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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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opuses Strange symptoms. Told it's anxiety but am terrified!
  • replies: 33

Hello, and thankyou all for reading. This is my first post here. I'm at the point of desperate to be reaching out like this. I keep being told by my GP its anxiety but my problem right now is health anxiety so being told to just relax doesn't help. I... View more

Hello, and thankyou all for reading. This is my first post here. I'm at the point of desperate to be reaching out like this. I keep being told by my GP its anxiety but my problem right now is health anxiety so being told to just relax doesn't help. It started a few months ago when I felt a cold spot on my cheek near my ear every day and it freaked me out. It lasted a month and has now been a few weeks since it's gone but in its place I have something worse. The top of my head has cold sensations like someone has put an ice pack on it. The last few days it has also turned to burning and that one can actually hurt a bit. I feel it more when I sit down and if I stand or have a shower or cry like a baby it goes away until I stop again. It really distresses me and only fuels my fear of a tumor or MS. My GP won't send me for a scan as they think nothing is wrong. But something is very wrong when you don't go to work anymore out of fear over what's happening. My GP did prescribe me anxiety medication and I was afraid to take one but I did and 4 hours later I started to feel disconnected, smelled a bushfire but nothing was burning and saw two people walk into my backyard (which I'm not sure happened or not as yet as we do have gardeners that come). But it was odd it all happened at the same time and this sent me into a panic attack and I ended up at the ER. I stopped taking it as anymore physical symptoms, even if normal to the medication, will give me attacks. Right now I am feeling the burning on my head but it's a bit to the right side tonight and along with it I've started feeling the tightness, the tension headache thing. I am terrified that it's a tumor or MS. I might stop doing that for now too. Anyway, am wondering if anyone has experienced these head sensations with anxiety? I find it hard to believe it is anxiety, but I will be the first to admit the last two years for me have been hell emotionally. I also feel like I'm starting to lose my mind, not knowing what's real or not anymore. I read that's common for anxiety but really??? Can someone actually 'lose' it? Like lose your awareness and intellect? That's what it feels like sometimes and now I just break down crying like a baby. It doesn't help that I am totally alone. No family and no friends as such that I can call at a moments notice or stay with me. I only have work acquaintances, so am battling this by myself and I feel it's only getting worse...

Kate17 Anxiety and children
  • replies: 8

Hi, This is the first time I have posted and I feel like it shouldn't be a big issue but I just am not dealing with my children being left out of things. I live in a farming area (which I did not grow up in so am already not in the COOL club). I'm fo... View more

Hi, This is the first time I have posted and I feel like it shouldn't be a big issue but I just am not dealing with my children being left out of things. I live in a farming area (which I did not grow up in so am already not in the COOL club). I'm for most of the time ok being an outsider, even though I rely heavily on friendships (which I basically have none here) but now my children are beinging left out of things such as parties and play dates. I know I, as well as my children are good people we just didn't grow up here and aren't cool enough. The only way I can move is by leaving my husband and at the moment I feel like that might be the only way so my children don't feel as lonely as myself. There isn't much I can change about the situation I just feel like talking to someone

Eyeanxiety Intense visual disturbances - Anxiety?
  • replies: 10

So the past 3 and a half months my vision is seeming to play up quite a lot; distorted vision, blurred, more sensitive to light, tunnel like vision, and visual snow- these on top of what I believe I have known as scotomas. These visual disturbances f... View more

So the past 3 and a half months my vision is seeming to play up quite a lot; distorted vision, blurred, more sensitive to light, tunnel like vision, and visual snow- these on top of what I believe I have known as scotomas. These visual disturbances first happened during a very stressful period where the family dog almost died from a spinal injury and uni exams, mostly one of the class which I needed to repeat. It has been coming in waves ever since then and seems to get a little worse every now and then. I've seen an optometrist, ophthalmologist, go, and recently a neurologist and all say my eyes are structurally healthy but neurologist wrote me a referral for a MRI and Optic field test and wrote in his clinical notes that is a chance of scotomas, anterior optic dysfunction, or retrobulbar/chiasmal lesions in the brain. I've had the MRI though I assume nothing serious was found as no one has contacted me but I want answers for what seems like my declining vision but I'm getting nothing and it's making me more anxious because it's something that can possibly be treated but will possibly become permanent if needed to wait longer.

jmc2 Being told i have anxiety
  • replies: 2

Hi Guys, Looking to see if anyone has had the same or a similar experience to me. In January this year i had what was apparent to be a couple of panic attacks which really threw me. I have never experienced anxiety before and had no idea what was hap... View more

