If you had anxiety, what ridiculous things did you panic about? Please make me feel less alone :(

[Turkeysandwichs]

I can be high functioning but in patches I will crumble with anxiety. I’m currently worrying that the neighbour is going to circulate a piece of paper round the area saying my home is messy and to stay away from me. I know it’s insane but I have thought of this non stop since Sunday. It’s exhausting.

I am obsessed with swimming kits.

Covid - I was really calm and sensible about. The thought that Ds might get to swimming and realise that he doesn’t have his goggles gives me sleepless nights.

Snakes in the toilet. Saw a photo years ago and it's a very real genuine fear. I have nightmares about it.

I'll die and I haven't updated my life insurance so it won't pay out. I could update the life insurance but the idea of making the phone calls also fills me with anxiety so I've been avoiding it while worrying I'm going to die and dh and our dc will be left destitute.

i used to have so many of these when I was in my teens and twenties and relate to the non stop loop of thoughts and ruminating - cbt and giving up alcohol helped a lot, some of my examples

• the car behind me was following me and was taking my reg down for police (hadn't done anything wrong)
• a camera was placed in the pub toilet and the staff would all look and talk about me
• That I had miraculously got pregnant (hadn't had sex that month)
• as above, that I had contracted aids
• that lifeguards at the pool would contact social services about me (was taking good care of my daughter)

goes on & on, do some reading on intrusive thoughts, it can be debilitating and hard when people are dismissive

So many things, the most ridiculous and recurring this that I was certain of:

Hidden cameras in the kitchen cupboards recording what I was eating.
A fog on the stairs/landing so I was stuck inside my room.
Live caterpillars in tinned foods

The worst was that I was going to be late to university lectures, this was so bad that I actually fainted several times from the panic attacks.

I found therapy and medication didn't work for me. In the end I think it was regular exercise (long bike rides) and having a purpose to go out (to a job working nights). I found that I could switch off my anxiety and panics at work and slowly established better mechanisms to overcome my anxiety. Writing this down still filled me with dread, and sadly I feel like I lost 3 or 4 years of my life to being frozen with anxiety.

I hope you can overcome it too

Ooo, I can do a list!

That my lifelong tinnitus is an incredibly slow growing brain tumour

That I picked up HIV years ago

That the brakes/steering/whatever will fail on my car

That I will inexplicably steer my car off the road and die

A rat will swim up through the toilet while I am sitting on it

There is an intruder under the bed/in the wardrobe etc

That everyone knows a personal detail about me (even though I'm boring)

That I will get trapped in a drain

That there will be a plaster or someone's finger nail in prepacked food

That a lorry will veer off the road and crush us to death as we sleep

That our pressurised hot water tank will explode and kill us

There are more!

My DD (who is 12) might find she needs a wee and she won’t be able to get to a loo and will be really uncomfortable and may have an accident. Started when she was potty training and I still struggle not to force her to go pee when she doesn’t need to.

Same with her eating, I stress about her being hungry FAR more than is necessary.

I hate ringing people (so generally don’t!)

Since owning a house, fucking every inch of it.

Robots taking over the world and there being no jobs and society falling into some weird oblivion type thing.

I now take citalopram and don't fall so deeply into YouTube rabbit holes.

You’re not alone at all. But what are you doing to address the anxiety?

That if I leave my outside tap on with the slightest small drip, it will eventually cause subsidence to my house foundations!
The small print on insurance documents!
Apps that require me to except term n conditions!
Snake in or on my bed when I wake up in the night !
Loud music played in shops or restaurants!
And overly happy people when I want to be ignorant , left alone and dull 😂

Convinced myself at 25 i had bowel cancer. Kept going to the drs with my symptoms. All tests clear. Didnt believe them. Paid to go private. More tests. Told it was anxiety making me physically unwell and there was nothing wrong with me.

Until my stress breakdown 11 years ago I had mild anxiety over normal things. At my worst I was so anxious about going to get gas it took me all day.

It never really left me. I'm now anxious about doors not being locked, travelling alone particularly by car, becoming sick, old age, not having enough money, reviews at work Sometimes I'm just anxious about nothing. It is exhausting.

