Just learning.

[Pineapple8]

I’m currently a full time university student and work part time as a coach. Over the past few months I’ve been experiencing excessive worrying and stress that I feel is always out of my control. In the past weeks these feelings of nervousness and nausea have become so uncontrollable and are really impacting my ability to carry out daily life. I find going to Uni and sitting in lecture halls so overwhelming, just going to work makes me feel so anxious and on edge, and I’ve also noticed I’m not doing the things I love as much. I was very much into the gym and now I just don’t feel like going? I used to love being up early and now I find myself sleeping in and even when I wake up I feel exhausted and I start worrying the second my eyes open.

I took the leap yesterday and visited my gp as it almost feels unbearable and I’m started to become increasingly angry with myself (over these feelings)...

I’m finding it really hard and feel somewhat alone? Self talk is the biggest thing I’m struggling with.

I would love to hear some of your experiences and how to cope with this.

Thank you 🙂

[PamelaR]

Hi Pineapple, welcome to our community forums

It's good to see you've found your way here. Things sound a bit over the top for you at the moment. Excessive nervousness and nausea could be anxiety, though it's if your doctor can diagnose what is troubling you. I'm not a health professional, though can support you by sharing some of my experiences with balancing uni and work. To let you know you're not alone.

When I started studying at uni I was 37 and while I had experienced nervousness (I now know it to be anxiety) throughout my working life, it was nothing compared to the full on frontal attacks I used to get at exam / assessment time. The doctor I went to see never diagnosed it as anxiety - she just said, oh, I use to get like that at exam time - just go for an extra run and wear off the adrenaline. Hmmmmm.... it took another 20 years and a breakdown to get diagnosed with anxiety, depression and PTSD.

How did I make it through uni? After a couple of years of struggling and always feeling ill, I took a year off work and uni and went travelling. On returning to Australia, I resumed studies - full time and ceased working until I finished my degree. It was the best decision I made for me. I truly could not cope with both because I placed far too much expectation on myself at excelling - very much OCD. Unfortunately though, I could not go on to complete my Honours because I was far too frazzled. My learnings from that time are -

to not place too much expectation on achieving high distinctions. A pass or above would have sufficed, but 'I had too do the best'. No second best for this lassy.

to seek a second opinion about what I was experiencing - nervousness wise. Going for a run was never going to help me calm down.

it would have been good if the uni counsellor and my doctor had pointed me in the direction of meditation, grounding, mindfulness, distraction, slowed breathing.

Do you think any of this has helped you?

If it's okay with you can I ask - has anything happened in the past few weeks that could have triggered your 'nervousness'? It can be useful to get to the bottom of what's caused it.

Keep reaching out if and when you want to Pineapple, you're not alone.

Kind regards

PamelaR

[Pineapple8]

Thank you for the reply Pamela, that was extremely helpful.

My doctor had advised me that I was experiencing anxiety and to reschedule an appointment for the following week.

I can’t figure out an exact cause of why it has become so intense over the week?

I have just found that in any stressful situation I can’t cope, I feel increasingly ill all the time, my heart races and my breath becomes shortened and I feel immediately faint.

My partner and I had an argument over the weekend (which was over something really minor) and I had a panic attack, which silly enough I though I was having a heart attack? I just totally freaked out and lost it.

[PamelaR]

Great to have you come back so quickly Pineapple.

It's good to hear your doctor has recognised you are experiencing anxiety and you have another appointment about this. There is a questionnaire they'll most likely go through with you, then discuss the outcome of it. Then where to from here.

Usually when I try to find the cause of anxiety it provokes anxiety even more!! Which of course it makes it harder to identify the reason for what sparked it. Now however, following years of seeing psychologists it's much easier recognising the why, and much easier and quicker to reduce my anxiety levels.

I understand what you are saying about feeling increasing ill. Generally, the symptoms of my anxiety increase overtime if I haven't addressed the underlying issue. For example my heart continues to race and in fact increases, irritability increases, easily get into arguments, hyper vigilance and disassociation sets in, sleepless nights send me crazy. That feeling of a heart attack is awful isn't it?

On my last visit, when I couldn't identify the root cause, my psychologist suggested - stop trying to find it, look at my core beliefs in myself. Do something else - distract my thinking. So I did that and after a day or so, up it came. Clear as day. Then I was able to reduce the anxiety. It was interesting, when I stopped trying to find it, my symptoms started to decrease too.

Sorry to hear the argument with your partner set off a panic attack. That is frightening isn't it? Have you talked to your partner about how you are feeling? Do they understand and support you?

[Trying55]

Hi Pineapple,

I have gone through somewhat similar struggles with managing anxiety, full time university studies and a part time job. I'm not suggesting that you have anxiety as I would have no idea and maybe what I say won't be helpful at all, but I thought I'd try to do my best and hopefully it'll help you in some sort of way.

You said that you're struggling with self-talk a lot. As someone who is currently trying to control her intrusive thoughts I can understand how overwhelming negative talk patterns can be. The thing that has helped me manage everything is self-care. Previously, I would always put my studies before all else and place a lot of pressure on it to the point where I began associating my grades with my worth. Doing this led to a number of unwanted outcomes and worsened my OCD symptoms. Ultimately, I found that the pressure I placed on myself to succeed was nowhere near worth the pain I was experiencing to get there.

So this year, with my first year of university, I began enrolled full time and then near the end of the semester I withdrew as that pressure became unbearable. Withdrawing was the best decision I made for myself at the time. It gave me a chance to relax, work on myself and enjoy simple things more like seeing friends or going to the beach. I went back to uni in the second semester of this year again full time. But, also still found the process challenging and hard to maintain with my part time work and anxiety. I therefore, decided to drop one of my courses and completed three subjects successfully this year.

This last semester I aimed at focusing on one assessment at a time, I tried not to think about the end results and I put myself first all the time. If I needed a break I took one, I forced myself to exercise and eat better and maintain a mostly active social life. I'm still struggling but not in the way that I was previously. My advice to you is to give yourself time to figure out what's going on and be kind to yourself while you are going through all of this. I know it's easier said then done but you are way more important then any grade or work commitment. So, just take it one step at a time maybe and try to be kind to yourself, talk to yourself as you would do with your best friend if they came to you with the same problem.

Hopefully something in that helps, sorry if it doesn't and if that was just a complete waste.

Best of Luck,

Trying55