A difficult week

[mlondon]

Well the past few months and by that I mean 3 months have been crazy for me. I spent 5 weeks in Vietnam travelling and working alone, finished my masters degree, went fulltime at work and moved from the comfort of living with my grandma to a house of 5 people, only one of which was a friend beforehand and spent the 1st week worrying if they liked me. The outcome was I felt like I could achieve anything and felt pretty optimistic about the future. This is coming from a person who couldn't be left alone or walk to the postbox at one stage.

I am having a difficult week this week though. My flatmates all went out to a festival at the weekend which ended up in a big party until the early hours of the morning. I went with them and got into the swing of things, I had a great time and got carried away and forgot that I can't drink as much or stay up as late as them as it makes me anxious. Since saturday i have felt horrible. Constantly anxious, afraid to be in the house alone, spotting all the possible dangers around me and having occasional depressive thoughts. I am not able to focus and am walking around in a daze. Whats more is that I have an important meeting with my boss this afternoon and then on friday I am having a friend from overseas coming to visit me, i don't know him very well, what if I feel anxious around him? The worst is that I feel I have inflicted this on myself due to the weekend and just want to feel back to normal again instead of so exhausted no matter how many hours sleep i have th night before.

Any words of encouragement that this will go away and it is a momentary lapse would be appreciated.

[Idstain]

haha this sounds almost EXACTLY the same as what is happening to me. I had a "breakdown" about 3.5 months ago and lived at home in the UK for that time recovering. I flew back to Bangkok on friday (this is where i spent most of my time before i got ill). Had a great first few days then had a huge night on sunday (was drinking until 3pm on monday infact :/) and have had horrible anxiety again since so i know how you feel when you talk about bringing it on yourself.

Firstly just know that anxiety is a completely common symptom of hangovers (http://health.howstuffworks.com/hangover1.htm) and is of course going to strike so much harder in people like us who have only recently recovered.

You've gotten yourself out of this before and you will do so again. Keep doing the sensible things like taking in lots of water and food and sticking to a good sleep schedule. Don't be too hard on yourself aswell, we all get a little carried away sometimes and the past doesn't matter, the only way is forward!

also i find reading claire weekes helps alot to put my mind at rest.