Would any one like to join in an anxiety support thread?

[Heatherandmoss]

I’ve seen lots of posts recently about people having a bad time with their anxiety and I thought an on going thread might be good do people can bob on and offer and receive support, share tips and just generally empathise with some one going through the same thing.

I’ve had anxiety since I was about ten ( I realised after my psychiatrist was able to help me pin point my earliest memory of it)

I think there is a bit of misconception of anxiety as some people think it’s just general worry - but it’s not.

When my anxiety rears her head it’s so physical. I sweat, my face can go numb, pains in my chest. I have a feeling like some one is kicking my front door in and I’m scared for my life and I could just be hoovering. Anxiety jolts me awake when I’m asleep and it rolls down my body like thunder. It makes me catastrophize at 3am and my feet start rubbing against each other ( weird) My anxiety makes me walk in to the kitchen with my kids empty dinner plates and suddenly feel so so over whelmed I struggle for breath and tears leak out in a gasp of raw emotion - all done silently so my kids can’t hear me.

I’ve had to give up drinking alcohol because Jesus the anxiety the next day was shocking and lasted days until I suddenly stepped out the anxiety room.

My anxiety has been bad since November as I’ve got some things going and I’m worried my heart is going to pack in because of the extra ‘thud thud thud’ overtime it’s being doing!

Exercise does help me take the edge of sometimes. I nearly went to the GP the other day as it was rotten but at this moment of time I need to be switched on.

Today has not been to bad. I’m considering it a win.

So I’ve you’d like to join in or have some where to say ‘holy fuck it’s bad today’ hopefully more people will be here and you will know some one knows how bad your feeling.

My lovely (also anxious) cat keeps me company on sleepless nights too 😻

Hi, welcome to you all! Glad to have more with us (not glad you also suffer obviously!)

Trying to chill this evening watching the voice final :o

Hi WLmum , lottie , mummy hope you’re all doing okay today. Sorry you’re going through a bad patch WL, that sounds really stressful. I’ve got a lot of tips off this thread mummy so I hope you find it useful too.

Loki I am genuinely so impressed with the idea of actually carrying through a sugar detox! One of those things I think I should probably do and never quite have the willpower for. I seem to be on a bloody-everything-detox atm though lol. I’m going to make a GP appointment on Monday and see if there’s anything she can suggest. How have people found going to their GP about anxiety stuff? I think I’ve hit lucky because mine’s really lovely and she’s been dead helpful.

We have a big surgery with lots of GPs but some are definitely better than others when it comes to mental health! If I have a bog standard issue like tonsillitis I’ll see anyone but if I’m struggling with my MH there are a couple I’ll hold out for. Luckily the doctor who usually does the same day phone calls is also pretty good.

In contrast I don’t particularly rate my psychiatrist. I only see her because she has to manage my ADHD, and even that is really not something she understands in women. 🤦🏽‍♀️

Thanks rosa. Glad your gp has been supportive. I've had a mixed response - all pretty quick fix, one said to me tablets or change what's making you anxious which was part of the reason I left a great job. I now see that wasn't the most helpful response as anxiety has been with me forever, so I can't change every situation. Work will always be anxiety provoking for me, no matter what I do.
The gp I have my apt with on Monday was very supportive when I asked him to refer dd2 to camhs so I'm hopeful.
Have read some of the posts, will keep going and look for those tips

Has anyone else tried Nytol herbal sleep and calm elixir? It tastes foul, but I think has actually helped a bit.
I sometimes take a melatonin tablet if I feel wired and am worried I won't sleep, which can be helpful but can give me crazy dreams.

I can’t sleep, I’ve got a pounding headache. I need to be up early tomorrow to get some work done so I do really need to get some sleep. Today was okay, I’ve felt quite anxious but tried to keep afloat: I haven’t got the energy to do much lately so I bought some fruit pots and cereal boxes where you can just pour milk in the box to save washing up. DM has bulk made me some food to freeze that I can just heat up for me and DD when needed. I feel a bit of a crap mum for doing it but it’s what I need to do to make sure we’re both still fed!.

I’m sorry to hear a lot of you had a bad nights sleep last night, I hope tonight will be better for you all.

tea they’re both fully online, but I did a college course face to face a couple of years ago. I think I prefer online but only because it means I don’t have to find childcare😂

sing I’m glad you’ve worked through your values and that it’s help you, good luck with the psychology degree! The novel idea sounds really good☺️

Sorry to hear you’re still nauseous rosa💐

loki good luck with you’re sugar detox, well done you!

Welcome newbies, I’m new here too, sorry that you’re here but I hope it helps you💐

Hope you managed to get some sleep rainywindow. I've been awake for the last hour with really bad anxiety tummy thinking about work I also need to do a bit of work today - whilst trying to hide it from the kids who have been upset about the long hours I've been putting in.

Thanks Sing and Rainywindow 😊
Day 2 of detox. Been spending a lot of time googling what I can eat. It's a eye opener when you start to look at what you're actually putting into your body.

I'm hoping the detox will help with my IBS as well as general mood. It did last time. The problem was that I tried to be too strict last time and gave up after a few weeks. I'm going to eat more fruit this time and have a day off every week.

Hi WLmum - I know how awful it feels to struggle to eat and sleep due to work stress. That was me a few weeks ago. My doctor gave me Mirtazapine and propranolol. I've been on Mirtazapine for 4 weeks now. Still waiting for it to start working.

I've tried lots of different jobs but anxiety has just always been a part of me. I need to learn some coping strategies.

