Anxiety crippling me and scared I'll lose my job

[bellatrixlestrange124]

I spend most of my days at work in a fog, avoiding everything because almost everything gives me a horrible feeling of panic and I don't know why. It's been like this with university deadlines/work as long as I can remember. Sometimes it's better than other times but it's pretty constant.

I've been to CBT sessions and they haven't really helped, they just went through exposure therapy but I've felt exactly the same after a number of sessions. I've tried I feel so hopeless and useless and can't get through the panicked fog in my mind - I don't see the point in anything.

I'm so far behind with all my work, I'm getting chased up for loads of work and I know this can't carry on much longer or I'm going to get fired.

Please help

Anyone around?

You need to tell someone. What industry do you work in? Its easy to bury your head in the sand but you have to start to tackle the pile. I too get behind and panic but the thought of actually doing the work is much worse than actually doing it. It usually takes less time than i think it will. Can you come in early a few days?

Just do it! Get started! You can do it. The worry is almost always much worse than the reality. Hope youre ok.

Can you get an appointment with your GP? Do you take any medication for your anxiety? I've suffered from anxiety of varying forms and degrees for most of my life - when I've felt as you describe, the only thing which has helped is medication. It gives me enough of a boost to take the control back and start following what I was taught in counselling (CBT). I simply couldn't do it before - my head wasn't in the right place. I hope you feel better soon

I've got an appointment with my GP next week. I have propranolol but it doesn't always help and doesn't seem to at the moment.

I also struggle with depression too, so whilst it may stop the physical panic I still feel like I don't really care about anything and there's no point.

I'm worried the GP will just put me on antidepressants and I really don't want to. Maybe that's stupid. I've got a consultation appointment with a counsellor tomorrow but that was more for depression/childhood issues which are causing real problems in my relationship and with me generally.

I feel like I need to know why I'm like this, I feel like I've always been like this and don't understand why.

Hi, it sounds like you are doing the right things seeing your GP and starting councelling. You may be surprised to find your childhood issues are having more impact on things now than you realised. Don't write off ADs they can be extremely helpful. Is there any particular reason you are against them? Some people use insulin to regulate their body chemistry, others need ADs to regulate their brain chemistry.

Also cbt seems to be very popular at the moment and it works for a lot of people. But for others different types of therapy work better. I've had councelling (which has worked well for some issues but not others) psychotherapy (which I didn't get on well with) and nlp ( neurolinguistic programming ) (which I found lifechanging)