me though. Doesn't matter what it is, I'm wore out after. I think I get an adrenaline crash. I usually have a headache and feel really tired and drained of all energy. I also spend the rest of the day over-analyzing the appointment and everything that happened there in my head and worrying about stuff like if I appeared to be a sane person.
I always thought this would happen to me as well, but it doesn't. Even after taking 7 Valium, and a couple glasses of wine, I was an anxious mess. I thought for sure I'd be exhausted afterwards, from the adrenaline crash and the Valium finally taking effect, but I still went for a long walk, went shopping, worked on projects at home. I think that's how I can tell that Valium really doesn't affect me at all; it's not just a delayed reaction, I do not seem to react to it at all. Once my appointment is over, I take it easy until the anesthetic wears off completely. Once it has and I am reassured that I am in no pain at all, I get really energized and I just want to get on with my day.
But I DO over-analyze my time spent there. It's like every sound I hear, every word someone says to me there, every movement they make conspires in my imagination afterwards, and I end up feeling I am definitely their least favorite person to see.