Lately I feel like I’ve been chronically stressed to the point where it’s affecting me physically and mentally every single day. I’m constantly overwhelmed with school, money, balancing work, relationships, future plans, literally everything; and I feel like my brain never shuts off anymore.
It’s gotten to the point where I’ll stress myself out so badly that I end up having panic attacks that genuinely make me feel like I’m dying or having a heart attack. Chest tightness, racing heart, spiraling thoughts, feeling like something is seriously wrong, etc. The scary part is that sometimes it doesn’t even feel like “anxiety” anymore. It just feels like my body is permanently stuck in stress mode 24/7.
I’m on Lexapro, but I still feel constantly on edge internally. It’s like my nervous system can’t calm down no matter what I do. Even when nothing bad is actively happening, my brain is still scanning for the next thing to stress about.
I think part of it is burnout honestly. I’m trying to juggle school, work, finances, etc. and figuring out my future all at once, and I genuinely don’t know how to turn my brain off anymore.
I guess I’m posting this because I want to know if anyone else has experienced stress like this where it almost stops feeling like traditional anxiety and just becomes your baseline state. If so, what actually helped you? Did medication adjustments help? Lifestyle changes? Therapy? Burnout recovery? I’m just tired of feeling trapped inside my own head all the time.