Bit of a rant, I'm sorry!

[Frenchflower]

Just having one of those days today :(

This is a bit of a pointless post, I just feel so overwhelmed with anxiety the majority of the time, I wonder if I'll ever be able to have a nice, fulfilled life.

I'm only twenty, nearly twenty one, this should be the best time of my life and every day I wake up feeling sick in my stomach with worry. I would like to get married, have a family, have a career, but I feel like all of that is going to be impossible because anxiety makes achieving every little goal that you can normally look forward to, a hundred times harder. I've been considering trying to get CBT, I've had counselling in the past and it really helped me, but now I feel like I'm slowly going back to square one :(. I just seem to have a really pessimistic view on life at the moment and I really would like to change that. I'm going back to the G.P on Friday because I've been having funny feelings in my chest and worrying over it. I'm hoping if I have the relevant scans/tests etc. and they come back fine then I will feel better and the worry will go away, but then I worry that I'm going to start worrying about something else after that. It just seems useless.

Anyway, I'm sorry to rant on here, I know you are all in the same boat.

Does anyone know anyone who has recovered? If you do, how did they do it? Did CBT help?

Thanks xxx

[Vixxy]

Hi FrenchFlower. You know what? you can achieve all of the things you mentioned! And when you do, they'll be even sweeter because of the work it took to get them!
I've had anxiety problems since I was 19. I'm now 29. I have a husband, a house, a degree(first class honours), I bought a brand new car, I passed my driving test. All of those things I've done SINCE I was diagnosed. So yes, it is possible to get joy from your life. I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but you can do it. We all can.

[cookie10]

Hi FrenchFlower.... I'm right there with Vixxy...... I've had anxiety problems since I was 24........I'm now 38....... believe me when I say you can do anything you set your mind to... It's hasn't always been an easy ride... but guess what my biggest achievement ever came a year and a half ago when I gave birth to my beautiful daughter ( something I never dreamed possible with my anxiety)!! In actual fact, she has been the best distraction possible for me..... Hey, I've had my fair share of feeling at the end of my tether with anxiety and health problems, but it's not always like this.... and as Vixxy said it will be even sweeter cause of the work it took to get there ! Go out there, take each day a step at a time and believe that you can do it...........all the best.

[cookie10]

ps... I have been doing CBT since May and it has worked wonders for me... been feeling soo much more positive.

[Kasper]

Hey Frenchflower

I know EXACTLY how you feel, I can not have a single day where I don't get myself caught up in thinking about health problems and focusing heavily on symptoms. I don't know what CBT is so I can't really help you on that one but what I can recommend is talking to people about your condition.
I guess seeing a doctor and run some tests would be a good idea, I'm going to do the same, but when they come back negative then try to accept that you do not have a disease

I have also worried that I might find new symptoms for new illnesses, heh, I didn't even know that bone cancer existed before googling it and then convinced myself I have it

If we look at it logically and not through the greasy spectacles of dr. google, then the odds that you, me or anyone else on this board has a serious disease are rather slim. However, the only thing more unlikely than us having a dangerous disease is us having all the deadly diseases in the world as we sometimes tend to believe

We HA sufferes did not sign up anywhere to be humanity's scape goat for cancer, ms, heart attacks or bubonic plague and if people where so affected by all these diseases as we tend to believe we are then we would not have made it past the first millenium

I know how difficult it is to stop worrying, I am battling with that as well, but we must try to move on and enjoy life. One day or another death will most likely come around but untill then let us at least try not to worry about it.

I hope this helps a bit

Best
- Kasper

[joannap]

i have had anxiety problems since 23 - i am now 35 and am married/have my own home/job i love but yes - when i was your age i remember feeling the way that you do and i did go some very difficult times before i got to this point but even non anxiety sufferers do so to. the hardest thing to come to terms with is that anxiety is not something punishing you - it is happening from within and is fuelled by your own thought patterns/responding to it/ways of looking at things. once i started to accept that my anxiety was me and that it was actually my bodies way of trying to protect me (although too enthusiastically) - then i stopped wringing my hands about it and blaming it and started to accept it/work with it but yes - it has taken me a long time to get to this point.

have you read any books or had cbt? it is the hardest thing i have ever done and very shocking to realise that i was responsible for all the negative thoughts in my head lol but also positive in that if i think negatively - i can also think positively! i can very much reccomend at last a life by paul david (he has his own website) - his book is not cbt as such but shows how he overcame anxiety after suffering for 10 years.

[joannap]

ps - the most important piece of advice i was given is that worry does not change anything - you cannot protect yourself from things happening by worrying about them. i used to think that the more i worried - the more i would cope if something awful did happen but now i realise i was just making myself ill all the time by worrying/focusing on things that up to now have never happened - its always things i did NOT worry about that did!