Hi everyone,
I have just joined this forum. I have regular bouts of severe and obsessional anxiety and also less frequent bouts of depression. I'm in my mid-forties now and have had some sort of these symptoms since I was in my early teens. I had been using substances to numb symptoms (and also emotions) for several decades, but I am happy to say that I recently successfully completed a 13 day residential/medical detox and have now been home for a week and have not used this substance at all 🙂
The anxiety is felt so physically, it can be very paralysing. It is often not related to particular thoughts or concerns, seems to just take over my body and then the brain follows trying to pinpoint the cause, but this almost never calms the physical symptoms.
I have seen many psychologists and psychiatrists over the decades, but nothing has gotten to the root cause of the very uncomfortable symptoms. Doing breathing exercises, actual exercise, taking a bath, trying to relax have not been successful.
Hopefully I can pick up some tips or suggestions from these forums. Thanks for reading and all the best 🙂 P.S. I would also like to help others in the forums if I can.
