Today I realised how severe my anxiety is

[AnxiousMind]

I have always been quite an anxious person but I thought it was because I had a lot of different sources of stress in my life. However the last month I have been journaling. Seeing the causes of my anxiety written down has shown me that it is absolutely nothing to do with any external sources of stress and it is my brain. It constantly needs something to be anxious over.

The last month I have worried about:

• worried that I had/would get 3 different serious health conditions
• worried about two different family members' health
• worried about a financial issue
• worrying about the future
• worrying about my career
• worrying about the coronavirus everytime a family member leaves the house, every time someone walks/runs/cycles past me on a walk, everytime a family member coughs or clears their throat, everytime a parcel or food delivery arrives

Whenever I stop worrying about one thing, there is always something new to worry about. If life has not presented anything new to worry about my brain kindly refers back to the repertoire of go-to things I can always worry about like the future, finances, etc.

I am exhausted from it.

While I have always been on the anxious side, I have never had bad anxiety like this. I have no idea what has caused it or whether I can make any changes to my lifestyle to mitigate it.

Does anyone have any advice?

I also suffer from anxiety and a few things that help are: regular exercise (hard with everything that's going on, but can you cycle, run or do exercise videos indoors?), yoga/stretching to relax and also keep fit, a keto or carnivore diet and writing (a diary, poems, stories or anything inbetween!)

Are you working or do you have kids because they are both great things to keep you in the present and worrying less. They say anxiety is caused by thinking about the future and given everything is up in the air now it makes sense that the mind worries more about that.

That being said, I get what you're saying about when one worry disappears another is there to replace it. Like your mind constantly wants something to worry about. In the past when a money worry was solved for instance I thought yesss now I'll be okay but my mind found something else to stress about. It's tiring and I understand exactly where you're coming from.

@AquarianSquirrel Thank you for your reply. I am currently unemployed and struggling to get a job because my field has been affected by the coronavirus.

Yes that is exactly what I am like with worrying about things, there is a small moment of relief once one worry sorts itself out before I am worrying about the next thing.

I think I may have finally reached the point where I need to speak to a GP even though I am scared to.

I’m the same. I tried therapy (seven years), meditation, self-help, you name it.

The only thing that helped was citalopram. It’s a problem with my brain chemistry. I resisted for years, then decided I was being daft. I wouldn’t try to meditate my way out of diabetes - I’d just take the insulin.

It has absolutely given me my life back.

Please don't be scared of speaking to your GP @AnxiousMind - what you describe in incredibly common (far more than you would ever realise) and they will have seen this all before. I suffer from anxiety myself and there is loads of stuff that can help - from medication to talking therapies and lifestyle changes. You are not alone I promise you.

@LunaNorth I completely agree. I've accepted that I have an imbalance in my brain that I need medication to 'keep me right' Its no different ro diabetes or chronic pain etc. I've been told as much by my GP. OP, meds are nothing to be scared of and they will help. Psychiatric meds are just the same as those that help us with other problems. Somethings wrong and needs to be treated.