Hi all, I just thought I’d share a self discovery. First off, I do have actual anxiety which I’ve worked on forever but could never overcome. Well, I discovered probably 80% of what I thought was just regular old anxiety was the fact that I was undiagnosed autistic. So my nervous system was always overstimulated and freaking out. The advice of “just keep doing the stuff that causes anxiety till you overcome it” does not work for people with autism. My social anxiety was autism. Anxiety from changes and problems was autism. And much more. I just thought I would share because if you’ve been dealing with anxiety for what seems like a lifetime from when you were a kid, maybe check out autism. Just thought it might help somebody. Since I learned I was autistic, I got a therapist that specializes in people with autism and I’ve made so much improvement in just four months because now I have the right owners manual for my body.

I f(22) started a new job today was my second day and I literally cried after making a mistake and feel so bad and embarrassed about it it is a retail job and really not that hard.
The lady training me is not mean but is getting annoyed with me and to be fair the first was 100% by fault and pretty bad I lost the code for my login and I would be upset if it was someone else but not mean about it.
saying things eg. She told me to open the box’s then said not that one I told you this yesterday and I don’t want to be showing people more then once as it is easy, I did my first transaction after being shown and could not see the pay button. It literally said to me yesterday I was worried you would not be able to help me but then you picked it up. She than she is also nice saying I will pick it up and it is not your fault it’s me I’m stressed and hate I have to keep training new people.

I don’t even know what set me off I cry easily.
I feel like I can’t do anything and I will be able to do this even a job that should be easy.
I know I have to push through I have at other jobs and felt better over time it is just hard. And I’m so embarrassed everyone saw me cry over nothing

I didn’t get any sleep last night because of gastrointestinal pains and on top of being really anxious about that whenever I tried to go to sleep, my body would try to gag (unsuccessfully)??? My mouth would fill with saliva and I’d have to really focus on not throwing up, it hasn’t happened when I’m not trying to sleep, it’s only when I try to sleep. It’s getting really annoying and I’m getting anxious about trying to sleep tonight incase it happens again, I have severe emetophobia which doesn’t help things. Advice would be greatly appreciated because I don’t really know how to deal with this

When I was younger it was fine but as I just get older maybe it’s a societal pressure or judgement I’m not sure but yes I’ve made some taboo mistakes and a lot of awkward mistakes such as the ones that stays in your memory where you think you’re such a weirdo yourself.
Whoever answers can relate to what I’m saying that’s a plus. Either way it does seem like I’m answering for myself but I still need some things that I cannot answer myself and that is holding eye contact makes me shake in my lips my nose makes my eyes close my nose clenches, I mean it’s really weird and unusual for me but it’s just getting worse as I get older.
Is anybody aware of why this happens why I get insecure or socially anxious? When they hold high contact I cannot hold a conversation I don’t know what to say but this is only certain people.

Usually it’s people who look more intimidating or more mature or someone that I feel like is cooler than me or better than me in certain ways.

I grew up being judged a lot. One thing for sure is I wasn’t like this when I was doing MMA when I was younger but that’s because I was younger. Can anybody relate to this?

So about 4 months ago I had a really bad panic attack related to dizziness that I had as a side effect of an antibiotic. Since then I have been super on edge all the time. I have good days and bad. I used to be super active and a big gym-goer. Now I notice I’m almost cardio phobic and am very sensitive to elevated HR when exercising and that the dizziness gets worse even just entering the gym. It’s making it very hard for me to get back into and stay active even though I know this is key for mental wellbeing and decreasing anxiety. I’ve been trying to get myself out for walks but even then the dizziness sometimes gets too bad and I feel like I’m trampoline walking. I would appreciate any tips from fellow gym-goers or cardiophobics because I’d love to get back into the gym and feel strong both mentally and physically!