Mine used to be mainly linked to health anxiety and it was genuinely debilitating until I had level 2 CBT. It ruined my life between the ages of 24-27 and took away time with my first daughter who was a toddler at the time-

• constant taking photos/feeling for breast changes

• daily body scanning for lumps

• a holiday to NYC ruined because I found a 'lump' in my neck that was actually a bone

• hours and hours of googling symptoms

• if I had a nice day planned I would have to shower without touching my body (just let water trickle down) because every single time I would find something to worry about

• any time my daughter was slightly ill I would be cold with fear that it was a childhood cancer

• more recently, I get anxious about jokes/conversations I've had at work now I'm

in management. Lots of my anxiety is around people taking what I've said as racist or tone deaf even though it will be the most innocent conversation not linked to anything that could be misconstrued as either of those things.

Ooo love these.

I had STDs and was dying. So many tests. All clear. I barely had sex so no idea where I’d have got one from.

Doors being left open- have lay down on floor over night so I can check randomly if I so wish.

Not being able to make my daughters wedding. She was about six months at the time.

if my phone rang I’d be convinced someone had died. The same goes for withheld numbers.

I am struggling to think of them all.

Not really weird but eye contact. I cannot look someone dead in the eye apart from my partner. I get really uncomfortable and feel like they are looking to my soul

I used to convince myself that I had cheated on my partner. I absolutely hadn't but I would obsessively check my messages to make sure that I hadn't and I had the same guilt as if I had. I never spoke to anyone about it because I thought they would think I was crazy and would just assume I had cheated. Then I found out it was a form of OCD (intrusive thoughts) and the more I fed the thoughts the more they became real.

Something awful happening to one of our dogs , especially when im not there. im due to go on holiday soon. Never used to be like this.

Thank you for starting this thread , I have never written that down before.

I don't know how to stop, I have gone through countless awful scenarios, getting lost, run over etc etc. This list is literally endless in my head.

...nowadays I just obsess over death.

Also, Mumsnet has introduced me to a plethora of things that I never knew I had to worry about that I now worry obsessively over - this week it's dogs.

Omg i love this, i am the same!

i tried to do a gratitude journal thing but it didn’t stick. So now every night i write one thing i am worried about and one thing i am excited about and after a while it is hilarious to look back on. Things like “crack in ceiling”, “neighbours hate me for using my own parking space”, “eye floaters, might go blind”, “might be pregnant it someone else’s child” (have not slept with anyone apart from husband since 1998 😂)

Tell me about it.
We have had sooo many leaks (newish house ffs).
I'm anxious about that
Yesterday I found two more leaks.

I'm fine with everything but the house of horrors we bought.

The rat in the toilet.. I thought that was only me. It’s horrible.

I've had health/death anxiety for a year or so now, hearing about people dying suddenly of things, (not really related to covid, vaccines etc) so thinking every symptom is something sinister.

This has gone nuts, for example, we had a teacher at the sports centre die of cancer, and if anything came on TV or radio with her name (her first name is not weird, but it is uncommon) I took that as a sign.

And I don't believe in rubbish like jinxes or premonitions either so I have no idea how it all started.

Do you and the other poster think that a rat will climb up the pipes out of the sewers and bite you on the bum? Is that how it manifests?

Ah I have Generalised Anxiety Disorder so I can literally worry about everything whether it's be short term, long term, tiny or life threatening. CBT has hugely helped! But, if it helps:

I can't use the bus because I don't know how to pay for it, do I need to state my stop or just get on, what if they take cash only (I know they don't, I'm fairly sure, I mean nobody does now do they?). What if it's busy and I don't know where to sit. So I sit next to the man to show I'm not afraid or do I sit next to the woman? Window or aisle? Front or back? Top or ground?

i don't take the bus .. 🤣

I'm hungry and I'm out in a shopping street but I can't get food because do I go for hot or cold? Well it can't be hot because I might burn myself, but if it's cold will it taste nice or will it be too cold. Do I choose the healthy food but will it fill me up? If it's not tasty then I'm totally wasting money and I can't waste money because we're broke and so I can't waste a penny but I'm hungry. But which shop? Will everyone stare at me if I take ages to decide? What if I pick it up and change my mind, can I put it down or is that bad form? And then where do I pay? Are the tills obvious? If not I can't pay because everyone will know I'm an idiot for not knowing where to pay. But then you can't walk in a shop and then out without buying anything.

my life is exhausting but I'm actually generally very happy 🤷‍♀️😆

@JooftheNorth

60s semi here. Every bit of plaster cracked, leaks, wonky floors and doors, condemned boiler, aaaaargh want to complaint to my landlord oh wait that’s me!