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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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Roogirl14 Feeling anxious and lonely. Can't sleep, crying and my chest is tight
  • replies: 4

I have done something really stupid and I am very angry with myself. I have let my work colleagues and bosses down. I have apologised so many times but they dont believe me. I love the place I work at but they think I am a bad person now. I am very a... View more

I have done something really stupid and I am very angry with myself. I have let my work colleagues and bosses down. I have apologised so many times but they dont believe me. I love the place I work at but they think I am a bad person now. I am very anxious about going to work tomorrow and feel like a failure. I am seeing my daughter today but I don't want to tell her what I have done. I live alone and have no one to talk to. Everytime I close my eyes the words just repeat through my head. Hence no sleep. O don't know what to do and feel like I am worthless. HELP

Sam2019 Desperate for help
  • replies: 5

I have been living a life of hell for almost a year. It all started off after coming back from a trip. I was stressed before hand and stressed during and I came back almost to a break down. I've had the following 1- Extreme fatigue since august last ... View more

I have been living a life of hell for almost a year. It all started off after coming back from a trip. I was stressed before hand and stressed during and I came back almost to a break down. I've had the following 1- Extreme fatigue since august last year to the point where I need to sleep all day 2- I've ended up with a million different tests thinking I've contracted a virus. Nothing keeps showing up. 3- I developed massive ectopic beats almost 1500 a day confirmed by holter which sent me into a new panic and more testing. Heart MRI's stress tests etc... all again normal and no explanation for the extra beats. 4- I developed intolerance to standing up. MY heart just races when I stand and the ectopics go nuts. 5- Recently I've started with twitching everywhere especially my legs. They will not stop from the knees down. Its been this way for month now. 6- I then started to get internal vibrations whilst asleep in bed. I haven't had a proper night sleep in weeks. I just feel like my legs and body is trembling as soon as I start to doze off. 7- Now I have tinnitus in ears almost daily and wont stop. 8- I've been to 2 neurologist thinking and convinced I have ALS (motor neuron disease) from all the twitching. 9- I've started to notice my left calf muscle where all the twitching is is smaller than my right and this sent me into a total spiral drive about the above ALS issue, I'm waiting to get further testing to prove what it is. 10- I wake up every morning measuring the size of my calf for atrophy and I'm too scared to walk or run incase I feel weakness in one which will totally destroy me. My mind is just going in circles all day. From ecoptics, to twitching, to tinnitus then I go back to ectopics and the loop goes over and over. The fatigue is almost debilitating. doctors think t's all health anxiety and a breakdown caused by stress so they threw benzos at me. I took them for a few days by the symptoms did not go away. this sent me even more into a mental break down because I'm thinking in my head if thebenzos didn't help then there must be something seriously wrong ! I've seen a couple of phycologist who are all trying this CBT stuff but my brain just sees the physical symptoms and is basically telling itself you're too smart to be tricked by CBT. I'm lost at the moment !the only think I'm able to do is dull the fatigue and symptoms with alcohol for brief periods of time to get me through the day Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

constantoverthinker new to this, does anyone get weird bowel movements?
  • replies: 15

hey guys, first time here and thought id seek some others out there.. does anyone get weird bowel movements with anxiety? like doing 2 or more poos a day and get random pain but think it is something drastic when its in your head? i hope this makes s... View more

hey guys, first time here and thought id seek some others out there.. does anyone get weird bowel movements with anxiety? like doing 2 or more poos a day and get random pain but think it is something drastic when its in your head? i hope this makes sense?

