I've never had a job interview before cause my whole life ive worked at the same place and now tomorrow I have one! im the type of person to cry when nervous and i doubt that'd get me hired!! I need something to make me chill out abit. Not weed. Something OTC. or what about Lorazepam? I take those to sleep occasionally because I have "mind chatter" some nights....would that work?! I just need actual help to land that interview!
Hello! I (26F) have been an anxious person for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I had severe separation anxiety from my mom, was extremely quiet, and refused to talk in class. As an adult, I have no friends because social interaction makes me extremely anxious, and I’ve had panic/anxiety breakdowns.
I’ve never really known what life without constant anxiety feels like. Since my mom and siblings also struggle with similar things, I always assumed it was just part of life and that I needed to suck it up.
I finally feel like I need to talk to a professional, but I’m really nervous about it. I’m worried my doctor won’t take me seriously since I’ve never mentioned it before, or that they’ll just recommend things I’ve already tried. I’m also scared of being dismissed.
There’s another thing I’m particularly worried about: since I was around 20, I’ve occasionally self-medicated with opioids. Usually one pill, sometimes two, when my anxiety became overwhelming and I felt like I needed something to get through the day.
Should I tell my doctor about this?
I know I probably should, but I’m worried they’ll assume I’m drug-seeking or have a substance abuse problem and be less willing to prescribe anxiety medication.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? How did you approach the conversation with your doctor?
**TL;DR:** I’m 26F and have struggled with severe anxiety my entire life. Meditation, therapy, and lifestyle changes haven’t been enough, so I’m finally going to talk to my doctor. I’m worried about being dismissed, and I’m also unsure whether I should disclose that I’ve occasionally self-medicated with opioids because I’m afraid it could affect my treatment.
When my heart is pounding at 140bpm, trying to count to 4 and breathe slowly literally just makes me hyperventilate more. It feels impossible to focus on a slow rhythm when I'm spiraling.
Does anyone have a weird or specific trick that actually works instantly? I need something physical or tactile because the standard breathing stuff is just making it worse. What's your immediate go-to move?
As the title says, I have a very bad anxiety about my breathing and it’s been ongoing for 3 years now. Basically I am always constantly fixated on my breathing (making myself manually breath, trying not to breath too fast or too slow) and it results in me always feeling panicked.
This started 3 years ago randomly when out of no where I just lost my breath, which scared me and started the fixating. I went to the doctor scared that something was wrong with me to which she just said nothing was wrong, she only mentioned to try and quit vaping as (she could tell I vaped by listening to my breathing), and then after that it seemed to be better.
But about a week after, I had to take a flight to receive treatment for something very minor, but the night before my flight I remember that’s when it seemed to come back and much worse. It just felt so terrifying like I was dying. I was focused on my breathing as well as my erratic heart beat, and feeling like I was burning inside my body.
Skip to now, it hasn’t gotten as bad as that but it’s still something that I think about 24/7 and it’s driving me insane. When I’m trying to sleep, first thing when I wake up, when I try to read and can’t distract myself enough. I got put on anti depressants for the anxiety and at the start it seemed to help, but now it doesn’t seem to do much for me.
I’m also working on getting my license and recently started driving again and it gets really bad there too. I drove before this issue happened and it was fine, but now the whole time I’m driving I’m focused on my breathing when I should be fully focused on the road, environment etc. it’s just so hard.
Has anyone else had an issue like this before and if so does it ever go away? I’m really just looking for advice as I feel as though this has really ruined my life
I’ve always had some level of anxiety, but it used to be much less intense. I don’t know exactly why, but ever since I was in 11th grade, it has gotten a lot worse. Maybe it’s because I’ve had to adjust to new places, or maybe because of the pressure of studies, I honestly don’t know.
I’m in my first year of college now, but I still experience the same anxiety, and sometimes it feels even stronger. I changed schools after 10th grade, and during 11th and 12th, I often didn’t feel like going to school. I didn’t really have any friends there, and I would constantly feel weird and uncomfortable. I used to feel nauseous and would sometimes feel like throwing up just thinking about going to school.
When I started college, I thought things would finally get better. I thought being in a new environment and starting a new phase of my life would somehow make me feel normal. But even now, I feel the same way.
