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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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Monkeysss Constant feeling of impending doom? Good distractions?
  • replies: 7

How does one distract themselves from impending doom? Ive been having an increase in panic attacks and I had the worst panic attack I’ve ever experienced yesterday and ever since I have a constant feeling of impending doom. i woke up anxious about ha... View more

How does one distract themselves from impending doom? Ive been having an increase in panic attacks and I had the worst panic attack I’ve ever experienced yesterday and ever since I have a constant feeling of impending doom. i woke up anxious about having another panic attack and the thought hadn’t left my mind I had another mild panic attack today but nothing compared to yesterday. I constantly feel like something bad is gonna happen to me. Like I’m gonna pass out or die. Which makes me start having a panic attack. What are some distractions or ways people have stopped these thoughts? Or both impending doom and the fear of having another panic attack? Btw I’ve recently been put on medication, which my dr said should help but can take 6 weeks to take effect. So I need ideas until then

agobella Why does anxiety creep up when you are having a good time?
  • replies: 3

Hi Everyone Today I went out for lunch with my friends, lunch went ok, but when we sat down after lunch a wave of anxiety swept over me. With me, when this happens, I have physical symptoms-have to run to the toilet, my nose starts running and I star... View more

Hi Everyone Today I went out for lunch with my friends, lunch went ok, but when we sat down after lunch a wave of anxiety swept over me. With me, when this happens, I have physical symptoms-have to run to the toilet, my nose starts running and I start sneezing. I did double one of my meds last night and now I am wondering whether the two glasses of champagne that I had at lunch would have exacerbated my anxiety. Looking for answers if anyone has any.

lilykitten Anxiety and alcohol
  • replies: 4

I was wondering if any other anxiety sufferers find that alcohol triggers anxiety. If I have 2 glasses of wine I am fine but on the third glass the slight dizzyness seems to trigger panic attacks. The next day (after only 3 drinks) the "hangover" is ... View more

I was wondering if any other anxiety sufferers find that alcohol triggers anxiety. If I have 2 glasses of wine I am fine but on the third glass the slight dizzyness seems to trigger panic attacks. The next day (after only 3 drinks) the "hangover" is stomach upsets and shaky legs, not the traditional headache.

ScarlettR I feel I am slowly going crazy?
  • replies: 1

Hello people, I hope you are all doing well this Christmas season. So here's my issue: Lately, I've been feeling a palette of bad emotions. I let myself overthink and overanalyse people and situations in life, and then I inflict mental abuse on mysel... View more

Hello people, I hope you are all doing well this Christmas season. So here's my issue: Lately, I've been feeling a palette of bad emotions. I let myself overthink and overanalyse people and situations in life, and then I inflict mental abuse on myself by being angry and frustrated. I guess a lot of it comes from boredom. The strange thing is - when I had done a big task (wrapping presents for an upcoming birthday, gone for a walk, run errands), at first I am content and happy and ready to take on what ever faces me... then I mentally unravel and I can't face the world anymore. I don't ever lash out or make a scene. No one knows if I'm having a bad day unless I told them. The worst that happens is I cry a bit and stay in bed for some comfort. But it's not comfortable or pleasant. I'm on meds for schizophrenia and depression. I like to add that I sometimes have trouble sleeping so it adds to my worries.

PsychoBear Extreme health anxiety/hypochondria
  • replies: 6

Male-23yrs 2 weeks ago I overheard a conversation between my mother and sister, my sister was found to be anaemic in her blood test aswell as having one positive and one negative FOB test. I heard my mum tell my sister "Make sure to let them know we ... View more

Male-23yrs 2 weeks ago I overheard a conversation between my mother and sister, my sister was found to be anaemic in her blood test aswell as having one positive and one negative FOB test. I heard my mum tell my sister "Make sure to let them know we have a family history of bowel cancer." (My dad's mum died of it in her 70s, there are rumours that 2 of my great-uncles on my mum's side also died of it in their 50s) At first I didn't think much of it but then something started creeping in. I started to pay attention to my stools after this and noticed a slightly dull pain in the lower left of my abdomen which wasn't intense and would fade in and out sometimes. I've gotten paranoid about checking the consistency of my stools, looking for signs of black or red and convincing myself every time I saw either that it was blood (despite diet consisting of red and black foods). Over time I've slowly gotten worse, noticing these things and seeing how the shape of my stool would be on the change constantly, a different shape almost every single time I go. I'm freaking out because it might look flat/low calibre and then the next one will look relatively normal, the one after that will just be mostly water/bile and then back to normal again. I'm constantly getting paranoid about the overall colour or smell. Within the last week or so I've barely eaten at all because I feel nauseous at the idea of food and bloated when I do push myself to eat, even water is difficult for me to deal with. I'm up strange hours and wake up feeling like I barely slept at all even if I go back to sleep for more time, I'm scared to go to the toilet in-case I see a large or noticeable amount of blood, every time I do see a small bit of blood on the toilet paper I get scared, even when it's just a barely visible dot of it (I have an external hemorrhoid, which I've had for years and generally I wouldn't worry about seeing blood as it was always attributed to that by my parents) and now I'm convinced I've got bowel cancer and it's stage 3 or 4 and that I'll be dead within a couple years at absolute best. I'm constantly googling and finding stories of people who went through this around my age and how many of them were absolutely fine and then suddenly were diagnosed with stage 4 cancers. I cry at the smallest things and the idea that my life is over. The doctor believes it's IBS and is running tests but the wait is killing me. Please help.