Llevo aproximadamente 2 meses tomando Fluoxetina, mas sin embargo no tengo la menor idea de por que mi ansiedad se volvió el triple de grave de lo que era, llevo 5 años con ansiedad y hasta el momento pues solo podía sobrevivir con ella pero aun que disminuía nunca se fue. Actualmente estoy tomando fluoxetina pero mis ataques de ansiedad se han vuelto el triple de horribles, de verdad me siento encadenado a mi mente, como si hubiese vuelto al principio sin progreso.

Since last week I have been feeling very anxious about a few things, I’ve barely had an appetite and when I do try to eat it just makes me feel sick.

From Thursday, I’ve probably consumed no more than a couple hundred calories each day. I have had water, coffee, Diet Coke and energy drinks so I can drink things fine but I just can’t stomach anything.

It’s not really happened to me before except when I went through a rough time in February and lived on lucozade.

Is there some good ways to overcome this?

hello am very anxious person am also in the look out for things to go south i always think of worse case scenario am always stressed about something am always triggered by something am just in survival mode all the time right now am very anxious because someone does not like me at work am always plotting they might fire is that even normal

Just popping on here to briefly share (and gently warn?) about my experience with Hydroxyzine.
My doctor recently prescribed it before we decided to do a daily medication (which i am actually starting today! Wish me luck)
I have a history of insomnia, and in 2020 it was especially severe. I felt like I developed a weird relationship with Zquill, a sort of psychological dependence and obsession even though it didnt really work that well.
I tried to explain this to my doctor but she sort of brushed it off and said that it’s fine to take an antihistamine for sleep every day.
I’ve done a ton of work in therapy and on my own to heal all my insomnia and generally consider myself no longer an insomniac.
That said, just two days of taking hydroxyzine for night time anxiety and I immediately started to notice what i would describe as my brain “giving up” on trying to fall asleep itself. And had several days of having to work myself away from the edge of an insomnia spiral.
If your anxiety includes insomnia, I have so much empathy for you. I just wanted to put this here for anyone who is considering it and maybe has a similar mind to me- one that takes a lot of effort to rest and calm. For me, any sleep aid is slippery slope and if anyone wants to know more about how I’ve healed my sleep, feel free to reach out.

I have GAD, health anxiety and panic disorder with agoraphobia. Housebound since 7 months. Debilitating fatigue since 5 weeks with somatic heavy feeling primarily in my legs and arms. I used to at least be able to go to stores and shop around a bit on good days and go on walks and exercise a bit. Can‘t do this anymore due to fatigue.

No one gets it. Just this week I‘ve had to listen to well meaning people around me that I just need to go on a walk in the sun and do some yoga.

Bro if I could do that I would just do it. I love yoga and I love walking in nature. I just can‘t do it. It feels like I got 30kg strapped to my feet. My ankles and shins hurt and my thighs feel like I ran a marathon the day before.

Maybe try some voodoo sound therapy BS that costs €€€ they suggest. I can‘t work anymore so I don‘t have much money left bc I already have to spend 134€ weekly for CBT therapy out of pocket bc my government sucks major ass (Germany).

“Oh“ is the resounding answer.

My GPs don‘t care about my condition. Did blood tests, an endoscopy (I have nausea and acid reflux), and a brain MRI. All clear apparently. Well if I‘m healthy what‘s the cause of my symptoms. “Probably a stress reaction“. No further suggestions or ideas on how to treat this.

Essentially if your blood tests are clean they don‘t care and you can get fucked. I‘ve had a second opinion somewhere else too.

Well if it’s just anxiety maybe a psych doc could help. I try to get a referral to a psychiatrist from my GP, he basically says I‘ll give you one if you can get an appointment but you‘ll be shit outta luck since waiting times are stupid long. Well fuck me I guess.

I try to get a psych apt. Can‘t even get on a fucking waitlist, all I‘m getting is good luck with the next Dr.‘s office. I‘m just a pleb on state health insurance. I call at least 20 offices.

No appointments. No help. No meds except small stash of Xanax I use sparingly. I could spend hundreds of dollars € though at a private office!

