jonathanT
24-12-06, 02:26
Firstly I'll give you a little background about myself, I'm 21 years old from the UK in my final year of university.
I feel that I constantly have what I'd consider a low level of anxiety, by low level I mean the kind of anxiety you feel before a test (a day before rather then standing in the queue to go in). I think this is the cause for my low appetite and relatively low body weight. I can wake up in the morning and feel that i am hungry but I just don't feel like I can stomach it since I feel nervous.
Yet I'm not sure if this is just normal since in some situations where you would consider anxiety to raise (like my waiting for a test example) I don't really feel that much more anxious then normal, mostly because I negate it by making sure I have the relevant knowledge to complete it beforehand!
However my anxiety seems to skyrocket in situations where I have little knowledge, for example the other night I came home from being forced by friends to drink in town, and while I was out and drunk I got the phone number of a girl I like. Once I got home and sobered up I realised she had sent a text message to my mobile phone. At this I just started panicking, I was shivering in the same way you would when you are cold since I was so nervous and didn't know what to do. I had to call a friend and wake them up to calm me down and tell me what to say to get the situation over with!
Throughout my life at certain times I have made it my goal to face things that make me anxious in order to overcome them. I got a great job through forcing myself to go to an interview that was scaring the life out of me. In another example a friend offered to give me a lift on his motorcycle, I did and it scared the life out of me. So the next thing I did was book myself onto a training course and pass my motorcycle license, I am not a person who enjoys torturing themselves in this way but in this situation it turned out to be something I really enjoy and its a big part of my life now.
The trouble I'm having is as a human I'm not going to live long enough to face every single thing that makes me feel greatly anxious, everything I've faced (including public speaking) has taken me over a year to overcome. The act of overcoming something essentially ruins a year through highly elevating my anxiety until I get it under control. I don't want to torture myself any longer, I want the anxiety to just go!
The only times I am truly calm are when I am dreaming and when I become immersed in a television show or film. When this happens my constant internal dialogue that I have stops and I concentrate on the show instead. However this has the associated come down when the show finishes and I realise I am me again and have all the same issues still.
Am I just a bit of a nervous person or do I have some kind of anxiety disorder? I can make the anxiety less by convincing myself almost that everything is great, I use this when I have to be in social situations to gain a temporary boost in confidence and allow me to function normally. I can do this quite well but I am not so good at blocking the negative thoughts and when they get a hold of me it gets worse.
I feel that I constantly have what I'd consider a low level of anxiety, by low level I mean the kind of anxiety you feel before a test (a day before rather then standing in the queue to go in). I think this is the cause for my low appetite and relatively low body weight. I can wake up in the morning and feel that i am hungry but I just don't feel like I can stomach it since I feel nervous.
Yet I'm not sure if this is just normal since in some situations where you would consider anxiety to raise (like my waiting for a test example) I don't really feel that much more anxious then normal, mostly because I negate it by making sure I have the relevant knowledge to complete it beforehand!
However my anxiety seems to skyrocket in situations where I have little knowledge, for example the other night I came home from being forced by friends to drink in town, and while I was out and drunk I got the phone number of a girl I like. Once I got home and sobered up I realised she had sent a text message to my mobile phone. At this I just started panicking, I was shivering in the same way you would when you are cold since I was so nervous and didn't know what to do. I had to call a friend and wake them up to calm me down and tell me what to say to get the situation over with!
Throughout my life at certain times I have made it my goal to face things that make me anxious in order to overcome them. I got a great job through forcing myself to go to an interview that was scaring the life out of me. In another example a friend offered to give me a lift on his motorcycle, I did and it scared the life out of me. So the next thing I did was book myself onto a training course and pass my motorcycle license, I am not a person who enjoys torturing themselves in this way but in this situation it turned out to be something I really enjoy and its a big part of my life now.
The trouble I'm having is as a human I'm not going to live long enough to face every single thing that makes me feel greatly anxious, everything I've faced (including public speaking) has taken me over a year to overcome. The act of overcoming something essentially ruins a year through highly elevating my anxiety until I get it under control. I don't want to torture myself any longer, I want the anxiety to just go!
The only times I am truly calm are when I am dreaming and when I become immersed in a television show or film. When this happens my constant internal dialogue that I have stops and I concentrate on the show instead. However this has the associated come down when the show finishes and I realise I am me again and have all the same issues still.
Am I just a bit of a nervous person or do I have some kind of anxiety disorder? I can make the anxiety less by convincing myself almost that everything is great, I use this when I have to be in social situations to gain a temporary boost in confidence and allow me to function normally. I can do this quite well but I am not so good at blocking the negative thoughts and when they get a hold of me it gets worse.