Chronic anxiety

[Jess13]

I have been struggling with anxiety & depression since I had my first child. He's nearly 22 now. I've recently come off medication (6 weeks ago). I was so proud I successfully came off as it's a hard drug to stop. I've had a lot of stress ever since which has now triggered both anxiety & depression again. Every day I can't get motivated & im so very tired!! Can't function. I feel I've lost the zest for life & wont be happy again. The things I would normally love to do just aren't enjoyable anymore. I have an amazing partner who is such a positive person but I feel like I'm just bringing him down with my negativity & sadness. I never want to do anything. I just want to look forward to something & not be so tired all the time.

[Lauren_87]

Hi Jess,

I'm so sorry that you are going through this, anxiety and depression is horrible. I'm so glad that you have an amazing partner to support you, please don't feel like you are bringing him down though. It may be worth speaking to your GP about how you are feeling and whether you need to think about if you should go back onto the medication. I know you mentioned how proud you are to have come off the medication but is this worth experiencing the anxiety and depression? I hope you are able to find something that helps you so that you can get your zest for life again, best wishes

[therising]

Hi Jess

I feel for you so deeply as you work so hard to manage life without the kind of chemical input that had made such a difference to you. High 5 on many levels 🖐

1. Being able to come off the medication
2. Trying to feel your way through life, while being such a deep and sensitive feeler. Can be massive challenges with this one, for sure
3. Trying so hard to develop a greater sense of self understanding
4. Questioning so much while on a quest for perhaps a more soulful connection to life

The list goes on.

Can be so much harder, navigating life as a real feeler, when there's no chemical input to help manage certain feelings. You get to feel the absolute rawness of them. Considering most of us are raised to suppress emotion to various degrees, 'How to navigate raw emotion?' can suddenly become the question and challenge as we near 50 (I'm a 52yo gal, btw). Would be so much easier if we'd been raised in the ways of constructively facing and identifying every emotion or feeling we come across.

I've found it can be somewhat helpful to identify emotion or energy in motion as coming from 1 or more of 3 categories. 1)Mental: What kind of energy is involved in my thoughts, beliefs systems, perception etc? 2)Physical: What kind of energy is in involved in my chemistry (involving deficiency or over production), muscles, nervous system etc? 3)Natural or soulful: What kind of energy is involved in how I'm naturally feeling life, people, my environment etc? When it comes to all 3 categories: Is there not enough energy, is there too much, is it relaxed, is it stuck (like with holding stress in the muscles or holding onto heartache, for example), is it dreadful/stressful energy and so on?

When it comes to feelings, I've found changing 'What's wrong with me?' to 'Hang on a sec, let me just get a better feel for this' can be helpful. At times it doesn't hurt to get blood tests done also. Chemical deficiencies relating to iron, B12, thyroid function aren't so easy to get a feel for. Such deficiencies can become deeply depressing.