Meanwhile family and friends don‘t understand that I can‘t just „do“ things. I used to travel between 3 cities for work, uni, and personal life on the regular just a few months ago. Why can‘t I do it now?

I try to explain but everyone just stares at me blankly.

My bf doesn‘t understand that being home alone for 12h+ is very scary to me bc my body feels like it’s dying but I ofc try to push through. Even worse is when I need to be alone over night, I get nocturnal panic attacks that send me to the ER when I‘m alone. I can‘t sleep and I function even worse when the sun‘s out and I basically haven‘t slept bc of intense fear and panic.

Well in a couple days he‘s leaving for a vacation for over a week, then another week+ long trip the week after he comes back.

My family is on vacation too. I‘ll literally be alone in this country.

No one cares. I have to eventually be able to be alone someday right? They tell mostly themselves to ease their conscience.

I‘ll remember this for the day I get better. Everyone and this whole system can rot in hell for all I care.

No one gets how severe this fucking condition is. I‘m able bodied but I don‘t feel like it.

I’m genuinely trying to get help but I‘m getting cockblocked by my public heath insurance that I pay an absurd amount of money each month to get absolutely fucking nothing out of it.

I feel like if I don‘t improve soon I‘ll either go into a (public) psych hospital that have abyssmal ratings and reputation or I‘ll genuinely end if. This is not living

Plus CBT at least with this therapist literally does nothing except waste my money. This girl yaps about the same stuff every fucking tiiimeee damn. It helped a lot when my anxiety was moderate but with how PHYSICAL and SOMATIC it is. It literally doesnt make a difference.

I can‘t eat sleep or exist properly

Hi all,

After doubting for days, I decided to increase my dosage from 100mg to 150mg daily as I was still struggeling pretty much too often. It did help by taking the edge off, but the anxiety and sadness was still too exhausting to the point of getting no rest and recovery. I always have been succesful on Paroxetine 20mg only, but that didn't help the second time.

The first week I took 125mg in the hope the ride would be smoother. Since last friday I am on the full 150mg (so 5 days in now).

Today I was at first pretty in a good mood, nothing wrong, maybe first sign of relief? Later that day the day became really really really dark. Really high anxiety, agitation, but also really emotional and feeling really really sad and overwhelmed. It lead me to not finish my work day (was working from home) and cough bound ever since. No appetite, just tearing up on the couch.

I took a prescribed benzo (oxazepam 10mg), but that didn't really did the trick, so I took an extra half. Now I am sort of calm, nevertheless very sad.

Is it normal to be this brutal where the days turn really really gray and dark like there us a thunderstorm inside your house?

I never experienced any installment effects on paroxetine (apart from feeling activated), Zoloft much more on 50 and 100, but not this.

Is this normal? Any experiences?

Ho 25 anni M, mi sembra di non aver mai vissuto a pieno la mia vita, sono sempre scappato dai problemi e dalle persone. Da piccolo venivo bullizzato e questo mi ha portato veri e propri traumi.
Nel corso della mia vita non mi sono mai esposto tanto, non ho mai mostrato quanto io valga veramente.
Mi sembra di aver compiuto 18 anni da poco.
Mi mancano una marea di esperienze, già è tanto che sono stato fidanzato 3 anni, anche se la relazione è finita 10 giorni fa perché lei mi ha lasciato.
Ho paura a conoscere gente, a fare amicizie, ho paura di essere giudicato e soprattutto ad aprirmi con le persone.
Ho paura che aprendomi con loro mi vadano a giudicare, sfruttare o altro.
Faccio l’università ma sono fuoricorso, non ho mai frequentato l’università ci sono andato solo per dare esami perché mi fa paura conoscere gente nuova e credo di avere fobia sociale.
Nel tempo mi sono chiuso in me stesso

I was so scared of taking zoloft. But after two weeks, my panic and anxiety are damn near gone. Im a month or so in and i have no regrets. Its super hard to adjust at first. But once you get over that hard spike of increased anxiety from the meds its straight up smooth sailing from there. You got this!

