….to think that anxiety is an evil fucker and if we all share hatred for it….

Good thread! Anxiety is the pits.
It's ruined too many days already. Anxiety go AWAY!!!!

@HÆLTHEPAIN

Can you remember when/why this started? At the moment your BP phobia isn't life threatening so the part of your mind that fires up the fear of it is 'winning' - it doesn't want to do this thing, and by not doing it it's reinforcing the idea that it's something to be really afraid of.

Now you know, rationally, that taking your BP can't hurt you so it's either a matter of finding, and dealing with, that root cause OR telling that part of your mind "we are going to do this whether you like it or not so you'd better get used to it". I've used the second option with someone with a terrible phobia of needles who ran out of avoidance options when they were diagnosed with cancer.

Big hugs to you all. It’s so hard ❤️

I suffer badly from anxiety and it’s the worst. I feel so anxious about every single work meeting that I have. I have to present 2 projects I’ve been working on to a big boss and his team at the end of the week and I just can’t stop thinking about it and feel sick. Especially as I think I haven’t been doing it correctly.

Just popping on quickly to say, yes, anxiety is the worst and also I would highly highly recommend the book:

Anxiety Rx by Russell Kennedy.

truly truly helpful (in my, and many others, opinion!)

Yes I hate anxiety more than any other of my issues. It's just so unpleasant. It makes every tiny little thing unpleasant. And it's so bloody unnecessary. It's like an annoying friend that keeps turning up when you least need him and have got a million things to do and absolutely don't have time to deal with him and he sits for hours in your house slowly sipping cups of tea and eating all your biscuits. And he never just shuts up.😡

Ah, shit. I am sorry so many of you are suffering with this.

So sorry for the loss of beautiful little Patti.

Mine is really bad at the moment. I have PTSD from a near death experience a few years ago, lost my partner to a brain tumour (now remarried but it doesn't just disappear), and I am just scarred by it.

I had a difficult pregnancy last year, fortunate enough to have a beautiful eight month old daughter. But my blood pressure etc was all over the place and I now also have the phobia of blood pressure and having any kind of medical checks.

We've all been what feels like recurrently ill for weeks now, and it's spiking my health anxiety no end. I'm just randomly bursting into tears, I've gone back to work full-time (husband is currently SAHP), we have three older children and I just feel like I'm drowning. Oh, and I have ADHD.

Sorry, that was such a vent! I feel utterly pathetic for feeling this way but I know that's just me being cruel to myself.

I’m on propanolol too in relation to anxiety surrounding having epilepsy. I’ve been on it for just over 3 years but I’m still anxious most days. I’ve done three courses of CBT (all slightly different to each other) but it’s made no difference. l told my GP that unless a cure for epilepsy is found then no amount of breathing exercises or pills are going to stop my anxiety.

It’s really crap and I’ve resolved myself to the fact that neither my epilepsy or my anxiety are going anywhere 😢

I don't know if you're looking for solutions OP, but mirtazipine has changed my life. After the pandemic and and absolutely shitty situation courtesy of a former employer, who shall remain nameless, I couldn't sleep, eat, or leave the house without checking the sockets and lock seven billion times.

Its been a bit of a miracle drug for me. I feel like a new woman.

@Idontknowwhatsgoingonanymore I have the BP phobia too. It’s ridiculous. I’m slightly better at the docs with the old manual equipment but I still panic. It has meant I can’t take the HRT I was prescribed because I had a slightly high reading and they wanted me to monitor it at home but I just can’t. That means they (understandably) won’t reissue it so there’s no point in me starting it. DH has to keep an eye on his BP and as soon as he gets the monitor out I start feeling panicky.

I have anxiety and OCD, both of which are evil fuckers.

Great post @Eyesopenwideawake

This sounds wierd asf but when I have days that my anxiety is really bad I find watching police interrogations strangely calming, almost like I feel more relaxed knowing at least I'm not facing life in prison or something 😂😭 anxiety sucks arse, it's horrendous, you have my sympathies.

Anxiety is an emotion, it's part of you - it's not something external to you.

Imagine anxiety as a small child that's been scared by something in the past, which it remembers all too well. It's holding your hand and starts by whispering "I'm scared, mum". If you ignore it, or tell it not to be stupid, or to fuck off, it will start to raise it's voice until it's screaming at you and it will do whatever is necessary to drag you away from the perceived danger - hence the typical 'flight or fight' physical response of stomach upsets, rapid breath, lightheadedness, etc.

So, how to deal with it? Be the parent. When you feel anxious, remind yourself that you are an adult, you can cope with whatever life throws at you and that you have the experience, the knowledge and the resources to deal with the situation.

