Anxiety overwhelm

[Peapod1969]

Hi everyone, I need a bit of advice. I have suffered from spells of anxiety during my life. It can start with feeling bored or stressed or feeling that everyone is having a better time. The anxiety is awful. I have an intense fear of future events, not coping etc. It spirals so much I feel suicidal. I have had various inputs from CPNs etc & have always been treated for depression but I am seriously considering going private to maybe get some better medication. Does anyone have any advice ?

Fear. Future. Events. Aren't. Real.

When you feel anxious about things that haven't happened yet you are imagining (or if you prefer, pretending). There are two problems with this - firstly your body doesn't know the difference between imagining and reality so if you think about a situation where everyone is having a better time than you or (say) being in a car crash, your body will react in EXACTLY the same "flight or fight" way.

Shallow breathing, increased heart rate, sweating, etc. Neither scenario has actually happened but your mind has created such a detailed and realistic picture that you forget that it's not real - that's the second problem. Because you are responding physically to a mental image you think that there's something wrong with your body - otherwise you wouldn't be experiencing the symptoms of stress, right?

Medication might be the answer but understanding the correlation between thoughts, emotions, beliefs and reactions is more helpful in the long run.