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Anxiety

Anxiety is the most common mental health condition in Australia. Share your own story and learn about other member’s experiences with anxiety.

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BeyondBlue Hi! Check out this post if you're not sure how to start
  • replies: 0

Hi there and welcome to the Anxiety section of the Forums First of all, thank you so much for joining us here. We think it’s amazing that you’ve taken this step to getting support and learning from this Community. You are very welcome here and we are... View more

Hi there and welcome to the Anxiety section of the Forums First of all, thank you so much for joining us here. We think it’s amazing that you’ve taken this step to getting support and learning from this Community. You are very welcome here and we are really interested in what you might want to add to these conversations. We get it, having anxiety makes it hard to share in a public place. Remember, this is anonymous and the Beyond Blue team are here to help if you need it This section is for people who are experiencing anxiety in some form in their lives. This might be in social settings, at work, or just in the day to day. You don’t need a diagnosis to post here. If it feels like the right spot for your post, go right ahead! We know that feeling anxious can make it hard to reach out so we want you to know that getting this far is amazing and a great start. A few tips for getting the most out of this section: Get involved when you can! Posting and replying is the heartbeat of this community and you DO have something worthwhile to share (when you’re ready ) Every experience is different. There is no competition here. We know how challenging anxiety can be and how it comes in all shapes and sizes. What you are experiencing will be respected and supported here. Trust yourself! You are the expert in your experience. This community works because people like you share what has worked for you. Thank you for getting involved and taking a look. We can’t wait to hear from you! Beyond Blue

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Guest_11438242 Anxiety in workplace
  • replies: 2

Hey All, been having severe panic attacks whilst at work to the extent of needing additional medication to calm down and function on an auto pilot mode. my employers are aware of my condition and I am very upfront when panic attacks take place. the t... View more

Hey All, been having severe panic attacks whilst at work to the extent of needing additional medication to calm down and function on an auto pilot mode. my employers are aware of my condition and I am very upfront when panic attacks take place. the trigger to this happening occurs when I am made to feel my best is not enough, and my workload is publicly and often scrutinised by my manager. I have spoken several times about how this affects me to my manager as well as their manager. When this happens things settle for a week or so but then the negative culture and remarks start back up again. i just got back from a week of leave and lasted one day before a severe panic attack occurred due to my managers communication to me.I feel I am at the end of my rope, I’ve tried communicating how I’m going, “letting it go” and “just get on with it” and that the only viable option for my health and wellbeing now is to resign as I can’t cope with the workload and culture.aside from my manager, I love my job and working alongside my other colleagues but I’ve given just over a year to see adequate change within the management styles. has anyone been through something similar? What did you do?

WishyBee Spiralling with trivial thoughts
  • replies: 12

I’m hoping someone might have some insight or advice if they have dealt with similar issues to me.I seem to be most affected by trivial mistakes I have made in my life. I am triggered by a small remark (the worst if it comes from a stranger) somethin... View more

I’m hoping someone might have some insight or advice if they have dealt with similar issues to me.I seem to be most affected by trivial mistakes I have made in my life. I am triggered by a small remark (the worst if it comes from a stranger) something like “please move you’re blocking the exit” or a car horn tooting at me will send me spiralling into continuous negative thoughts and over analysing. This will also bring up a lot of trivial mistakes from my past, some mistakes I think about are from when I was a small child, so time doesn’t seem to lessen the affects of these incidents, they just accumulate. I know logically that these remarks/incidents are mostly meaningless and sometimes nothing to do with me personally, but the way I feel about them is utterly devastating. If I try and share these thoughts with family and friends I really start to give myself a hard time to the point where I feel suicidal. I have no control over when or what I will be triggered by or how long I will be agonising over these things. Sometimes I could be feeling this way for ten minutes, sometimes it’s for days. I cannot sleep during these times and I get by on autopilot as the thoughts are all consuming. I have had plenty of traumatic events and major problems in life that I don’t agonise over it’s only the insignificant things that seem to affect me. Has anyone else experienced this or found an effective coping strategy?

