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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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missbexy Panic Attacks When Driving
  • replies: 3

Hi All, I have been suffering with anxiety for as long as I can remember whether it be anxious I'm going to throw up in public, panicking that I will have a panic attack and faint in public, feeling the urge to run when in a crowd of people, not want... View more

Hi All, I have been suffering with anxiety for as long as I can remember whether it be anxious I'm going to throw up in public, panicking that I will have a panic attack and faint in public, feeling the urge to run when in a crowd of people, not wanting to leave my house and when I do immediately feeling anxious or lately, having mild panic attacks when driving in the car. It seems to be specifically when I have to stop at traffic lights and I feel 'trapped'. I am alright if I am in the passenger seat as I am safe in knowing I can jump out of the car and run if I need to which seems to provide some comfort. But having 3 kids, two of which are at school/kindy means I have to go out every day, multiple times a day. I don't go to the shops during the day anymore, I panic if I have to go in to the city as peak hour traffic sends me over the edge! I suppose I just want to know if there's anyone else out there suffering like this and/or if anyone has any advice it would be truly appreciated. I don't want my life to be like this anymore....

annabay Dizziness/pressure in head
  • replies: 1

Hi there, at the moment I’m coming off a medication (only one week of being on it) as side effects were too severe. Since I’ve stopped it I’m experiencing extreme dizziness and this really heavy pressure in my head which makes it feel really tight an... View more

Hi there, at the moment I’m coming off a medication (only one week of being on it) as side effects were too severe. Since I’ve stopped it I’m experiencing extreme dizziness and this really heavy pressure in my head which makes it feel really tight and like my head is about to fall off! Im wondering if anyone else has experienced this? It’s very debilitating and scary even though my doctors have said it’s normal.

Pixie11 Constant light-headed feeling
  • replies: 2

Hi Everybody, it is good to be here with people who understand what anxiety is like. Mine has gradually been getting worse. I have been seeing a psychologist, which gave me some useful things to do, but it still kept on getting worse. I have been fig... View more

Hi Everybody, it is good to be here with people who understand what anxiety is like. Mine has gradually been getting worse. I have been seeing a psychologist, which gave me some useful things to do, but it still kept on getting worse. I have been fighting medication as I wanted to try other avenues first, but finally decided to try one. The side effects from that one were terrible and after 1 week I had to stop. Since going off it I have been very dizzy and I haven't been able to drive. I would get light-headedness quite often, but now it is worse. The doctor has given me a totally different medication to try, so I am hoping that will help, as not being able to drive has affected a lot of things, and it is especially hard when my kids have all that busy end of year stuff to do. My husband has helped a lot, but he works strange shift hours, so can't help all the time. I am nervous about trying the new one and hoping it doesn't have horrible side effects for me again. Thanks

Beautiful Health anxiety
  • replies: 3

A year later I’m still have health anxiety issues. I’ve resorted to changing drs as I’m becoming paranoid my usual dr will think I’m crazy... I have all the symptoms of ovarian cancer, my two scans showed conflicting diagnosis, the first not showing ... View more

A year later I’m still have health anxiety issues. I’ve resorted to changing drs as I’m becoming paranoid my usual dr will think I’m crazy... I have all the symptoms of ovarian cancer, my two scans showed conflicting diagnosis, the first not showing anything clearly, the second scan I was told everything looked good, but the he questioned me about whether I had a follow up appointment with my dr, I said yes but didn’t go back for results because the gynaecologist told me everything looked fine. I also figured if there was anything untoward my dr would contact me. my symptoms have worsened, and I’m almost positive I’m dying! Waiting for blood and urine tests and the anxiety is killing me. How many times can one ring their therapist!? On top of the anxiety I’m extremely uncomfortable and exhausted but can’t sleep. Any advice would be appreciated

Sareus Should I stick with dating when it makes my already severe anxiety worse
  • replies: 4

My therapist has suggested that I take myself out of my comfort zone because I’ve made great progress towards feeling better and one of the main things she suggested was dating. I have tried numerous dates now and I’ve never made it past the first da... View more

My therapist has suggested that I take myself out of my comfort zone because I’ve made great progress towards feeling better and one of the main things she suggested was dating. I have tried numerous dates now and I’ve never made it past the first date as I keep letting my anxiety get the better of me by fulfilling its prophecies. This wouldn’t be as much of a problem if the side effects of my anxiety weren’t so bad. I end up frustrated at myself, it makes me feel depressed, And most importantly it increases the appearance of my panic attacks and hallucinations. Should I continue trying to find a partner despite the stress it causes me? how do I explain to someone that I suffer from these things? Is there anywhere I can go to learn about dating with severe anxiety?

maccaz health anxiety out of control
  • replies: 7

Hi, Hoping anyone here can provide some input. Basically ever since I was very young I was on edge/anxious, particularly about health type things. Throughout my teenage years this was particularly bad, but coming into my early 20s life kind of got in... View more

