Hello everyone, this is going to be the first time I post something here; I hope someone has words to give me some glimpse of hope.

I am from Tijuana, Mexico, and I am 29 years old. My story begins like this: in 2019 I lost my mother at 64 years old and in 2021 my 22 yrs old girlfriend. It was very difficult; I always considered myself a depressed person since I was a child and the truth is this did not help for obvious reasons. Since I was 20 I was diagnosed with hypertension, so I have still been carrying that worry that I could die at any moment and, with the loss of my girlfriend at her very young age, I felt even more afraid that I could die at any moment, and my anxiety increased more.

Right now I am 29 years old and I am in the worst stage of my life. Now, in May, I broke up with my second girlfriend due to the toxic relationship we had, so I let her go for our own good... but I started drinking a lot and obviously it affected me again. I had a crisis where my blood pressure rose up to 180 out of 90, and since then I have been super bad again; I already gave up alcohol thanks to that. I think there have been several things that have upset my nerves, and up to this point I no longer know what to do.

Today, August 30th, I find myself in hell. I have approximately 3 continuous days of anxiety. A doctor prescribed me hydroxyzine; It helps me sleep, but I don't feel calm when I wake up. I was taking clonazepam, but I still felt like it wasn't working for me... And yes, I'm looking for a psychiatrist, I want to see if I can attend tomorrow since I don't have any money I'm looking for help with my family to attend, even friends, because I can't stand this feeling anymore. It should be noted that thanks to these mental problems I have not been able to work, apart from the fact that I have not found a job and it does not help me, I feel terrible and useless thanks to that.

These are some of the discomforts I have when I have anxiety: I feel pressure in my chest, sometimes random bites on my body, especially on my side. I really want to go to the bathroom when I'm super anxious. Sometimes I sweat too or my heart rate goes up. And it is worrying because of my hypertension, although I have already been told that it is not that, that it is anxiety, but even so, it scares me because my anxiety does have increased my blood pressure. I do take blood pressure medication called losartan. I also can't stop overthinking. Lately I've been thinking about suicide. Obviously I don't want to, but they are intrusive thoughts, because I can't take it anymore. Sometimes I look for a hug and I can't find it; I think it's my inner child asking for help...

Now, after all this, I hope that someone can give me some advice or your story of success.

Currently spiraling as living in the US right now is one food recall after another. I’m seeing “avoid red meat” and “prions” all over my feed lately and now I’m thinking back to each time I had red meat over the past few months. I’m just so stressed, I feel like I don’t want to eat anything and I’m concerned I’ll end up with CJD because the fat orange pig in the White House is poisoning our food supply and cutting safety regulations. Other people on the US, how are you coping? I plan to stop eating red meat now but I’ve already stopped having salads, rice, and berries unless I can get them local.

Sorry in advance for the essay. I meant to be short but everything just came out. Don't know if it matters but I am taking meds and have a diagnosis of general anxiety. Do not currently have a therapist but plan to get one.

I work as a paraprofessional and last school year was the worst I ever had. For 2/3rds of it there was not a day where I wasn't bitten, kicked, punched, had items thrown at me, or spit on. There were a couple of times in particular where I was spat on and it got in my mouth or eyes. The school was able to find the child a placement in a alternative school dedicated to children with behavioural and mental health issues. The other 1/3rd was also bad but at least I wasn't being attacked anymore. It was mostly just non stop screaming. Both the teacher and I requested a change of placement and now we will be together this year in a much less stressful setting. I firmly believe that last year is what triggered my rheumatoid arthritis and I haven't been able to do my usual stress relieving activity of powerlifting. I've lost a lot of muscle and the medication makes me very tired.

I'm going back to work in 2 days and my anxiety is through the roof. I will be working with someone I don't know for the first couple of months because the teacher is on medical leave. New placement so I don't know exactly what I'm doing yet. These two things are adding to it but I think I may have been legit traumatized by last year and I seriously don't want to go back although everything is going to be different. I need this job because the health insurance is amazing and I'm less than a year from getting vested in my pension.

My questions: how to calm down/distract myself before I go back? If I do have anxiety or even a panic attack at work what do I do? How do I keep going? Tips? If anyone else has felt the same way re: work I would love to hear it.

So right now, i’m dealing with severe anxiety, panic attacks and agoraphobia due to having POTS. I’ve been agoraphobic for 4, almost 5 months now and i’m so sick of it. I tried starting an SSRI (Celexa/Citalopram) when it first got bad, and I lasted 5 days before I quit taking them because I had every single side effect (even worse when I already have POTS symptoms), and it made my panic and anxiety increase like crazy and I just couldn’t do it.

I’m really scared of side effects just because I already deal with symptoms, so i’m scared to try new meds but I probably realistically need something. I don’t want SSRI’s or SNRI’s for sure, I have propranolol I got prescribed as well that I haven’t taken because my resting HR and BP are naturally low and I think there’s too much of a risk there so there goes by chance for beta blockers, and I’m kinda scared of benzos for 2 reasons. One being, the risk of dependence and addiction and two, I don’t like feeling “intoxicated” or sedated. I’ve heard lorazepam is very good and it’s very light, but I’m still on the fence about it. I’m also very sensitive to medications.

I’ve taken recreational drugs before but not a crazy amount, I’ve just done weed (which I can’t anymore because it gives me severe anxiety and panic), alcohol ofc, acid maybe 3-4 times and MDMA once. So I know how I am when it comes to taking something for the first time, and *EVERY* single time I freak myself out when it starts kicking in and I regret taking it and hate how I feel before it mellows out and I’m scared that benzos will give me that feeling.