Whatsinaname Unworthy - Is this my anxiety
  • replies: 4

Hi everyone, I've been contemplating this for awhile now and was wondering if anyone else has the same feelings. I am blessed with a happy health son and just found out I have a daughter on the way. I have a good job, that pays well, and they know ab... View more

Hi everyone, I've been contemplating this for awhile now and was wondering if anyone else has the same feelings. I am blessed with a happy health son and just found out I have a daughter on the way. I have a good job, that pays well, and they know about my mental health issues and are very understanding about it. Married to the love of my life, we have had our ups and downs but ups definitely out weight the downs. We are currently building our dream home, which going to look amazing. What I can't seem to shake is that I don't feel worth of it all. Not only in the sense that it's unbelievable that these things are working out, but am I out side of my true self. I grew up with very little money, but loving parents, and now find myself quite comfortable (which is amazing in the current state of our economy) and can't shake the fact that I don't think I fit this mold. Like an impostor almost. I have, and continue to, work very hard for everything we have. Am I chasing a dream that isn't mine though.. Anyway, happy to hear peoples thoughts/stories. Thanks as always,

Redd Post Panic Attack Breathing Difficulties
  • replies: 2

Hi all. Around 5am on Monday I woke up to a sudden panic attack in my sleep and went to hospital completely unaware of what was going on (thought I was having a heart attack and shook so hard I couldn't walk). There was no signs of anything wrong wit... View more

Hi all. Around 5am on Monday I woke up to a sudden panic attack in my sleep and went to hospital completely unaware of what was going on (thought I was having a heart attack and shook so hard I couldn't walk). There was no signs of anything wrong with me and it was ruled down to panic, albeit inconclusive results. Ever since then, from the moment I wake up I am completely short of breath, tense in the chest and haven't been able to sleep in fear of having another attack. As I write this, I am absolutely exhausted but unable to fall asleep without receiving a sudden jolt as if I can't breathe. In fact, I think I've otherbreathed so much I've thrown my whole body out of wack and I don't know if practicing deep breathing has only made matters worse. I have never had anxiety or depression in my life. I'm as chipper as they come but, even when I'm in a good mood, I still can't shake this off. Every night I get the muscle spasms, cold sweating and insomnia, and I'm worried this will never go away or allow me to go back to living my life. Right now, I would just like to speak to someone who can tell me what I have and what I should do so I can at least know I'm doing the right thing. It's pretty terrifying to be left alone with this and worse what it means for the future.

Notanurse Have had enough of my OCD habits!
  • replies: 1

Lately I've found a pattern on when my OCD is worse and better. When I'm more stressed or tired its worse and irritates the hell out of me. Throughout the day its checking my car to make sure its locked when I leave it, I'll literally be checking the... View more

Lately I've found a pattern on when my OCD is worse and better. When I'm more stressed or tired its worse and irritates the hell out of me. Throughout the day its checking my car to make sure its locked when I leave it, I'll literally be checking the doors to make sure they're locked, pressing the lock button 10+ times, walking away walking back to the car to make sure its locked and at times ive got back in the car to just get out again and make sure its locked. It drives me crazy. When I leave home I take a 10+ minutes making sure things are where they should be, checking windows and doors, making sure EVERY switch is turned off. When I go to bed of a night I spend up to an hour doing everything mentioned above and when I am so exhausted from work or study I get so frustrated with myself and this crazy need to do these crazy things! In my head I'll tell myself I've checked everything and its OK but if I havent checked it enough or correctly I feel like I have worms crawling under my skin until I've checked everything correctly. Its really starting to hit me now that my son has caught onto it. He tells me I've checked it already and its locked or turned off or whatever and he's started getting irritated at times too at what I'm doing. I have briefly talked about it with my doctor and psychiatrist and they haven't taken much notice of it, saying my diagnosis of bipolar is the number one concern when it comes to my management of my mental health. But this is driving me crazy, I have no reason to be checking so much but I feel this need to! I'm thinking of going back to discuss it but worried they won't really take the concern seriously again. I don't care if its counselling or meds that will help it i just can't stand it any more!

