Irrational and spiralling anxiety

[Peachyhayley]

Hi everyone!

I'm new to this and this is my first post . I'm currently lay in bed , stomach churning , palms sweating having an anxiety episode .

Nothing new ... I get this a lot!

For a long time I've been thinking how can I make this better , I feel so alone . And it suddenly dawned .. surely I can't be the only parent in the world that suffers with this ... maybe if I could find a way to talk to other parents going through the same thing it might help me ... and maybe them too?

So I'll start ...

I have a Son who is 5 and I've been a single mother from the get go. Dad is involved , and see son around 5 times a year . Very complicated and long story behind this which I'm sure will be opened up to on this thread ... if I get any replies ! Ha

Me and my son have the closet bond , and I find it very hard to be away from him . This is normally what triggers my anxiety and irrational worrying and over thinking .

In about 3 weeks time sons dad will be taking son with him on holiday with his wife and daughter to Spain and this has greatly triggered me.

I have to try and be rational for sons sake , be excited when talking to him about it etc ... but all I can think about is ( please don't think I'm nuts ! I know I am , but it doesn't stop me)

What if the plane crashes , what if he loses him, what if there's a shooting or bomb, what if he wants me, what if he gets stolen , what if WHAT IF WHAT IF ...

And it's gotten to the point where I'm lay in bed next to him staring at his face just wanting to cry and I'm totally spiralling.

This is only one of the things I'm struggling with right now , and all I want to know is ... am I alone ? And if NO talk to me ! Tell me how do you cope , what do you this , let's talk it out and help each other ... hopefully we can !

Peachy x

Hi Peachy,

You are not alone in this one, i am also suffering from severe anxiety as well. At the beginning I tried medication from the doc but that just made me stay in bed all day gripped with fear, I had a bad reaction to the tablet and wasn’t willing to try anything else. I was referred to cbt but still have to wait another two months to have the therapy. So I decided to get on the internet and try and help myself.I started taking vitamin d tablets, and eating Brazil nuts, eggs, oily fish (when I wasn’t feeling queasy) and I started training for the couch 5k (exercise is supposed to help, although my enthusiasm for running was 0% I just kept pushing myself to do it)I also started making a note of what generally triggered my anxiety attacks, it became very clear that after moving to a new area and being a full time mum at home all day I was desperately lonely throughout the day which meant I started overthinking everything. I opened up to my kids school/nursery about my safety fears and they were very supportive. I’m still not perfect, except now when I relapse I make a list in my head of why bad things shouldn’t happen rather than should.

I think that no matter what relationship you have with dad you need to sit down and discuss what your going through with him and how he can help to make it easier for you when they are on holiday (don’t be surprised if he says he doesn’t get it, as hopefully he’ll go home and come round). He could send regular photos of what your sons done that morning/evening. The other option is to call upon all your friends to come over and distract you.

I really hope it gets better for you, I’m starting to feel more positive about things even if I’m far from being who I was before.

Hi OP, I’ve not long had my baby & already I’m struggling a little. When I leave him/leave the house I find myself rushing back worrying. I worry I haven’t burped him properly & he will choke, I worry I’m feeding him too fast & he will choke. I worry his car seat is too tight. I just constantly worry!! It’s awful isn’t it. You can’t enjoy some things because you worry so much x