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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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James54 anxiety about injury
  • replies: 4

Hi guys, I’m james and i’m 17, i have struggle with high anxiety and OCD for notebooks thant 3 years now and i just wanted to reach out that today at school i got hit in the head with a basketball not too hard but it was a fair knock. There is no bru... View more

Hi guys, I’m james and i’m 17, i have struggle with high anxiety and OCD for notebooks thant 3 years now and i just wanted to reach out that today at school i got hit in the head with a basketball not too hard but it was a fair knock. There is no bruise or lump or anything it’s just that the internet has got me really worried because my head is of course a bit sore but i’ve heard about brain bleeds i worry that that is what is going on because my head is sore and i start feeling the symptoms but i don’t know if there real or not please help

Bennyboy10 Digestive issues
  • replies: 4

Hi Does anyone suffer with chronic digestive issues due to anxiety?

Hi Does anyone suffer with chronic digestive issues due to anxiety?

charlotte2 i just feel trapped in my thoughts
  • replies: 4

i'm scared. im only 14 and i have these horrible, horrible thoughts that aren't even my voice. it's like that voice is a whole new person and it's not how I think. my inner me is screaming to be let out but, these thoughts are taking over. they are s... View more

i'm scared. im only 14 and i have these horrible, horrible thoughts that aren't even my voice. it's like that voice is a whole new person and it's not how I think. my inner me is screaming to be let out but, these thoughts are taking over. they are something I would never think about. something I would never do and it's definetely not how I feel. i just want it to stop and I feel like I'm drowning and there's no way out. I've told my parents before but they thought it would just go away and it did for a bit so they didnt do anything about it. I havent told them that it's come back though. And I'm so scared of this person that I've become. I just want to be the bubbly girl who wasn't like this.

Dani1019 I Need Help Getting Help
  • replies: 6

Ive been thinking about getting help with my anxiety and possibly depression for a while. I know that I need to speak to my GP about it and make up a "Mental Health Care Plan", but I'm anxious about doing that. Has anyone been through this process be... View more

Ive been thinking about getting help with my anxiety and possibly depression for a while. I know that I need to speak to my GP about it and make up a "Mental Health Care Plan", but I'm anxious about doing that. Has anyone been through this process before? Can you please tell me about your experience? How did it go? What did you have to do?

xhypervigilantx Longterm Generalised Anxiety Disorder Sufferer
  • replies: 2

Hi everyone I'm new here :), I just thought I'd create this thread to chat with people who have had similar experiences so we can help eachother through! I'm a 19-year-old female who has been living with anxiety for as long as I can remember. It was ... View more

Hi everyone I'm new here :), I just thought I'd create this thread to chat with people who have had similar experiences so we can help eachother through! I'm a 19-year-old female who has been living with anxiety for as long as I can remember. It was quite obvious from around the age of 8 years old I had anxiety and as I got older it advanced and developed into the physical symptoms, which was absolutely terrifying for an 11-year-old as every day I thought I was going to die. It came in severely destructive stages which was almost immobilising for me and it stopped me from doing things I had always loved and transformed me from being a usually very cheerful and positive person into someone extremely fragile and different. As I got older the physical symptoms always popped up again in stages and I saw a psychologist after it got extremely bad one time but I didn't think it was working extremely well for me and I eventually grew out of the phase as time went on. What also really affected me is that no one took it seriously or understood why a kid who had a good life was behaving this way because no one expected me to have anxiety. However I was lucky because even though my parents didn't completely understand they tried to get support for me and help me! But for a child who had no idea what was happening to my body, panic attacks at that age was one of my scariest experiences to date! Although I wouldn't change having it from a young age as it taught me so much and allowed me to help others as I got older. However, as I became older and was aware that it was anxiety after being diagnosed, came an excessive amount of anger and frustration when another phase started because I knew nothing was wrong but it was out of my control, which I think a lot of people have misinterpretations about this element of anxiety because you can not simply "calm down" or just "get over it." It still always comes in phases, especially if it concerns health as I definitely suffer from health anxiety or hypochondriasis which often rules my life and still refrains me from doing some things which I want to go and seek some type of support from! So if anyone has had similar experiences or just wants to chat please feel free to do so! Or if anyone has any recommendations that would also be greatly appreciated! Thank you and I hope everyone is well! -H