Mic_Quid Getting the right help
  • replies: 3

Hi everyone, I'm not sure if this is the right discussion forum for this but I thought I would have a go and find out. I've had anxiety for a long time, probably all of my life. I have seen psychologists and have some strategies that allow me to mana... View more

Hi everyone, I'm not sure if this is the right discussion forum for this but I thought I would have a go and find out. I've had anxiety for a long time, probably all of my life. I have seen psychologists and have some strategies that allow me to manage the symptoms. However the underlying anxiety still remains and rears its ugly head from time to time. I have also had some issues with frustration/anger, being quick to get quite frustrated and upset/angry. I think it's related to feeling anxious and a "bandwith" issue if that makes sense. It's something I have been working on and I thought I had been doing well until an incident yesterday. So essentially, I feel like I need some help in being able to not get so frustrated. I've read some things about taking deep breaths and counting backwards and the like but that would require a presence of mind that I don't know I had in that instance. Can anyone suggest how I can approach this? Is it a go see a Dr and get a mental health plan thing or are there other groups I can reach out to?

JacintaMarie Hi had bad thoughts
  • replies: 7

HiHow are you? I've been going okay, but at work, I've been getting an inner feeling that my management isn't very good & this afternoon, I did something wrong, which triggered me. I feel bad that I'm thinking this. I'm the only one. I think everyone... View more

HiHow are you? I've been going okay, but at work, I've been getting an inner feeling that my management isn't very good & this afternoon, I did something wrong, which triggered me. I feel bad that I'm thinking this. I'm the only one. I think everyone just accepts that their normal & my bloody mind doesn't! I don't trust my inner feelings anymore. How do you know if its anxiety or your warning? Another bad thing is sometimes I feel my management is all show & no substance. I'm terrible for thinking this, to be fair, my grandmother is also abit like that, looks nice but no substance. She can't help it, it's who she is. I am glad my brain isn't like that, bur sometimes I wish I could fit in. They just give me "weird" looks, though this is my anxiety I guess. I'm a terrible person for saying this! I cannot ever tell this to my management, they'll be horrified! Also, my team leader, I'm not very good at communicating with her, work stuff I just cant talk right, others are fine but I'm crap, but non work stuff, is okay. I learnt, I think, she's the type of person, where she's always right, as long as she's right, no problem. I am a horrible person! Thanks for letting me rant!

Fzyy Health anxiety!
  • replies: 5

Hello, Im sure other people suffer from health anxiety and I do too, and it’s really bad. Considering my age, I’m very young but even the tiniest throb, headache, cough worries me and it’s draining me faster and worse than my own health can. It’s ext... View more

Hello, Im sure other people suffer from health anxiety and I do too, and it’s really bad. Considering my age, I’m very young but even the tiniest throb, headache, cough worries me and it’s draining me faster and worse than my own health can. It’s extremely scary and I can’t seem to find people with similar constant Symptoms that come with their anxiety, no matter how much research I do so I’m convinced it’s something bad. Which makes me feel unmotivated to do absolutely anything, I leave things to the very last minute and I can’t even keep up with basic hygiene because I feel like there’s no use, also makes me feel awful. When I do get random boosts of motivation (rarely) or feel like I can calm down, I immediately can’t anymore, I tense up or get even slightly anxious that something bad will happen after that and that’s the only reason I was allowed to be “normal” for a bit, so I leave that and force myself to feel more down and empty, But in general everything feels meaningless at the same time. If anyone feels similar I’d love for a reply!

Butterfly20 Anxiety/sleepless nights over school
  • replies: 1

I have always been anxious and an extreme overthinker as well as having fear over making wrong decisions. recently my fear and anxiety have been over choosing schools for my child. Im deciding between 2 schools that he got offers for. They are simila... View more

I have always been anxious and an extreme overthinker as well as having fear over making wrong decisions. recently my fear and anxiety have been over choosing schools for my child. Im deciding between 2 schools that he got offers for. They are similar but also different in some ways. One day i sway more toward one and then next day the other and one day im in between. U keep thinking which would be a better fit, where would he be happier etc. then i worry about him finding nice friends, fitting in, what if he gets bullied for some readon, will he like/not like school and how to tackle that etc. also he may need to do afterschool care for few days a week and im worried that will be too much to handle. i am so worried as the wrong choice can have an impact on him and his future. i just wish someone could tell me which is best for him but no one can, as we cant predict future. i think my anxiety stems from my school experience. I had to change 3 primary schools due to parents moving. i found it difficult to find friends as i was shy and socially awkward. I was also bullied at some points. Now all of this is surfacing and i so dont want my child to experience the same. i just dont know what to do, how to overcome this, stop overthinking and decide.

geelt Fear and making excuses
  • replies: 6

Fear prevents me from taking meaningful action. I don't want to keep living on auto-pilot and wasting away. I keep fumbling and making bad choices. Never got a job while in school, never got my 'P's, dropped out of University and I don't have any har... View more

