Anxiety is ruining my life

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I dread everything and anything. Even good things I dread. I'm scared of everything. I'm currently signed off work with anxiety and I feel so angry at myself as I've already missed a lot of work due to anxiety, but I was too embarrassed to tell my manager until it was too late. It would take me an hour to send an email as I'd read and reread it over and over again, check that I had attached the correct attachments, etc over and over again. I'd struggle to speak in meetings, even saying 'yes I can work on that' would make me nervous.

I would constantly worry about work. When it was lockdown I constantly worried about my health. When I was at university I constantly worried about my grades or that I would get accused of cheating or plagiarism.

I feel so hopeless and like I'll be like this forever

You clearly need professional support with this. Have you seen your GP?

It sounds like you might have underlying anxiety that attaches itself to anything? Have you come across The Wisdom of Anxiety by Sheryl Paul? Really good book. She’s on Instagram if you want a flavour - @wisdomofanxiety

Yes I've seen my GP, at first they tried me on CBT but I didn't find it very helpful. I've now been put on sertraline and have a follow-up appointment this week

Sounds really debilitating
has GP offered medication ?
CBT is very effective for anxiety disorders

Are you on any medication op?I felt like this with peri menopause.Sertraline really,really helped.Also have HRT but that was 6 months later.Sertraline has really settled my anxiety and I feel normal again.If you haven't seen a GP please do.

Cross post.Sertraline can feel horrid first few weeks but don't give up as it doesn't last.Have your meds reviewed regularly in case they need adjusting.CBT will be more effective when you are more able to do the work so try again once your mood is more settled.

Sertraline really helped me but it does take time to get to work. I feel for you OP I have been there and currently in therapy again as a year after coming of sertraline I've started to slip back into it. I dont have an answer for you as I struggle to cope and often wonder if I can bear the thought of fighting this battle every day for the rest of my life so I totally understand how you are feeling and wanted to show some solidarity💐

Handhold from a long term anxiety sufferer here. Sertraline will help and if it doesn’t, try another medication. There’ll be something that will help. Hypnotherapy is worth looking into as well. I had a couple of sessions earlier this year but feel that it wasn’t really suitable for me . My anxiety is mainly health anxiety. It could work better for your generalised anxiety.

I felt exactly the same, I was prescribed fluoxetine, and it has been absolutely life changing, go.speak to your GP about medication, and I know it sounds cliche, but exercise is incredible for anxiety, it's such a release

I can relate I suffer with anxiety and health anxiety it got to the point I wouldn't go outside as Id have panic attacks all the time shaking Hart beating constantly worrying ect meds that doctors gave me made me worse nothing was working but I was getting worse so I managed to get to my local pharmacy really early so not many people where about and got a box of kalms day pills omg they are a miracle to me I still have anxiety but at least I can do things like go outside get to the local shop I also join mindfulness online and signed up for all the online video chat (kalms day life saver)

Sorry you’re going through this. I’ve suffered from anxiety related to PTSD. I never took medication as that was my personal choice.

things I found useful, yoga, breathwork coaching, CBT, psychotherapy exploring relevant books. Make no mistake, it’s extremely hard and difficult but you’ll get there.I now am thankful for everything I went through it brought me to so many things I would never have otherwise experienced

It is worth thinking about what did not work in CBT for you. You will feel worse for a while at the start of therapy because you need to get rid of the behaviours keeping your anxiety going (like keeping checking things) but the longer you do it, the easier it becomes. So if it was that, it may be worth thinking whether the long term impact of this on your life is greater than the discomfort of trying something new for a while. If if was the therapist, ask for another one. There are lots of self help resources such as Get Self Help or the Centre for Clinical Interventions which have material on health anxiety and generalized anxiety disorder (where you are always anxious about something).

If my experience is anything to go by as well as everyone else i know on Sertraline, you will be feeling so much better in a couple weeks. Go slow and gentle with yourself for now and if you need to, tuck yourself away from the world for a week until it kicks in. I never thought I'd ever feel anything other than a shivering wreck till I started Sertraline.

I'm glad your GP is in contact with you. Sertraline can make you feel worse before you feel better so try not to worry if you are feeling more anxious. I know this is a really stupid thing to say to someone with anxiety sorry just I know I nearly threw in the towel with the sertraline early on but after about 3/4 weeks it settled down. Keep talking to your GP

Anti depressants will change your life.

My DH gas had two bouts of CBT. He liked the first person, clicked with them, and it helped. The second one didn’t work.
You need to find someone you click with.
And stick with the antidepressants, my DH slowly felt better over 4-5 months, so keep going.

I have anxiety and I feel for you. I've been using CBD for about a year and it actually helps. I still have panic attacks but they are less frequent because it was happening daily! Keep fucking going. Better times can and will come.

The first week on serrriline was awful but it gets easier. I did CBT and a mindfulness course both helped, also yoga and walking but the thing that helped most was hypnotherapy, it was expensive £70 a session but it was the only thing that took the anxiety away. Once meds kick in you could try therapeutic counselling to help understand root cause of anxiety which can help. Gratitude affirmations can help. The solution to anxiety is to accept it and let it wash over but it's so hard to do that.

The email thing got me - I would do the sameI , I was eventually diagnosed with ocd

Nit saying you have this but look up exposure therapy on you tube. All the things that scare you say them to yourself. Takes the reaction and the fear away.

Mine is also around health anxiety and harm. When kids were younger and I herad an ambulance go by the house I'd drive to the school thinking one of my kids had fallen sick. Plagued my life. I used to do 1471 over and over thinking school had rang and I didn't hear it and kids were sick.

It's not so bad now but once you know what it is it's less scary.

Hope you're OK anxiety is horrible x

Just to add only thing that keeps my anxiety at bay is exercise and diet.