44Max44 Social anxiety is torture
  • replies: 4

So today I went to my best friend's Dad's birthday party that I was invited to a couple of weeks back. I told my best mate that I was hyped for it and keen to drink a lot and have a good time, but really I was super nervous for it, I could hardly sle... View more

So today I went to my best friend's Dad's birthday party that I was invited to a couple of weeks back. I told my best mate that I was hyped for it and keen to drink a lot and have a good time, but really I was super nervous for it, I could hardly sleep, my heart was racing the entire walk to his house, and I was dreading it if I'm honest. My mindset was as long as I drink enough my anxiety will go away and I'll have a good time, it's worked for all the parties I've gone to before this so why wouldn't it this time? Anyways, I get to his house, all is well and good, and I go to mix my first drink. I was mixing it on top of this big keg that his Dad had restored not too long before and didn't want to get dirty, but all of a sudden his dog jumps up onto the keg with her front paws and knocks the drink over. Great, now I'm at least partially responsible for getting coke all over this keg that his Dad doesn't want to get dirty, and on his birthday no less. I know it wasn't my fault that his dog jumped up and knocked it over, but I still feel really guilty. I hate being the centre of attention and my drink getting knocked over made me exactly that (at least in my mind). To top it off, my friend then had to spend 10-15 minutes just wiping the keg off and soaking up all the drink. I felt so bad but couldn't even muster up an "I'm sorry" or "No let me clean it up" because my anxiety is that bad. Anyways, after that, I couldn't get that out of my mind. I kept replaying it over and over thinking that my friend was mad at me or something because of the drink, even though he probably wasn't and knew it was an accident. I ended up 'going to the toilet' several times to just sit on it on it mindlessly doing stuff on my phone, because anything was better than having to socialize. I suck at it so bad and am always so awkward it drives me nuts. I made it a grand total of 2 hours before I made up an excuse of "I'm going to buy more drinks to mix with" when in reality I was just going home. I feel like utter trash lying to my best friend but I just can't take it. I needed to find a way out of there. I'm writing this not even 5 minutes after getting home because I just need to get it off my chest. On the walk home I was on the verge of tears and when I finally got home I couldn't hold them back. I hate it so much. At this point I'm not sure what to do. I want to message my friend and be honest with him and tell him why I left, but I don't want him to think badly of me.

Sam124 What Now?
  • replies: 3

Hi. This is a post a long time in the making... to summarise I've been on a downward rollercoaster for over 16 years (29, male). I'm still not sure what's pushed me to go ahead, but if I was to guess, I would say it's the heightened focus on mental h... View more

Hi. This is a post a long time in the making... to summarise I've been on a downward rollercoaster for over 16 years (29, male). I'm still not sure what's pushed me to go ahead, but if I was to guess, I would say it's the heightened focus on mental health-particularly, the "Listen Days" on Triple M-that's led me to finally say my piece. The guts of my problem is that I'm about as social as Stephen Hawking was an Olympian; while I've had social groups over the years, it's always gone south-in most times through my own fault than others. This is intertwined with my extreme level of negative thinking. At any time of day, my mind can be bombarded with negative memories, as early as embarrassing myself in my 4th grade school concert to as recent as the most minuscule factor my most recent social interaction. While I have a loving family, they are very... 'old school', and my struggles with my sexuality as well as a construed thinking that I can never make my parents "proud of me" prevent me from ever making a proper connection with them in the (foreseeable) future. As for love, I lost the one woman I ever loved due to my own paranoia, and I feel the one man I've loved will simply never understand my predicament. Lastly, while I firmly believe I am good at my work, my social ineptitude has led to me being in dire employment straits in the near future. Please understand, I've 'tried'; I've done the psychology, I've done the CPT, I've tried prescription medicine. I'm ashamed to say I have 'given up' for at least the last 18 months; I am stuck in a purgatory of procrastination... and, ashamedly, other medication (the only thing that has allowed me to sleep at night for the past five years without the preceding hours being filled with dark thoughts). I am not sure what I am looking for in this post; part of me is just looking for someone who I can relate to privately without judgement, part of me is looking for some miraculous solution for it all, part of me thinks while the public has paid more attention to mental health recently (thanks to a global pandemic and prominent Australians succumbing to mental health in the past few years, properly starting with Danny Frawley and most recently Shane Tuck) ALL the "aids" suggest the first step is to talk to a FRIEND. Well, I have no friends I can talk to, so here I am. What now?

