topic Anxiety issue in Long-term support over the journey

Anxiety issue

BballJ — Wed, 24 Aug 2016 22:29:39 GMT

Hi all,

I took abit of convincing myself to join the forums and write in here but just wanted some advice.

in the past two weeks, I have had anxiety spiralling out of control, I am unable to concentrate at work or at home, I continually think of the worst case scenario in anything, I wake up in the middle of the night having panic attacks (heart racing, in shaking, heavy breathing) I haven't slept more than 4 hours each night and during the day I am in a constant stressed state that by 2 pm I am tired as can be, I hate being alone, if I'm driving I feel the need to call someone just so I can get my mind off my anxiety and contanst worry feelings. I have lost my appetite, eating maybe one meal a day simply because I cannot eat. I have tried natural over the counter medicine to try and alleviate the anxiety and calm me down but they don't work.... Does this sound like GAD and should I see a doctor about medication?

thank you in advance for your replies.

Jay

Anxiety issue

spunkyturtle — Wed, 24 Aug 2016 23:16:08 GMT

Hi Jay

welcome to the boards. I'm sorry you're experiencing that, it sounds terrible. I definitely suggest you go and have a chat to your GP about this, they will have a better idea of how to treat it. I've learnt just how valuable and important it is to have a good GP I feel comfortable talking to and am open and honest with, if you don't have this, I'd even suggest finding a new GP.

best of luck, keep us updated

Deb

Anxiety issue

blondguy — Wed, 24 Aug 2016 23:56:22 GMT

Hello Jay

Thanks for reaching out and welcome. Great advice from Deb above by the way

Your symptoms are identical to mine when my anxiety fired up in 1983 when I was 23. Its an awful place to be in

You are very smart to calling people from your car as a distraction (coping mechanism)...excellent

I would make an appointment with a good GP (that has an interest in anxiety) as soon as you can Jay. This is no different to a physical illness....it does need treatment and the sooner you see the GP the quicker you will find some relief.

I tried natural remedies for years and nothing happened. The medications for anxiety are there to help you heal. They are not a total fix but will provide you will the relief you need as well as platform on which you can heal. (with regular visits to your GP too)

It is an anxiety problem.

There are many super kind people here than can help you Jay. You are more than welcome to post back as many times as you wish:-)

Please let us know how you go

My Best for you Jay

Paul

Anxiety issue

BballJ — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 04:21:57 GMT

Thank you for your responses, I saw a doctor who prescribed some medication and wants me to see a psychologist, which I just don't know if I am ready for. The GP was good and asked a lot of questions, she did give medication for GAD.

given my symptoms noted earlier does see a psychologist help with this? I can't see how breathing exercises and meditation will take my minds off things

Anxiety issue

Tech — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 04:32:17 GMT

Hi BballJ

I have similar symptoms as you - panic attacks, heart racing, shaking inside and out, rapid heavy breathing. My GP gave me medication which has reduced all of these symptoms. I find speaking honestly and openly to my psychologist and taking their advice on board helps.

Welcome to the forum

Tech

Anxiety issue

blondguy — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 04:40:13 GMT

Hi Jay, Thanks for posting back 🙂

Tech has really made a great point Tech Said: "I find speaking honestly and openly to my psychologist and taking their advice on board helps"

The only reason I quoted Tech is due to some people only give the psychologist 'bits & pieces' to work with.

Good on you for having all that organised too Jay..A psychologist is a great decision....and a GP too..you have done well...a huge step towards recovery.

My Best

Paul

Anxiety issue

BballJ — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 07:07:46 GMT

Again thank you for your very nice responses, you have no idea how much it is appreciated to talk to people who have experienced what I am currently going through.

I have a question regarding something that just happened, I had my medication this morning, first day mind you and was feeling ok very tired but, however something happened at work and I started freaking out, couldn't sit down, my heart was pounding, felt like I was losing control... It wasn't until I got an answer I needed to say what had happened was ok, I then calmed down.

what do you do normally in these situations, I thought the medicine is meant to control that happening, or is that just something you can't control.

