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Severe anxiety
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Hey everyone,
I haven't posted on these forums for as long as I can remember. I've been battling anxiety on and off for the last 10-15 years. For the most part it's been pretty well managed with some low level anxiety always present but life has mostly been pretty good. I take a low dose of medication and have been for around 8-9 years and I guess it's been doing it's thing. I also see a therapist monthly that helps keep things in check. I'm physically active, have a good job, don't drink, don't smoke and don't do drugs.
About a month ago I came out of a 6 mth quite turbulent relationship, which was my first real relationship in 7-8 years. I fell for her quite hard, she wasn't emotionally available and this led to lots of arguments, clashing and ultimately me breaking up with her as it was triggering severe anxiety for me. We tried to be friends afterwards however that quickly ran it's course as it continued to make both of us anxious and she eventually asked to break contact completely about a month ago.
Since then my anxiety has been escalating significantly. Every day has been a big struggle however I've been active and functional and even gone on a few dates trying to move on and forward with my life.
In the past couple of weeks my sleep has really suffered. I've been waking up between 3-4am every morning with severe anxiety symptoms and have been unable to get back to sleep so I've been forced to start my day. The anxiety continues throughout the day, slowly peeters off as the day goes on and leaves me exhausted by the late afternoon and evening. I've purposely been going to bed at around 7-8pm in order to get enough sleep to be able to function throughout the day due to the early wakeups.
By far the worst symptoms are the racing thoughts and this horrible feeling in my chest that feels like someone's squeezing me tightly. It's unbearable.
I've been slowly increasing my medication dose as per my GP instructions however it's been around 10 days of that and can't really feel a difference. If anything I feel I'm getting worse.
Reaching out here for some love, support and hope as it's really getting to me and I'm really struggling with all of it at the moment and just want things to start to improve.
Sending love.
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Welcome back,
Check with your GP as to how long it takes for the anxiety medication to take hold, depending on several things it can take up to 6 weeks.
I eliminated my anxiety by a multi ponged approach. Changes included- getting rid of toxic people, change of living environment, redo finances, change of career/workplace, add hobbies and sports/interests and seeking relaxation exercises- several.
With relaxation I sort the videos of Prem Rawat Maharaji. He doesnt lecture on religion, travels the world teaching and has a large following. I'll leave a few of his videos at the bottom.
It's good you've dated, nothing like trying to move on by having company and new levels of friendship.
Racing thoughts is a concern. In my case I had to learn that I couldnt control all of my mind while I had issues spinning around so I had to learn how to distract my attention. Your tightness in your chest is a GP issue but relaxation in any form will help and a sleep study could be requested to your GP to seek if there is any sleep apnoea present.
Here is some threads referring to the issues discussed. You only need to read the first post of each.
Reply anytime
https://forums.beyondblue.org.au/t5/anxiety/anxiety-how-l-eliminated-it/td-p/183873
https://forums.beyondblue.org.au/t5/staying-well/the-best-praise-you-ll-ever-get/td-p/134999
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhrtbBrMQ1Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3aFh7OJMNA
TonyWK