Lost_Girl1 Can't move on
  • replies: 2

3 years ago my ex left me because 'he didnt love me anymore'. I later found out that he had cheated on me with his workmates and used me to save money to buy the house that was supposed to be for us. It was a 5 year relationship that I put everything... View more

3 years ago my ex left me because 'he didnt love me anymore'. I later found out that he had cheated on me with his workmates and used me to save money to buy the house that was supposed to be for us. It was a 5 year relationship that I put everything I had into as I had never loved someone like that before. Since then my life had never been the same. He broke me and I am so ashamed I ever let myself be in that situation. I havent been able to open up to anyone because I dont feel I cant trust them. I'm 33 and feel like I have missed out on my life, kids and the possibility of ever loving someone again. I feel like every man who talks to me is just going to lie to me, and I dont approach anyone because I feel like they're going to get bored of me and use me. Its so hard watching all of my friends and family get married and have kids, and then there's me still alone and nothing to show in life. I dont know what to do and its breaking me more. I feel like I've lost a part of myself and I dont know how to get her back. How do I get past these feelings of never being good enough? How do I trust anyone again? How do I trust their intentions for me? The only time I feel strong is when I'm at work, outside of work I go back inside my shell and just pass time until I go back to work. I really dont know what to do anymore and I'm tired of crying.

michael9318 Wasted my life
  • replies: 10

I'm 27 and haven't been employed since I was 17. The period between 2011 and 2016 was a complete waste, I was depressed and too anxious to do anything with my life so I just stayed home. Then at the start of 2017 when I was finally going to get every... View more

I'm 27 and haven't been employed since I was 17. The period between 2011 and 2016 was a complete waste, I was depressed and too anxious to do anything with my life so I just stayed home. Then at the start of 2017 when I was finally going to get everything together my mum died and that knocked me back, then the start of this year was meant to be the year I get it all together, start uni (bachelor of IT), make friends there and all that. Covid hit and my uni was put online but a mixture of anxiety about studying and anxiety over now having it online made me end up skipping term 1. Term 2 starts soon but the anxiety and panic attacks are back again and I don't think I'm mentally capable of studying, so this will be yet another wasted year. I'm 27. Unemployed for almost a decade, basically unemployable at this point. Never got my driver's licence due to not being able to handle the stress of that and now it's even harder. I've missed out on so much in my life because of my anxiety, I've never even had a girlfriend of any kind. I'm stuck living with my grandparents since I can't afford to move out and get on with my life or even at least provide for them. I'm thinking of studying a certificate III in health services assistance in the hopes of being a hospital orderly or something like that now, I'm hoping I could at least be capable of doing something like that. Depending on how studying that goes I might try a diploma or even bachelor degree in nursing. I just know things would be so much easier if I had my mum here to talk to, she was like a friend to me and helped make things clearer for me. I know I need to get help for both my anxiety and depression but I'm just too scared to turn to anyone for help and I don't know what to do. I'm sorry if I put this in the wrong spot, I'm not really in a good spot at the moment and I need to vent.

Marasheedy07 Itchy crawly skin
  • replies: 4

Hey guys, I’ve suffered anxiety on and off for a long time. Recently for the last 5 days or so I’ve had this itchy, crawly, prickly skin kind of thing, it’s not constant but it’s been rather bad today, google makes everything worse of course, does an... View more

Hey guys, I’ve suffered anxiety on and off for a long time. Recently for the last 5 days or so I’ve had this itchy, crawly, prickly skin kind of thing, it’s not constant but it’s been rather bad today, google makes everything worse of course, does anyone else get this or had this and stuff and what do you do to ease it if so? Thanks x