Health Anxiety

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treefingers

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Jan 20, 2008
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I know there's a depression thread but I think this deserves its own thread considering how common it is.

I've had social anxiety for most of my life since I was in my early teens. When I was 16/17 it was fairly bad, to the point where I'd pretty much distance myself from my friends for fear of being judged, and eventually ended up seeing a psych about it (family pushed me into it). I wasn't put on medication or anything, I chose not to but I found talking to someone to be pretty helpful.

I haven't been back to talk to anyone for about 3-4 years now, and whilst I still have a bit of anxiety I've found it to be pretty manageable. I don't think it's a coincidence that since finishing high school it seems to have dropped dramatically. However I still have a bit of an issue with drinking too much in social situations to calm my nerves, I used to get really edgy at parties until I started drinking a lot in year 12 just to manage. I've tried to cut back a lot though.

There's lots of other minor issues I've had with it but I don't want a tl;dr OP so I'll flick it over to bigfooty.

Has anyone else here had issues with anxiety? I'd love to hear how it's been managed (medication or not), how you dealt with it, if it's still an issue or if you found it passed with time.
 
I have a hack, not a fix.

I get really anxious about imposing on other people for things that would only benefit me; its a self-esteem thing. The trick I use is to make what I need to do be for someone else - so I'm acting with agency, and for the most part it does the trick, but it throws up some really odd exceptions.

Hosting a party that has a cause? Easy, because I need to be on my game for everyone else.
Attending a party? Much more difficult. Wallflower time, unless it turns out someone is vaguely interested in something I have to say.
Any sort of function/gathering/other thats all about me? Yeah, I can't do that, its why I haven't had a birthday party for 20 years.

Its the same with work, its always `I need this for X', not `I need this'.

Kind of pathetic, but its the only thing that works so far. No one I've talked to has come up with anything better/achievable for me as yet.
 
I've struggled with a General Anxiety Disorder for as long as I can remember. Panicking on a daily basis, over-stressing and sometimes even blanking in year 11/12 exams, avoiding many a social situation, it gives me the shits. To be honest, I've learnt to live with it and I suppose my normal state of edginess isn't so overwhelming anymore.

I was put on Anti-depressants when I was 14 years old (I'm 19 now). They really do help keep your levels of anxiety down on a daily basis. My parents want me to consider 'weaning' off them, and I'm currently deciding whether or not this is the right thing to do.

Props for making this thread.
 

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Yes. Im struggling with anxiety at the moment. I'm in my early 20s and i find myself panicking on a daily occurance aswell. I've always struggled with low self-eseteem and this has caused me to have a limited number of friends and failed relationships.

I struggle to accept myself and often always dobut myself in everything i do. I'm always scared to meet new people in fear they wont accept me or even find flaws in me and therefore be quick to judge. I havent told anyone about this- even parents. I think im close to depression. I understand this can go on so many levels, but right now i dont see the many joys in life.

What are the different avneues to go through in suituations like this.
 
Rooz90 said:
What are the different avneues to go through in suituations like this.
Click to expand...
Tell your parents/close relative and get some help. It's probably the hardest thing to do but it's definitely the most effective. They'll be able to help you.
 
treefingers said:
Tell your parents/close relative and get some help. It's probably the hardest thing to do but it's definitely the most effective. They'll be able to help you.
Click to expand...

That's what im most affraid of- their reactions. Whether they'll take it seriously or not even believe me.
 
Rooz90 said:
That's what im most affraid of- their reactions. Whether they'll take it seriously or not even believe me.
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mate they're your parents - they probably already have an idea you might be dealing with these issues, they just might not know how to approach you about it and will probably be hoping you can lift yourself out of it
 
i'm in my early 20's and ive had anxiety issues since early high school. havent ever been medicated or specifically diagnosed or anything - although there have been a couple of times when i really should have seen someone about it but was too stubborn & worried about it
it can be pretty hard to deal with sometimes tbh
 
Jaxes said:
i'm in my early 20's and ive had anxiety issues since early high school. havent ever been medicated or specifically diagnosed or anything - although there have been a couple of times when i really should have seen someone about it but was too stubborn & worried about it
it can be pretty hard to deal with sometimes tbh
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Exactly the same boat as you mate. I haven't been medicated either. I should of seen someone at certain staged of my anxiety, i too was worried and stubborn.