Hi, Hoping anyone here can provide some input. Basically ever since I was very young I was on edge/anxious, particularly about health type things. Throughout my teenage years this was particularly bad, but coming into my early 20s life kind of got in the way and I forgot about it. Fast forward to May this year, a lot of life changes, had my first child born, moved into a very high pressure job with a fair amount of travel, etc. I started experiencing weird symptoms like difficulty urinating (which went away), diarrhea (comes and goes), ocasionally weird sensations in my hands or feet like i am uncoordinated or something. decided to nip all this in the bud and went to the doctor, they put it all down to anxiety after blood tests etc came back all good (liver a bit elevated from drinking for a week on holiday prior). I wasn't confident in that diagnosis so went to another doctor and essentially bullied him into testing me for "everything", so was all the cancer markers, all that kind of stuff. All positive and liver much better. This process has really opened pandoras box and I am experiencing new symptoms constantly every day. Constantly in an out of body type state, can't focus on anything, can't concentrate, crap memory, and a consuming worry/anxiety about it all. I'm currently overseas for work and am at a point where I'm planning to walk into a hospital and insist they test me for MS/other stuff like that just because I feel it surely can't be anxiety. I get panicky, have trouble swallowing, can't get a deep breath, my hands and feet feel weird, sore back, twitching muscles all over the place (so you can see how i came up with the MS theory, but that is probably self diagnosis #50 i've given myself in the past 6 weeks) . I also can't sleep for more than a couple of hours and wake up in a panic. Just wondering if anyone has experienced similar physical type symptoms and how they cope with it? I'll continue progressing the proper medical approach to rule out anything physical in the meantime

Fearce I have a compulsive liar disorder I think...
  • replies: 4

I am a Year 11 student, and I think I am constantly lying without even realising that i am lying. I have created huge lies throughout my years and I thought from lying, I could gain attention and sympathy. I was right, however, it only made things wo... View more

I am a Year 11 student, and I think I am constantly lying without even realising that i am lying. I have created huge lies throughout my years and I thought from lying, I could gain attention and sympathy. I was right, however, it only made things worse, mentally and physically. I am trying my best to keep this thread clean from lies and I am going to be honest for once in my life. I have used lies to avoid situations a lot. Sometimes people catch on and realise I'm lying. I have never come out to talk about this because I thought that I did not have a compulsive lying disorder. I have done my research and came to a conclusion that I am a compulsive liar. Last year, I had a friend who I was very close with. He started to change... It was like he was a totally different person. I created lies to make him give me sympathy and guilt from him becoming a different person. I told him that I got raped. I told him I attempted suicide 2 times. I told him I got a girl pregnant and she killed herself. I think you get the idea. He caught onto me pretty quickly and bullied me for it. Even till today. I once told a story of when i managed to run away from a gang of guys holding handguns. Everyone laughed straight away and called me out on it. I stood there crying inside and in disbelief of what came out of my mouth. This is when things became really bad. I actually believed I attempted suicide twice. Things are really stressful and messed up because i only have 1 main friend in my life and even now he is starting to drift away from me. I am scared of becoming alone and I need help.

Garnet New to this
  • replies: 1

How does one parent after experiencing trauma? I am English and overwhelming.

How does one parent after experiencing trauma? I am English and overwhelming.

Andy999 Anxiety taking over
  • replies: 2

Heey so I’m wondering if anyone has felt similar and possibly has any advice for me on how to deal with anxiety attacks. ive just started seeing a psychologist for my anxiety, I had a massive panic attack last Monday night (the night before my first ... View more

Heey so I’m wondering if anyone has felt similar and possibly has any advice for me on how to deal with anxiety attacks. ive just started seeing a psychologist for my anxiety, I had a massive panic attack last Monday night (the night before my first session) I could feel it building up for hours, talking to people wasn’t helping I didnt know how to calm it down, I even had a football game to play and I pushed myself to go but couldn’t say a word to anyone and felt like just running of the pitch but I didn’t even know where I wanted to go, on the way home it climaxed, I started getting tingles through my body I was convinced “this is it, I’ve hit the point of no return I’m never gonna get better” it was so scary I came home and completely broke down in front of my family. just yesterday so a week later something kind of similar happened, I’ve actually been improving a bit since last week, learning to accept these fears and worries and challenging them and all that and find it can really work but it’s very hard, yesterday I was feeling the best I had in ages, but then suddenly that arvo it all came crashing down, I started feeling abit off, just abit restless and I noticed it, I didn’t really know how to respond to this, I couldn’t immerse myself into tv or even talking about it with someone didn’t help, I started thinking “oh shit am I gong back to square 1 here” I kept telling myself I wasn’t but the feeling grew more and more intense, everything around was just to much it felt like I was just about to Freak out again, after hours it started to subside a little, I did some meditation when I got home which helped abit to. i was pretty shaken up to experience those feelings again, they continued with me quite abit today also, it’s really terrible it stops you from doing anything really, you kind of just sit there in this paralysed state of fear and makes it almost impossible to socialise, work, and live a normal life. but yeh any advice would be awesome, thanks

uptownfunk Going in circles in life
  • replies: 1

Just want to ask how have others determined to get beyond going in circles in life? Cheers.

Just want to ask how have others determined to get beyond going in circles in life? Cheers.