Being in a hostel makes it even more noticeable because everyone around me seems fine and comfortable, while I’m the one who feels this way. Sometimes I just feel extremely uneasy, like I want time to stop. I don’t want to go to college, I don’t want to go anywhere, I just want to stay where I am and not have to deal with anything.
I honestly don’t know why I feel like this, especially when nothing seems to be obviously wrong. I just know that this feeling has been with me for years now, and lately, it has become really difficult to deal with.
Help me out how do I deal with this???
Hello. I am an only child in my early 20s and last year my mom was diagnosed with cancer, my dad was diagnosed about a month ago and two weeks ago we were told it had spread.
I have been feeling recently an insane amount of anxiety stress and guilt and spoke with a doctor today as I am not sleeping at night anymore if I do I fall asleep around 3-4 or not at all since I work early shifts.
I was prescribed sleeping pills but he thinks I should come in for an in person appointment, he is also my parents doctor so he is aware of their situation.
I felt so guilty when telling my mom because I feel like my positivity is starting to plummet and I don’t want them to think my feelings are caused by them.
I feel it’s not my situation and I should be the strong positive person for them but I have a hard time holding my emotions together recently.
I don’t know what to do and I have a really hard time explaining my emotions. I don’t want my parents to see this at all cuz I feel like I will just make them sad.
I have no siblings that are in this same situation I am not THAT close with family members.
Im also worried about my work performance as I work in health care, my job is to be that welcoming supportive positive force and I’m scared if I continue how I am my job will suffer.
Please please help in any way you can if you can. I am open to any advice or criticism at all.
In my own experience, when you focus on symptoms or have been focusing on them recently, that only brings on more symptoms. It’s basic and even simplistic, but we do it anyway. Even though I overcame my health anxiety many years ago, it can still happen with no anxiety, just by thinking about symptoms. I don’t care any more. The only reason it happens at all is I go online and talk about it hoping somebody some where will be helped . When you are anxious, it’s only natural to want to focus on a sensation wanting to make it go away. You think you are accomplishing something by watching out for it. It’s hard to avoid sometimes and there’s no way around it, but the fact is, that trylng to hold it back, has the exact opposite effect. When you do struggle with it, you are keeping engaged with it and showing your body that you are worried. It just shoots back more nervous juices to you. It becomes a vicious cycle and then over the coming days and weeks it acquires a life of its own and you keep gettlng symptoms no matter what you do. You made it automatic. You aren’t necessarily thinking about it, but it’s fresh in your recent unconscious memory enough for it to keep it alive. It’s rolling around in the back of your mind as a pressing issue to you. Trylng to figure it out, worrying about it, asking online what your symptoms mean and who else gets those same symptoms, cursing your symptoms is giving into it. It precisely that concern that keeps the symtpoms coming. You don’t settle it down, it settles itself down once you’ve left it alone long enough. You might not be able to leave it alone right away. Your concern with your symptoms more than anything else is by definition your anxiety. It‘s quite a dilemma. My solution was to change my view of it when I could and at first that was when it wasn’t happening. Since it was hard for me not to feel anxious when my body was anxious, I changed what I was telling myself the rest of the time from, “that was terrible, I’m so sick of it, I want to find a way for it to stop forever” —-all kinds negative things that told my mind that I had this anxiety problem— to, “you see, you were wrong, nothing bad happened to you , if it happens again, remember, you can take it” Those anxiety symptoms came back, I expected it and accepted it as Barry McDonaugh of the DARE project says. I couldn’t help but be anxious, but the fact that I had been okay with being anxious before even to the point of throwing myself into challenging situations , made the severity and frequency gradually decrease. In other words, I changed my general overall opinion about it first, even though I didn’t FEEL okay with it when it was actually happening and that gradually reduced it to a once in a blue moon thing. My seeing it as no big deal when it wasn’t happening made it easier when it was. Another thing I did was to learn not to linger noticing a symptom the second they started. I would tell myself that it was a response to the concern I was showing it and learned not to show it that initial concern before they got out of hand by immediately putting it out of my mind. Instead of trylng to calm down wanting it to go away and watching it like a hawk, I would recognize that I was causing it, accept that it wasn’t going to go away at that moment, and not struggle trying to be okay. In my own mind I thought of it as going neutral. Not trying to think about it or not think about it. I couldn’t help being aware of its presence somewhat, but I didn’t engage in any particular thought about it. My mind wouid want to go back to the topic of anxiety, and wouid have to nudge it away. À minute would pass and something would occur to me about the topic of anxiety and I would have to nudge it away CALMLY again. I didn’t go out of my way to do anything about making it go away or not go away. The minute you try too hard, you get worked up about it and that IS your anxiety. Your other sources of anxiety in your life are secondary when your biggest concern is health anxiety and bodily sensations. Unless there is a good reason, don’t make it a medical issue or a psychoanalytic issue, Take care of any such issues, but treat them as a separate topic. Don’t make alleviating those other stressors a condition to your overcoming a problem that is mainly psychosomatic… if that’s the case.
