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Anxiety

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Chris_B Forums etiquette: give support to receive support
  • replies: 0

Hi everyone, particularly any new members who may be reading. From time to time, we get contacted by members who are unhappy that they haven’t received a lot of replies to their posts. Our community champions work very hard to make sure that all newb... View more

Hi everyone, particularly any new members who may be reading. From time to time, we get contacted by members who are unhappy that they haven’t received a lot of replies to their posts. Our community champions work very hard to make sure that all newbies are welcomed when they first post, and we understand that it’s a big step to post for the first time on a forum like this, especially if you aren’t feeling great. It’s important to remember, though, that these forums are a community of real people, just like you, not a one-on-one support environment like going to see your psychologist. To get the best out of being here, one of the best tips we can offer is give support to receive support. Being a good community member means: participating in different threads (not just your own), replying to people who have taken the time to reply to you (even if it’s just to say thank you), and... posting words of emotional support and encouragement when you see others who are hurting and reaching out. You don’t have to feel obliged to solve the problems of others: that’s not what we’re here for. But you can offer empathy and what you’ve learned from your own life experiences, even if it’s just a line or two, eg. “I don't know what to say, but I want to give you my support and tell you I care about what is happening to you and hope life will get better soon.” Try to develop an interest in the journeys of others here on the forums. You may be surprised at how good being an active, caring member here can make you feel. For those of you who have had good experiences giving support here on the forums, please post in this thread here and let us know how it has helped you on your journey.

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dean_TSO Outsider
  • replies: 4

Hi maybe some background to wear I’m at I’m 58 unemployed married wife is on a disability pension because of a severe spinal deformation. I’m reliant on the unemployment benefit to support myself. I’ve lived with depression and social anxiety as long... View more

Hi maybe some background to wear I’m at I’m 58 unemployed married wife is on a disability pension because of a severe spinal deformation. I’m reliant on the unemployment benefit to support myself. I’ve lived with depression and social anxiety as long as I can remember first suicidal attempt grade 7 drug overdose 2 weeks in hospital. I managed to avoid antidepressants until my early fifties. I’m currently taking a low dose. My problem is that I’m sick of fighting my demons just to participate in society I would prefer to isolate myself as much as possible and try and live my life in peace and quit but how can I do that if I still reliant on the outside world for my income etc.

Awhina24 Constant nightmares and sense of dread
  • replies: 5

Hi all I'm having a really tough time at the moment For the last couple of weeks I've been having nightmares almost all night, waking up drenched in sweat and shaking. The nightmares are mainly focused around war starting, nuclear bombs dropping or t... View more

Hi all I'm having a really tough time at the moment For the last couple of weeks I've been having nightmares almost all night, waking up drenched in sweat and shaking. The nightmares are mainly focused around war starting, nuclear bombs dropping or the world basically ending in various ways. The sense of dread stays with me throughout the day, I'm really struggling to hold myself together and break down in tears a lot. I've stopped reading the news (reading one article about nuclear war seemed to trigger this) but all day I just feel like I'm waiting for it to happen. I'm terrified for my son's future and extremely scared that if bombs don't destroy the world then climate change will. I spend hours trying to calm myself down, I've talked to a therapist through telehealth who mainly focused on me being homesick (I'm a Kiwi living in Aus with no family here) and gave me some breathing exercises. It helped a little to talk but now a few days later I'm a nervous wreck again. It's really effected my life and ability to function, last week my husband had to do basically everything at home and take time off work as I was a shaking mess. My doctor has suggested trying meds, I took one and it knocked me out for the whole day, having a 3 year old to look after means I cannot risk being so out of it and I cannot take any time of work to try get through the initial side effects. I really don't know what to do at this point. I'm so scared that humanity is going to destroy itself and I can't stop these horrible thoughts and nightmares.