Vers Feeling Flat
  • replies: 4

i have struggled with social anxiety for about 12+ years at this point and was prescribed medication about a year and a half ago and everything was going well but over the last few weeks i have felt really flat and my anxieties have started creeping ... View more

i have struggled with social anxiety for about 12+ years at this point and was prescribed medication about a year and a half ago and everything was going well but over the last few weeks i have felt really flat and my anxieties have started creeping back up. most notably i recently went a short trip with a few friends and just felt as if i no longer belonged with that group and ever since i have avoided pretty much all contact with those people which sorta just leads to me feeling worse. On top of my friends issue i feel like im wasting my time with everything that i do. nothing really sparks any joy for me, things just fill in time as i wait for the day to end and i can go to sleep. straight after high school i went into university where everyday was overwhelming until i finally had a breakdown and was unable to even set foot in uni again. a cycle repeated for about four years where i would attempt to enroll in classes and go, fail the classes, breakdown and take the second semester in the year off completely. i tried to get back into the rhythm of things but each failed class just added to my doubts and eventually i just gave up and did nothing. and now im doing some classes at tafe and they are going fine but i have no motivation for them. i donn't care if i pass or fail, i have no idea what job i want and i don't even have any real goals or dreams or things i want to achieve. i feel like im just doing these classes so im not wasting all my time. people always tell me just "follow your dreams" or "work in what you're passionate about" but i don't care about anything really so i end up just feeling lost. its been 4 years since i finished school and im no closer to a career than i was straight after high school not to mention i donn't feel like i have any strong bonds or connections with anyone at all. i mean i have friends but i don't feel very close to any of them and i feel like they don't want me around most of the time but i get confused cause i can't tell if that's true or its just my anxiety. i just feel really lost and really down. im not sure what to do or where to go and im really sick of just dragging myself through life but i have no idea what to do about it. apologies that this isn't very well formatted but i was just typing whatever came to mind. any advice is appreciated.

Asha83 Quit job due to anxiety
  • replies: 3

hi all, So today I quit my new job because of anxiety. 2 months ago was made redundant which was great financially however its made me very anxious again. I have always suffered with anxiety, even at my previous job in which I was bullied and went th... View more

hi all, So today I quit my new job because of anxiety. 2 months ago was made redundant which was great financially however its made me very anxious again. I have always suffered with anxiety, even at my previous job in which I was bullied and went through hell with my boss and company. After 2 months of being without work I wanted to find something new and with out fail my anxiety has kicked in to top gear and it feels debilitating. Really bad feeling of worry and just generally never comfortable at all especially about learning new things. I have always suffered with it. I even had my pilots licence but its become so bad of late. I started medication after I was made redundant and started seeing a counsellor. Has anyone had a similar experience? Or can anyone offer some advice. Thank you for reading.

Slipperyfish Anxious habits
  • replies: 11

Does anyone have any weird anxious habits? I’m feeling very overwhelmed and stressed at the moment and I honestly just scratch and itch all day and don’t realize I’m doing it. Both the back of my hands and forearms have been scratched that much they ... View more

Does anyone have any weird anxious habits? I’m feeling very overwhelmed and stressed at the moment and I honestly just scratch and itch all day and don’t realize I’m doing it. Both the back of my hands and forearms have been scratched that much they are sore. I’ve tried putting bandaids on my skin to stop but then I end up scratching the bandaids. The only thing that’s been kind of helpful is if I wear a hair band on my wrist and flick that. I just wish I could realize when I start so that I can stop myself.

LouieJJ Anxiety / new job fear
  • replies: 2

Hi all, I apologise for putting this relatively minor issue on here, but I have no one to speak to. I’m 35, live alone and suffer with Aspergers, anxiety, Dysthymia, depression, and ptsd. I haven’t worked in 3 months, and prior to that I was working ... View more

Hi all, I apologise for putting this relatively minor issue on here, but I have no one to speak to. I’m 35, live alone and suffer with Aspergers, anxiety, Dysthymia, depression, and ptsd. I haven’t worked in 3 months, and prior to that I was working full time (up to 55 hours a week) and had multiple breakdowns. yesterday my DES told me I had a new job as a petrol station attendant at 15 hours per week. I am grateful for the chance but I’m absolutely petrified of going outside again. I’ve been so anxious to leave the house these past few months, plus my own personal issues. I have no spare emotional or mental energy just by surviving at this stage. I’m worried how I will react, and if I’ll have anxiety attacks at this new job and how I will cope physically (due to chronic pain). thanks for reading.