Hello

[gen]

Hi. I'm new to this. I am 19 and have social anxiety. I have always been extremely shy and easily panicked, it got worse as i got older. It wasn't until a couple of years ago that i told mum and started seeing someone about it which was when they told me i had extreme social phobia which was causing depression and insomnia. Seeing someone has helped a little. Although it's taken me a year to work up the courage to join and post something, and taken me almost two hours to finally get the wording almost right without sending myself into a panic. The thought of posting this is making my leg shake, heart race, and body tempurater rise. Anxiety blows.

I'm wondering about how other people deal with anxiety, depression or insomnia, etc.

[Neil_1]

Hi there Gen

And welcome to Beyond Blue and may I say "WELL DONE" to you for being able to complete your first post - as you say (and rightly so) it is a big deal to come onto a website, to register and then to begin to type up some words about yourself.

Can I just say that you've done a great job - not only in succeeding in this, but also with what you've written and also how your wrote - and now I'll try to help out if I can.  And if I can't at least you can read some stuff that I wrote back to you.  Cool?  🙂

Anxiety DOES blow.  But let me tell you, so too does depression AND insomnia and all other mental illnesses.  It's not fair, but they are all illnesses/diseases and for those of us unfortunate to have them, well it makes life tough.

Social anxiety is tough - because unless we live in remotesville, there's a fair chance that we have to have interaction with other humans throughout a lot of your life.

When you say you're seeing someone, is that like a psychiatrist/psychologist?  Do you also have a GP that you see?    From what I can gather, it does sound like you've got a supportive mum?  At least I hope that's the case - cause Gen, there's so many sad stories on here where the family members that you'd hope would be there for you, simply aren't.  But I hope yours is?

That is very encouraging to read that the person that you're seeing IS helping a little.  I hope by you also coming on here that this may also provide you with some support as well - and help.

I do get chatty don't i - and I guess I ask a lot of questions to the newbies, but it's just so I can try and get a bit more information, so it can help out not only myself, but all the other wonderful people who post on this site, to perhaps be able to offer you better advice.

If you're getting to the stage of feeling your heart race and leg shake, etc - just try the relaxed breathing method - where you get yourself seated comfortably and then through your nose, take in a big deep breath - and hold just for a second or two and then nice and slowly, through pursed lips, blow out - nothing forced or rushed.  Do this half a dozen times - and while doing that, just try to put an image in your head of something calm and relaxing - a beach, a lovely sunset, snow, autumn leaves (hope you get the gist there).   And just nice and slow breathing to stop those racy feelings.

Gen, I guess I've written a lot - I do hope you can post back whenever you feel ok to do so.  It'd be great to hear from you again - well, I won't actually be 'hearing' from you as such, as this is a website, but hey ... ok Neil, shut up now.  🙂

Neil

[kay-lea]

Hi gen,

We are in the same age bracket and I am in a very similar situation. I had my first anxiety attack at 11 and its only getting worse. I have constant breathing difficulties without a doubt every single day. I feel when posts are being made from people I dont really know or haven't spoken to for years I still feel as though its about me im so paranoid. I also have ocd along with anxiety and depression. I repeat things in my head over and over again until im content with how ive worded it whether its door locks power appliances you name it.

I get heart palpations and it really scares me especially when I am having an attack I feel as though im dying. Its scary. And it occurs at any time.

Thanks for listening. X

[geoff]

dear Gen, I too would like to welcome you to this site, and have the courage to post your comment, it is difficult for people to be able to do this, because they feel as though they will be judged or frowned upon or even criticised, but that doesn't happen here, because we open our arms up to anyone who wants to disclose their fears, which includes their depression.

Depression has a wide variety of symptoms, and social phobia is added to this list, which includes anxiety, and with this illness it contains OCD, which many of us do have including myself.

With all of this people like yourself need to be able to talk to other people who also suffer with the same illness, and by doing this it will make you gain some more confidence, online anyway, and by doing this it will eventually make you more comfortable in being able to talk to a professional.

I know that you are anxious, but we don't know who you are, all we know is a username, that represents a person seeking help, so I really hope that you can reply back to us. Geoff.

[gen]

Thank you all for posting and sharing. It's comforting seeing that people here seem to be so nice and welcoming, it also helps ease the fear of rejection or judgment.In a way having other people speak about how they know how you feel or know what it's like having any illness/disease like these, it's a little bit healing in a way and certainly helps someone like me feel not so alone.

Neil1- Luckily i do have a supportive mum. She has always tried to help however she can. I was seeing a psychologist at an anxiety disorder clinic until recently.

I have a ten month old son. I'm so scared that i am going to pass everything onto him but i'm trying the best i can to make sure he is happy and positive. He is a happy baby generally and social too so fingers crossed. In a way he helped me a bit, gave me a little more confidence around people. I think it's because i can focus on him rather than myself. There isn't time to panic about being around people when you're responsible for taking care of a little person. Although it brings new things to worry and overthink about. I'm rambling and have realised that this post might seem quite random, sorry people, my mind seems to work that way like there's 10 different screens on at the same time and they are all fighting for my attention.

Thanks again for listening and sharing. Gen.

[Neil_1]

Hi there Gen

And so awesome to hear back from you and thank you also for sharing a little more information.

Oh wow - a little bambino you have and just 10 mths old!  Congrats and it sounds so awesome when you wrote about him - like you were a little bit buzzy and excited (and that's the way it should be too, when you talk about your baby [or children]).

Just a quick background for you, I have a 16yo son and a 13yo daughter.

You are so right Gen - he will have helped you a lot, and a great thing you said in that he is able to give you confidence in possibly situations that would otherwise have you dreading.  I believe that you can work off each other here - he'll be doing little bits (unknowingly) to help you AND of course, you will be always there for him, helping him, because that's just what baby's need - their mum helping them.

Hey, please don't ever say sorry on this site - that's a word we don't generally like to hear from other posters - because you're allowed to say whatever you like here and so if you write random thoughts and things are all over the place - that's great - to me it's like your mind is wanting to get all these things out for others to read about, but we just can't type fast enough and so it may become a jumble.  But Gen, there's a great many of us on here and we'll read it for what it is and will respond accordingly.  No apologies needed here and likewise, there's no judging of anyone either.

Gen, that is so wonderful that your mum is supportive - that is such a great thing and it pleases me so much to hear that.

How do you feel you've been going say, over the last little while?   I guess I'm alluding here to, since the birth of your son - in relation say to the years leading up to his arrival in this world?  Do you feel like things have lightened or lifted a little for you since his birth, compared to what they were like before?   Or do you feel like you're on a slide downwards?  It'd be just interesting to hear what you think about that.

Again, I'm so pleased that you've responded and Gen, you've already seen that there have been other wonderful people responding to you as well - so I hope that you can get back to us at a time that is convenient to you.

Kind regards

Neil

ps:  and give your little man a big hug from all of us from Beyond Blue.  🙂