To wonder how anxiety affects you?

[RainbowBriteUk]

I'm quite an anxious person, especially at night time when i'm tired and alone. I might've had a great day at work but then I overthink things massively and decide everyone at work hates me or my work is terrible. Neither are true but I can't see past this when I'm having an episode of extreme anxiety. I think this is possibly PTSD from a previous role where I was badly bullied or the time before when I was made redundant from a role I loved.

When the anxiety is particularly bad, I think I have to do certain things or something will happen, e.g. someone will die so in my head there's a voice saying if I don't wash up immediately, someone close to me will die.

Are there others out there that suffer from severe anxiety?

Regardless of other tales, are you getting professional help?

The washing up/someone will die sounds like quite severe OCD.

Hello @WorraLiberty. Thanks for your reply.

I'm not sure what the doctor can do if I do ask for help. I muddle through each day the best I can.

I think you need to speak to your gp. Please look after yourself. You KNOW you're doing just fine at work. You really are. So you need to nip this in the bud with some therapy. You need an OCD specialist before this gets worse. Please do this.

@RainbowBriteUk

Hello *@WorraLiberty*. Thanks for your reply.

I'm not sure what the doctor can do if I do ask for help. I muddle through each day the best I can.

The whole point of going to the doctor is to find out.

Make an appointment and good luck

Please go and see your GP. I finally went earlier this year and I wish I had gone years ago.

I hadn’t even realised how much anxiety was controlling my life. Sertraline has been life changing for me and there was only a weeks wait for the CBT assessment and a week until the first appointment.

Hi OP,

My anxiety manifests itself as severe OCD so I can relate to what you have described about worrying that something unrelated might happen if you do something- it's sometimes referred to as magical thinking. If these kind of fears start to take up more than an hour a day or cause disruption to your work or home life then it's worth asking your GP for a referral for CBT as you may be suffering from OCD (not necessarily severe OCD as someone else suggested as usually that would be significantly impacting on your daily life to the point of disability (e.g. being unable to work, to engage in hobbies or look after a home / family) but still OCD.

The other worries about work sound more like generalised anxiety and it might worth seeing a counsellor for some coping strategies.

Magical thinking- never heard of it but looking back I did this throughout my twenties! Gosh. I think it gradually stopped as other life events took over, some tragic, and the obsessive thoughts had less 'space'.

No advice really, just another anxiety sufferer here. It's exhausting.

@RainbowBriteUk

I'm quite an anxious person, especially at night time when i'm tired and alone. I might've had a great day at work but then I overthink things massively and decide everyone at work hates me or my work is terrible. Neither are true but I can't see past this when I'm having an episode of extreme anxiety. I think this is possibly PTSD from a previous role where I was badly bullied or the time before when I was made redundant from a role I loved.

When the anxiety is particularly bad, I think I have to do certain things or something will happen, e.g. someone will die so in my head there's a voice saying if I don't wash up immediately, someone close to me will die.

Are there others out there that suffer from severe anxiety?

Yep, I've got a mixture of anxiety related diagnoses- OCD, C-PTSD, GAD and health anxiety.... anxiety is the gift that just keeps giving! Please do speak with your GP, they can make referrals, they can give you medication, both will make a difference.

Some things take longer term work- I've been told I'll be working through the C-PTSD for years because of the amount of abuse I sustained to get to the level of severity I've reached.

The OCD has improved for the most part massively but I've had 3 rounds of CBT.

CBT for the GAD

Trying to tackle the health anxiety with the tools learned from CBT.

There is support out there, it can get better. And if you're offered group therapy, please dint be put off by it. The CBT for OCD was massively helpful because it helped me to realise that there were people who felt just as terrible as me (I was continually feeding into my compulsions because if I didn't check things or do the things my mind was telling me I was actively wanting that fear to be reality and the people I loved would come to harm and it was all my fault for not caring) ...and all the people who I saw in therapy were responsible, capable, caring people who I couldn't by any stretch of the imagination place as being how I felt about myself. It really helped me to view myself differently.

It'll be hard, but it will be the best thing you ever do for yourself.

Sounds like you need Sertraline and CBT.

Mine manifests as irritable blow. I'm awake drinking mint tea right now.

Sorry to hear this op. After I lost my mum my anxiety hit the roof and like yours it manifested at work. Thinking people were complaining about me, upset with me, not good enough. I even needed to open other people's mail because I was convinced it was a complaint about me. But I hadn't done anything wrong. I get anxiety about sporting events and things I can't write here in case they come true... so I definitely understand what you're going through

Same here, mine started with anxiety after DS was born and was very poorly. Then a few months later covid hit and we lived in a country where we would have been separated if either of us had caught it. I because a mess of fear and anger. I'm now on vortioxetine and have Valium to help with the overwhelming moments (but not every day). I'm finally enjoying his childhood. Life gets so much better.

Hi all,

Thank you so much for your replies and your kind words. I'm so sorry others are experiencing similar.

I feel it's time to get this sorted. Anxiety takes over my life. It takes over my days off. It's a shit way to live sometimes always worrying.

Yes, good luck OP. I've masked/got on with things most of my life having no idea how much anxiety was impacting. Now I've wanted to try deal with it, I've been refused counselling from the local agencies for being too high risk/too high need (they state I'm criteria for c-ptsd & so need Psychiatrist) I didn't know how this worked & I'm horrified that I'm considered that mentally ill because of experiences I've had, unwanted images, etc.
If you met me you'd think I'm a bit different, but nothing out of the ordinary.
So please try now before it becomes embedded longer term.