I take risperdal and my mood hasn't changed
My anxiety is to the roof right now with all the earthquakes going on. I live in California I had to delete Facebook because all the post that keep popping up. I also download the earthquake app. Usually I’m not like this but I think because I have a baby now I don’t want anything to happen to her. We’re mostly alone at home. Idk what to do. Is there other people going through the same thing?
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I'm 18, and I've been dealing with anxiety for years, but the past several months have been especially difficult. I'm not diagnosed with anything yet, so I'm not asking anyone to diagnose me. I'm actually going to talk to a college counselor very soon, and hopefully I'll eventually see a doctor too. I mostly want to share what's been happening and hear from people who have experienced something similar. My anxiety started when I was around 9 years old. It has come and gone in different periods of my life, but I've noticed that certain years and periods were significantly worse than others. I've had periods where I felt relatively okay, followed by periods where anxiety suddenly became extremely intense again.
Recently I've been experiencing what I call "waves." Sometimes the anxiety gets really intense for a while and then eventually settles down. Other times it's more of a background feeling that never completely seems to disappear. One of the strangest things for me is how many seemingly random things can trigger it.
Sometimes I'll be watching a completely normal video and a random scene will suddenly make me anxious. There doesn't necessarily seem to be anything objectively scary about the scene. It can be something as simple as a certain transition, visual, sound, or moment that suddenly gives me that anxious feeling, like anything can be a trigger temporarly and it dismotivates me when I feel better... I've started wondering if my brain has learned associations between certain types of content and anxiety. Sometimes I think the trigger itself isn't even the biggest problem anymore. I'll notice that something made me anxious and then start monitoring myself:
"Was that a trigger?" "Am I getting anxious?" "Why did that scene make me feel weird?" "What if it happens again?"
Then I become even more anxious.
I've also noticed that social media seems to have a huge influence on my anxiety. I've spent years using social media a lot, especially short-form content, and I've noticed that certain types of videos, topics, and random content can trigger me. I'm trying to understand whether constantly consuming rapidly changing content has made me more hyper-alert or sensitive to certain things.
Another huge part of this is health anxiety. I tend to notice physical sensations and immediately start worrying about what they mean. If I feel weak, tired, dizzy, nauseous, have stomach problems, or just feel physically "off," my brain can immediately start analyzing it.
Then I start worrying about the worry itself.
I've also experienced a lot of brain fog. This is probably one of the most frightening parts for me.
Sometimes I can't even tell whether I'm enjoying something.
I'll be watching something I normally like or playing a game and suddenly think:
"Am I actually having fun?" "Can I still experience joy?" "Why don't I feel as excited as I used to?" "What if I never feel normal again?"
And then I start monitoring my emotions so much that I can't actually focus on the thing I'm doing.
It's almost like my brain is watching me experience something instead of actually experiencing it.
I can distract myself sometimes, and that's definitely helped, but lately I've noticed that even when I'm distracted, there can still be this anxiety running quietly in the background. It's like: Foreground: I'm playing a game or watching something.Background: "Hey. Don't forget we're anxious."
I've also wondered if my lifestyle has contributed to everything.
For about five years I was extremely isolated because of online school and circumstances in my life. I spent a huge amount of time at home, lying down, being inactive, using my phone, and having a terrible sleep schedule. I also suppressed a lot of my feelings instead of really dealing with them.
