I just turned 23, I have 1 year left for my uni to end. It's gonna be my 5th year because I still have classes that I didnt passed

I dont wanna get into too much detail because even talking about it makes me anxious. everything about the future of my life, future of my relationship with my boyfriend and family, finding a job, where I will be living ect stresses me so bad rn that I cant function normally.

I have 20 days for my uni to start and I cant even enjoy my holiday.

Im so stressed with overthinking that it reflects on my body, I had severe eyebrow twitching few days ago and I cant sleep sadly

How can I fix it? I want to stop overthinking 🥲

even if it’s the smallest little trick or tip ?

I have OCD + Anxiety where when i walk outside I feel pseudo-pain in the back of my foot which tells me it could be a dog scratch and i should check behind and see if there is any dog.

So to stop this OCD loop i stopped checking behind and one day i felt a scratch ( an actual one ) which i initially thought it was a plant now all the doubts are fully making me depressed telling me it could've been a dog and i should've checked behind me.

Anyone else in the same situation?

I have been struggling with anxiety due to what I’m very sure is OCD for about 6 years now. I get all kinds of intrusive thoughts and immediately my heart starts racing and I get the feeling of “air hunger” and my throat feels like it’s closing up. All that stuff. I won’t go into detail about compulsions and everything else.

I feel it’s about time I got some professional counselling but the problem is that my days are quite busy and I don’t think I could fit physically going to a therapist in my schedule rn. I know betterhelp doesn’t have very good reviews. I’ve also heard of onlinetherapy.com but idk if it’s good enough. If anyone knows any good websites (or even apps) please let me know. Thank you!!

I am prescribed a low dose benzo (as needed) and a few of the bottles are reaching their expiration date. Wondering if anyone has experience/knows if these truly go bad once they reach this date?

I'm currently dealing with a fair bit of medical anxiety, which has been ramping up for the last year. However, the last month it has gotten pretty out of control. My anxiety is constantly looking to spiral, so managing it feels like a full-time job.

I've come to dread the weekends (unstructured time) and being alone. As you can imagine, this has made me really clingy to a trusted few people. I'm terrified of being alone without them, which is not okay. Both they and I deserve better than this. I just don't know how to cope, and could really use some advice for how to stand on my own again.

Specific anxiety triggers at play:

-For some reason, not knowing what to do with myself is a trigger, from picking music, shows, to activities. It feels so small, but it can really set me off.

-Breathing issues (related to medical issue)

-Sense of feeling loss or ungrounded

-Not feeling like myself. I'm struggling to enjoy the normal hobbies and activities that would fill my alone time.

Side note: I have started tapping meditation, which helps some, and I am starting up with a new therapist this evening. Wish me luck!

About a month and a half ago, I had a really bad anxiety episode and saw a psychiatrist. I had many physical symptoms like tingling in my hands, itching all over my body, feeling lightheaded, nausea, and more. I’ve managed to get through the worst part, but I’m still not 100% recovered from the anxiety.
About 3 weeks ago, I started getting palpitations and sweaty hands after eating carbs or something sweet. I also feel very agitated and anxious when this happens. The palpitations can last for 1–2 hours. This has never happened to me before.
I’ve had several check-ups and blood tests, and everything came back normal. I’m wondering if this could be related to anxiety, blood sugar/insulin, digestion, POTS, or something else. I’m quite worried about it.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and for any help or advice. I really appreciate it 🙏🏻❤️

I think most of my health issues are tied to my constant anxiety and stress caused by school and classmates.I don’t get bullied or anything,atleast in front of my face,but the class is just very unpleasant ,especially when u don’t really have friends .Today was the first day of school and for the first time in a few weeks i have such a bad irritation to both my stomach and intestines.I deal with constipation most of the time since i have intestine dyspepsia,but i just had diarrhea out of nowhere.I also couldn’t sleep at all so it made my stomach even worse.I went to a neurologist due to some other issues i have and she told me everything is linked to my nervous system. I disn’t believe her,untill i noticed that my overall health is declining when i’m anxious,stressed. I got prescriped some medicine like magnesium and other stuff that are supposed to help with anxiety.But i really can’t deal with this anymore. My school life is ruining my health.What can i do to get better?

