Princess Sparkle
22-04-11, 19:46
Hi All!
I'm Princess Sparkle and, although I've been visiting the No More Panic website and forums for well over a year now, I didn't have the courage to sign up as a member until today. Up until this week, I'd been trying to push my problems to the back of my mind, in the hope that if I ignored them they would go away. But that's not working anymore, so I've decided to tackle my problems head-on instead!
I suffer from anxiety, which I can trace back to an incident ten years ago which seriously shook me up and resulted in me having panic attacks and certain phobias for a few years afterwards. I ended up being quite depressed and was referred for counselling, but I decided to handle things myself instead and I managed to pull myself out of it and get back on top of things.
For a few years after that I was okay. But I've been a worrier my whole life and, little by little, my anxiety has crept into my life again over the last five years or so. At first, I was only experiencing problems every now and then. But since late last year, my anxiety has been getting worse and I've decided it's time I did something about it.
I don't suffer from regular panic attacks anymore - my last one was over a year ago and I'm hoping they stay away. My main problems now are health anxiety and what I think is a form of OCD, with obsessive thoughts that increase my general anxiety (mostly health-related thoughts or worries about accidentally injuring myself or someone else). At the moment, this is all self-diagnosed and I am struggling along without getting professional help (the thought of doing so makes me even more anxious), although I am considering going to see my doctor to ask about a possible referral for counselling.
However, I finally told two members of my family about my problems this week and that has been such a relief - just to have someone close to me who knows what I am going through. They don't completely understand and they've admitted themselves that they don't know the best way to advise me, but just to have them willing to listen to my fears is a great help.
I've beaten my anxiety in the past and I hope to do so again sooner rather than later. In the meantime, I am still struggling on with my life as normal and keeping up appearances for the outside world. I've found the No More Panic forums a great source of advice and information in the past, even though I haven't been an active member here. Now I've finally signed up, I hope to be able to interact more, both giving and receiving support to my fellow forum members.
If you've taken the time to read all of this post, thank you (but you really didn't have to) and I hope to see you around the forum soon! :)
I'm Princess Sparkle and, although I've been visiting the No More Panic website and forums for well over a year now, I didn't have the courage to sign up as a member until today. Up until this week, I'd been trying to push my problems to the back of my mind, in the hope that if I ignored them they would go away. But that's not working anymore, so I've decided to tackle my problems head-on instead!
I suffer from anxiety, which I can trace back to an incident ten years ago which seriously shook me up and resulted in me having panic attacks and certain phobias for a few years afterwards. I ended up being quite depressed and was referred for counselling, but I decided to handle things myself instead and I managed to pull myself out of it and get back on top of things.
For a few years after that I was okay. But I've been a worrier my whole life and, little by little, my anxiety has crept into my life again over the last five years or so. At first, I was only experiencing problems every now and then. But since late last year, my anxiety has been getting worse and I've decided it's time I did something about it.
I don't suffer from regular panic attacks anymore - my last one was over a year ago and I'm hoping they stay away. My main problems now are health anxiety and what I think is a form of OCD, with obsessive thoughts that increase my general anxiety (mostly health-related thoughts or worries about accidentally injuring myself or someone else). At the moment, this is all self-diagnosed and I am struggling along without getting professional help (the thought of doing so makes me even more anxious), although I am considering going to see my doctor to ask about a possible referral for counselling.
However, I finally told two members of my family about my problems this week and that has been such a relief - just to have someone close to me who knows what I am going through. They don't completely understand and they've admitted themselves that they don't know the best way to advise me, but just to have them willing to listen to my fears is a great help.
I've beaten my anxiety in the past and I hope to do so again sooner rather than later. In the meantime, I am still struggling on with my life as normal and keeping up appearances for the outside world. I've found the No More Panic forums a great source of advice and information in the past, even though I haven't been an active member here. Now I've finally signed up, I hope to be able to interact more, both giving and receiving support to my fellow forum members.
If you've taken the time to read all of this post, thank you (but you really didn't have to) and I hope to see you around the forum soon! :)