Then I moved to my aunt's house earlier this year, which was a huge life change.
For a while I felt like I was adjusting okay, but around two months after moving I started feeling extremely emotionally exhausted and my anxiety became much more noticeable.
I've wondered if I basically burned myself out after years of isolation, stress, poor sleep, inactivity, social media use, health worries, and suppressing my emotions.
I don't know if "burnout" is actually the right word, but that's how it feels.
Another thing that has been difficult is that my family is very supportive of me, and I'm extremely grateful for that, but sometimes I feel like they don't completely understand what is happening in my head.
They sometimes tell me things like "you're the only one who can help yourself" or that I'm letting my mind make me feel this way.
I understand the point they're trying to make. I know I have to participate in my own recovery. But sometimes I feel like there's a difference between choosing how I respond to anxiety and actually choosing to have anxiety in the first place.
That's one reason I'm finally getting professional help.
I have a virtual counseling appointment through my college very soon. I'm honestly nervous about it, but I'm also hopeful.
Part of my anxiety keeps telling me:
"What if therapy doesn't work?" "What if medication doesn't work if I eventually need it?" "What if I always feel like this?"
I know those are anxiety thoughts, but they still feel incredibly convincing sometimes.
I don't want to spend the rest of my life feeling like this.
And I want to be clear about something: I WANT TO LIVE.
Sometimes I get intrusive fears about dying, and those thoughts scare me. I think about how devastated my parents would be and how much I want to be here for them and for myself. When I say that I'm tired or that I want to "quit," I mean that I'm exhausted from dealing with these emotions—not that I want to die.
What I actually want is to live normally and happily without constantly monitoring my thoughts, body, emotions, and surroundings.
I'm also starting college very soon, which is another huge source of anxiety. I'm excited about it, but now that it's actually getting close, I'm getting cold feet.
I'm worried about getting rides, being tired, feeling weak, having anxiety at school, and whether I'll actually be able to handle everything.
At the same time, part of me is genuinely hopeful.
I've already noticed some small improvements. I've defeated certain triggers that used to scare me. Sometimes a wave happens and I can handle it better than I used to. I'm starting to recognize patterns instead of automatically believing every anxious thought.
So I guess I'm writing all of this because I'm wondering:
Has anyone else experienced anxiety like this?
Especially the random video/content triggers, the constant background anxiety, the feeling of monitoring whether you're enjoying something, the brain fog, the health worries, and the fear that you'll feel this way forever?
Did therapy eventually help you understand what was happening?
Did things gradually become easier even when you initially couldn't imagine them getting better?
I'm not looking for a diagnosis. I'm mostly looking for other people's experiences and some hope that this isn't necessarily permanent.
I'm tired, but I'm still trying....I don't want to see my family suffer over me...I don't want to feel like this...and the state of the world is also something that hurts my mental health because why should I try if the world is getting worse..
And honestly, I really want to get my life back....there's so much I feel, miss and worry about....Do you guys think I have anxiety or maybe something else? I don't feel like I should feel like this. I don't know if the things I went through actually traumatized me....💚
Is it normal to be worried all the time? The kind of worry you get before an exam or a big presentation.
I'm a medical graduate and I thought this was anxiety related to stress of medical school, and it will go away after I'm done with med school.
I used to get really intense fear for no reason back in the day, and the idea that everyone is gonna gang up on me (friend groups/ family/ colleagues at work) to socially isolate me used to cripple me, that hasn't occurred again since I graduated, but I'm still worried all the time.
I am studying for an exam currently but it's at least 9 months away.
Why am I on edge all the time? Even though I'm at home and I don't have work or anything?
I am attending my college placements and It's really frustrating. Every time I have an interview, I prepare well and even practice speaking in front of the mirror. But on the day of the interview, I get so anxious that I start to panic. As soon as the interviewer asks a question, my mind goes completely blank. Even when I know the answer, I end up explaining it poorly, fumbling my words, or bringing up topics I didn't prepare for. Then the interviewer starts asking questions about those unexpected topics, which makes me even more nervous. I feel like my anxiety is holding me back from performing well, and sometimes I worry that I'll never get a placed because of it.