Very hard to deal with. I live a fake life, fake smiles everyday. All for what?
 
I'm in my 20's and have been suffering from major depression and anxiety since high school, although I only addressed it last year after I couldn't leave my room for 1-2 days except to go to the toilet (didn't really eat or drink anything). The longer you do nothing about it the more dysfunctional you get. I went for weeks without talking to my two housemates, almost pissed out my window because I didn't wanna risk interacting with them on my way to the toilet, and would starve in my room because I didn't wanna interact with them if they were in the kitchen. It took an attempt at suicide to actually turn things around for me, so my advice to anyone with anxiety or depression, even if you're not sure if you actually have it, go and see a doctor or psychologist, you might take anti-depressants or you might only need to talk about it, but it will help, because the longer you wait the worse it will get.

My 2c anyway..
 
Interesting thread. Makes me wonder if I have a problem as I see a lot of myself in many of these posts.

I have a lot of good things in my life that make me extremely happy. But a handful of small things (mostly personal/self esteem, occasionally monetary) related issues tend to eat at me a lot more than what they perhaps logically should and I can tend to get very down or stressed about it at indifferent time.

Sometimes I also consider myself to be ungrateful/selfish for worrying over such insignificant things. First time I have really thought I may have anxiety or depression.
 
I used to have really bad anxiety attacks beginning when I was 13 and slowly building up to a peak when I was 16. By the time I was 15 some days I would get panic attacks on a near daily basis, infact it wasn't uncommon for me to get 2-3 panic attacks in any one day. Being in high school made things hard, infact it led to me failing several exams in Year 11, thus I had to get special seating arrangements not just in exams but in school assemblies, public events etc.

I made my parents and school aware of the severity of these panic attacks and it was decided that it was best I be referred to a psychologist, of which my Doctor agreed with and said something along the lines of needing to address the underlying cause not a temporary solution with medication, a decision I am very grateful for.

I ended up having 2 psych sessions and I'm still not really sure why it worked but it did. It's been nearly 7 years since I had that appointment and I haven't had a panic attack since. Basically, I cared to much about what other people thought of me, the pressure of HS got to me and I was caught in this fantasy land were I wanted to be considered as one of the 'cool' kids.

Anxiety still lingered inside of me though, I was very introverted and found it hard to make any friends when I was first started uni. So I challenged myself, I ended joining the Army Reserves, which has led to some awesome experiences over the last few years culminating with a deployment to the Middle East.

Without a doubt, from when I started uni in 2008 to now I am a different person, I seeked out opportunities to push myself both physically and mentally which resulted in me transforming myself as a person.

If you feel you have anxiety or depression please see a GP or a psych (or just talk to someone about it), it's there job to help people suffering, dont be embarrassed by it! To me life is about continual self-improvement, being content is a dangerous thing and my advice to all those suffering from anxiety is to seek new experiences and challenge yourself as a person.
 
Silent Alarm said:
I have it with girls.

I don't have a huge social group, but I'm pretty good at gauging who I do and don't like and so the mates I have are people I genuinely enjoy hanging out. I'm not weird socially and have no worries with starting or maintaining conversation with people I don't know – and as most uni students could attest to, there's a disappointingly high amount of socially inept at uni... I'm pretty confident socially without being loud and I've never really felt sheepish.