To start off, I graduated this year from high school and had a job during high school but quit since the environment was starting to become toxic (and my pay wasn't great either and most of that money went to Ubers since it was further from where I lived and I could barely get good hours as well.) So during the summer, I starting applying to basically almost anywhere I could apply to. 9/10 times my application would be denied. Out of that 1 time I was able to move forward I would get an interview but I just sound like a complete wreck. First off, I was very very shy growing up to the point I felt nervous throughout the years to ask anyone anything like if needed help with something, or if I wanted to get to know someone I would just either freeze up and would stammer on my words, or just have my mind draw a complete blank to point I don't know what to say. Hence is why they most likely didnt hire me. I would really like to become a teacher someday since the people im surrounded with people who work at a school and I like interacting with kids more than I do with adults since adults always made me nervous to speak to. Not knowing it was going to be an interview while when they said they were going to verify my identity alongside with a bg check, I clammed up basically but felt more confident around the middle of the "interview" since I had done research about other substitute experiences and how I would act on them personally. After reviewing, the interviewer said "Unfortunately, we will not be going forward at this time, but i wish you the best of luck" I really felt like bawling my eyes right then and there but I just quickly left as soon as she told me to leave. Now, Im just here thinking what's wrong with me and why can't I stop sounding like a nerve-wracking wreck. I take medication for my anxiety but I don't really think it has any effect whatsoever. But my point and question to you is, how? How I can stop sounding so weak and feeble and start sounding more confident and start to know how to get the words in my head instead of just thinking of random words on the spot. This will really help me. Thank you!

I thought I was getting better but nope. I am still anxious over every little thing I do in my life. I want to be normal, start and end things without going into spiral. Fuck this shit man I hate it

I am so upset with myself, today was the first day at university for me. I transferred over from community college, and I was so excited to start. Where I live the temperature has started going down but with my luck, we got an unexpected heat wave on the exact day I have class. I pushed myself to go to my first class, but when I got to my second class I walked in and felt immense anxiety. Because of my anxiety I get hot extremely easy and am unable to cool down once I start getting hot. When I walked into my second class it was stuffy, and i immediately left and booked it to my car. I’m still sitting in my car trying to work the courage to go to my third and fourth class of the day, but I truly cannot bring myself to do it. I am so disappointed and upset with myself for let my anxiety get the best of me, especially with something that is so important to me. I’m also so mad at myself, because all summer I told myself since I’m at a new school I’m going to lock in and get on the deans list. But now that I already skipped my first day, that dream feels impossible and that I messed everything up.

Also to add, my school is paid with student loans so I’m scared I somehow and gonna mess that up and be dropped from school.

Life feeling to hard after my cats passing, My cat has been my best friend for so long, he’s been through so much with me and had the perfect personality for me he was just chill, and did his own thing, wasn’t to needy, but was always there when I needed him and even tho I have quite a few very stressful things going on in my life, have always dealt with anxiety and tend to feel alone a lot because I don’t have a girlfriend, many friends and I’m not really that close with my family but even tho I definitely felt the stress from all that it was never to unbearable because I always had my kitty, he would always be waiting outside for me to come home from work and seeing him really cheered me up but sadly after just 4 years he became extremely sick and full of pain over this past weekend, he could barely move and wouldn’t eat or drink anything I couldn’t afford an emergency vet visit over the weekend so I was praying he made it until Monday, I broke down multiple times seeing him like that but thankfully he did make it and I was fully confident I’d be able to save him but I was then told it would be close to 2,000$ to save him which I don’t have and they didn’t accept payment plans so I had to make the very difficult decision to have him put down and now that he’s gone all of the stress I’ve been dealing with feels so much worse and heavier in my chest, he was always the 1 good thing I knew I had, I’ve never met an animal as amazing as he was, I can’t even process that it really happened I have not been able to stop crying since everything I see reminds me of him, I feel like I failed him, he had so much more life to live and he didn’t get to have that, the pain is like nothing I’ve ever felt before, my best friend is really gone and I’m finding it so hard to want to keep trying, life has knocked me down over and over but this is the 1 thing I prayed would never happen at least not for a long time yet I don’t think I’ll be able to get over this, and that I’ll never be able to find another animal like him so I’m not even gonna try, having to drive home from work tomorrow night and not have him waiting for me like always is gonna make this even worse i don’t understand why this stuff has to happen in life it’s really not fair, sorry for rambling on so much to anyone who reads this i just really needed to talk about it

