Overthinking everything

[AnxiousAaron]

So I had severe health anxiety back in 2016- early 2017 due to a variety of ailments such as rabies to cancer to lymph nodes. Midway through 2017 I was able to manage it and eventually my anxiety went away or I guess dormant. That was u til recently. Now I over think everything.

So today I made myself hotdogs. I bought a condiments 4 pack from Costco awhile back and took out the relish from the pantry. It was new so I went to open the seal. When I took the plastic cap off the seal came off super easily. It was there so I didn’t think nothing of it. So after dinner I am now thinking was the seal already opened and I ate contaminated relish or Maybe it was just weak glue with that seal or maybe the Texas heat. I don’t know but this is the kind of overthinking so am dealing with lately. I dwell on one thing for the whole day and am super paranoid. Then the next day I’m fine until something else happens then boom paranoid about that. Even on the good days I feel my brain actively seeking for something to worry about.

To make matters worse, I can’t talk to my wife about it. She just had a collapsed lung a little while ago and her dad who lives out of country just had a stroke and she can’t go see him. So I would feel like a pos bothering her with this nonsense when she’s dealing with very real health issues.

[textsfromthemoon]

Were there certain things that helped you manage during your previous anxiety flair? Is there something that triggered you recently that you feel may contribute to these feelings coming up again?

I completely understand how you feel, when my anxiety is bad I get the same way where my mind always wants to have something to fixate on, for me the cardinal rule of getting through those bad periods are having distractions, are there any hobbies you enjoy? Personally I find coloring and puzzles (either table top puzzles or puzzle style games on my phone) to be really helpful when I'm feeling anxious. It can be hard but overtime training your brain not to fixate on these thoughts can happen, let yourself have the thought, acknowledge that its your anxiety creating it and then work on letting it go.

I know you mention not wanting to speak about this with your wife, have you ever spoken to a counselor or therapist regarding your anxiety? Sometimes having a person face to face to express our thoughts to can be really helpful.