Feeling of impending doom - but life is good.

[Umpteenthiteration]

What is going on? We have a great life, huge house, stable jobs, I work part-time. No stress at all. Husband is loving and an equal partner in the marriage. We do stuff together and separately. Kids are healthy and doing well at school. BUT I still have this feeling that something is wrong. I can't put my finger on it. Am I going mad? I've always been a bit of a worrier and always don't want to tempt fate etc... (e.g. I didn't have a baby shower because I never want to count my chickens before they've hatched). Anyone else experience this? What can I do about it?

Could it be anxiety? I was like this a lot before I was medicated.

Peri-menopause?

Impending sense of doom is common

I’ve felt the same on and off. It’s a sort of feeling that I’ve largely been very lucky in life so far, so surely it’s time for something awful to happen? Maybe it’s partly down to guilt, since I know others who have been dealt a much worse hand in life, through no fault of their own.

I wouldn’t call it full blown anxiety, though - I certainly haven’t needed medication - it’s more a tendency to be a worrier. Probably inherited from my mother, who was worse!

Sounds very like anxiety. The main thing to do is to recognise if it is anxiety and not a real threat, and then find some strategies to manage it. This could include medication as a pp suggested, or therapy - CBT can be very good for recognising and reformulating anxious thoughts - or more physical/mind-body like breathing, meditation, yoga, relaxation, even plain exercise to burn up the stress hormones.

Also try to still do things even if you do feel anxious about doing them. If you'd like a baby shower then have one even if it feels like "bad luck". The reason is that although avoiding something can make you feel better at the time, it can also actually make the anxiety worse next time. So if you don' t have a baby shower and your baby is fine then you might feel more anxious about "counting chickens" in future (because avoiding the baby shower "worked" although it didn't really make any difference!) and you'll feel worse the next time you want to celebrate something that hasn't been completed. Anxiety can be like the walls closing in - we have to make a conscious effort to push them back again.

Hope you find strategies that work well for you

Menopause

I get this too, regularly. I have always been anxious and a worrier. Keep thinking that something is about to go terribly wrong and begin to dread things that are not even likely to happen. It subsides after a few minutes but then returns when I least expect. It's awful, I do sympathise.