Hi, I was wondering if anyone could give me some helpful tips on getting my life on the right track. Here is my predicament, I am 25 yo living with social anxiety disorder, obssesive compulsive dissorder and daily tremors which has caused severe depression. I recently moved out of my childhood house in the city after 25 years to my dad's house in the country when my mother got re-married and I live here by myself. Before moving, I went out at least 3 nights a week to bars with my friends and hung out, having daily interaction with people. I feel so isolated now that I am in the country and really miss the daily interactions I had before. My life was not so great before I moved out as I had the same problems I have now, but now it's just horrible and my OCD, anxiety, and depression have gone out of control. I am unemployed, but do go to a community college and I will have a general studies degree in May. Thank god for Xanax because i would have never been able to finsih school without it. I take it everyday that I go to school, and I hate doing it, but it seems to be the only thing that relieve most of my anxiety other than alcohol, which I cannot take most of the time for odvious reasons. I am also so lonely, and wish that I had a female companion to share my days with. I feel that because my disorders have spiraled out of control that I have no chance of ever finding anyone partly because I am ashamed of my anxiey and OCD, and this killed my confidence with women, and depresses me on a daily basis. I deperatly want to get my life on track and get a job and apartment somewhere in a city environment but I don't know where to even start because I feel so disabled due to the anxiety and OCD. I recently went to a psychiatrist and I am back on Zoloft and I take Xanax on an as needed basis. I feel that I am missing so many opportunities in life because of these darn tremors, social situation avoidance, and unbearable thoughts caused by the OCD. Any suggestions would be much appreciated as I am loosing hope. I eat healthy, cut down on my drinking, exercise 3 days a week, and quit smoking, yet nothing seems to be making me feel any better about myself or life in general.

Well, here's my suggestions...
Do a net search on mindfulness meditation; that can be very helpful for ocd, anxiety and depression. Do a net search on cognitive behavior therapy and rational emotive therapy. There is ample amount of free information about that and it too can be very helpful for your symtpoms. And lastly, have you considered some of the online matchmaking sites? That might be an interesting way to meet and communicate with people. You might even find a compatible partner in your area.

Male, you have the right attitude here about getting better! I have recovered from anxiety and I had anxiety because of the thoughts in my head from my upbringing. Have you tried therapy yet? I had anxiety because of low self-worth, terrible boundaries, fear of intimacy, and not meeting my own needs. Because of the way that I was raised all of these problems developed in my personality. In therapy, these problems were identified and I learned how I needed to adjust my thinking after I understood what happened to me in my development. After I changed my thoughts my feelings changed accordingly. You can overcome this because you have the motivation and energy to do so.

For quick relief of anxiety I use a good workout. Fairly intense for about 30 minutes, working up a sweat. By the end of the workout, the change in mood, feeling of relaxation, and sense of optimism is pretty amazing. Doing this on a daily basis would be ideal. Isolation is a killer. The suggestion of joining a dating site is very good, clubs, leagues, anything to get some social contact. Talking with a therapist might help with the feeling of hopelessness, and the support could give some motivation. Talking about your feelings is powerful. Developing close relationships would help in many ways. You might want to think about giving up alcohol completely. Besides being a depressant, I think that it's tempting to look at it as a magic bullet. Diversions are good. Thinking about being depressed is tiring and only makes it worse. Keeping busy is important.