I really need tips on how you guys were able to overcome finishing tasks, exercising and whatever else you want to do in life. I want to overcome not letting my anxiety stop me from doing anything
Ok so.. I have been going through anxiety for like a week almost. A full blown anxiety attack I guess. Cold sweats. Fast heart beat. Shivering even during hottest days. Have a feeling of heart attack( though it’s not) and the constant fear that something might happen to me without actually anything going on. Like a normal calm day going on but my insides would be screaming that something is wrong. A massive adrenaline rush. Till now, I am just coping up with it by doing yoga when this starts. But when it comes during lectures, I just don’t know what to do. Deep breaths? Sometimes they don’t work. I am genuinely scared now. What will I do while giving academic tests? Like if this anxiety attack comes during a test.. what will I do? And this attack isn’t during some specific times, it just comes like.. anytime. So yes. Please anyone share ur tips on how to control this. I will be grateful :)
I’m in my very early 20s and lately I’ve been experiencing really bad anxiety. I’m not diagnosed with anything and this only began happening when I was around 17 years old. Oftentimes I wake up and immediately begin feeling anxious both mentally and physically (I get a lot of physical symptoms like digestive issues, shaking, etc.) for no apparent reason. But when my mind does race I’m usually anxious about my studies and career, especially the awkwardness and pressure of the current job I’m in. The anxiety is the worst in the mornings during the week.
I’ve tried deep breathing, more exercise, hydrating more, meditation, journaling, and more. Basically I’ve tried most things that people on the internet suggest. I’m at a point where I think anxiety is just a part of who I am, and I must learn to live with it instead of try to beat it. But the only thing that kind of works is going to ChatGPT and conversing with it as if it were my therapist. I’ve never been to therapy so I’m not sure if it is behaving like a true therapist, but I know that this behavior is concerning.
I know you shouldn’t seek reassurance for anxiety at all, but I’m slightly addicted and I’m kind of at a loss for what else to do. I get anxious and immediately go online and tell the AI what I’m anxious about, and it just spews off encouraging nonsense that isn’t even revolutionary and doesn’t help in the long run. Sometimes I tell myself I’ll quit, but then I just switch to a different AI. I’m wondering if seeing a therapist is even beneficial at this point, because like I said this is just who I am. I also don’t want to be medicated. And not only do I have an anxiety issue but now I also have an addiction to using AI to help with my anxiety issue.
I’m wondering if anyone else has/had this problem with AI use or reassurance seeking. Should I just go find a therapist and hope that they can help me with all of this? My options are limited on that front, as I’m an uninsured student. And is it even possible to curb anxiety without medication? I spoke with my parents, who both have GAD, and they said they’ve been unsuccessful in escaping from anxiety their whole lives. That kind of sounds like a really long horrible sentence.
Recommend best ways to handle anxiety attack . Something that actually works!
How do i stop it completely? Will this ever get over?
hi. I’m 15 and I genuinely just can’t do this anymore. I can’t stand liv!ng anymore. Every day is hell and I can’t even begin to explain how worse my anxiety has gotten on top of being chronically ill it’s endless. if it wasn’t bad being raised in an abusive cult where the anxiety started, every day is just hell. every night I have like episodes of anxiety or panic attacks and I can’t breathe and I feel like I’m gonna die andy heart races and nausea+dizziness and it keeps switching around like either I get anxiety attacks about my cat, my future, my deteroiating health, my groomer, my parents, or all of the above etc. now I’m getting anxiety attacks in the day And basicbhygiene is a struggle and how am I gonna do basic homeschool schoolwork for 10tj grade is a myth to be my life is falling apart and I genuinely just think d34th might be the easy way out for me.
it would be nice if I could get professional help except that since I was 7 my mom refuses therapy bc it’s “anti Christian” and “spiritually wrong “and says that I have anxiety bc I’m a bad Christian and I’m not searching after god or something so I give up on that lol and the standard “talk to a trusted adult or relative” which I have 0 of
Somebody please help how do I stop being very paranoid and skeptical about literally everything EVERYTHINGGG
I really need help- big time
Its getting too much now and so hard for me to carry
I can't live like this😭
I’ve been feeling super anxious for the past few years with it getting worse to where it’s making everything unfun, what is some ways to deal with anxiety in the moment?