At a loss

[Simon_]

Hi all, I am not really sure what I am hoping to get from this or if this is just kind of a vent.

A bit of background, I have suffered with anxiety for around 13 years. Managed fairly well for a decade. I take sertraline although I do not like medication but have taken it in one form or another the whole time.

I do not get as anxious anymore but feel very low on a regular basis. Outwardly my life seems great. I am married with two children, an accomplished amateur sports person, I have a very good job which affords me a nice lifestyle.

None of that seems to matter. I regularly feel like I want more and it's become a point of argument in my house that I am never happy with what I have. My biggest point of feeling low is looking back at years that have passed, old photos and remembering my childhood (although very happy times) fills me with total despair and hopelessness, sometimes I cannot even imagine how I can go through my whole life feeling like this. I just do not know what to do. I don't know how I can change my pattern of thought. Some times I feel motivated and buzzing, everything is going brilliantly then the next day, sometimes even a matter of hours later I feel hopeless and struggle to find the motivation for anything. I kind of just wante to put it out there to see if anyone can relate and what they have done to help. When I do get anxious it's about mine or my families health.

[Catherine S]

Hi Simon, good to meet you. You talk about your job, about how it's successful enough to give you a good lifestyle, but you don't say if it makes you happy or if it's very stressful? When you say you always seem to want more, is that because you don't feel you've achieved enough, rather than just wanting more for the sake of having more. Are you easily bored and want to move onto the next thing before finishing the last.

There is a saying...If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got.

If you really are happy with what you have and just need to find a way to change the way you think about things, then CBT would possibly help you. But if you feel unhappy with things as they are then is it not possible to change direction a little? Also, one thing I do know is to never look back. There's always something in the past I wish I could go back to and make it different, and that just brings melancholy and regret, so I try to just keep looking ahead.

ISB ☺

[Simon_]

This started when I was a teenager. Over the last 10 years I have worked towards the career I now have and I genuinely love my job. I always want more though. I dream of moving abroad it almost gets a bit obsessive at times which drives my wife mad.

[Bigboyuk]

This started when I was a teenager. Over the last 10 years I have worked towards the career I now have and I genuinely love my job. I always want more though. I dream of moving abroad it almost gets a bit obsessive at times which drives my wife mad.

Hi Simon, I think we all think like that from time to time But the moral of this story is try and be greatfull for what you have already got as there many more that haven't got what you have already and remember this: Grant me the senerity to accept the things that I can not change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference Cheers