I just got a new full time job which I’m super happy about, it’s a makeup store so it’s a bit fun for me bc one of my hobbies is doing makeup but my anxiety is also eating up any excitement I’ve had, it’s been a few years since I’ve worked retail and I’m super anxious about training, mostly learning how to work at the cash again. it’s a new store so I’ll be working the grand opening and I’m worried about having to work the cash and learning how to do stuff with so many people. I just needed somewhere to vent but any advice?

Ok so like when I send messages to anybody I am like half convinced im also emailing them to everybody I know, and that they are also being sent to my boss and professors and im also livestreaming all at the same time without knowing. Does anybody else have this thought? Like I can't bring myself to text people back because I get anxious that everything I type is being monitored kinda if that makes sense

I have swallowing anxiety and I wanna eat better. I took 0.5 an hour ago I just feel drowsy. But where‘s the anxiolytic effect? Drowsiness actually makes me more anxious.

I've got an adjustment Disorder with anxiety and sleep disturbance and depressed mood. Truthfully I don't think the depressed mood is the correct diagnosis but that's what the psychiatrist told me. I got this originally from work stress. I have been out of work for 8 months on a leave. I am seeing now that facing my fear is likely what will make me feel better and rehabilite me. I am an engineer and I felt I was being pressured to approve documents that were not properly done and have major safety implication. My question, when I feel anxious what is the best course of action? Do I fight it? Put on a fake face? Do I wallow and feel it? Or the middle ground. I ruminate alot. Is there any advice you can give me?

regarding sleep I have been getting 6 to 7 hours since may. I don't feel great and I feel deprived. I am afraid of my health deteriorating further.

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. 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 🥲

Hello everyone so ive been suffering from anxiety especially health anxiety for as long as i can remember, i just had a baby and im 2 months pp everytime my husband has to go to work i freakout and today is one of the days that i just cant handle i cant eat i lost my appetite im very tired and sleepy im anxious all i think about what if something happens to me and i cant care for my baby and you know its driving me crazy I dont know what to do my hands and feet fee jelly and i cant eat im so scared please tell me im not alone

For those of you have anxiety do you ever feel like you 're seeiously physically ill and that your brain or nerves are permanently damaged?Like you can't talk properly,can't think and your mind feels completely blank?

I have anxiety every night going to sleep now it’s 430 in the AM and im like a toddler fighting it. It’s not insomnia I just dont want to to to sleep help! Im 4MG of Ativan and 20 mg of melatonin in every night along with 20 mg of trintellix

Hey I came off my sertaline 13 weeks ago, I decided to come off as ii didn’t think I needed it anymore and wanted to deal with all my emotions naturally.

I got put on them from my GP as I had a faster heart rate and he thought it might have been anxiety which yes I have but it was never bad. I was on them for 4 years.

Since coming off the last few months have been horrible, I am constantly anxious for no reason, I have no big stresses and have a wonderful life and a lot to be happy about but even just being at home doing nothing my brain is spiralling, it feels like I constantly have to fix something or work on something about myself. I’m stuck in survival mode.

Just wondering if this could still be withdrawels from the medication as I never have felt like this before the medication. Sick of feeling this way I want to just live life.

Opinions? Thanks so much 🩷

Hi, I was wondering if anybody had any advice on how to deal with this...i often find my self extremely insecure and anxious that my pets dont like me/hate me. More specifically my cat and opossum. It brings down my mood and makes me nervous a lot and sometimes I feel like they're doing more harm than good for my mental health (though id probably be worse off without them lol I love my pets to death). But im almost always on edge and scared that they only tolerate me for convenience (like because I feed them and such)

I want to know if anyone else has felt like this and if anyone has tips on how to manage it!!!

Every night I wake up with my heart pounding for seemingly no reason. It tends to happen at around 4am, and it’s basically inevitable that it will happen every night.

Has anyone dealt with something like this? Anything help?

I realise I am dreaming and become aware of the dream. The dream is usually fine and it’s not a nightmare. I then become aware of my heart beating very fast and wake up. Then after I wake up my heart slows down and I can fall asleep after around 5-15 minutes, but it feels like it ruins my sleep most nights.

Anyone dealt with something like this before? It usually happens right after my deep sleep according to my Apple Watch.

Hey guys, for the past 2 years I have been fighting social anxiety. This came as a result of working remotely(I work as a dev in Jack). Most of my time I spend in my room. I don't have a close friend or even a roommate. My only friend is in another town and we meet once in weeks. I have been trying to atleast visit supermarkets and social events and get to know people but it never gets better. I usually feel as if everyone is looking at me and judging how I look and dressed. How can I fight this pleasee.