Trav24 Driving and anxiety
  • replies: 13

Hi all, I’m new to this but at this stage I’m getting kind of desperate and don’t know what to do. I’ll try and keep it short - I’ve got epilepsy and anxiety that stems off that as symptoms for panic attacks feel like the coming on of a seizure (on a... View more

Hi all, I’m new to this but at this stage I’m getting kind of desperate and don’t know what to do. I’ll try and keep it short - I’ve got epilepsy and anxiety that stems off that as symptoms for panic attacks feel like the coming on of a seizure (on a separate note if anyone has something similar and would like to share that would be amazing!) I struggle a lot with a phobia of not being able to ‘escape’ places so I don’t like going to a new shopping center that I don’t know the exits for, or somewhere that I can’t access fresh air/a drink of water etc. I also struggled a few years ago with being alone in case something happened to me and no one was around, and I went through a phase of not being able to leave Mum/dad/my sisters side and couldn’t do anything. im a lot better than I was but as I’ve gotten older I’ve struggled a lot with driving. I can’t drive anywhere that I’ve never driven before because I’m not familiar with the roads and don’t have an ‘out’ in case I have a panic attack. I was doing really well for a while and felt almost normal but I had a panic attack recently while driving out of the blue and now feel like I’m back to square 1. I have to get someone to either drive me to work or to follow behind me ‘just incase’. Sometimes even with someone there I’ll panic, and it’s just the fear of being stuck on the side of the road with no one around who can ‘get me’ if my family are at work for example. I’ve spoken to multiple counselors, changed medication three times and had hypnotherapy which didn’t work, and I just don’t know what to do because I can’t keep living like this, it’s having a massive impact on me and my family as well. any suggestions would be appreciated so much

romantic_thi3f What happens when we get anxiety?! (Info thread)
  • replies: 2

Hi everyone, For anyone that's seen me around, you'll know that I do long posts so apologies in advance. Why does my heart race? Why do I get headaches? What's wrong with me? Do I have cancer?! Crash course: Everyone has a 'sympathetic nervous system... View more

Hi everyone, For anyone that's seen me around, you'll know that I do long posts so apologies in advance. Why does my heart race? Why do I get headaches? What's wrong with me? Do I have cancer?! Crash course: Everyone has a 'sympathetic nervous system (SNS for short)'. It controls our flight or fight (FOF for short) response. Most of us are familiar with this since it's the whole 'ahh a bear' in the caveman days. It's important! We need it. But in anxiety, it's overstimulated. Which means our FOF response is responding constantly to what it thinks are threats but aren't - like thoughts, deadlines or traffic. Our SNS controls our flight/fight response. It increases our breathing rate, releases glucose to the liver, speeds up our heart-rate, constricts our blood vessels, releases adrenaline, slows down our digestion. When there is a bear, this is awesome. We need energy to run/hide and the last thing we need to do is digest lunch! But given there's often not a bear, this leads to things like headaches, aches and pains, dizziness, fatigue, chest pain, digestive problems and nausea, heart palpitations, sleeping problems, twitching, tingling, you name it... {This is the part that means it's probably not cancer} So this explains anxiety so you can stop reading if you like, but there is good news. We also have a PNS which stands for parasynthetic nervous system. It's kind of the opposite to the SNS. It stimulates digestion, slows down the heartbeat and all the good things. Here, our body is happy. We rest, digest, sleep, build strength. Fight or flight happens in SNS but not in PNS. PNS is our happy state. When people rave about breathing techniques, mindfulness, relaxation, therapy or even dogs - this is why. The more we can 'hang out' in PNS, the less we're likely to be in our Fight or Flight mode. Which is why it takes lot of practice. Hope that this all makes sense and helps you understand a little more about what's going on