But I can really struggle with girls because I tend to put them on a pedestal. I'll only kind of start conversations with ones I'm interested in, but I'm so nervous and internally self-deprecating that I'm just useless. I have to act aloof or arrogant and hope they talk to me, or just generally talk myself out of it (but my skin looks s**t, do these clothes look bad?) and it's a bit of an issue. When I end up getting the confidence to talk to one, I have no issue, but asking a girl out is

I used to worry about life a lot and overthinking things. But I kind of flicked a switch, thought too much about 'life,' and generally took things less seriously.
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I'm like this now too, especially the girls bit. I always put myself down when it comes to girls which is why i'm always down. I've never liked the way i looked and i don't know how to even ask a girl out. Most girls say its not always about looks and its personality but is that true?

I only have a few mates, all males and a few female aquaintances that i work with. Other than that i'm always nurvous meeting girls or even new people.

Just need a way to flick the switch to be more happy around others.
 

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treefingers said:
I know there's a depression thread but I think this deserves its own thread considering how common it is.

I've had social anxiety for most of my life since I was in my early teens. When I was 16/17 it was fairly bad, to the point where I'd pretty much distance myself from my friends for fear of being judged, and eventually ended up seeing a psych about it (family pushed me into it). I wasn't put on medication or anything, I chose not to but I found talking to someone to be pretty helpful.

I haven't been back to talk to anyone for about 3-4 years now, and whilst I still have a bit of anxiety I've found it to be pretty manageable. I don't think it's a coincidence that since finishing high school it seems to have dropped dramatically. However I still have a bit of an issue with drinking too much in social situations to calm my nerves, I used to get really edgy at parties until I started drinking a lot in year 12 just to manage. I've tried to cut back a lot though.

There's lots of other minor issues I've had with it but I don't want a tl;dr OP so I'll flick it over to bigfooty.

Has anyone else here had issues with anxiety? I'd love to hear how it's been managed (medication or not), how you dealt with it, if it's still an issue or if you found it passed with time.
Click to expand...

Good thread treefingers. You'd wanna be careful on the booze though, very common problem amongst those with social anxiety (for the reasons you've articulated).

Never had an anxiety disorder as such (Had a couple of very unpleasant panic attacks in my 20's due to stress ++++ at the time). Have worked as a clinician in several anxiety disorder clinics, so am well aware of the debilitating consequences of anxiety.
 
Not wishing to trivialize anxiety as I know first hand what it's like, having suffered from severe panic attacks for a protracted period of time.

The one thing that really helped me was to ask myself: "What is really happening?"
Once I spent the time to rationalize the situation from a third person perspective I found situations much easier to deal with.
That didn't come about overnight and took quite a bit of practice and trial and error but it did work for me and I use the same principal in many other facets of life.
i.e. arguments, debate, conflict etc.
 
HARKER said:
Not wishing to trivialize anxiety as I know first hand what it's like, having suffered from severe panic attacks for a protracted period of time.

The one thing that really helped me was to ask myself: "What is really happening?"
Once I spent the time to rationalize the situation from a third person perspective I found situations much easier to deal with.
That didn't come about overnight and took quite a bit of practice and trial and error but it did work for me and I use the same principal in many other facets of life.
i.e. arguments, debate, conflict etc.
Click to expand...

The observer self
 
CLUBMEDhurst said:
The observer self
Click to expand...


Don't know what that means................googled it and do now.

I guess. It's funny that when you bring in the most obvious of questions and work through them one by one, just how much more confident one can become when they realize that whatever the situation around you is, it's not really such a big deal.
 
HARKER said:
Don't know what that means................googled it and do now.

I guess. It's funny that when you bring in the most obvious of questions and work through them one by one, just how much more confident one can become when they realize that whatever the situation around you is, it's not really such a big deal.
Click to expand...


I like this. Always true. Need to get my mind set around this.
 
Rooz90 said:
I like this. Always true. Need to get my mind set around this.
Click to expand...


I honestly wish you, anyone and everyone all the best in your trials.

You're as worthy as anyone else that draws breath here and it's liberating when we can be honest to ourselves as to what may really be going on.
We don't have anything to prove to anyone else bar ourselves and once we've done that, the rest comes so much easier........well, at least it did for me.
 