I work in a pretty traditional office setting, with what seems to be a fairly relaxed attendance policy. I'm lucky to get a fair amount of PTO and have called out sick about once a month for the entirety of the time I've been here (about a year and a half at this point). A handful of my other coworkers do the same, especially when things are slow.

I have one coworker, however, who makes me anxious. It brings up a lot of bad feelings from a previous job. It was a toxic work culture, and I don’t notice my bosses at my current job engaging in the same behavior. For example, I don't think they would ever call me after hours to yell at me. I'm on good terms with my boss and direct supervisor.

Any time I take time off, this one coworker makes a comment ("oh you decided to show up today!"). He talks about how rich I must be to afford not working OT on Saturdays. I've tried to respond by brushing off his comments with a joke or a smile. At one point another one of my coworkers stepped in and politely told him to shut up ("I think he's saying he has a life outside of work" was her exact comment).

We also get a few weeks of OT every quarter. Typically, we get about 15 extra hours of PTO a week and I'll work about 9 of them. I don't do OT on Saturdays, because I've noticed I feel awful when I do that. I have done this for the entirety of the time that I've been here - my bosses haven't ever made a comment. I've gotten good reviews and have been told I work hard. I also don't get comments like this from other coworkers.

He also does other things - for example, not saying good morning when I say good morning (when he clearly doesn't have headphones in). Some of the culture is people joking with one another (ribbing each other or whatever), so I've tried to chalk it up to that. I try to ignore him and keep interactions brief, but he sits right across from me and it makes me anxious.

Overall I'm just trying to tune him out... but it's hard when he sits right across from me. He's also kind of gross - he hawks loogies into his trash can and belches. Overall I just think he's kind of miserable - the little bit I've gleaned from his personal life sounds like he's unhappy.

I know it's irrational, but it makes me stressed out. I've started thinking about it outside of work and it makes me dread coming back into work. We basically sit next to each other, but because it's a small team asking to change seats feels a little socially aggressive and might open me up to more engagement from him. How do I get better at ignoring him?

Humiliated.

I’ve been struggling with anxiety all night after recently increasing my meds. I started having pain in my left shoulder blade that woke me up and I started panicking. Knowing it was likely just a muscle ache, I tried to work through it until the nausea came on and I started feeling sick.

I called the crisis hotline and told them I was struggling with anxiety and, while usually so helpful, tonight the counselor suggested I call an ambulance. That only exacerbated my anxiety. I called twice and canceled twice before I woke my kids up and headed to the ER myself.

So here I am, with an IV and poked 5 times to get blood. I’m exhausted, my kids are tired and I just want to be normal.

Just got diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia.

I don't know what to feel. As if all the abuse and trauma, no job no money no house, having ideation, and now this.

Since it appeared it wreaked havoc in the few things that still survived.

Please, is someone also going through all the trauma plus this disease?

Are there any tips to calm down my anxiety. I've been dealing with mild anxiety for the past couple days and I can't do anything to stop it. I feel terrible, I have no motivation and sometimes it goes away for like 20 minutes. My heart beats fast and I dont have the urge to eat and i feel so sluggish. It also sucks because I can't focus in class and its hard to remember stuff.

My 18-year-old son is suffering from severe panic attacks, almost every night for last 3 weeks.

He starts screaming “I’m going to die, we’re all going to die, there’s no reason to live”. He loses all control, running around the house, it’s terrifying for me, I can’t imagine what it’s like for him.

I have arranged urgent therapy starting tomorrow but had anyone else experienced this? Any advice? We’re desperate.