CoraC Finding a suitable job when you have anxiety
  • replies: 8

Does anyone have insights to share about how they found a job that was a good balance for coping with anxiety? I have been in corporate roles for about 20 years and have suffered from anxiety and depression during much of that time, the vast majority... View more

Does anyone have insights to share about how they found a job that was a good balance for coping with anxiety? I have been in corporate roles for about 20 years and have suffered from anxiety and depression during much of that time, the vast majority of my stress relates to work. Basically my worry about being not good enough at my job. I am so worried about making a mistake I check, check,check everything and then check it again. This of course slows me down and it takes me ages to do my work. I'm devastated if I get a critical performance review or anything like that. I find if I don't have a supportive manager, a kind team who treat each other well and a clearly defined role, I will run into problems. But I have found very few workplace are actually like this. I've just started a new job hoping this would be the one that would be smooth sailing but I've struck a terse manager, toxic team environment and limited training which has been extremely stressful. So I wake up every day thinking should I just leave now, but unconvinced I'll find this work 'wish list' I'm after anywhere. Can anyone relate to this?

MrA77 Anxiety due to fear of unsolicited advice and intrusion from strangers in public
  • replies: 4

I've had anxiety since I was 16 years old and I've learned this skills how to manage it (daily exercise and socialising work best for me). Yet over the years I have had too many experiences where I've attracted the attention of officious strangers wh... View more

I've had anxiety since I was 16 years old and I've learned this skills how to manage it (daily exercise and socialising work best for me). Yet over the years I have had too many experiences where I've attracted the attention of officious strangers who feel entitled to give their opinion about my appearance or assume I need assistance without asking (e.g. offering a hand or telling me how to do something). These incidents have been really intrusive and unsettling and I've felt intimated, overpowered and my personal space intruded, my personal agency violated and it's triggered my anxiety and made me hypervigilant in public. I've discussed this in therapy over the years, yet with mental health campaigns like R U OK, I've noticed there's an increase in people who consider themselves rescuers and saviours and imposing themselves on strangers who they perceive to be distressed or having a bad time. Most of the time it comes across as these people need help themselves. Everyone has their own way of managing their mental health and yes sometimes a stranger may be of great help, yet they can also cause more harm and be toxic. Has anyone else had this experience and how do you manage these situations?

ferrerorocher Health anxiety towards loved ones
  • replies: 2

Hi everyone I've been on here for a bit, occasionally reading your posts and so on, but I feel the need to share this and wonder if there are people experiencing something similar. In my teenage years I had a history of depression and struggled with ... View more

Hi everyone I've been on here for a bit, occasionally reading your posts and so on, but I feel the need to share this and wonder if there are people experiencing something similar. In my teenage years I had a history of depression and struggled with self-esteem and eating disorders back in the day, but now that I'm older and married and in a stable, supportive environment, I seem to be able to manage things pretty well. Or so I think anyway. One thing that does crop up every now and then is what I think might be health anxiety? It's not so much for myself (in fact, I think it's the opposite with myself and I honestly CBF about my own health, which is a bad thing right?) but towards my husband and my children. I think I had it in my previous relationship before I met my husband too - my boyfriend back in the day had asthma and used to get colds and sometimes asthma attacks regularly, and I used to overreact a bit about it (which he thought was cute, bah) and I used to get really anxious and be over the top 'caring' like running to get food and meds etc. and act like he was probably just about to have cancer and die or something. When I met my husband, I thought I would be okay with it but then he got a bad case of glandular fever/tonsilitis and the curtain of anxiety just fell on me. It's like an overwhelming feeling of worry but also feeling bad and guilty for what was happening, and in this particular case I even resorted to self-harm because it was the only thing to relieve that stress. I think it also strained my relationship with him a bit because I felt I was treading on thin ice around him and I could no longer emotionally connect, probably a response to minimise my erratic feelings. My husband is a pretty healthy guy but I've found that if he ever gets sick or something, I just go into this anxiety sort of state and disconnect etc. I have three beautiful kids too and I realise that I might be doing the same about them. I'm one of those avid Dr Google mothers who reads academic journals about my kids symptoms and so on - strangely enough it's not too bad when they have things like colds, conjunctivitis or gastro, but particularly with my first son, he has some sensory issues and also constipation issues (which possibly are caused by low muscle tone etc.) and I realise I am quite fixated upon them. Just wondering if anyone had such issues and if you would share how you tackled these feelings.