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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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Loz_06 Small business pressure -How do I keep pushing through when I’m drained physically and mentally.
  • replies: 5

I took over a hair salon business when I was 24 years old I’m now 31.It started with myself, a close friend who was my business partner and 1 apprentice.i was the hairdresser my friend who I went into business was the Bookeeper.From day 1 it has not ... View more

I took over a hair salon business when I was 24 years old I’m now 31.It started with myself, a close friend who was my business partner and 1 apprentice.i was the hairdresser my friend who I went into business was the Bookeeper.From day 1 it has not stopped with the challenges. My business partner was constantly taking money out aswelll as putting it back, i regularly voiced my concerns and it took me 2 years to finally have enough of the financial strain she put on me. I was already operating the floor, hiring staff, training them, doing clientele, working 44 hours with little to no lunch breaks. I decided to call the accountant to work out a buy out figure to which he told me he hasn’t done the books since we started. Turned out the tax and super that was being paid was straight to her personal account and got spent. I was in court for 3 years disputing it. First year into court, covid hit. Now I was fighting to keep the businesss I worked so very hard for. With lockdowns of a total of 9 months over 2 years without funding was stressful to say the least. I recently decided to put my business up for sale as my mental health has completely deteriorated the last 2 years, I was constantly getting sick, trying to still work and manage 4 employees that iv had since they where apprentices. 2 months into it being advertised and 2 months out from Christmas 2 of my employees handed there resignation in not for any bad reason other than it was time for them to explore a new direction. I was happy for them personally but on a Business level it left me with one hell of situation. It took me 5 years in total to train them up to fall apart in 2 months right before the madness. I’m worried I can’t keep fighting through all these obstacles that come my way with so little energy as it is. I’m having panic attacks during work, I’m run off my feet and I’m working more hours to cover the clients who where booked in with the 2 girls who are no longer here. I’m exhausted mentally and physically and I feel trapt till I can sell it. I’m having manic crying episodes nearly every night after work dreading each day that comes. I’m starting to loose control of my emotions within work and can’t hold back them tears. I can’t take time off now being so close to Xmas with only 2 partimers left and one being an apprentice.financially iv ran at a loss the last 2 years and the pressures are suffocating me.Any advice on how to manage the pressure and self care with little time to do so?!

Rose_Davies26 Anxiety about Independent Medical Examination
  • replies: 3

Hi everyone,Not sure if this is the correct place to put this but I guess I’m quite overwhelmed about an upcoming psychological Independent Medical Examination appointment next Friday.I’m 25 (F) and recently lost my mother three weeks ago. She was di... View more

Hi everyone,Not sure if this is the correct place to put this but I guess I’m quite overwhelmed about an upcoming psychological Independent Medical Examination appointment next Friday.I’m 25 (F) and recently lost my mother three weeks ago. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer in September 2026. Her diagnosis did coincide with a few challenging circumstances that exacerbated by stress levels. As such, I did express suicidal ideations. On the week leading up to her death, I also had two significant anxiety attacks at work (away from customers!). As of two weeks ago, my manager has stood me down from workUnbeknownst to my manager, the suicidal ideations had dissipated in November when the other circumstances improved. Except for the anxiety attacks and understandable sadness over my mother, I have been in a relatively good frame of mind.I have also been regularly engaging with the EAP services, my own psychologist (who is happy to provide a letter supporting my immediate return to work) and have been accepted into a postgraduate program. I certainly have a lot of support and clear on ideas on how I’m moving forward.I’m just apprehensive about this appointment, worried about the outcome and wondering if anyone had any advice or similar experiences.Rose.

KhloeLove Relief Teaching After Being on Contract
  • replies: 2

Hi there, I’ve been searching for a teacher platform to find responses and experiences from teachers, especially regarding the difficulties of mental health and being an educator. I had a contract at a school I instantly got attached to and really di... View more

