24/7 anxiety

[helenclaire]

I seem to be anxious 24/7 and I really don't know why,
I have the usual worries money, family etc but nothing major.

I wake up with my stomach churning and lightheaded and this goes on all day, every now and then I may feel a bit better but it never fully goes.

This is making me agoraphobic because the symptoms scare me and I worry I will collapse or be taken ill if I go anywhere and the thought of people noticing or me making a scene is one of the worse thing I can imagine.
I am even too scared to go to the Doctors, the thought of sitting in the waiting room and having to speak to anyone frightens me so much and makes the symptoms 10 times worse.

I am trying the breathing exercises as recommended but struggle to concentrate as the symptoms just take over.

I am so fed up with feeling like this.
Is there anything any one can recommend to help.
I would love to wake up and look forward to the day instead of worrying about how I am going to get through it.

:weep: Helen X

[rchippex]

Hi Helen,

Having beaten severe anxiety before (after having it for 2 years solid) and now after having had a relapse I can tell you that 24/7 anxiety is not uncommon at all. The reason it happens is because you are constantly focusing on yourself and how you feel and to be fair who could blame you. I did the same thing myself and have done it again this time round despite knowing better. When you feel so awful it is little wonder you want to try to figure it out but sometimes it is better to just take a step back and give up fighting it and trying to get to the root of it.

I know this will sound ridiculously simple but the way to get over anxiety in general is to simply float with the feelings instead of analyzing every single one and worrying about them. You need to try to put them down to 'just anxiety' and try to keep doing what you would normally do, however hard it is and really allow yourself to believe that it WILL pass and that you don't need to try to unravel each thought or symptom. It really does work and this change of attitude got me over a VERY bad patch in my life 5 years ago when I thought I would never get better and would be stuck in that state for the rest of my life. I was purely determined to get better and did so without meds by simply accepting my feelings and thoughts and taking my anxiety with me and asking it to do it's worst wherever I went. I lost my fear of it and it left me OVER TIME which is the crucial point. It does sometimes take a lot of time and you have to be patient and allow your mind and body to re-adjust back to normal. I had years of absolutely no undue anxiety with 1 exception on my honeymoon for a few days that I got over with the same approach. I relapsed 12 weeks ago because I allowed myself to get over worked and stressed for 12 months solid and my mind had just had enough. I am kicking myself for not spotting the warning signs i.e. lack of interest in things and shortness of breath and now I am having to work hard to get over it all again and allow my mind and body to relax while feeling awful. I should note that if you have a lot of external stressors it is also important to begin reducing these as much as possible. For me it was working two jobs and starting my own business, my wife being unsupportive, no exercise, bad diet and my general outlook on things had become more negative. If some stressors cannot be removed then simply try to change the way you view them or become less bothered by them.

I read two books that really cemented this attitude for me and they were Hope And Help For Your Nerves by Claire Weekes and also At Last A Life by Paul David.

I should note that this method may not work if you have a medical condition such as under/overactive thyroid but as I have no experience of that I wouldn't like to say.

EDIT: Just a little note about waking up. The first thing you likely do is wake up and check how you feel. This is a very bad thing to do as you instantly remind yourself that you are very concerned about how you feel and of course you then feel the adrenaline pulsing and your minds kicks into anxiety mode. I like to call this checking in. If you catch yourself doing this then you can begin to stop that behaviour. Instead of continuing the thoughts you can just say 'this is not a helpful thought process' and put the thoughts to one side and get out of bed. By doing this you can start to break the habit of checking in as soon as you wake up. I use a similar approach now when I start to notice I am going down the rabbit hole of a thought that is not going to be helpful in my recovery such as 'I feel tired. I wonder if it is because I am anxious. I hope I dont feel tired all day and get no work done. etc etc etc'. I simply say to myself that the thought stream is not helpful and refocus onto something else.

[Toynova63]

Rchippex, I really like your way of thinking! Great ideas & motivators :)

Mary

[rchippex]

Rchippex, I really like your way of thinking! Great ideas & motivators :)

Mary

Thank you Mary. I wish I had put the things I have mentioned into place when I first started again with my anxiety attack 12 weeks ago but instead I was so stressed out with life in general that I just forgot and was just focusing on how bad I felt and then the intrusive thoughts came which really knocked me sideways. I am getting back on top of it all again now. Even the intrusive thoughts since last night. I started using the 4 step technique against them which is something from the book Brain Lock for OCD. It is working very well and helping me to keep in mind that thoughts are not actions and that they only have the power I choose to give them. The same booked helped me 5 years ago along with 'The Imp Of The Mind' so I think my brain must still have the tools I learnt back then on hand and with me trying them again it has clicked very quickly. They had been truly horrific and caused me no end of mental pain but I am confident I can get over it all again now. I also plan to keep using mindfulness techniques as I have found this is helping me a lot too. I just have to remember that the road to recovery is far from smooth and there will be numerous humps along the way. As long as I am prepared for that the setbacks hopefully wont blow me far off course.

[Dan1975]

Rchippex has hit the nail on the head. This approach works. Even when you know this it's still difficult to do at times, but it is the right way. Try some ACT books.

[Toynova63]

I really hope to try these methods to get my life back on track. I'm making myself sicker with every Google search!!

Mary

[rchippex]

I find google can be both a blessing and a curse. During my last recovery I did use some articles and books in order to keep my spirits up. If I was having a particularly bad day I would read some inspiring articles to remind me to keep pushing on. It becomes a problem when you google every single symptom you have though. Reading about symptoms makes you worry about them whereas reading success stories reminds you that you most certainly CAN get better again. Had I not got intrusive thoughts so bad this time I think I could have recovered weeks ago using the books I mentioned and the acceptance techniques. You have to truly commit to it though and get tough on your anxiety. It is not easy and sometimes very uncomfortable but you can certainly do it. You just have to remember that you will have good and bad days. Eventually the good outweigh the bad and you are well on your way to recovery. It is then important to remember that you are one of those people that is very sensitive to stress etc and to be aware of the warning signs of returning anxiety or panic. Something I failed to do this time round.

---------- Post added at 11:29 ---------- Previous post was at 10:45 ----------


I really hope to try these methods to get my life back on track. I'm making myself sicker with every Google search!!

Mary

If you give them a go Mary you really have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I can personally assure you that if you truly commit then they do work. Some days you may feel like you have gone 10 rounds with mike tyson but if you keep persisting the rewards are HUGE. It is such a cliche but the key really is already inside of you and nobody can make you better besides yourself. You just have to be brave and put up with feeling uncomfortable A LOT and not let it get to you. I would challenge myself every day and try to get as far out of my comfort zone as possible to stick my middle finger up at the anxiety. I would will it on and ask it to do its worst and each time it came it shouted and roared but then died down to a whisper which is what gives you the confidence to keep pushing on. It is all about losing fear of it. It is a very gradual process though and you have to commit to the long haul and not try to rush recovery but rather let it come to you. I am doing the same again this time but intrusive thoughts are really hampering my progress. These werent as bad last time but this time I let them get to me and cultivated a huge fear of them which was the worst possible thing I could have done as they stuck hard into my mind and I am now having deal with them the hard way.