Am I Alone in my Anxieties?

[RamonaQ]

Hi everyone,

My anxiety has been reeeeally playing up recently, and I was curious to see if anyone else experiences any of the anxieties I get. Here are some of the things that have recently been making me anxious:

• there are too many movies and artworks and music and books and beautiful places in the world, and I'm never going to experience everything I want to
• past regrets - things I missed out on
• people judging my gym outfit
• being robbed, or a traumatic incident
• my parents passing away one day - will I be able to survive without them
• germs from dogs, dirty laundry, food
• laundry care instructions - what if I ruin clothes?
• microplastics shedding from clothes
• plastic contamination from plastic cooking utensils or containers
• every plastic thing I throw away is going to end up in landfill
• I've graduated uni and my friends haven't - I can't connect with them and I shouldn't be friends with them
• thinking I don't deserve the beautiful people in my life or the opportunities that have fallen into my lap

Thank you

[Bob_22]

Hi RamonaQ,

Welcome to the forums and thank you for your posts so far. What a great question! 😊

I have experience of major depressive disorder with a lot of general anxiety symptoms and I certainly share a lot of your anxieties. One of my biggest symptoms is inappropriate guilt or regret which I see you've typed down. I used to ruminate over almost every social interaction or questionable thing I ever did. Even if it was something minor like forgetting to say 'how are you doing' to the person over the counter at my pharmacy. And definitely a lot of fears around germs especially during this COVID climate. Oh and definitely fear of being judged whether it be by strangers or close friends on a range of things but especially about my mental illness. 

Fortunately I've learned to deal/live with a lot of these with help from my psychologist but also alot of self help. Researching different thinking errors that are common in anxiety and trying to rationalise or correct them e.g. asking myself what would I say to a friend who is thinking these things? What happened last time I got anxious about this? What is the evidence?

It takes time and never really completely resolved for me but is definitely something you don't have to suffer or take on by yourself. 💙

Bob

[blues23]

Hi RamonaQ 

Anxiety conditions can vary between people some experience all sorts of anxiety’s yours is yours and there’s help available to help you cope we as people are all different and suffer different types of fears , anxiety and feelings, your feelings , fears are just as real as anyone  else 

im very scared of dogs but not their germs more so then biting me ,jumping on me ,licking me in general I don’t like dogs off their leads as I was attacked by dogs as a child and I’m still terrified and some owners just don’t get it and let their dog go up and sniff u ,jump on u while ur actually shaking with fear and they have no comprehension of how u are feeling. 

[On The Road]

Hi RamonaQ,🙂

I'm sorry that anxiety has been affecting your life, I've been feeling the same way recently ☹️ How does it affect me? I can't even have my mind clear and explore what has made me more anxious than usual... I really appreciate that you wrote down all these things, I think it took time and great effort at least for me. The first one on your list is quite interesting, I knew before that I'd missed out on so many things then I kept bookmarking, collecting the books to read, the movies to watch, etc... and now I've realised this behaviour makes me even more anxious, I fully accepted that there are so many good things that I'd never experience.... by now I'm learning to cherish and cheer for the small amount that I already have

I think acceptance is one key point that eased my anxiety to a certain degree... what do you think? I'm picking up this method again to help me. 

[Petal22]

Hi RamonaQ,

Im sorry you are feeling this way.

Intrusive thoughts can be really hard to deal with.

Do you find yourself questioning these thoughts with what if?

I have a lived experience of severe anxiety OCD I was plagued with intrusive thoughts that would send my anxiety into over drive.

I was stuck in a vicious OCD cycle.

Ive now recovered from this condition thanks to the professional help I received.

Please ask me any questions