anxiety

[TealSwan]

I've suffered with anxiety for years . but past few weeks it's been bad with my anxiety ,I've had tight feeling on my throat and chest my arms tingle some times I feel my heart racing. I've just lost my mum in may after a short cancer battle (just 7 weeks) then I've a son who nearly 19 a couple of months ago he beat me up leaving me covered in bruises. he has special needs and non verbal. he now in emergency respite care untill they find him supported living ... my nerves are in pieces I'm crying as I write this .I'm already on the max medication for my anxiety. I don't know what else I can do.

Can you find counselling to allow you to offload these bad experiences? A GP referral will take a while but anything else you can access quickly might help. Some people find Chat GPT helpful but do take care with it and don't get dependent - it's no substitute for a listening human.

It’s not surprising you’re in flight or fight mode @TealSwan. You may be able to get low cost or free counselling through your local branch of MIND. They may also be able to signpost to other sources of support. They often run supportive groups and also have bereavement groups. I’ve worked in two MIND branches (not the shops, local hubs) and they were really such caring people. You have clearly been through a lot and perhaps it would be good to talk things through with a counsellor in a fairly unstructured way.

Help to manage anxiety; over focus on and misinterpretation of physical sensations, is best helped by CBT. CBT would be by referral by your GP or you can usually self-refer to your local talking therapies provision but unfortunately waiting lists can be long. Tell them what you’ve been through and they may also be able to signpost to supportive groups while you wait for CBT. But I think you probably just need to talk about what has happened recently and counselling is probably a good start. I’m sorry for what you have been grappling with. I hope you find some support and that your DS gets the support he needs too. 💐