Just couldn't feel any worse right now. Now mole fear. So tired of it all.

[cattia]

Just noticed a mole on my leg that is dark in colour and looking at it, there is mixed pigmentation in it and it looks like it might have uneven edges. Plus I would say it is about 6mm in diameter so now I am freaking out about melanoma. This is about my fourth major freak out this week.

I have just taken my first dose of citalopram. I feel weird, kind of spaced out, I know I have a couple of rough weeks of side effects.

A few things have gone wrong for me personally this past week. I just feel like things are going from bad to worse. I feel like I'm never going to feel normal or happy again and I'm just going to slowly die. Please tell me this gets better!

[ServerError]

I had a major breakdown last year and thought things would never get better. I worried about all sorts of health issues, from schizophrenia to skin cancer. I even had a mole/lesion/call-it-what-you-like checked out.

I got better. These days I only really visit this site to see if I can help anyone else. There's nothing special about my recovery. I wasn't in some way better geared toward recovery than anyone else. I took my meds, had some therapy and worked on my whole outlook on life. And things improved. This is within the reach of anyone with anxiety issues, including yourself. So yes, I assure you it gets better.

[cattia]

Thank you so much for your words of encouragement. It means a lot and I am really glad to hear that you're feeling so much better. Hopefully I will get there too.

[Chrysmar09]

I had a major breakdown last year and thought things would never get better. I worried about all sorts of health issues, from schizophrenia to skin cancer. I even had a mole/lesion/call-it-what-you-like checked out.

I got better. These days I only really visit this site to see if I can help anyone else. There's nothing special about my recovery. I wasn't in some way better geared toward recovery than anyone else. I took my meds, had some therapy and worked on my whole outlook on life. And things improved. This is within the reach of anyone with anxiety issues, including yourself. So yes, I assure you it gets better.

Please tell me how you got over your schizophrenia scare? I have seen drs, therapist ect and they all say I only have GAD but ill get a new symptom or thought and im right back in the same spot. Im three weeks into taking prozac again and Im going to therapy but I cant shake the feeling. I refuse to google anymore because I just panic. Right now it seems like my hearing is heightened and that makes me think im hearing things. Im seriously scared and tired of being afraid

[Annaboodle]

At my lowest point, before things really did finally start to turn around, I honestly thought I was just slowly dying too. All my issues and problems seemed to come together at once in one godawful giant mess. I couldn't see a way to even start with so many things wrong at the same time . In my case, my alcohol and drug addiction had reached breaking point, my marriage had unravelled, I left my job as I just couldn't pretend to function any more. I was living in an isolated bubble of obsessive thoughts and I'd isolated myself from everyone I'd ever cared about.

I got better. I had to break it down into parts: stopping the alcohol, tapering off benzodiazipines, hauling myself along to alcohol counselling and groups. Then much later, when I could see clearer and start to deal with it as the anxiety underneath everything came flooding back, I started therapy and treatment for my anxiety.

Anyway, point is if you'd said to me back then that I could ever be better I would have laughed as it seemed impossible. I was a hopeless mess and thought that was just me until I would die. But I took myself off the substances that were destroying me. I saw doctors for my mental health and took their advice and the meds they prescribed, went to therapy and committed to working so hard on each of these things every day. And things improved slowly (oh so slowly at times) but surely. Now I am clean and sober, my anxiety is manageable and I am actually in my personal life... gasp... wait for it... happy! Me, happy. Who'd have thunk!

I will be working on all these issues for the rest of my life and I know we all have such different stories, but I promise you that if the mess that was me can do this then of course you can too. So yes, I promise you it can get better. You can feel normal and happy again (ride out those stupid side effects - f**k them - won't be long in the big scheme) because you are doing so well to get help and treatment and working to get better. Really you are. x

[snowghost57]

I had a major breakdown last year and thought things would never get better. I worried about all sorts of health issues, from schizophrenia to skin cancer. I even had a mole/lesion/call-it-what-you-like checked out.

I got better. These days I only really visit this site to see if I can help anyone else. There's nothing special about my recovery. I wasn't in some way better geared toward recovery than anyone else. I took my meds, had some therapy and worked on my whole outlook on life. And things improved. This is within the reach of anyone with anxiety issues, including yourself. So yes, I assure you it gets better.

Excellent post Server, its nice to see someone else that has recovered. I too had a major melt down. Did the meds and decided they weren't for me. I have a great therapist that taught me how to challenge my stinkin thinkin. We can get better. We do have to work on our whole outlook on life. We can't expect a pill or talking to someone to give us a cure.

Only we can help ourselves to heal with hard work and determination.

[swajj]

It gets better. Eventually you just get sick of the same old same old. At that point you just kind of adopt an attitude of "great something else to worry about, whatever". All the things that you have worried about have turned out to be nothing. So based on that what are the chances that your mole is anything but harmless?

[ServerError]

Please tell me how you got over your schizophrenia scare? I have seen drs, therapist ect and they all say I only have GAD but ill get a new symptom or thought and im right back in the same spot. Im three weeks into taking prozac again and Im going to therapy but I cant shake the feeling. I refuse to google anymore because I just panic. Right now it seems like my hearing is heightened and that makes me think im hearing things. Im seriously scared and tired of being afraid

Unfortunately, there aren't really any magic words I can share with you on this. By which I mean, I didn't do anything in particular that made my fear subside. It just gradually did over time.

I was in a desperate spiral at one point, absolutely convinced I was losing my mind. I presented at A&E three nights in a row asking for a psychiatric evaluation. The psych team isn't based at the hospital overnight, so they had to travel halfway across London to see me each time, which meant long waits in A&E surrounded by people with all sorts of illnesses and injuries, and the end of it, I was sent home each time with a diagnosis of GAD and told to stick with my meds and therapy.

After the third night, I woke up the next day with a slightly different head on. It was like I had started to absorb the fact that these experts in the field were repeatedly sending me home and were happy with my treatment plan. I think it just started to sink in from there. Once the meds and therapy really started to kick in, the anxiety started to fade, and the strange feelings and states of consciousness that made me freak out about psychosis also subsided.

The thing is, it's a bit of a cliché, but it's true that if you're worried you may be schizophrenic, it's a pretty good indication you're not. People experiencing first-episode psychosis almost always lack insight into the fact there's anything wrong psychologically.

[cattia]

Thank you all. I was at the Dr today for my mole and he said he didn't think it looked suspicious. Also spoke to him about my health anxiety and guess what - he had health anxiety too! One of my best Dr appointments ever - someone who understands what this is like to live with. He suggested therapy as well as my meds and I'm really going to look into it if I can afford it.

[ServerError]

Why not self-refer for therapy on the NHS? It's completely free. Only downside is the waiting time can be long, but it isn't always. I saw a therapist within two weeks of referring.