Extreme anxiety and don't know what to do :(

[Perfect_Blue]

Hi.

I haven't posted on here for quite sometime. But with in the last week my anxiety has taken an extreme flair up. I hope i’ve posted this in the right place. I suffer with generalised anxiety disorder, health anxiety, panic disorder, and many phobias, the main ones being emetophobia and germs. In the last week I have had several panic attacks and feel in a constant state of fear, accompanied by many physical anxiety symptoms most of the time. These include fast heart, feeling like I can’t sit still and always want to move, coldness and numbness in feet and bottom of legs, spaced out and light headed, trembly and shaky, stomach churning and lots of wind. The strangest sensation I have had is very hard to explain. It is in my stomach/bowel area. I get a wave type feeling. Its intense and normally very sudden. You could class it as maybe an adrenaline wave feeling. Maybe circular, like if its going around. Sorry if thats not very clear. But its really hard to put into words. Has anyone experienced something like this?

I am not coping very well with this flair up at all. I am 31 years old, and I have suffered with physical anxiety symptoms since 2001. But I think I have always been an anxious minded worrier from a child. The problem this time is that it has not been this bad since 2009/2010. So its kind of caught me by surprise. I'm already really worried that its going to get worse and “what if” I can't control it when it happens. Due to my emetophobia my eating is already not perfect, but its been a lot worse for this week. I’m not eating much or much of a selection at all. I’m also worried that some of my symptoms may not be anxiety and that something else may be wrong.

I’m just really fed up and feel like this is never going end. I feel like my life is over, and that i’ve missed out on the best years. It just gets so hard to keep trying to beat this thing. As things stand, this last week i’ve basically been restricted to the house, except for a few walks around the streets close to me. I’m also having real trouble shutting off to go to sleep. Friday night I had no sleep what so ever. I feel like i’m just waiting every moment wondering when its going to kick in again or if this will be a bad day. Sorry if this was all a bit jumbled up. But I guess thats exactly what its like for me at the moment.

I am also looking for some information on different therapies/techniques. I have been on an NHS CBT course and CBT has been a good support. So i’m more interested in finding out about therapies/techniques for getting over all better relaxation and calmness in the moment to moment, and for when I have anxiety symptoms and panic attacks. I’m open to either evidence based or alternative therapies. I am willing to give anything an open mind. So can people give me some opinions/ideas and their experiences with different techniques they’ve tried please? Also, does any body know much about 7/11 breathing and if its beneficial?

[flatterycat]

Hi there

I have that feeling in my stomach too. It's horrible - mine feels like it's constantly going round and churning.

[Perfect_Blue]

Hi

Thanks for your comment. Its a really hard feeling to describe. Its not a pain or anything of the sort. But its really intense and its hard to stay calm when it happens. Its like a wave of something which, like you said, goes around.

[RichieSwansea_1985]

I spend 80% of the day feeling like i'm physically about to throw as if ive eaten a really dodgy vindaloo, sometimes get it at night also, sometimes i seem to distract myself and forget about it (not sure how really) , i also have what seems really sharp bursts of adrenalin , i sort of describe it as terror, i get weeks sometimes where i can't get the thoughts of them out of my head and wait, but some weeks just seem to forget, bad answer i know lol, but your not alone anyhoo

[SarahH]

Please look up "Mindfulness"... it will work wonders.... it brings you back to the "moment" and stops you mind from wandering.

Sarah

[phil6]

Hi all,
I have been having a few bad meltdowns over the past few days, but managing to try and carry on so nobody really notices. I seem to be melting down only when I am, at home in private.
Anyway, it's not really helping and I find myself trying to get back on track with acceptance and trying to correct my thinking. This post caught my attention as it really demonstrates how we can get fixated on some feeling or other that feels very important or meaningful. This has been the cause of my distressing spells recently. It is very easy to focus on a symptom and then respond to it with a lot of distressing thoughts. Once we decide that the feeling is intolerable, then we head down a dead end road with our thinking. We cannot make sense of it all and cannot calm the feeling. Then we have the thought that this will be with us forever and we cannot cope with it.
If you stop and think, how can we not feel panic and distress when we frighten ourselves this way.
Anxiety does 2 things... It causes uncomfortable physical feeling and it changes our mind into a fearful thinking mode. We have to learn that the way we feel is not a sign of the way things are. Feeling that something is wrong or that something horrible is about to happen, doesn't mean this is so. And secondly, do we then believe our thinking, which in reality is also distorted and usually completely wrong.
The last week I have been believing that a feeling of dread in my stomach ( the woosh followed by churning) is special to me and something that I cannot any longer tolerate. This attitude and the resulting thoughts are not helpful (Understatement!). In fact this is doing nothing except make me feel even worse.
Although I am finding this difficult, the first step is to recognise how we are thinking. Mindfullness is helpful here.
The bottom line is the feeling is tolerable ( although I absolutely hate it), and it is just anxiety.... As is all of the things you describe above. None of them are significant. Nobody can like them, but it is the way we are for now. What is the alternative, but to soothe your fearful thinking a bit with the truth.... It will pass... Become a little less fearful of it all. That's the best we can do. Try not to worry. None of us can do this instantly, and none of us have any real control over the symptoms. It's a process which will take a little time, but don't make it worse with the vain attempts to fix it... Let it be.
That's what I am doing now as I type this... I am sure there will be spells along the way when I get hooked by it and feel the despair, especially in the middle if the night, but it's a practice worth doing.
And give yourself some hugs... It's hard and you are very courageous ...yes you are. Don't give yourself a hard time, it's not your fault you are suffering this way... It's the fault of evolution. Our brains have evolved this way and we are able to feel fear when there is no real danger. We never really had a say in that part did we!
Hope this helps..
Phil

[Perfect_Blue]

Thanks for all the replies. It does help to know that other people have had the symptoms that i've had. I will also give mindfulness a go. Is there any recommendations on where to start with mindfulness? Is it better to use a audio one or just do it yourself?

Also thanks for the post Phil6. It was a good read and makes a lot of sense. Like I said I know CBT and i've read many things on anxiety. But sometimes when it comes out of the blue, or you haven't been as bad for a longtime, it can be very easy to forget thats its anxiety and to challenge your thoughts. Its very hard to stay calm when your whole body is telling you not to, and its very hard to challenge your thoughts when your mind is racing. But it is true that is does always pass and you do carry on. Once again, thanks for all the input.