Hi All,
About 6 months ago I started a rather big renovation in my flat which involved relocation of bathroom and kitchen and other bits which required for the roof in that section to be removed and rebuilt.
I'd been dreading this work for about 3 years and got so many quotes for it and eventually my planing permission was about to expire so I bit the bullet and started the work with a very young builder(26) and his dad who has way more experience and was helping him for the important parts. However for various reasons I could not trust them fully
About one week into the work my anxiety took over.Just for the context, I'm living on my own with no family in this country. I had never felt like this in my life, I felt existential threat specially during the period when I had no roof. I'd imagine the rain is pouring down and is flooding the whole house including the flat below me and I have to sell everything to just barely cover the damage I have caused and then I'd lose my job because of my mental health situation and I'd become homeless with nothing left etc and basically just catastrophising every single step of the way. same story when it came to plumbing the place and it went on and on.
I'd wake up with burning in my chest, couldn't eat any food and I was constantly feeling I'm about to lose everything. It was like the hell on earth.
The work is complete now however the dread is still there. I'm avoiding to going to that part of the flat in case I notice something is going wrong and I get panic attack, I've reduced the number of times I go shower because I'm worried something will start leaking, I keep checking the boiler pressure as I'm worried one of the heating pipe might be leaking under the floors the thoughts of having builders or any tradesperson in my home has become my nightmare. basically I'm constantly feeling this impending doom/dread.
Has anyone experienced anything similar? and how did you manage to control it?