Hovering between stress and anxiety?

[Ellsie]

I'm new to the forums and new to potentially anxiety/depression. 

Throughout most of my teenage years, I felt depressed and had mild panic attacks particularly during the HSC. However, the fear of failure, disappointing my parents pushed me through and I felt like I managed to stay afloat. I brushed these thoughts aside and just told myself it was exam stress.

Today I had a bad incident at work and I couldn't recover from it. My thoughts kept spiralling in circles - a part of me knows that I should let it go and move on but the a part of me can't let it go. I've been putting myself down the whole day and the more I do that, the more worthless I feel. I link it on to other parts of my life, I'm not deserving of my job, I'm not worthy of having a caring boyfriend, I'm disappointing my family. Over the years I have progressively found it more difficult to be easy going on myself. 

Having read through some other forum posts, it makes me feel my issues are insignificant that I'm wasting people's time while there are other people out there with real problems.

I feel better after articulating my thoughts!

[AGrace]

Hi Ellsie,

Welcome, and thanks for sharing your post.

Negative spiraling thoughts are a common symptom of depression. It's also common that one line of thinking then leeches into other aspects of your life.

I think the next step would be to speak with your GP and maybe get some counselling for depressive symptoms. A counsellor may wish to do some Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with you to help with the skill of challenging some of these unwanted thoughts.

Sometimes dusting yourself off an pushing through is not the best long term strategy as it leaves us without the skills to apply next time a similar scenario arises.

Everyone on the forums is at different stages in terms of mental health. No one is more or less significant than the other. I think you should feel proud that you've reached out for support before your symptoms get out of control.

Please also feel free to join any of the discussions under anxiety, or treatments, or recovery.

I hope to hear back from you, and apologies for the delayed reply.

AGrace

[Asha]

Hi Ellsie,

I'm new here too and I found a lot to relate to in your post.

i agree seeing your GP is a really good idea as they can refer you to someone to talk to. It took me ages to seek help and I really think the sooner you seek help the better.

I'm also going to say something that I've been told a million times, you need to be kinder to yourself. When you're feeling worthless trust the judgement of people who love you to assure you that your not.

i also think that no-ones issues are insignificant, talking to people helps validate that it's ok to feel how you feel, it doesn't make you selfish and it doesn't mean you'll be feeling crappy forever.

i hope you keep posting

Asha