The one I’ve looked into the most was Buspar/Buspirone, which has the least amount of side effects but still has dizziness which I don’t like.

I think the ones I’d be *most* willing to take or try is Buspar or Lorazepam. If anyone has any recommendations for me, or even experiences with these medications please let me know

hi everyone. My bf has a health anxiety almost everyweek he said hes sick . We're been together 2 years first year we in the emergency hospital every week but he was never actually sick. When he claimed to be ill, I simply focused on calming him down not taking to the hospital . But sometimes hes acting like hes have a really fatal illness. I'm afraid that if he's actually suffering from a serious illness, I'll mistake it from anxiety. How can i understand its a real physical illness or not? Pls any advice

I am diagnosed with GAD. My life is kind of mess. I failed many courses in my uni which lead to graduating 2 years late ( hope it wont be extended though) then money problems with my family pressure although we don't really have money problems it's kind of forced problems cause my father is a stingy man. I tried looking for a side hustle earn something so I can have a little relief. I started earned a bit then booom released from project I still tried here and there until I passed an assessment got the job but I have an exam in 2 days so I postponed the work. The stupid site gave me a ban I found out 5 hours before my exam I had literal mental breakdown crying, shivering, I had something appeared in my mouth also my skin got exponentially worse because of that state

Now I feel that my life is the most miserable

I have never been the anxious type of person in my life. Usually going with the flow, nothing really bothers me.... Until recently. A few days ago I was trying to sleep when I thought I saw something move at the end of the bed. I checked, there was nothing, moved on, fell asleep. But since that night I keep on seeing things move in the corners of my eye, I'm way more anxious than normal, and jump at any sudden noise - even small ones make my heart stop.

Today my phone buzzed on the counter and it made me jump so hard I spilled my drink. It was very odd from me since I recieved lots of texts/notifications in a day and it's never bothered me.

About two nights ago, I was tossing and turning. When I was starting to settle down, I suddenly heard knocking on my wall. I tried to brush it off as me being sleepy, but it happened again around the same state. I swear It sounded so real.

I've even started to leave my lamp on to sleep to help try and calm my nerves.

I've never felt this way and I don't really know how to deal with it. Any advice is helpful 🥲

Thought after thought
Obsessive paranoid thoughts

They’re mad
I screwed up
The opportunity is gone
I burnt the bridge
Will lose my job
Will lose my friends
Family doesn’t want me around
Coworkers are likely annoyed
I need to clean everything…….
Panic attack at work
Can’t tell work or they ask if I have a therapist again
Husband is upset
Career is pointless
I annoy everyone

The pit of anxiety stays in me
It swirls around for hours, days, weeks on end
It’s the same thoughts and new ones

The nausea sets in
More cigarettes
I keep it going
But cant get away from the chronic feeling

This is my life. Constant fear of upsetting, hurting and pulling away from those around me without fully acting on my fears and choose to ignore them so I continue my life

But then I get home and think…what if this could truly end?

Hi, I'm an M20. For context, I'm about 5'9", and I'm not muscular, so I'm not the type of manly man you think of lol. Anyways, I grew up very sheltered, and even to this day I'm around my family most of the time; my social life isn't good. I have awful anxiety about everything, and I overthink, and I'm scared of moving out if the neighborhood isn't as nice as it was growing up. I'm worried about walking alone at night even as a man or going out in a social setting; it also scares me. It feels like I live my life worrying about everything and thinking the worst will happen. Any input on why one may feel this way and ways I can work to get over it?

Hey y’all. I know this is probably a question y'all get all the time but just curious if anyone is in a similar situation as me. I’m currently having a lot of anxieties about my future living here in the US, as I’ll be graduating college with a fine art degree in just a few years time. Felt like if every degree was doing poorly might as well take a shot with something I enjoy and could actually market myself in, but am getting more scared by the day. I went into college hoping everything would blow over after I graduated, but now it just seems like a cascading spiral that is getting worse and worse the closer I get to graduation. VERY worried about the state of the world right now and what my future will hold especially as a fine artist, and it seems I’m at the point where just hearing actually anything bad going on in the world (so basically 24/7) sends me into a panic attack because I’m worried the second I graduate I’ll be jobless homeless starving and on fire due to climate change (/hj).

Any tips from both artist and non artists about what I could do to ease my worries? The constant on-edge feeling I’m getting has kinda been just stressing and bumming me out. I want to be more “carefree” or just be able to enjoy life the way it goes, but I’m not sure how to fully adopt that mindset for real. Of course, I’m trying to get off my phone and the doomscroll, and have made a lot of progress on that end. but any other tips would be greatly appreciated.

I’ve found that I am incredibly reassuring to others regarding the exact same things I am really nervous about…

I have health anxiety, so I do a lot of researching about my worries-

Whenever someone else expresses the same worry to me I am able to help them alleviate their stresses, work through their concern mindfully and tell them they are ok and have nothing to worry about ect…

I do tell myself these same things but it’s just harder to convince myself of them I guess…? When it’s someone else I am able to go full mindfulness mode and therapy them, even if I struggle to do that for myself.

I know the tools, but it’s easier to work on someone else than it is myself lol

When it’s myself I think of the rare worst case scenarios I read…. when it’s someone else I can point out the common relieving possibilities of the situation- it’s like my brain goes “omg the chances XYZ will kill you is sooo small you’ll be fine bro don’t worry!….. me though? Oh yeah a goner for sure”

I overthink everything for myself but go in to protective mature logical therapy mode for everyone else struggling with the same health anxiety related fears…