Hi, I’m 21 years old and live with my mom, and my two younger brothers, 11 and 7. Our apartment is falling apart badly. Some context is my mom owns her own business and she’s going into her slow season, she only has 1.5k for the winter. Our only hope right now is a condo we don’t hear about for another 9 months. Some organization to help low income families. I am chronically ill and just stepped down to part time at my job.

For years we have struggled with ants, then became ants and mice and now it’s ants, mice and cockroaches. My brother came into my room and told me my mom needed me, I walked downstairs and my mom was sobbing. She had a cockroach in a cup. The first one we’ve seen. On top of all this infestations our roof has been leaking severely, our toilet was leaking and we got that fixed but now the tiles of the bathroom are popping up because of it. We have centipedes as well and one bit me the other day… lol. This house is driving us all insane and making us extremely ill. The electrical system might actually harm us one day. For example the whole top floor is on the same breaker and when you look at the breaker box a whole row is unused. Another example that we found out, we put in the new dishwasher and the Best Buy employee couldn’t finish because the plug for the washer was connected by an extension cord and plugged somewhere in the basement.

It’s a connected house so my neighbour is dealing with the same thing. Expect he has a hole in his wall and rain and snow get into his bedroom.

Our landlord thinks because he hasn’t raised our rent in years he doesn’t have to do much. My mom has been a sobbing mess all day and she can’t control it in front of my little brothers. On top of that we have two cats, one who is 15 and another who is 3. The 3 year old we are worried might eat something.
Everyday is something new with this house.

I’m filled with so much anxiety. My mom says we aren’t allowed to tell anyone so that means I can’t reach out to other family members for help. How my mom is talking sounds like doomsday; I don’t blame her. I have health anxiety and severe emetophobia and this is making it worse.

I've been living in constant anxiety for about a year. I mean, I've been extremely paranoid all my life, but the past year has been excruciating.

I am going to hustle as much as I can to find a psychiatrist to finally get some meds, since the breathe in touch stuff drink tea bs is not helping. +I've been going to a therapist for 3-4 years and that stuff hasn't helped me with this side of things(and I'm young so 3-4 years is a long time for me). It is constant. I have constant nightmares and fever dreams.

I've been told by a family member that is a psychiatrist that I am experiencing something known as anticipatory anxiety.

I would like to hear some experiences from you guys. What was starting meds like? What symptoms did you have? I would just like to hear some experiences and solidarize with you guys. I'm so tired.

Learned about the variants and such recently for prion diseases, and honestly it's been making me kinda worried. I have been kind of forgetful, lately, and sometimes I can stumble or waver when walking after eaking up, but that's less worrisome to me. I guess the most anxiety inducing thing is that they're incurable, and can just sort of happen. I know I'm only 23, but I also know people about as young as me have had cases before.

I get very health anxious, and anxious in general, particularly this year, but this is different. It's like every moment for the past few days has been underscored by the knowledge I have, by the fear that my life can just randomly be over in such a despairful way. I guess I need advice on how to let myself worry less about it, about how to accept that I won't be one of the 1 in 1,000,000 people who get this awful medical misfortune.

first of all i’m sorry if this makes no sense, i’m exhausted and i’m bad with words.

does anyone have any advice on what to do here? i’ve been having panic attacks now since december and i managed to get out of them for a month or two, but they’ve since come back in the form of a panic attack each and every morning for about a week now, i’d thought it was due to my period coming up but i’ve since started it and they’ve not gone away.

i suffer with severe health anxiety and despite managing to curve the urge to google things all the time they’re still happening, what doesn’t help me either is that when trying to sleep i experience hypnic jerks i believe they’re called so even if i calm down at night those don’t help me in the long run. i do have a magnesium glycinate drink supplement (about 250mg i believe) but i’m afraid to take it even though i know it’s all natural due to past bad experiences with new things.

again im sorry if this makes no sense, i just need any amount of advice.