Anxiety issue

BballJ — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 10:14:59 GMT

Also, anyone else got advice for the mental side of anxiety, I understand the medication helping the physical nerves but I am a bad over thinker and dwell on things turning them into really bad things in my mind. really struggling.

Anxiety issue

BballJ — Sat, 27 Aug 2016 11:41:45 GMT

Hi all,

any advice on the above, anyone got any advice with overthinking and mind just running riot which leads to really bad anxiety... I just don't know how to switch it off.

Anxiety issue

Cornstarch — Sat, 27 Aug 2016 12:09:33 GMT

Anxiety is the pits.

The mouse on the wheel around and around and around and around is the anxiety.

Everyone is different but I've realised that my personality and temperament is a "flusher". I have to flush stuff out to bring down my arousal and the only way I know how is to talk and tell.

I was a pressure cooker waiting to burst my entire childhood in a family that expressed zero emotion and never acknowledge my own internal landscape. So I had to do it for myself or melt away into nothing.

I had to speak my truth.

It hasn't taken it away but it has helped.

Are you an all out "flusher" or do you need more privacy and trust with a special few people before you flush the dunny?

Anxiety issue

BballJ — Sat, 27 Aug 2016 12:27:42 GMT

Thanks for your reply Cornstarch.

i would say i struggle to talk about my issues with people I am always in fear of burdening people, I am only just recently accpeting the fact I have GAD, my wife doesn't understand it all so she doesn't know how to deal with it, I was out earlier and it kicked in, went into overdrive because my mind was just racing with all the thoughts and feeling of being in danger, it's so weird, just wish I could shut my mind off!

Anxiety issue

Cornstarch — Sat, 27 Aug 2016 22:22:46 GMT

You don’t have to be a flusher to be able to decrease your anxiety or at least manage it. Do what is the right thing for your temperament, personality and world view. If you try to approach it in a way that doesn’t fit your own style you’ll probably face plant the ground somewhere or just end up even more frustrated. A really good friend of mine is a holder and that keeps her feeling safe. Her husband is the only person she tells everything to. Very very slowly she is opening up to me, not that I’ve ever expected that she had to but I have been really worried how shut down she is. It’s gotta be lonely in there.

She told me something really personal at a bar recently and I teared up not because of the content so much but because I knew how huge that was to let me into her world and I was really flattered that she trusted me with that. We never have to speak about it again and to cope she can only let little bits out otherwise she isn’t able to manage.

When you think of anxiety with some distance you know that it is completely irrational. The biological reaction
doesn’t fit the context. Or maybe it does! And chronic stress becomes such a frequent occurrence that it becomes your default mode and memories spark it.

I hate it. It makes you feel like a neurotic person. Good luck with it all. It’s horrible. I have experienced every
type of anxiety you could ever imagine so don’t think that I am breezing through it.

Anxiety issue

Cornstarch — Sat, 27 Aug 2016 23:02:09 GMT

One last thing. Anxiety can have roots in emotions that you would never ever ever expect to create anxiety until you travel back in therapy to the root cause. Truly bizarre in fact. At the risk of sounding like a complete and total wanker unexpressed love sky rockets my anxiety. It took me 15 years to figure that out.

What a stupid thing to say. What a mushy idiot. Not in my context.

Because I had a near death experience. There are simply no words to describe that until it happens to you. I do not have one friend in this world that has experienced it. I am all alone with that and I disappear on beaches when I have to re-live it. I came within a second of being gone. Done. See ya later. Your time on this planet is over. And when he decided , do I, or don’t I, my consciousness desperately tried to somehow connect with my family and push out all the love I had inside for them so they knew I loved them before he finished me off.

