Afraid to start things incase it gets taken away from me

[Mav]

Now having, and still suffering with anxiety (mostly health related) and depressive tendencies I have found myself in this horrible mindset at 19 that most 19 year olds don't have. It upsets and bothers me, most 19 year olds believe the world is their oyster and they have everything at the tip of their fingertips and here I sit, day in and day out wanting to start something and then believing that I'll never actually see the end of that goal because I'll become ill and have to stop, or something else tragic will occur. It's as though I'm completely afraid to live my life incase I get happy and it get s taken away. I find it so upsetting.

Anyone like me? Please some advice?

[AntsyVee]

I think we've all been there during a bout with depression. I know I have. I know I've had some magical thinking where I believed that if I didn't worry about something, then it would happen. I've also had that magical thinking where if you look forward to something to much or be too happy, that something will come along to ruin it. It is anxious thinking.

What are you doing to work on your anxiety and depression?

[MyNameIsTerry]

If you don't start, you gain nothing, but you lose out too. We never know what will happen in the future and as a HAer you will be worrying about often rare disease scenarios when there are much more common ways to be killed or disabled through injury and these tend not to be an issue. Doesn't that alone demonstrate the irrationality of it?

Also you don't get better not working on living a healthier life. This means activities. We greatly benefit from them and they improve our moods as well as our self confidence & self esteem.

It's classic in depression to shrink from life and have no motivation. This is why therapy uses techniques to promote activities such as Behavioural Activation which starts small and builds up to get healthy routines into your life.

Sometimes you have to bite down and take steps forward. Sometimes they are a roller coaster. Sometimes they take a while to appear to help you. But what is certain is that doing nothing only promotes more depression.

[Bike Rider]

Hi Mav.

Whats with all this self inflicted pressure you are putting on yourself. Start something that doesn't have to be finished, join a gym (come and go as you please and meet new, young person's) yoga is the same or a musical instrument. I started the saxophone 18 months ago, won't be any good but so what, I like it.