I’ve been having nightmares every night for months, I cant remember having a nice dream, a good nights sleep where I feel rested when I wake up is very very rare, but i try to hold myself up.

I’ve been trying to take more care of myself but I’m not sure what else I could do, i’m pretty much alone, I had my boyfriend, but he betrayed me and I had to leave him because I couldn’t deal with the resentment and how my body was dealing with it, it was terrible. Earlier i sat alone in silence with myself without my phone and I couldn’t help but start thinking and I was about to cry.

I just have my parents who I can’t talk to about my breakup, I don’t have who to go out with or talk to at the moment and it’s heavy on me, I wish sometimes i could go to him but he is the one who hurt me the most. I am accepting that it’s over and it won’t ever go back to how it was.

The thing is also a week before i found out, there were no signs, but I had a nightmare and a strong gut feeling that he was hiding something, and a week after i heard a notification from his phone and found it. Maybe it was my trauma from his past actions but it’s crazy.

I try to drink warm teas and try to relax a bit before bed but nothing helps and I sleep in very weird uncomfortable positions so my whole body hurts too and I have 0 energy

What can I do I feel helpless sometimes :( It’s been a very very stressful year

I’m in my mid-20s and started a new job about 2 months ago. I only have to be in the office 3 days a week, but lately the social part of work has been making me extremely anxious and honestly really sad.
My actual work team is based in another country, so I don’t have my own team physically with me. Most people in my part of the office are men, while in the other part there’s an already established group of women who are around 10+ years older than me and work together. I’ve asked two of them separately to go on a break before, but both couldn’t.
I do have one female coworker I became really close with, and we normally spend our breaks together. The problem is that lately she has been choosing different office days from me. She knows I always come Monday–Wednesday, but she has mostly been coming later in the week instead. I don’t know her actual reason, but because I’ve put a lot of effort into our friendship, it makes me feel rejected and I keep wondering if she’s intentionally avoiding being there with me.
When she isn’t there, I’m usually alone during my 1-hour break. What makes me most anxious isn’t even being alone — it’s being seen alone. I keep worrying that my coworkers will notice that nobody invites me for coffee and think I’m unlikeable, lonely or that I have no friends.
We also recently got a new female coworker who sits near the other women, and now I’m already anxious that they’ll all become close with her while I’m still on the outside. I know I can’t control who becomes friends with whom, but emotionally it’s making me really sad.
I live very close to work, so I’m thinking of just going back to my apartment during my three weekly 1-hour breaks. That way I’m not sitting around hoping someone invites me somewhere. But I also worry that I’m avoiding the problem.
The anxiety has gotten to the point where I’m thinking about future jobs too and worrying that I’ll always struggle socially at work. I know I’m probably making this much bigger in my head, but knowing that doesn’t make the anxiety disappear.
Has anyone with social anxiety experienced something similar? How did you stop caring so much about being seen alone or feeling like everyone else had their group except you?

My attic entry fell down about two months ago in my bedroom from a raccoon stepping on it. I never put it back up but now I am concerned maybe a bat came in while I was sleeping on my bed and bit me without any notice. I have a lab and corgi that sleep with me. I never seen a bat but I have left my closet shut for a month and never opened it. My bedroom has no dead bats. I am concerned that I might have the infection and am going to die. I searched my whole house except for a wood burning stove I never use that has had doors shut on it for years. I have been sleeping on my couch in living room for past three weeks. I am concerned this thing came in bit me while sleeping and flew back into attic…

After days of not having much anxiety today I started feeling the lightheadedness when I was at Costco waiting for my mom... Idk if it's my low potassium (ER told me it was 3.5 few days ago) or just my anxiety kicking in... My chest was getting tight and my breathing was a bit difficult

I am currently in therapy for OCD and Anxiety, and have struggled with numerous themes from health fears, Moral OCD, intrusive thoughts/images, catastrophising, magical thinking, false memories, contamination fears, and black and white thinking for most of my life. Since 2019 I had health anxiety and agoraphobia which I managed to kick in 2022 but while I can move around again I still have days where I don't leave the house due to anxiety because I'm scared of having an attack. Since 2022 I have had horrible death anxiety that plagues me whenever I go out and even when I stay in. Not an hour goes by where I don't think I'm dying of somethinh whether it was a false memory of accidentally swallowing something I shouldn't or if I've got an untreated condition. It's gotten worse as of 2025 and has been constant since April of this year.

