I feel sick with nerves all the time. What’s wrong with me?

[LemonGingerCakes]

And when something does make me jump/ cause upset, my body overreacts (the postman knocked on the door and I ended up physically shaking even though it only made me jump and I wasn’t bothered at all by it).

Any advice?

Lemon actually that makes a lot of sense timing wise. When we are in the thick of things adrenaline keeps us going but when things wind down we have time to process and that is when it hits. I think small modifications will help if that is what caused it and a bit of time to recuperate. It sounds very tough

I don’t think it means one particular thing is “wrong”, it sounds like you are anxious and have been under a lot of stress, your worry about your child, money trouble...it can trigger a period of feeling more worried about things generally. Definitely laying off caffeine will help and looking after yourself as much as possible

Sounds like classic peri-menopause symptoms to me. Horrible nerves, awful anxiety and on and on and on.

Thank you- I feel a little less like a fraud, I’m going to try to book a dr appointment if I can .

I have the same trouble. I have given up caffeine, chocolate and other stuff that has caffeine. Eg have to drink decaf tea.
Put pillow spray on my pillow before bed it's calming. Have a camomile tea. Rub lush sleepy lotion on me.
I have to be very careful what I eat and drink and have been reading a book the worry trick. It's good.

Of course you’re not a fraud! Life can be bloody tough at times and often situations have knock on effects. Good that you have recognised it and looking at tackling it though

Maybe see your gp and ask for propranolol so you have some on hand when your anxiety is very high. It's a beta blocker and it acts quickly. You don't need to take it regularly. Long term it would be best to see what is at the root of it though.

Don't underestimate the caffeine!

I was drinking a lot of strong coffee daily years ago and decided to stop (relating to mc issues) and foolishly stopped cold turkey not having properly assessed/registered how much I was drinking (culture of place I was working at the time meant constant "top ups" so hard to know how many cups I was having at first)

I ended up feeling extremely unwell, it was around this time of year and i honestly thought it was a bad flu I felt so rotten! Luckily dr twigged quickly what was wrong and advised me to reduce caffeine more gradually, to wean myself off it.

The combination of caffeine, sugar, stress could definitely leave you feeling like this.

I'm sure many other posters will agree that the stress of a situation like worrying your child is seriously ill can end up having a delayed effect - because we "power through" to support them and others that are worried.

Sometimes it's the "relief" hits you hard and the drop in adrenaline.

Make an appointment - but you could well find your practice nurse can help with this and you don't necessarily need a dr appointment.

My gp surgery you can self refer to a cpn (community psychiatric nurse) for things like this too.

You could even find some good advice online.

The common sense but easily forgotten things like...

Make sure you're sleeping as well and as much as you need

Take time out for yourself to do something you enjoy (hard at this time of year I know but it doesn't have to be something out the house or that takes long. I enjoy singing I've done it from a young age and find it soothing to just hum sometimes or sing a full song - it also helps regulate breathing to a calm level)

Eat and drink well - most of us don't drink nearly enough and I don't mean coke/coffee preferably water but if not weak squash, milk at times (great for nutrition and a "calming" drink) or fresh juice (not too much as so high in sugar), try to get your 5 a day

Stretching exercises - to relax tense muscles. I have particular trouble with my neck when I'm tense leading to headaches, I do tend to reach for the painkillers but I am trying to remember to do neck exercises physio showed me

I hope something in all that helps.

I suffer from anxiety awfully and could do with taking more of my own advice! I try as much as I can don't always manage it so certainly no judgment here and it's a stressful time of year.

Maybe shopping malls should have yoga rooms?

Anxiety can happen months or in my case years after an event. Speak to your GP. It’s an awful feeling you have all my sympathy

My husband used to say he would often feel on edge and jangled and low level anxious about things, plus very irritated by little things. He gave up coffee (7 years ago now) and the symptoms have totally gone. He still has tea but he used to drink really strong coffee, sometimes 6-7 small shots per day.

I could have written this. No advice but I am the same. Last night for example I was asleep in bed. Husband came home and opened the door and my heart started racing inside my chest as soon as I woke up.

I have terrible intrusive thoughts about people dying or being ill and then I have to enact an elaborate regime of touching my hand a certain number of times and in a certain way to stop it happening.

I also have diarrhoea every day which I'm sure is related.

I hate it. It's very draining.

And I'm 36 so not the menopause, hate coffee so don't drink it (though I do smash out the chocolate) and don't have a particularly stressful life.

I have had exactly this sort of delayed response to events. While you are going through it and keeping busy, you can't 'feel' the anxiety so much, but having the contract suddenly cancelled means you aren't keeping as busy as you used to. The adrenaline has nowhere to go.

Also, caffeine works (I'm pretty sure?) by stopping adrenaline reabsorption. So if you are drinking caffeine, all this excess adrenaline not only isn't being channelled into activities, it also isn't being naturally reabsorbed by the body and just keeps hanging around.

I would write down all the horrible experiencesnof the last couple of months and have a good cry, while reminding yourself it has turned out okay with your child. Then burn the writing as a sort of 'it's over' ritual.

Things always hit me after the event. Then again, the menopause also made me more anxious as did a dodgy thyroid. I found hypnosis and counselling helped massively.

@LemonGingerCakes don't feel like a fraud. It's just frustrating ur bodies way to let us know there is something wrong and we need to deal with it. CBT Therapy can be quiet helpful. They might ask you to reduce your coffee so try decaf for a while. My anxiety crops up at the weirdest times but it's got to the point where I realise now my body is saying, hey this bad thing happened to you, deal with it.
Hope you have a nice Christmas.