Hi Guys, Looking to see if anyone has had the same or a similar experience to me. In January this year i had what was apparent to be a couple of panic attacks which really threw me. I have never experienced anxiety before and had no idea what was happening to me. I didnt feel anxious, didnt feel as though i was particularly worried or depressed about anything, and this all just came out of the blue, almost like a brain malfunction. After the first attacks, i had extensive testing on everything- heart, MRI, blood tests, neurologist visits, opthamologist, 3 x different GP's etc, all showing that i was perfectly healthy. Everywhere i go i get the same answer which is being told i have an anxiety disorder. Since the initial attacks and being told that i have anxiety, my fear of not knowing what was happening to me has gone away and i no longer have full 'attacks', but it seems now that i have intermittent stages of my symptoms, which ill explain below, that will hang around for a month or so and then completely leave me for a month where i feel 100% When i am in a bad state i cannot place thoughts together. I can't do my work at my job, I feel pressure in my head and feel my breathing become inconsistent, sometimes shallow and short of breath. Lately i have also began to get headaches. There is never a moment or issue that triggers this, i will just wake up one morning feeling fine, then by lunch time get the feeling. It will then hang around for weeks on end and like i said, go away over another month for no apparent reason. I have been put on three different types of anti depressants to try to combat this but all have been ineffective or made me feel worse. Anyone with any help would be greatly appreciated.

no_job_no_money Very very lost in life
  • replies: 4

Hi everyone. I am new to the forum and just want to say my story out. I have been working in my last job for three years. Last week I got terminated from the job because of misconduct. I really regret of what I did, but I don’t think I deserve to be ... View more

Hi everyone. I am new to the forum and just want to say my story out. I have been working in my last job for three years. Last week I got terminated from the job because of misconduct. I really regret of what I did, but I don’t think I deserve to be terminated. Detail of this story is confidential but all that happened was I used the transactions from the store to make some financial benefit from another organisation but I didn’t get any benefit from the store itself. HR advisor called that stealing. I would not have done it if I knew the result of this. I just couldn’t stop thinking about the word stealing even though I know I was not. I am also worry what if anyone else finds out and think I am a “theft”?! Talking about my job and life, I studied a degree in uni (totally not related to retail). I started working as a casual when I was in uni and continued the job as full time after I graduated. I don’t even know what I learnt in uni and feel like wasted many years doing nothing. Now I am trying to look for a new job and every job I look at, I feel that I have no skills that can match. When I look at the options to take traineeship, I see the requirement of “no completion of higher qualification is accepted”, and I just felt worse about the choices I made in the past, why did I even take a degree and why did I wasted so many years in my last job?? And I am still lost and don’t know what type of job i want to or I can do. All my friends got a job in the area they studied, I just think I am so useless. I am from a single family, my mother is such a great mother, she supports everything I do. The more she supports me the more guilty I feel. She spent all these years growing me up and I can’t even earn the money to pay her back or make her feel proud of me. Her friends’ children all got a nice job and able to support the family, but for me, she can’t even say my occupation out loudly to her friends because I only worked in retail. (She still loves me.) I don’t know what I am trying to express here but just want to say this out somewhere. Sorry if these is any grammar mistakes or any sentences not making sense, as you can probably tell my English isn’t that good either. Nothing in my life is good.

bill12345 Anxiety Sore throat
  • replies: 4

Hi, I’ve just graduated high school and am going away for a schoolies weekend trip away tomorrow with my friends and girlfriend to celebrate. I have been diagnosed with mild anxiety and OCD for the last 3 years and due to this, this past week i’ve be... View more

Hi, I’ve just graduated high school and am going away for a schoolies weekend trip away tomorrow with my friends and girlfriend to celebrate. I have been diagnosed with mild anxiety and OCD for the last 3 years and due to this, this past week i’ve been really worried about getting sick because i didn’t want anything to ruin my big weekend. I was washing my hands frequently and always thinking about germs and stuff and a few days ago i started getting weird sensations in my throat which moved onto it being sore and feel weird when i swallow. I am now leaving tomorrow and i’ve been so worried these last couple of days as i can’t work out if i have a throat infection cause it’s the only symptom i have or if this is caused by my health anxiety. I feel filled with anger as i did everything to avoid this and now i seem suspicious that as my throat is sore, that is is caused by my anxiety. The last couple of days i have taken pain relief, strepsils and gargled salt water non stop to hopefully get rid of it but it is still here which is why i don’t understand if i’m sick or it’s anxiety. I so badly just want to forget about it and have a hood weekend but know cause i’ve looked online and researched i worry that i won’t be able to kiss my girlfriend due to my throat and i’ll be constantly thinking about it but i don’t even know if i’m sick. I focus on every swallow now and check if the pain is still there and i can’t get it out of my head, i looked in my throat and saw some lumps but i don’t know if there usually there and then my mind connects with the internet and feels me i’ve got an infection but i just want to enjoy my time away with my gf as mush as i can. I feel like the roof of my mouth is being just constantly pushed and my throat still hurts a bit when i swallow but i just don’t know if it’s anxiety or not. I also have bad allergies so it could be from that but the uncertainty is killing me, sorry for the long post, does anyone else get sore throats from anxiety