Slippers anticipatory anxiety
  • replies: 5

Hi everyone, I hope you are well.In the past four months the RBA has increased the interest rate 4 times. While I am working I am starting to struggle making ends meet. I am stressed about what happens if or when I cannot afford my mortgage, eat and ... View more

Hi everyone, I hope you are well.In the past four months the RBA has increased the interest rate 4 times. While I am working I am starting to struggle making ends meet. I am stressed about what happens if or when I cannot afford my mortgage, eat and save some money. The indications are that the Reserve Bank with put up interest rates again next month, I am not looking for to a possible increase and a letter that my mortgage has gone up again. I am new to mortgages, I don’t know what my potential options are.I am thankful that I am able to sleep okay at night, I find weekends hard as I have free time to ruminate possible scenarios, I try and get as much sleep on the weekends simply because I am tired and two I can forget my troubles for a few hours. I have family, but it seems every time we speak I have to initiate the conversation, and I am getting sick of it. They demand I call them. Any advice or guide you can share would be good. I am okay for the moment but I look at the future and worry, they call it anticipatory anxiety

reverend Anxiety
  • replies: 2

I suffer from anxiety obsessive compulsive disorder I always feel a need to cough so o cough my lungs out every second of the day 24/7 and it’s very tiring physically I feel like I’m gonna die I realy need help

I suffer from anxiety obsessive compulsive disorder I always feel a need to cough so o cough my lungs out every second of the day 24/7 and it’s very tiring physically I feel like I’m gonna die I realy need help

Bailey98_ Tips on learning to deal with anxiety on a daily basis
  • replies: 5

Hello everyone. I just wanted to come on here, and to get peoples advice & opinion. I have bad anxiety. And I'm still learning ways & trying to change my overall thinking and how I look at things & to not stress over the littlest things. One time it ... View more

Hello everyone. I just wanted to come on here, and to get peoples advice & opinion. I have bad anxiety. And I'm still learning ways & trying to change my overall thinking and how I look at things & to not stress over the littlest things. One time it was so bad that I didn't sleep for nearly a week. But I went and seek professional help. And I'm glad I did. Steps on working on myself and taming care of my mental health. But I'm on night time tablets. I take that every night. But I don't know, it's like when it comes to bed - time, my body is tired but my mind is still overthinking. When it comes to bed time I turn white noise music, trying to teach myself good healthy ways for bed-time. And I switched my caffeine, I don't drink caffeine no more. I only drink camoile tea & caffeine free tea. Can someone gives me tips please. To somehow give my mind a break when it comes to bed time.

Wild_Westerner Quit a job I was doing well at due to anxiety. Anyone else?
  • replies: 12

Hi everyone, first time really sharing my mental health struggles here. So I've struggled with anxiety since childhood, specifically social and general anxiety plus depression as well. Over the years I've seen a number of counsellors, psychologists a... View more

Hi everyone, first time really sharing my mental health struggles here. So I've struggled with anxiety since childhood, specifically social and general anxiety plus depression as well. Over the years I've seen a number of counsellors, psychologists and psychiastrists for my condition and made progress even though it has been uneven. Unfortunately upon graduating uni and starting full time work I've struggled a lot. My first full time role was in sales which was awful. I hated picking up the phone to make sales and did not perform well. It caused a relapse of my anxiety for the first time in years. In any case I handed in my resignation and was allowed to leave without notice. I was depressed for a few months but got on antidepressants which helped me get back up again. I convinced myself that I only relapsed because the job was the 'wrong fit' and proceeded to focus more on looking for jobs related to my degree in marketing. I eventually I got a job at a marketing agency and was doing really well, I still had anxiety but it was manageable. I was at a decent company and the work load and environment was chill so I never felt like overwhelmed. I was so confident that I stopped seeing my psychologist and taking my medication. I then moved to another agency into a more client facing role, I had my anxieties but was doing well initially. This was until the workload and number of clients given to me was too much to handle and I began to doubt my abilities... I was hesitant to bring this up with my manager due to mental health stigma even though they would have been understanding. I started to worry again as all my symptoms were coming back to the point where I could hardly concentrate on work tasks. This time I knew I was screwed as I was doing well in the job but my anxiety still came back. It was so bad I had to quit with little notice. It's been more than a month since that, I've gotten a lot better but the thought of working again is terrifying as I don't want to be overwhelmed and relapse again. I'm now back on medication and seeing a new psychologist. Anyone else have a similar experience? Would love to hear your situation and how you handled it

Yui_Nakano How to manage anxiety when none of the techniques work
  • replies: 7

Hey everyone,I've been dealing with anxiety and depression most of my life but due to recent changes its getting so much worse. I've been trying the tactics taught in Mycompass and breathing but none of them seem to help. when I'm alone or with my pa... View more

