Anxiety is the worst it's ever been - need advice

[AnxiousAlways]

If you have anxiety, can I ask what has helped you? If you have been to the GP did you find it helpful and what kind of treatment did you find helpful? If it was just lifestyle changes, what were they?

I have had anxiety for nearly four years now and it just seems to be getting worse and worse so I am finally acknowledging its presence in my life and I want to be proactive and make some changes. I have put off going to the GP about it because I feel ashamed of how badly I have let this get. I am also a really private person so I have kept all of my anxiety to myself and not told anyone. But I need to go to the GP about something else next week so I am going to bring it up in my appointment.

I have described my situation below but it's a bit rambly so feel free to ignore:

I have really bad health anxiety. I don't know what has caused it but the last three years I have worried about so many serious diseases. I find it hard to gain perspective with how bad my anxiety is because it goes through cycles where I worry about obsessively about disease X for a few days or weeks and then that wanes away and I have maybe a few hours or less of calm relief until I start worrying about disease Y, then disease Z, etc. I sort of see these as separate incidents of worrying rather than what I now see is a pattern of constantly worrying about something.

It's not even just health conditions really but everything... Everytime my phone rings or my loved ones' phones ring I think it's bad news and I wait with baited breath, I get nervous opening letters even though I have nothing that I can think of that could come by post that would be something to worry about, when I am in the car as a passenger my heart drops into my stomach multiple times over little things.

I found that lowering my caffeine intake by switching to decaf has almost eliminated my anxiety.

I'd tried medication, cbt, cbd oil and nothing worked

Medication- ssri's changes my life. I couldn't believe I could feel so normal. Good luck op.

Definitely talk to your GP.
There are things that Make it better, therapy, medicines.
You don’t need to suffer like this.

Two things have helped me:
1.I don't look at any news sites at all. Gave up a few years ago when things were looking dodgy in Korea. I listen to Radio 2 occasionally so get the general gist of news on the hour. I used to be extremely well informed on current affairs but it impacted me hugely and actually to no benefit whatsoever. Plus there's significant media hype that whips people into unnecessary frenzies, it's their job to keep people watching and refreshing. I am aware of good news sites but haven't bothered looking at those either.

1. Listening to relaxing meditation music. I was having a bad day at work one day and a recommendation popped up on YouTube and I just clicked it for background noise really. However, I found it very soothing despite being quite sceptical! Perhaps something to do with the calming rhythms?

1.Good sleep.
My sleep is shocking during bouts of anxiety. I like the calm app...it has bedtime stories lol (it seems to help) calm music etc if i wake at that awful 3-4am time...i put music on or listen to a podcast whilst looking through pinterest (the noise and pictures help to distract me from whatevers on my mind.

2.Tackling things that i need to do but get paralysed about doing when anxiety kicks in

3.exercise (when i get into it...really helps) its just hard getting into it

1. Eating goid food

My anxiety seems to come out when im not looking after myself and life. The knowing im not treating myself or protectingvmyself makes me feel worthless. Its like my brain turns in on itself.

My friend once told me to draw a brick wall....and everytime i did something that i knew to be good for myself, fun, anything that made me relax, comfortable...to write what it was in one of the bricks in my drawing and colour it in. The theory being that...id have a clear image of what it takes to build a happy, relaxed me.

I didnt do the drawing but the idea resinated with me.

Running has really helped me. Exercise in general is very good, but running especially so for me. It really helps focus my mind. Also yoga.

Other things that help:

Limit alcohol intake, or ideally cut it out altogether
Limit caffeine. Same as above.
Limit social media
Get plenty of sleep.

1 I cut out all caffeine. Tea, coffee, soft drinks, chocolate. (I now drink redbush tea and chicory "coffee")
2 I gave up alcohol. ( I used to try and deal with my anxiety by drinking)
3 I did take CBD for a while which I think may have helped but not as much as the first two things.

I reluctantly did a course of CBT. Reluctant because I had previously done it unsuccessfully. The difference was this time I actually did the things I was told to do.

I have now been anxiety free for about two years. I still get triggered occasionally but I know how to handle those triggers.

I can't tell you how much my life has changed. After twenty years to be finally free is so wonderful.

Thank you all for the advice, I really appreciate it. Sorry for the delay in responding, I decided to take the entire weekend off of social media/the internet and I found it really helpful.

It's interesting that there are so many overlapping things: caffiene, exercise, sleep and social media/the news. I will definitely try and implement your suggestions.