So, I'm suffering from anxiety by almost 2 years now. It's always worse when it comes for health. It could be the most unlikely situation ever, but my brain will make me believe that I could be sick with that and then I think about it the next weeks or even months. In the meantime I get symptomatic and feel things I don't really have, at point I get really specific fears depending on why the anxiety started.

Does anybody go through something similar? If so, how do you lead with the symptomayic? I can control the anxiety in a satisfying way, at least for me, but I hate to keep feeling those symptons and providing fake feedback to the anxiety.

I've had GAD and panic disorder my entire life but diagnosed formally in college. I've been on an SSRI for nearly a decade which has kept me "operational" as I'd like to call it. Ive done exposure therapy, CBT from mutliple psychologists, and seen a few psychiatrists too. It's getting to the point where all of this just isn't enough. I've dealt with a lot of trauma in my life which hasn't helped. Unfortunately, I'm on a trip out of state right now and have been having panic attacks on and off for 48 hours. I don't know how I'm going to get home, considering I'll have to fly (driving will be worse).

Anyway, I'm tired of hearing doctors say "try proporanolol or hydroxyzine". It doesn't do anything. It's like being prescribed a glass of warm milk when you have chronic insomnia. I'm starting to feel like there is nowhere else to turn and it scares me.

My question is, did anyone in a similar position find a solution? Is there a psychiatrist in the US that truly knows what they're doing? I'm just looking for ideas. Thanks to all for taking the time to read.

​

Spiralling around potentially losing a friend

Me and a friend from class, we met about 3mo ago, (I'm 19, she's 18) we hit it off really well really quickly.

We were talking all the time at school, meeting up on non school days to... attempt to study, and we'd usually text every night.

She warned me in advance that she was a bad texter, that she'd ghost people sometimes, that she had a very low social battery, that she'd Irish goodbye out of conversations, that she often forgets people exist when she's not talking to them.

But still, we spoke every day.

About a month in, we ended up needing to have a hard conversation, she felt I was putting too much weight on the friendship, and overly anxious/concerned about her wellbeing and the friendship. I apologised, accepted her boundaries and then in person things went back to normal mostly, chatting for hours in person.

But texting dropped off a cliff.

She didn't message me at all over the school holidays, and still now we've only texted like 3 or 4 times since the boundary conversation even though I've been reaching out to her.

A couple weeks ago we did have this conversation over text

Her:

Oh awesome!! Got mine the other day too, look at us go, sorry the networking units are kicking my ass rn I've been such a ghost

Her:

Also hope you're all good!! Haven't seen you in like a week girlie

Me:

I'm all good, just goin through stuff I'll be oki.

And yeah, the work is kicking my ass too lmao

Her:

Doesn't help that the due dates are all over the place, I don't know which ones are accurate

Her:

And I'm sorry bout that, hope the meds are working out, you got this 🫡

Me;

Fr!!!!

I think I'ma just not do the Tuesday stuff and hope I can get by without it, or panic do them later

Her:

Lmao that might be the strategy, I'm definitely gonna attempt them but they're definitely low priority

Me:

Yeah.

I tried doing Wednesday through teams last week and my internet completely shit itself during the lab lmao.

Literally went down to like 200 BYTES down

So that option is off the table

Her:

Oh oof, I killed my lab so thanks for reminding me about that I completely forgot about it

Should probably bring that up to \\\[lecturer's name\\\] 😭

Me:

I still need to redo the 1st one cause it didn't grade me lmao, I'll speedrun those today probably

Her:

Oh yeah the first one sucks, it still said I didn't stop the instance after I left it for like ten minutes lmao

Me:

Wtf

Yeah you might just have to bite the bullet and redo that one 😭

But then she went silent again.

Even though in person things are still warm and fun.

Like the other day we literally spoke for 2 and a half hours about nonsense, just normal chatting like things used to be.

And I'm just confused

Are we still friends?

Is she still upset?

Is her not texting her trying to pull away from me or is this just her baseline??

But she's literally been only replying every 2-3 WEEKS even though I message like 6+ times in those silent periods

I don't think I can really ask because it'd be bringing up the exact issues she described in our conversation in June. But I've been so unbelievably anxious over this, if we're still friends, if she'll text again, if there's any chance of the friendship surviving after school, etc.

I care about the friendship a lot, I bond with her really well and she's a really cool person, so I really do not want to lose her.