Hey everyone,I've been dealing with anxiety and depression most of my life but due to recent changes its getting so much worse. I've been trying the tactics taught in Mycompass and breathing but none of them seem to help. when I'm alone or with my parents I get a creeping anxiety that doesn't stop building and I start feeling a crushing loneliness and feelings I'm not wanted, the only way to stop it is to talk to friends but their often busy and are so so far away from me. I've been fighting my flight response since I know if I run I'm not going to survive but living like this everyday is killing me. I'm booked to see a psych this Saturday but it feels so far away and I don't know how long I can deal with these feelings. I just want to feel loved I don't want to feel isolated and alone anymore.

june_03 crushing expectations of myself
  • replies: 8

Hifor as long as I can remember I have had very high standards of myself. It is a quality I admire but it also ruins my life. I'm still in high school but I feel like I never got to be young because I stress so much and have so much anxiety over bein... View more

Hifor as long as I can remember I have had very high standards of myself. It is a quality I admire but it also ruins my life. I'm still in high school but I feel like I never got to be young because I stress so much and have so much anxiety over being responsible and a 'good kid'. I physically cannot deal with failing at things. If I get 100% on a test I do not feel excited, I only feel relief. I struggle to play sports because I have this need to always be good at it and I can't handle being bad at something. Nothing I do is ever good enough for me. I have a very supportive network of people so that's not an issue. it's just so engrained in me to perform well. and i feel as though I have set an expectation of being at the top that I'm afraid to fail. Even at work I can't relax because I'm so scared that I'll mess something up. My psychologist always says that I have exceedingly high expectations of myself and well she's right. The bar I have set is always impossible for me to reach. I just want to be okay with failure. I put my all into everything and it's exhausting. If I had to I'd study until I drop and I dont think that's okay. Anyway I just want to know how I can live more freely. I feel like I'm holding myself back and hurting myself. any tips on how to survive highschool with this mindset. Or anyone struggle with the same thing? -june

BanditBear Do I have ADHD?
  • replies: 1

I'm 16 female and at the start of this year the thought had never crossed my mind, but after my Mum jokingly said that she's always thought i'm a bit ADHD, it got me thinking. At the time i had never been exposed to ADHD, i had no idea what i might m... View more

I'm 16 female and at the start of this year the thought had never crossed my mind, but after my Mum jokingly said that she's always thought i'm a bit ADHD, it got me thinking. At the time i had never been exposed to ADHD, i had no idea what i might mean to have it, so naturally i got curious and looked into it. On every online test i've taken i have received results such as 'strong indications of ADHD', and looking back I'm surprised that i never realised that something might be wrong earlier. I constantly zone out during conversations, i lose items WAY to easily, i constantly fidget in class, and don't even get me started on starting and completing activities. I've always felt different than my siblings, both are older than me and have been perfectly fine in school, nothing seemed to affect them as i have been affected. I noticed that the subjects i enjoyed i would fixate on so much more than anything else, especially art. I've gone whole days not eating or drinking as i am too fixated on a project, but with other subjects (especially math) i try really hard to focus and understand what is happening, but i end up completely zoning out and missing details or i just can't focus on doing the questions. After nearly a year of suspecting that i might have ADHD i asked my mum not once, but twice if we could get me tested. She said it was too expensive (and truthfully, it is) and that it's probably not worth it as, even if i had it, as the medication is not always good and there is no real gain from knowing that you have it as it wouldn't really change anything. As much as i respect and love my mum i feel that she is wrong in this decision. I have no knowledge on what treatments there even are for ADHD, but i suspect that by knowing i can get needed support and even if it doesn't at least i know that these 'symptoms' are not just me being lazy (I'm plagued by this thought). I told my sister about wanting to get an ADHD test as well, but she said the same things and also said that if i did i would probably use it as an excuse for some things. These discussions have shut down any confidence i have in talking to anyone about this, especially in person, thus why I am writing this. I don't know where to go from here. I'm worried that even if i get tested i won't end up having ADHD and then i'll just be embarrassed for having these symptoms and not having ADHD. Honestly, i need advise on what to do.

Rach93 Facial numbness
  • replies: 6

Does anyone get facial numbness randomly especially on the cheek area near your nose? I get it even when I’m not feeling anxious can this be a anxiety or stress thing and does anyone experience it frequently?

Does anyone get facial numbness randomly especially on the cheek area near your nose? I get it even when I’m not feeling anxious can this be a anxiety or stress thing and does anyone experience it frequently?