To ask if you have ever experienced happiness anxiety?

[Argggghhneedclarity]

A really strange thing happened to me. I had some brilliant news and felt really relieved and excited and proud of myself. Then the next day my heart was pounding so hard I couldn't eat and I kept having huge waves of nausea and doubt/ extreme anxiety about the thing that was good news... I couldn't shake it off for 3 days. Then had a massive walk and felt a bit better. But has this ever happened to anyone else? It reminded me a bit of my first couple of days after giving birth when I was so happy to have my baby but suffering from flashbacks from traumatic birth...

Yes ! For me it is always the ridiculous idea that if one aspect of my life is going well then it has to be at the expense of another aspect going full throttle tits up. Irrational I know

user1471507295
Thank you! I have been really taken aback by it. My husband and my 3 year old son were both really confused by it. I kept having to remind myself to breathe! I've suffered with anxiety before but always much more manageable than this surprising episode.

I also think sometimes that unexpected news , even if it’s brilliant news like yours was , is still unexpected and we don’t always react in the way we think we will.

When you have something happen in your life that is the very worst thing you can imagine, you feel guilt for anything that makes you remotely happy.

@user1471507295, exactly. My health anxiety always rears its ugly head if I don’t have anything else to worry about, as I can’t believe everything is fine at the same time. “Waiting for the other shoe to drop” - I have the feeling it’s because I grew up with a volatile parent and I never knew when it would all kick off

Yes! For exactly the reasons @user1471507295 said

Yes! For exactly the reasons @user1471507295 said

Ahh, thanks. Yes, definitely really unexpected, so maybe it's a primal thing to protect us... I now feel like I'm recovering from an awful experience but should be happy. So so strange. Thanks for your comments. everything back but you : yes, the waiting for the other shoe to drop feeling! That's how it feels.

My daughter does. She realised when she had a massive panic attack on her hen do, when she was ridiculously happy and excited.

She now knows that both good and bad things can produce anxiety in her and is learning to manage her emotions carefully, if that makes sense.

Yes. I fulfilled a life long ambition last year and achieved a life changing success that I had dreamed of forever. I was over the moon and buzzing with adrenaline and joy but had an emotional crash and became wracked with anxiety over it as well.

I think I had become accustomed to failure and was so thrown into a spin to suddenly see myself in a new light and to be able to change a lot about my life was disconcerting and bewildering even though it was exciting and wonderful as well.

I have suffered an enormous amount of guilt for what I feel is undeserved good fortune and have been anticipating a disaster to sweep it all away from me as well.

It’s strange and hard to talk about without feeling indulgent and guilty about struggling with something so good whilst simultaneously being terrified that I will somehow lose it at any moment.

@LittlePearl, I think it was my counsellor who explained that whether we are excited or scared, the adrenaline rush our body experiences is just the same but it depends on how we interpret that reaction as to whether it feels like excitement or dread.

@CaptainBrickbeard exactly how I felt when I became pregnant with my much longed for babies. “Why should I be the one who gets a happy ending?” was my general train of thought

Self esteem issues, I fear

When I get good or exciting news sometimes I find my head spins, and sometimes if it's relief from a bad situation I start worrying that something's going to mean it doesn't come off. I was being unfairly pushed out of my first job and got offered another one and then I got really anxious that what if they did a drug test and because I'd smoked some cannabis a few weeks ago it might show up, even though it was a small organisation wasn't at all the sort of job anyone would drug test for and hardly anyone does in the UK anyway, but I still managed to worry about it!

Its just your body seeing the adrenaline surge from the excitement , as a bad thing because your body usually associated adrenaline with stress or anxiety.

Yes my daughter got offered a place on a course she really wanted, was very competitive so she was very lucky (as well as having worked hard etc). Obviously I was thrilled for her but then started to fear that something dreadful would happen in the family - a universe rebalancing sort of thing.

Thanks for all your honest and helpful responses. Adrenaline definitely played a big part, so that theory makes sense.

Yes I worry when something nice happens as I spend my life waiting for something to go wrong !! It's happened to me so many times !