Fear prevents me from taking meaningful action. I don't want to keep living on auto-pilot and wasting away. I keep fumbling and making bad choices. Never got a job while in school, never got my 'P's, dropped out of University and I don't have any hard or soft skills. After a year of job searching and no success I can't keep things the way they are. I don't want to wallow in self-pity. I never capitalized on any opportunities, haven't grown as a person or matured. I hate how I speak and type, I feel so stupid and sound so dumb I feel that everyone I talk to treats me like I'm sub-human. I don't want to be treated like an idiot but I haven't done anything that makes me human. I did a traineeship in retail, felt more confident in myself while doing so. Got sick for a week right after it ended and it felt like everything I did went away and I fumbled and did laughably bad for an interview I had while I was starting to get better. It's like was back at square one. I can't make excuses or blame anyone I didn't meet their requirements and didn't get the job as a result. It was a mix of stress, recovering from sickness and desperation for getting a job after all the pressure all these wasted years doing nothing. Its not the first interview I've been to.I overthink everything I doIt shouldn't have affected me that much, I know I should stop living in the past but going back to the job searching process, going through the employment agency again scares me. I'm too scared to study go to university or do a trade. I don't have confidence in myself. At this rate I won't find a job because I can't go one week without questioning everything.Being told by the psychologist to find a career I want to do instead of trying to find work after I've spent the past 4 years realising im getting nowhere trying to finda career I want to do when all im doing is worrying about what career i want to do.No one wants to hire a sub human who cant talkcivilized. I want to stop worrying stop regretting every action I do

kaityo1 OCD anxiety
  • replies: 1

Hi all, I was diagnosed with OCD at the beginning of the year, I have sought help and continue to seek help through a GP, psychiatrist, psychologist and naturopath. I also take medication. I’ve got all the right steps in place, but I still get this o... View more

Hi all, I was diagnosed with OCD at the beginning of the year, I have sought help and continue to seek help through a GP, psychiatrist, psychologist and naturopath. I also take medication. I’ve got all the right steps in place, but I still get this overwhelming feeling of things not getting better as the content I’m obsessing and distressed about involves the most disturbing thoughts I can think of (they send me into instant disgust and panic) and uncertainty as to whether these events have happened in real life and happened frequently (a lot of self doubt). I feel like I’m a ‘different’ case because many people with OCD feel they might act out these action in the future, whereas I carry the guilt and shame as if I’ve done it.It makes me anxious to think that this could be my life forever and that I have to live with the fact that I potentially did the distressing action I’m thinking of.

Jessksch I can't sleep at night because I just think of work the next day? Only working part-time!
  • replies: 4

I've been trying a new medication and started this week on it. I feel fine but last week I have been "painfully" uncomfortable on a different medication, no matter the position I was in, I felt uncomfortable. I have a holiday planned next month for t... View more

I've been trying a new medication and started this week on it. I feel fine but last week I have been "painfully" uncomfortable on a different medication, no matter the position I was in, I felt uncomfortable. I have a holiday planned next month for two weeks, but lately I just feel so crap, I just feel like after work I don't get enough time to relax even though I work part time! Then evening comes and I don't feel tired still, just want to still do things before work but I should be going to bed and can't relax even though this medication is supposed to make me tired.

os02045689 Can psychologist and GP work together to give medication prescription without seeing a psychiatrist?
  • replies: 1

Hello all, for the last 6 months I have been visiting a psychologist about dissociative anxiety issues and trying various management techniques, in the last few months it has increased and become unmanageable to the point where i’ve started to consid... View more

Hello all, for the last 6 months I have been visiting a psychologist about dissociative anxiety issues and trying various management techniques, in the last few months it has increased and become unmanageable to the point where i’ve started to consider getting medication, I recently went to a GP and discussed it and was referred to tele psychiatrist at HelloDoc for a 291 assessment but after reading reviews about the service and looking at the overall cost I decided i'm not comfortable booking an appointment. I was wondering if my GP alone would be able to prescribe medication or if my GP with recommendation of my psychologist ( meaning consulting my psychologist on there opinions of wether medication is the right avenue) would be able to too, I understand that the specialisation on psychiatrist would be helpful and how but the wait to see one (I am a VCE year 12 student and my work load is starting to pile up more and more as I near exams which has caused more stress so in my mind the sooner the better) combined with the extra cost and the stress of having to open up to a new person does not seem to be worth it in my mind, any advice would be greatly appreciated and thank you in advance.