Malibustace
22-01-18, 13:20
Hi all,
I'll try to keep this as short as possible....(not sure if this is the correct place to post)
Fairly new here, although I've been lurking for approx. 6 months. I suffer with health and general anxiety, I'm 34 and a mother of 2 (aged 13 & 10).
My anxiety started 13 years ago when my first child was born prematurely, I'd say at that point my anxiety was justified, I was 21 at the time, and wasn't expecting to give birth 2 months early, and not take my baby home with me for weeks. I also put a lot of my worries down to being a parent, don't we all worry about our children?
3 years later, my 2nd child arrived 3 months early, and very poorly, we managed to bring her home 3 months later, this I think is when things got much worse (although I couldn't see it at the time). I refused to sleep in case she stopped breathing, I set an alarm for every 10 minutes (night & day), so that if I accidently nodded off, it would be for 10 mins or less at a time, this went on for 2 months, I then started to allow myself 20 mins between alarms. Again I will say that some of this worry was justified, I had a tiny prem baby who had a tendency to "forget" to breath. She was approx. 10 months old before I allowed myself a full nights sleep.
(I still go into their bedrooms every night 3 times to check on them)
Fast forward to now, as my kids have gotten older, I seem to have stopped worrying about them as much, and started focusing on my own health. I feel as though I wake up every day with a new ache or pain (age maybe :unsure:) I suffer with shortness of breath, which I know is my anxiety, because it isn't constant, I've spent this weekend without any symptoms at all, back to work today, and here I am struggling to fill my lungs.....
Which leads me onto my question.....what do you do when you know that your job is a massive contributor to your stress/anxiety?
I apologise for the long post, but I just wanted to put some of this down in writing, I don't have anyone to talk to about this really, but I know that I've never gotten over the traumatic experiences I had with my children's births, and most people around me assume I've "gotten over it". I'm certain this is what triggered me, I wasn't a worrier before.
I'll try to keep this as short as possible....(not sure if this is the correct place to post)
Fairly new here, although I've been lurking for approx. 6 months. I suffer with health and general anxiety, I'm 34 and a mother of 2 (aged 13 & 10).
My anxiety started 13 years ago when my first child was born prematurely, I'd say at that point my anxiety was justified, I was 21 at the time, and wasn't expecting to give birth 2 months early, and not take my baby home with me for weeks. I also put a lot of my worries down to being a parent, don't we all worry about our children?
3 years later, my 2nd child arrived 3 months early, and very poorly, we managed to bring her home 3 months later, this I think is when things got much worse (although I couldn't see it at the time). I refused to sleep in case she stopped breathing, I set an alarm for every 10 minutes (night & day), so that if I accidently nodded off, it would be for 10 mins or less at a time, this went on for 2 months, I then started to allow myself 20 mins between alarms. Again I will say that some of this worry was justified, I had a tiny prem baby who had a tendency to "forget" to breath. She was approx. 10 months old before I allowed myself a full nights sleep.
(I still go into their bedrooms every night 3 times to check on them)
Fast forward to now, as my kids have gotten older, I seem to have stopped worrying about them as much, and started focusing on my own health. I feel as though I wake up every day with a new ache or pain (age maybe :unsure:) I suffer with shortness of breath, which I know is my anxiety, because it isn't constant, I've spent this weekend without any symptoms at all, back to work today, and here I am struggling to fill my lungs.....
Which leads me onto my question.....what do you do when you know that your job is a massive contributor to your stress/anxiety?
I apologise for the long post, but I just wanted to put some of this down in writing, I don't have anyone to talk to about this really, but I know that I've never gotten over the traumatic experiences I had with my children's births, and most people around me assume I've "gotten over it". I'm certain this is what triggered me, I wasn't a worrier before.