SillyBilly Jobless because of anxiety
  • replies: 5

Hi there, I'm new to the forum. I've called myself SillyBilly. I'm pretty ashamed of who I am, but I'm in the process of trying to get help. While other people are unemployed and desperately seeking work, I have snuck through three job interviews thi... View more

Hi there, I'm new to the forum. I've called myself SillyBilly. I'm pretty ashamed of who I am, but I'm in the process of trying to get help. While other people are unemployed and desperately seeking work, I have snuck through three job interviews this year, then my massive social anxiety has lead to me leaving those jobs. I literally ran out the door of one job. I feel like I'm employable, if I could only get through the anxiety, if I could only stop constantly worrying about what other people think about me. It's so bad that I'm even worried what the neighbours think of me, when they see my car still in the driveway all day everyday, never leaving for work. I barely see anyone, I'm too ashamed to tell anyone about my job situation. Every time I see a person I know, I'm either jobless or have a different job to when they last saw me. I feel really embarrassed to be me. And so ashamed. But I am getting help. I have a mental health plan and will see a psychologist. I have started trying to exercise and meditate. I don't really know how to get less anxious with people, or how to stop worrying what other people think, so if anyone has any advice, I'd really appreciate it. I hope that I can be helpful to other people on the forum, too. Once I stopped being scared.

Minitrue Anxiety over relationship status
  • replies: 6

Hi everybody,I am a 26 year old male, have had minor panic/anxiety episodes in the past (approximately 3 years ago was my last panic attack).I got help as soon as the recurring panic attacks started, I got onto an antidepressant for a few years after... View more

Hi everybody,I am a 26 year old male, have had minor panic/anxiety episodes in the past (approximately 3 years ago was my last panic attack).I got help as soon as the recurring panic attacks started, I got onto an antidepressant for a few years after that, and have been off them for a few months now - panic free. CBT helped me get through the distorted perceptions and still does.The last few weeks I've felt really lonely and a tad anxious over the fact that I have been single up until this point. I have had a few dates here and there, but nothing serious. This has never bothered me before, I have achieved a lot of things whilst being single, a lot of positive things.I just can't shake the feeling lately, the yearning to find a partner, it's actually making me anxious, like I'm running out of time or something (which I know is silly). I sometimes find myself having negative self-defeating thoughts, telling myself I'm unattractive or that I give off an aura of 'damaged goods/red flag' to women. Occasionally I'll think I'm not normal, that being 26 and having never been in a relationship is embarrassing, I feel like a kid still. It's beginning to hurt my confidence levels when it comes to approaching a potential partner. Does anybody have some suggestions as to how to deal with these feelings? I'm finding it hard to decide whether this is just a normal phase of life or whether I've let my anxiety hijack a normal urge and take it too far..Thanks

kody_love guilt from anxiety affecting partner
  • replies: 5

Does anyone else feel guilty when their anxiety interferes with their relationship or their ability to decipher what is/isn't a 'big deal'? For those interested, here's my story - I'll try keep it brief. My boyfriend and I began dating after I had a ... View more

Does anyone else feel guilty when their anxiety interferes with their relationship or their ability to decipher what is/isn't a 'big deal'? For those interested, here's my story - I'll try keep it brief. My boyfriend and I began dating after I had a serious downturn in my anxiety disorder due to medication aggravating it. Just being together seems to aggravate my anxiety too - as if my anxiety has a new toy to play with, a new tool to twist and turn in my mind to make me suffer. I feel very guilty every time I bring up an issue with my partner (i.e., things I wish he would do more of, less of, things he does that upset me etc). Our talks are always genuinely calm and a real discussion, never angry. I feel like many of these concerns are valid and legit - but sometimes I second-guess myself, my brain gets muddy, and I lose sight of whether they are genuinely valid or if my anxiety is blowing them out of proportion. Due to my I uncertainty, I end up feeling extremely guilty for bothering him with these things. I asked him recently if he felt like I was always on his case. He replied 'no, but it (the talks) does seem like a long-running thing.' Which is true. And I feel a pang of guilt for this - even though I genuinely believe many, if not all, of these concerns are valid.

Catie 08 Fear of failure
  • replies: 6

Hi, I suffer with ptsd but I'm just starting to realise that I also have a fear of failure. Last week I couldn't work as I was looking at what was in front of me and felt completely overwhelmed. The anxiety kicked in, I couldn't concentrate and I cou... View more

Hi, I suffer with ptsd but I'm just starting to realise that I also have a fear of failure. Last week I couldn't work as I was looking at what was in front of me and felt completely overwhelmed. The anxiety kicked in, I couldn't concentrate and I could hardly breath. I feel that if I fail I will disappoint people and for me disappointment is the very worst thing. The feeling has been getting worse over that past few months and I'm scared that I won't be able to work and therefore wont have money to put food on the table. I'm sure there has to be others out there dealing with this... I would love to hear about other people's experiences and methods of treating this. Thanks, Catie08