Hi there, I’ve been searching for a teacher platform to find responses and experiences from teachers, especially regarding the difficulties of mental health and being an educator. I had a contract at a school I instantly got attached to and really did not want to leave. I ended up not having another contract renewed for this year and it has been extremely hard to deal with. My question is, with joining another school with a whole new community of people and systems seeming pretty impossible, would it be awkward going into relief at the school I had the contract with. I am pretty young and fresh out of uni as well (I forgot to mention that before). I did have a lot of conversations with mentors and advisors to try and navigate the situation and I’m worried that advocating for my mental health and being vulnerable and honest has damaged my ‘image’ of being a ‘good teacher’ and candidate. I’m grateful for any strategies that I could use to take that first step back into teaching. Thank you fellow teachers and know that you have a person who truly recognises how daunting, heavy and anxiety inducing this profession is, even with all the love and passion we have for it.

fire How do I manage severe anxiety? Going through a workers comp claim
  • replies: 6

I have decided to join the forum to learn how you guys manage severe anxiety. I am going through a workers comp claim and finding I am getting confused about dates, months - when things happened, when they didn't. I have kept a diary but this only in... View more

I have decided to join the forum to learn how you guys manage severe anxiety. I am going through a workers comp claim and finding I am getting confused about dates, months - when things happened, when they didn't. I have kept a diary but this only includes dates and remarks about appts, results etc. I thought I had clarity of mind starting out to remember pain issues, but as time goes on, the weeks and months are getting muddled leading to confusion in reports, which is hard for the insurance company and others to understand. I guess I am not as strong as I thought. One thing for sure, I can't do this on my own any more. I am tired and I can't come up with the answers to cover my errors. I like to be upfront with things and honest, but my mind does not seem to want to play that game at times. My psych is on holidays and I am really missing her. She is coming back in a couple of weeks. I scare myself with what I have quoted as happening, as I can see I am losing a grip on the situation. I have not verbalised this before to health professionals, but I feel from this point on I will need to. It is one thing to read psychiatric issues in a report, it is a whole different ball game to say yes, I have chronic depression and anxiety which I am being treated for and it is shadowing my version of reality. How frightening is this? Reading posts from other people with mental health issues, and what they have been through with WC claims is really touching and makes me feel very humble. Kisses to you all - I will close wishing you a happy pleasant week ahead, and I will now start reading thoughts from those who have walked the hard road ahead of me.

Sara88 Heart Anxiety
  • replies: 16

Hi,I am looking for support with my heart/cardiac anxiety issues. I am 34 and this started a few years back, i started having sharp chest pains and heart palpitations. It started one night when i was falling asleep and this weird feeling woke me up a... View more

Hi,I am looking for support with my heart/cardiac anxiety issues. I am 34 and this started a few years back, i started having sharp chest pains and heart palpitations. It started one night when i was falling asleep and this weird feeling woke me up and i was terrified and panicked that my heart felt weird, shrugged it off for a while and tried to ignore it and go back to sleep but this kept coming and going for weeks/months.. This led to feelings of numbness and tingling in my arms etc and chest pains and then anxiety wondering if it was my heart. I couldn't work out if it was my anxiety triggering the symptoms or the symptoms triggering my anxiety. i ended up going to hospital. they did bloods/ecg and i had an MRI and a heart monitor for 24hrs and went to a cardiac doctor.They all basically said that it was nothing to do with my heart and everything came back normal. The cardiac doctor laughed and said there is no way it could be my heart at my age and to stop worrying about it (i also have no risk factors at all, no family history, normal weight, no diabetes, no smoking, barely drink) After this reassurance i convinced myself it was just anxiety and gradually it became non existant for a few years. Well this last 6 months i've had it again out of nowhere... it comes and goes.. it started waking me at night when id start to fall asleep this weird feeling.. and id panic it was my heart again. Then the little chest pains would start up and the anxiety would follow and id start googling and everything says heart attack symptoms. So then every little symptom id start to worry again.I have been back to the doctor a month ago who listened to my heart and did an ecg and came back normal again (but these ecgs are always done when im not experiening the pain or palpitations at that time)So i dont know if its the anxiety creeping up again and just creating these symptoms. I try to keep calm and tell myself to stop worrying because if i start worrying the symptoms get worse. Does anyone have similar? I do things to take my mind off it and it does work sometimes but other times it doesn't and i feel something is wrong and im going to die eventually from heart attack or something. Has anyone had these symptoms and it actually be heart related or is it just the anxiety creating the physical symptoms? Any words of advice would be appreciated

Meladjusted Pain, anxiety and healing
  • replies: 3

I hurt my lumbar/SI joint 4 weeks ago. It's improving so slowly I can't work, I can't sleep and I am exhausted. I just don't know what to do. I should be healed by now, or at least able to push through it. I feel so useless. I wonder how much is my b... View more

I hurt my lumbar/SI joint 4 weeks ago. It's improving so slowly I can't work, I can't sleep and I am exhausted. I just don't know what to do. I should be healed by now, or at least able to push through it. I feel so useless. I wonder how much is my brain protecting me and how much is physiological pain and why can't I get my brain to stop being so stupid.

