How much of a bad effect does anxiety have on your life?

[nutcasetom]

Hi everyone im 19 years old and you will se by some of my posts i have been very confused about what has been happening to me and only the last few months all these horrible symptoms have come on me and i thought i had some horrible illness i still do sometimes because it has come on for no apparent reason. 5 months back i was in college doing fine nothing to worry about and it just cam eon now it is so bad i can not leave my house i have developed agoraphobia because it is effecting me day in and day out. Im also getting cbt at home. So my question is how bad of a impact does anxiety have on your life and how long has it affected you and how does it...Tommy.

[Arnie365]

I've had mine for 8 months now though am starting to feel a lot better with the use of medication and therapy. I've continued working throughout which I think has really helped as I can see how avoiding everything can make you worse. For me though the main reason I kept working was because I have health anxiety about my heart I never wanted to be alone so even though I didn't feel like going into work and some days was a real struggle, I knew I would be surrounded by people who could ring an ambulance if I needed one.

The only thing it's affected is me not wanting to go out with friends for a night out. I've had to use a book full of excuses so far! I don't want to drink whilst on meds and I've found I'm more anxious the day after as well. Not drinking would raise too many questions.

I've been on fluoxetine 9 weeks today and also started seeing a private therapist in November so I've had about 6 sessions with her so far. It's really helping me.

You can overcome your anxiety but it takes patience and acceptance. You will also have set backs along the way. I had a crappy weekend last week and started to feel depressed again but I've come out of it and had a good week.

[Dazza123]

Mine is there from the minute I wake up to the moment I fall asleep, but its been made worse in the last year due to a swallowing disorder that is being fed (lol) by my anxiety. Everytime I swallow food or liquid there is the thought I am going to choke, because I did so almost a year ago, so it never goes away, I am however getting a lot of help (some in the pipeline) so I know it will get better, its just gonna take some time, but I do believe we will all be better someday.

[unspoken]

I've had anxiety since I was a kid of 8 or 9 years old, due to bullying at school at that age. I used to get panic attacks at the thought of having to go back to school but they weren't really treated that way, my parents just used to give me sedatives.

I'm 24 now. The anxiety was mostly manageable and still undiagnosed until I was 19 and a student. I had some counselling at uni and tried lots of different meds to manage it. After uni I had a break down with severe depression and anxiety and the things that helped me to recover were antidepressants (which I am still taking), a book my GP prescribed which has CBT exercises in it and made sense of why I felt so bad - called Overcoming Low Self Esteem and after a while . Learning to drive really helped my confidence. I have been working full time for the past 18 months and up until the past few months apart from the odd blip ive been fine. But the last few months we've been short staffed and I've been struggling to keep on top of things and feeling overwhelmed.

Look after yourself, be kind to yourself and put yourself first.

[nutcasetom]

Sorry to hear about how anxiety effects your life. See just by reading your stories you can see how much strength you really have got? We go through these things everyday and we try and and find a cure and think it is something else ect loads of trips to the doctors and it becomes unbearable by the time we find out it is anxiety. It is even harder if like me it came out of the blue for no apparent reason and your life just changes dramatically. But remember one thing it is harmless and i know exactly how you all feel i suffer from morning to night and i still find it hard to believe such symptoms comes from anxiety and not only that the mental torture that comes with it all. Take care and atleast we got this site to reply on and the people on here who can help eachother.

[rb1978]

I've suffered with anxiety for about 10 years and depression for maybe 2 years. It's there all the time really - at some point of every day. If everything is going perfect in my life and I don't have a single symptom to dwell on then I coast along ok but as soon as a new sensation or symptom appears, or as soon as something goes wrong, I overreact and panic. I never seem to be able just to manage like other people do, instead I'll worry and worry about whatever is wrong until either it gets solved or there's a new worry to fret over.

I was particularly bad a couple of years ago when I wad diagnosed with panic and agoraphobia but I've managed to get back to being able to function.

I have a job (4 days a week) and am ok coping with that because it's fairly undemanding. And I've gradually got to the stage where I can do what I need to - go to the supermarket, go on trains and even go out to the theatre so I can have a bit of entertainment.

I think you have to start very very small - like maybe building up enough confidence to go out of the house alone or go to the nearest postbox to post a letter or something and then gradually build up from that.

I've never really worked out how to stop worrying about my health though - that's the big one that gets me.