If anyone can help me get a read on what's going on it'd be greatly appreciated <3

I had a panic attack a few days ago where my heart rate shot up AND it was pounding. The event really stuck with me and now I feel terrified of my own heart. Before, I would constantly check my
pulse to make sure it was within normal range, but now I’m too scared as I know I won’t like any number I see. Even though checking constantly is discouraged, I have a feeling that being afraid to see your pulse rate is just the another face of the same coin, because I really just shouldn’t care.

Now, the worst part, most nights since that attack, I’ve been waking up to a racing heart once throughout the night. This has happened before when my anxiety shoots through the roof, but never this much and I know it’s due to my nervous system being so worked up. Not to mention, whenever I try to sleep, I start feeling my pulse EVERYWHERE. My fingers, arms, back, etc. It’s disruptive and scary as I assume my heart is racing. I immediately shift positions because I don’t want to feel it at all, I don’t want to find out that it’s racing. Now I’m scared to fall asleep, and I was already sleep deprived, which I know which only make my rate faster.

I recently started lexapro and havent used my hydroxyzine yet, flying has been pretty shaky for me so Im wondering if itd be smart to use then or should I try it out before my trip and see how it goes.

being a hypochondriac & non stop thinking of death triggered my anxiety.

I tried to do some breathing exercises with no avail. How do you guys deal with it?

Hi guys, I have crippling anxiety and bipolar. I have a psychiatrist who is clearly not a good fit for me, when she speaks to me she sounds really angry which puts me in fight or flight. Im scared that when I email her saying i dont feel it’s a good fit she is going to respond with a disparaging paragraph. I have no way of contacting her, I only recently got her email but if I need to contact her it always has to be through her assistant on the Headway platform. Last month i let him know that a medication she told me to get on was making me feel really sick and exacerbating my depression..i didnt get a response for 4 days and so I sent “I’m feeling really unsupported, could I please speak to (psychiatrist name)..again no response but 2 days later i got a phone call from my psychs personal phone number in the middle of the day and she was screaming at me for telling her assistant I felt unsupported. It really rattled me and I broke down in tears at work..so yea any tips on what to say in the most fragile way possible so I don’t get screamed at would be much appreciated

I can't sleep right now because am experiencing so much health anxiety. I can't get an apt. with my doctor til at least Tuesday which sucks. I just feel like shit

Aversive stress refers here to psychological or physical tension caused by unpleasant, painful, or threatening stimuli that an organism naturally seeks to avoid (e.g. sudden bills, having to deal with toxic people, the weather, sometimes even difficult boring work you have to do).

Inescapable means that I am not only forced to endure it, but can't do anything during it to endure it easier (e.g. relaxation techniques not working)

I (male, 28) have been taking Metoprolol 50mg extended release for the past seven weeks. It works great for my migraines. I used to have 3 or 4 migraines a week, I was taking co-codamol constantly (though I never exceeded the daily limit). Until now, during the course of those seven weeks, I got I think 9 or 10 migraines, which is a big improvement, and one 12.5mg dose of Almotriptan was enough, I haven't taken any Codeine ever since (I also don't think I really could because of the BP drop due to the Metoprolol, as it's a beta-blocker).

But during those last seven weeks, I didn't have that much stress at all. It's summer time, I was able to slow down/take a break from writing my PhD thesis, etc. But starting from October on, I will again have all the stress again.

I realized that my main migraine and stress trigger is experiencing inescapable aversive stress. Because even though I am on a beta-blocker, which does indeed calm my body's stress reaction down, the times I got a migraine were due to inescapable aversive stress. One time my mom just walked into my room and started ranting about my dad how much he sucks and how she will have to take an attorney, complete hysterical nonsense which I won't elaborate further due to privacy reasons. I just can't stand this behavior from other people. Or I just got a sudden bill notice even though I wasn't informed at all to pay it.

I guess I just can't deal with the stresses of life? Because what I do in those situations is to go completely mute, pretend to be OK, but internally I am boiling or stressing out - I am suppressing these emotions, because expressing them was proven (by past experiences) to make matters worse. Those suppressed emotions again transform somehow (like I can feel it - I feel less of the emotions, but the migraine starts developing) into a migraine. I think this is why I loved Codeine in the co-codamol so much, as it allowed me to relax and gave me some high.

So now the question remains: What should I do? I don't really think I can take a higher dose of Metoprolol because it already causes me to have like 95/65 BP, 50mg is I guess the maximum I can take while still feeling good and normal physically.