I have had recent bloodwork and a stool sample done and apart from low Vitamin D and needing to boost my iron I'm completely healthy, no sign of any serious conditions. I've tried to put it out of my mind now because I was always obsessed with my insides and how they were working. But my OCD is like "maybe you should get an uncomfortable endoscopy because you always have that feeling something's stuck in your throat and you burp a lot, this could be a sign of something." I don't want to have one but every day it's something and even at night or taking naps I worry I'm going to die in my sleep.

I'm taking 20mg Prozac and Vit D every day. When I first started the prozac it was rough and although I'm 11 weeks in now I don't feel the boost everyone says they do. Maybe me now taking Vit D will help encourage its efficency? I haven't had a good summer holiday because I've been feeling ill half the time but I've got work tomorrow after being signed off so long and I want to do a good job without anxiety getting in the way. For example, today I think I experienced some pill esophagia, which I have had before but didn't know thats what it was called. Instead of drinking water I just sat up and waited for the pain to stop. Now hours later I worry it could have damaged the tissue in my throat and it's going to do it again.

I'm sick of this. I throw up sometimes when I'm anxious and even new meds made this worse and made me retch after eating. I've been taking gaviscon antacid tablets whenever needed. I hate the feeling of throwing up because it makes me think I have something serious, am having a panic attack or am just going to collapse. Does anyone who has experienced similar health anxiety have tips for feeling well while out in public?

Hey guys, I was recently invited to a party from a friend of my friend. We've only met one time at my friends party two months ago.

All of the people at this party are people who I have met, but I'm really only friends with two of the people there. And those two people, while really close a few months ago, my destructive withdrawal behavior has led to me not seeing them since that last party either.

Ever since university ended, I've been distant from everyone convincing myself that they don't fw me anymore when I know that not to be true. This feels like an invitation back that I need to accept, but it's really hard to convince myself for some reason. That last party was the highlight of my summer but I'm convinced that I'm going to go to this party and fuck it up somehow, or embarrass myself, idk..

I don't think I could forgive myself if I didn't go, since I've sulked about not seeing these people all summer, but the stress here is incredible and I don't know what to do 😢

Background: About a month ago, I felt something brush across my foot followed by a stinging sensation. My brain automatically jumped to “a bat. A bat got me”

Went to the dr the next day, said I thought something got
Me; he confirmed no scratch or bite mark, went home

Had a massive panic attack a week later, ended up calling the suicide prevention line, who wouldn’t address the anxiety and told me to call county public health.

Got an emergency appointment with a dr who prescribed sertraline.

Called public health, who called me back the next day and said based on what I had reported (7:30 am, foot, no obvious mark, had not seen whatever touched my foot) that this was *not* considered an exposure and that vaccination wasn’t necessary

Continued to take sertraline. Ended up with restless/jittery legs, sweats, and worsening anxiety- ended up going to a crisis center who prescribed hydroxyzine.

Stopped the sertraline due to side effects. Hydroxyzine helped for 5-6 days but now I’m at the max dosage and the anxiety is still there.

I’m 99% sure this is health anxiety. But the back of my brain is telling me that I’m wrong and everyone missed it and I’m definitely dying.

I have been on a near continuous anxiety loop for the past 24 hours. I feel like I’m losing my mind.

I have an emergency telehealth appointment this afternoon but idk what to do. I’m terrified to try any other SSRIs due to the reaction I had to sertraline?

I can’t cope. I can barely function at work. I want to cry all
The time

This morning I was seriously considering a grippy sock vacation