Bellalilly Weight loss surgery and the Mind Body connection
  • replies: 2

Hi allI've recently had gastric bypass surgery after many years of research and trying the natural way of diet and exercise. I'm 54 now and wish I had done it sooner as I find it hard to breathe therefore exercise is hard. Mobility is hard. Everythin... View more

Hi allI've recently had gastric bypass surgery after many years of research and trying the natural way of diet and exercise. I'm 54 now and wish I had done it sooner as I find it hard to breathe therefore exercise is hard. Mobility is hard. Everything is hard. From the moment I get up to the minute I lay down at night. My depression and anxiety stems a lot from being made too responsible for too much from a young age through till now - caring for everyone else at the expense of myself like a martyr. I'm the middle child of seven and never felt loved or valued by my family except for what I could do for them. I then transferred this self-worth to my professional and social life resulting in DV in the workplace, doing all the hard stuff and getting none of the credit. No promotions, underpaid and taken advantage of. I never realised how bad depression could be AFTER weight loss surgery. I didn't expect to be thin straight away and I already had anxiety depression before the surgery for the last 30 years so knew it would be hard. I don't know what this Mind Body connection is and it's scary. BUT I'm on the journey to discover what it means to me and my health. Anyone else can relate?

Lisa_18 Scared and so unwell
  • replies: 3

Hello, I am in a really low spot. I have bipolar, depression PTSD, anxiety. Now i look back on things I think i have been out of control for the last couple of months. I have spent all our money, i have got secret credit cards my husband doesnt know ... View more

Hello, I am in a really low spot. I have bipolar, depression PTSD, anxiety. Now i look back on things I think i have been out of control for the last couple of months. I have spent all our money, i have got secret credit cards my husband doesnt know and maxed them all out and we have no money. I feel awful but i started joining dating apps and have been meeting up with people for casual sex. I normally dont have a big sex drive but the last month I cant stop thinking about it. I feel like im addicted to the apps. I keep deleting them and then install them again. I know I am being very unsafe. I also purchased some pain relief medication from someone which is opiod based and now i can not stop taking them. If i dont have one every few hours i feel horrible and start sweating. my life is crazy, my husband doesnt know and im to scared to tell him.

Guest_26450707 anxious/depressive episode
  • replies: 6

i'm having the most exhausting time this past week, going in an out of anxious and depressive moods, with tiny blips of feeling "normal" or "excited" about life. right now, everything feels boring, bland, and pointless. all of the things i usually lo... View more

i'm having the most exhausting time this past week, going in an out of anxious and depressive moods, with tiny blips of feeling "normal" or "excited" about life. right now, everything feels boring, bland, and pointless. all of the things i usually love are not making me feel good. i can't stop thinking about the purpose of anything in life, it feels like all of the normalcy that usually keeps me afloat has left my brain. just looking at objects in my bedroom/house make me feel anxious as well. my brain also keeps overanalysing everything, trying to convince me something is wrong when it isn't. the intensity keeps changing throughout the day: sometimes its really easy to fall asleep or i can have a good conversation with someone, other times i am completely consumed with the depressive/anxious symptoms, like right now. its making me so tired, i don't want to shower, eat, brush my teeth etc. i'm scared that i can't handle the challenges life throw at everyone- that i am too soft to handle any of it.

Hylo46 OCD intrusive thoughts worse on SSRI
  • replies: 21

Hi there, day 6 on SSRI (meds) and my intrusive thoughts are more prevelant and nastier - keep thinking I will act on the them due to the thoughts - anyone out there have a similar fear?

Hi there, day 6 on SSRI (meds) and my intrusive thoughts are more prevelant and nastier - keep thinking I will act on the them due to the thoughts - anyone out there have a similar fear?

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