HARKER said:
I honestly wish you, anyone and everyone all the best in your trials.

You're as worthy as anyone else that draws breath here and it's liberating when we can be honest to ourselves as to what may really be going on.
We don't have anything to prove to anyone else bar ourselves and once we've done that, the rest comes so much easier........well, at least it did for me.
Click to expand...


I honestly could not put that better myself.


Thank you!

It is a great way to think about things.
 
I have struggled with anxiety for years...depending on my state of mind. One thing I can say...there are no easy fixes.

I try to eat healthily and remain active (gym and kicking the footy around). This helps me.

I used to go drinking to numb the anxiety and it works (short term) but worsens it in the long term.

Hopefully the people who read this thread can find the best way to deal with it. Research on google even helped me with it. Knowing there are so many people dealing with it made me understand I wasn't alone.

Good luck guys :)
 
Sorry to bump an oldish thread, just thought i would share...

I developed problems with anxiety from around when i was 17 (now 24) and it's always been particular things that set it off.
Earlier this year i got really bad with it, probably the worst i had ever been. I was suffering from panic attacks and sleep panic attacks.
The thing that set me off this time was ''health anxiety'' (i have a phobia of the heart) i always had this horrible feeling something bad was going to happen to me or my loved ones.
I kept on obsessing about everyone's mortality and it scared to hell out of me.

Once it got to the point where i couldn't sleep, couldn't drive and couldn't work/go to school, i needed to get help.
It was even impacting on my relationship as my GF just didn't understand that sort of thing.
I spoke to a GP a few times and they gave me some medication to help me sleep and i had to teach myself techniques to keep myself calm.
5 months on i still get anxiety and it lingers in my mind, i feel i have it in control now though and i haven't had a panic attack in awhile.
Definitely get some help if you suffer because it can be a living hell.

My 2 cents.
 
2 month bump.

I've been suffering Death Anxiety for a couple of years now. I've had a lot of free time to think recently so it's been getting worse. Hopefully it'll lessen when school goes back. Anyone else have any experience with it or have any tips on how to cope?
 
The subconscious is a bitch isn't it? You've probably been thinking about school and girls and careers and feeling pretty bloody good about it. At least for a while. Then that little voice kicks in, and the doubt and anxiety start. That little MFer in your head has decided you're going to go out on a limb and hurt yourself by, god forbid, trying to get ahead in life. So what it does is reset your default setting so you end up so far back you're literally having fake heart attacks and thanking the good lord you woke up in the morning.

Then it will strut around "I told you so. The lesson is: Don't Try, or I'll hurt you bad'.

Fk that! A friend who is a gun psychologist said "I can see you're desperate to work your way through this, and you're not suicidal, just a victim of your own brain".

It was really affecting my business, and I was losing a ton of money at this stage, so I would have literally sucked off the aidz infested **** of Satan to get over this. Here's the hack (and it's EXTREME). He told me to "Take out life insurance, draw up a will, and get all your affairs in order so your loved ones don't have to sort your s**t out when you die from one of these panic attacks". I got onto a solicitor and accountant, paid all my credit cards off, got my taxes in order and got funeral insurance. I distinctly remember going through my drawers and finding notes of woe I'd written. I chucked them out in case my sister found them after my premature death and laughed her arse off at her weird brother. Embarrased to admit this, but I was so organised I even had a folder with instructions and numbers of who to call and what to do in case i cark it.

About 3 quarters of the way through this nonsense my brain started to back off. That little voice was shitting itself. The panic attacks stopped and I found myself getting these sudden urges to visit beaches and museums and go for long happy-happy-joy-joy drives in the countryside.

My subconscious has never messed with me again. I will dead set stand on the rails of a bridge (Just to mess with with it's head!) if it ever rears its ugly head again.

Warning to any readers: Ignore EVERYTHING I've said if you're at the end of your ropes and legitimately suicidal.

Your Friend

EasternTiger
 
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