How to survive

[David9]

Hi all,

I am just new to this forum and desperately need help from people who understand. I want advice as how to start my day. I suffer from anxiety and the start of each day is when I am most frightened. I am in a job I hate but it pays the bills for now. I want to wake up in the morning and rather that hide under the covers trembling I want to be able to rise and greet a new day even though I know it is going to be stressful as usual.

This anxiety is slowly grinding me down to a point where it is really scaring me about where it will end up.

[Katyonthehamsterwheel]

Hi David9 and welcome to the forums

I'm sorry you're struggling with anxiety and finding morning's most difficult. Some things that you could try, to set yourself up for the day are meditation (you can download apps for this), positive affirmations, or getting straight up out of bed and getting some exercise in to increase feel good endorphins.

In regard to your job, are there any changes that you can make, to make it less stressful? Also, I'm not sure if you're receiving any professional help with your mental health, but you sound like it's causing you a fair bit of distress, so it might pay to look into it if you're not already. The first point of call would be your GP, who can refer you to someone for a chat.

Things can get better if we put things in place to support us. Happy to chat more if you like. Katy

[james1]

Hello David9,

Welcome! I hope you find the support you are looking for here.

Katy has some great suggestions in terms of trying to get the day started in a good way. I'd also suggest that anxieties often get worse the longer we sit on them and ponder. It's a bit of a catch 22, so if you are able to create shortcuts or ways to get your day started faster, that can help.

Some thoughts might be putting an alarm in another room so you're forced to get up to turn it off, preparing your breakfast the day before, and even just opening any windows or blinds as the first thing you do. It's all quite personal though, so it might take some time to work out a routine which helps you get up.

Otherwise, I'd also be interested to understand if you currently get any professional help, or if you've had any in the past?

James

[Amanda2000]

Hi David,

I suffer from the same thing. Every morning is like "here we go again". I try to better plan my day each morning but I always end up taking a long time to do simple things and end up rushing which adds to the anxiety. Sometimes work is a good distraction if I'm really into what I'm doing. Just like you, I don't exactly like my job but it's "easy money" so I try to focus on the bright side financially. Every evening is filled with household chores. If I want to sneak in some "me time" to unwind, I'll just end up going to bed very late. Many times I've brainstormed to work out whether I can make any lifestyle changes, but it seems impossible when my life revolves around my family's timetable which is not always predictable. Changes just create other problems elsewhere. So how do I cope? Just accept the current situation and tell myself this phase will pass. Good things may be waiting in the future but we just cannot see them yet. You are not alone!