Hope your phone call with gp goes well on Monday 💐

Hi Lottie, sorry your struggling so much. Glad the meds are helping a bit 💐

Hi Mummywith2kids - Mornings are the worst for me to. Hope you get some ideas on this thread 💐

Thanks loki when I started this job 2 years ago I had finally realised that anxiety was behind all the 'reasons' I had left other jobs and was determined to manage it and stay the course. I had been doing well until this crazy project which has me working crazy hours and has caused my anxiety to rocket.
I've been trying to be fairly open with my dd about how I feel as I know it can be helpful when you realise that other people suffer but are still able to do things, however part of her anxiety is that something is going to happen to me so now she's heightened and also asking if the dr can give me something to help me, why can't they give it to her.

Thanks Rosa 😊, the sugar detox is really hard, especially for someone like me who has always had a very sweet tooth. I found myself doing way too much comfort eating and decided to take drastic action.

I've spoken to different doctors at my surgery. There's one that I like and one that was eager get off the phone. He talked really fast and was quite abrupt.

WLmum, it's so hard when your child worries about you. I find myself trying to find a healthy balance between being open about my MH and making sure my 18 year old doesn't worry too much. My DD's doctor told her to think about taking medication as she struggles to cope with University deadlines. Lockdown has been really hard for her as well. How old is your DD?

I read that as “different doctors at my sugary” :o I have food on the brain.

Tired this morning as I didn’t sleep well thanks to 3yo. Woken up feeling not so much anxious as really sad and lethargic. I feel overwhelmed at how hard parenting is, guilty at everything I’m not doing 😣

Must do the census today, I usually get anxious about forms but this one doesn’t bother me, I think because it’s impersonal and not important to me directly if that makes sense. Compared to the pip renewal which also needs doing today, I can’t put it off any longer.

I’d really like to just stay in bed 🥺

That made me laugh, Sing 🤣 Have some breakfast. I've just had granola and natural yogurt. And avocado.

Looks like I'm the only one that got a good night's sleep. I fell asleep watching Good Place at around 9PM. I completely forgot to watch The Voice! It's one of my favourite programmes.

Good luck with the forms. Hope you can get them out of the way first thing, then enjoy the rest of your day 💐

I'm trying to talk myself into going for a walk
Weather is still cold, dark and rainy.

loki dd is 10. Worrying about me is part of her anxiety - she worries all the time that something will happen to me - She's been very fixated on me since she was tiny. She's awaiting an autism assessment as camhs said it was unusual for anxiety to be so bad without an underlying cause

Hope you enjoy catching up on the voice! We’ve never watched it before this year, so no idea how different the format was due to covid (other than the zoom audience obv). But we enjoyed it a lot. We loved all the finalists (all the semi finalists too TBF) but we agreed the right person won!

Just trying to get myself moving - have moved the washing along and put another wash on. Clean laundry is building up big time, I was getting better at putting it away regularly but slipped again.

Time to get on with the census.

It really does make such a difference when it's a good GP, definitely worth holding out for the right one when it's mental health stuff I think. I've heard good things about the others at my surgery tbf, but I stick to the same one if I can just because it's easier than having to explain myself all over again. Glad you had a good night's sleep loki. I'm feeling a bit better today so hopefully sertraline will work out for me yay!
Hope everybody's managed the census okay. I did mine the other day to get it out of the way.

WLmum, that sounds hard for both of you. Hope you're not waiting too long for the autism assessment. I'm waiting for a autism diagnosis, so I know how long it can take. Will camhs support you in the meantime?

loki for all the negativity I've heard about camhs, they've been brilliant. We didn't have to wait too long, and whilst I was disappointed that they would only offer 7 sessions, I emailed the counsellor when dd couldn't go back to school and she's phoned me twice and offered fabulous support.

Yes, would love to.

Hi everyone. I've had anxiety issues since I was a child. Used to bite my nails, not talk at school and then began having panic attacks at about 13 years old. My anxiety has ramped up again due to covid after having been mostly under control (no medication etc) for the past few years.

I keep getting a terrible sense of panic and dread over the weekends. My mind starts eating at me. I lost my mum in 2018 (saw her pass) and had an affair which broken down in 2019, and then shortly after that the pandemic hit. I feel my grief and shock at these two traumas coupled with the pandemic have pushed me to quite a low place.

Some days are better but I have terribly anxiety, lots of fear for the future, feeling like I'm running out of time to fix myself before I make even more of a mess of my life.

Technically am okay...working, studying, married, living in a nice home with family, but I have a lot of fear and feel like I've become a bit stunted. Night times and mornings are really bad for me and I've been totally shut down for most of today.

Ah yes annabel I have long had the Sunday evening doom.
I need to get back to early morning exercise as that helps to keep my anxiety in check and be in a better place to start the day. The sad irony is that I've been so busy and stressed that I haven't had time to focus on the things that help me cope. I wasn't sleeping so didn't have energy to run and was far too twitchy to do yoga. I am feeling a little better so hopefully not long before I can do those things.
I've still had anxious tummy most of the day, but not chest, and not shaking like I was.

@WLmum

Ah yes annabel I have long had the Sunday evening doom. I need to get back to early morning exercise as that helps to keep my anxiety in check and be in a better place to start the day. The sad irony is that I've been so busy and stressed that I haven't had time to focus on the things that help me cope. I wasn't sleeping so didn't have energy to run and was far too twitchy to do yoga. I am feeling a little better so hopefully not long before I can do those things. I've still had anxious tummy most of the day, but not chest, and not shaking like I was.

Hi WLmum! I am hoping to wake up early tomorrow and go for a long walk. I am sick of feeling sorry for myself and letting my anxiety win. The problem is I keep sleeping badly, and by the morning I can't get myself up. I used to sleep so well and it really bothers me. I might try to force myself up anyway and go for a walk with some music or a podcast. I'll let you know if I succeed!

Good luck annabel perhaps I'll try too!