This analogy might help.

When a mother struggles to get her child to go to sleep because the child says there’s a monster under the bed, does the mother quickly grab the child and rush out of the house calling the police to deal with the monster? Of course not! That’s because the mother knows there isn’t a monster and that those fears are the fears of a child. Whilst we can easily understand why the child has those fears, we recognise they aren’t necessary.

Listen to what your anxiety is telling you, but use your logic to decide if it's true or whether you can safely reassure yourself that it's not going to happen, or that you will cope - as you have done before. Always be kind to your mind.

I'm sorry you're struggling, I am with you 💐.

Slagging it off sounds like a good idea - I'm going to do it in the style of my young children as it is highly effective. Anxiety is the worst mum ever.

Another sufferer here. I’ve had panic attacks ocd and health anxiety and it’s absolutely horrendous and debilitating at times!

if I’m ill it seems worse too!

I have found some things that have/do helped
acceptance! Accept that your anxious/panicy or whatever the fear is and.
Tell yourself that you accept your thoughts and the feelings
that they are just feelings in reaction to your thoughts and not really harmful.
and repeat that you accept them and that you don’t need to do nothing and That they can just be there.
this might not help everyone but it did me because I had ocd I think this was helpful

also try to get to the bottom of your biggest fear and ask how likely is it to happen and ifcan you control the future?
so we know we can’t control the future - so it’s also about accepting the lack of control and another helpful thing was the word -FEAR 🟰 future events arnt real!!
this helps me sometimes when my mind starts spiralling worrying about future events that haven’t happened and usually don’t!

im sorry if this is useless to some of you suffering , but if its helps anyone out then ill be glad. Im sorry to hear about some of your past traumas and sad losses/ illnesses
ptsd is horrible and I think there should be more help I don’t know what to suggest but hope some others can come on and advise something x

Also I should say that before fluoxetine I tried multiple other medications including other SSRIs. None of them worked for me. I feel so lucky that I managed to hit on the right one.

It wasn’t until I went on fluoxetine for PND that I realised the extent to which anxiety controlled and ultimately ruined my life. I feel like a different person now and I cannot believe I allowed myself to live that way for so many decades. I was scared that if my anxiety went away, the worst would happen. The truth is, even when the worst did happen, without the anxiety I was able to deal with it.

I've had CBT, therapy and hypnotherapy to manage my anxiety. I do mindfulness now. The best way to manage it (and this is significantly harder than it sounds). Is to accept it as you except a neutral or positive bodily reaction to emotions. If you accept it and watch your thoughts it calms it.

Breath helps too, shallow breathing can cause some of the symptoms of anxiety so breathing in for 4, hold 6 and out 8.

Gratitude helps if we can focus on what we are grateful for it can helps us feel more content in life.

Anxiety can fuck itself up the arse and fuck right off into fuckdom come!!

Sufferer for 20 years, mine is health anxiety. Absolutely convinced I've got/will get some form of cancer yet have a massive fear of going to the Dr. Fear of blood pressure machines so mine is always high, fear of hospitals or anything medical

Nearly lost my daughter at 4 days old when she stopped breathing, she's now 9 but I compulsively check her at night because I'm so scarred from that experience

CBT is beyond shit and does nothing.

Dr's won't refer for anything else which is so unfair, they just want to medicate (I do take medication). Anxiety needs more, if it was a physical illness they'd do loads but it's just ignored or we're told to "get some exercise and have a good diet". Fuck. Off!!!

I could rant about this until the cows come home (then I'd say fuck off cows, I'm not done!!)

Sending huge hugs to all those affected

So sorry for you both. Hope you can get a handle on it x

It's ruined so much of my life and now it's trying to get its nasty little claws into my sweet, lovely teenager as well. It's a slippery, lying little bastard, and it lies to you in your own voice to make you believe it. 'Hate' is nowhere near strong enough a word for how I feel about it.

DS bought me this book recently, which I hope will help me to reframe things in my head and see if I can have a more constructive relationship with it. I've not been in the right headspace to get properly into it though.

No, it's all in your head etc 🙄 it's awful, it's life limiting, it's a bitch to to try and manage.

@BabbleBee thank you. Her name is Patti. She was born in 2017. I’ve never had anxiety like it since, more so since getting pregnant with my son and now around his health. He’s 5 so constantly ill from school but my mind and google take me to such dark places. It’s shit. Fuck you anxiety, you are not real and not wanted !!
Hope you feel a bit lighter tomorrow @BabbleBee , sometimes I do after a good sleep x