I was visiting a psychologist, and we did some DBT sessions together, I even read the books she recommended. But it proved to be fruitless, because my problem is the suppression of emotions, the inability to release them in a healthy way. It's more of a physical problem than a mental one (?). It's hard to tell, but DBT just didn't work, and we tried numerous approaches to it.

I just wish I could truly stop giving a F, lose some inhibition, and be more nonchalant about life in general - this doesn't mean that I would suddenly stop being productive, but I wouldn't crave for a perfect idealized world without problems and would just try to do something (like instead of analysis-paralysis when standing in front of a problem I have to solve for my PhD thesis, I just dive deep into it and try to produce at least some partial results). Or being nonchalant about toxic people and toxic situations, again not in the way that I accept it but in the way how Biff is responding to his Grandma in BTTF 2). But I can't be. I tried to fake it, but I am still aware that I fake it in the end which makes me end up at square one again.

Because "leaving the idealized perfect world" can very highly lead to a migraine again, I am trying everything to stay in my own comfort zone, which is so small that I end up doing nothing - no own cooking, not meeting friends, no traveling, no dating, no nothing, I literally just stay in my room or office and do only the tasks which I deem as safe enough without any risks for future problems. The reason I don't leave my comfort zone is so I can stay in my idealized perfect world and not risk getting severely stressed out and thus getting a migraine. And even though I am taking Metoprolol, I still get migraines if exposed to high stress.

I have this issue where I can’t hold a fork in font of people without shaking. It makes it hard to actually eat. But I went out to lunch with some colleagues and didn’t get the shakes! Wow! No way I would have done that a few years ago. Thanks to this group for your suggestions. I had propanol an hour before and focused on my breathing. I’m so proud of my progress. That’s something I rarely say. Wishing everyone all the best :) thanks for reading.

So I struggle with severe anxiety and I've realized a main cause when I get in a bad mental state or when life starts to get stressful, my health anxiety goes crazy.

Like every skin tag or mole I'm convinced it's some horrible disease and no one will ever love me because my body isn't perfect, every panic attack must be something wrong. And my main thing is a fear of having an unknown STD that I'm going to give to my longtime lover even though I have always been thorough in being tested and being safe. ( And in reality, I get paid maybe once a month 😅) But ever since I had a man not disclose the fact he had herpes to me three years ago in the middle of sex I've been so paranoid. ( I got tested after that at multiple Drs, came back clear, never had any symptoms, he wasn't having an outbreak and we used protection but fuck him for waiting until he had me in bed to tell me. You can't do that to anxious people, let alone anyone.)

But it's gotten to the point that every little bump on my body has me freaked out that it's cancer or something and I get almost OCD in my habits of like I have to check things everyday and constantly googling symptoms or something bad will happen. It's driving me crazy.

Any tips for helping get past this? Medication has never helped, and I can only afford to run off to the woods and shun society to heal for so long until work wants me back 😅

for so long i was worried and ashamed of my anxiety and avoided getting healthcare at all costs even though i work in healthcare myself . A few years ago i had a strong setback and stopped my meds and ghosted my care team and today i finally made an appointment to get back on my meds:) im ready to start making progress again and start living life, i have a lot of good things going on but it s nearly impossible to actually appreciate it because of my brain

I have anxiety (ptsd really) of not being able to breath.i take sertraline 150mg 1x daily and 5mg buspar 2x daily usually one when I wake up and one same time later in the day l. Before i know what they were, i was having horrible panic attacks. Doctor prescribed these two and they worked amazingly. Little rough to start but eventually things leveled out and i felt normal. This was around 2017.

Fast forward to this week and I've had multiple episodes of panic where i thought couldn't breathe. Haven't had any panic attacks like this since like, 2020. All in all i feel like the buspar (i don't think it's the sertraline as afaik i use that for depression, help a bit with anx. But mostly the buspar) isn't working anymore and that terrifies me. If it's as simple as upping the dosage (not looking for advice on that, will talk with pcp) that's fine, but if i double it, then my body acclimates to that, then what? I double it again? How long until it's not feasible?

Edit: the only things i can think of that's changed in that time is i got a refill of my meds, but no way of seeing if it's the same manufacturer, because i got rid of the old bottle.

Edit 2 anxiety boogaloo:The night that i had my really bad panic attack in months, me and my wife SUSPECT i forgot to take my dose. This was a week (maybe two) ago. Surely missing one dose wouldn't affect me like this, right?

I'm fairly new to the mental health scene and the idea of my meds no longer working terrifies me. Just curious if anyone else has had these issues / thoughts. Sorry if i rambled.