I found a scientist at Harvard that has moved tectonic plates for me emotionally/spiritually what ever you want to call it. I have one specific flashback that when-ever I have it I call on his insights to ground me, he’s work has impacted me that deeply. I had one of the worst flashbacks I’ve ever had about 10 days ago and all the way through it I thought of him and visualized his face. The only way I made it through was because of him.

So the wanker went home, burst into tears and emailed him to thank him. And guess what. He emailed me back and said I made his day!

Don’t be afraid to express your love. Don’t fixate on getting an outcome you’d like either because you may not. But just express your love anyway because anxiety can drop when you do. And scientists from
Harvard talk to randoms in Australia.

Anxiety issue

BballJ — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 02:53:37 GMT

That is one of the deepest things I have ever read, thank you firstly for sharing, I'm starting to write things down that happened to me as a child to try and find out if I can work out where this anxiety started from, it goes back a long way I feel and I think my mind and body has just said this is enough.

How did you find this scientist? It seems they gave you a new breath of life.

Anxiety issue

Cornstarch — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 04:57:00 GMT

Yeah looking back I think you may be right. They say that you don't find books, that books find you.

And I suppose what resonates with me doesn't necessarily resonate with anyone else.

It's pretty hard to forget an NDE at the hands of another. And it's humanly impossible to come back a child. You come back as a 95 year old man trapped in a 5 year olds body.

Anxiety issue

blondguy — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 10:33:57 GMT

Hey Jay

Apologies for the lengthy delay in getting back to you..I am glad that Cornstarch has given some great advice 🙂

Just on the medication for the GAD ...the anti anxiety meds can take a while to adjust to. The first day you had them you had the bad symptoms at work....?

The meds are not a total fix...they are there to take the edge off the anxiety which can take a while. The meds really give us a platform on which we can heal using all the coping mechanisms that you read about.

The meds for the GAD actually 'quieten' the part of the brain that is 'overstimulated'

Overthinking is very normal with GAD sufferers..but can be worked on with regular visits to a counselor/therapist.

Here for you Jay

Paul

Anxiety issue

BballJ — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 22:48:30 GMT

Thanks Paul.

I did get the bad symptoms at work but being on them for a few days now it feels the drowsiness has tapered off, which is good.

i guess we all want a quick fix and wish there was something that would just turn our brains off but I understand it is a process.

my biggest issue is the fact that I'm really bad in the morning, as soon as I wake up, all the negative thoughts rush to my brain and I go into panic mode, that's what I really want to stop.

Anxiety issue

blondguy — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 22:59:39 GMT

Hey Jay

Thanks for posting back 🙂

I hear you loud and clear with 'a quick fix' I wish too. The good news is that the anxiety symptoms do lessen over time which is a huge bonus..

I hope you can stick around the forums. If you anything you wish to ask about anxiety disorder you are welcome to post...

Anxiety is a cruel illness to have. I really do feel for you Jay.....I am having a think about posting a new thread about 'overthinking'.....I will keep you informed. The anxiety does fade and die (yes Im serious) but the mind can still overthink sometimes.

I hope your day is good to you Jay (be gentle to yourself)

My Best

Paul

Anxiety issue

BballJ — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 23:23:17 GMT

I think it's a great idea to create a thread about overthinking and I would love to see and hear other people's success stories with dealing with it.

thank you once again for your responses.

have a great day Paul.

Anxiety issue

Wednesday — Sat, 17 Sep 2016 07:38:03 GMT

Hi Jay,

I just thought I'd drop by your thread to add it to my thread list, I hope that's okay with you. It looks like you have some fabulous people here for you :-).

You mentioned on my thread that you wanted to back off on the meds does that include the anit anx meds too?

Hope your day has gone well. I know the feeling of taking things on the chin so as not to make anything worse or upset people, it's not easy. I consider my self very lucky that I don't have GAD it sounds like absolute hell and it is for P.

I gather you are working through some old stuff, is that with a counsellor?

Sorry if you have explained this all and I haven't read back far enough.

Be very kind to yourself.

Ava