Admins, if this thread needs merging, could you keep this as the main one, please? I think it's probably different enough to be separate from my first one, but I know these things exist on a continuum.

For the first time in years, I find myself anxious most of the time to the point of irrationality. It's been coming for a good week or so, and I'm currently at the point where I can't see a way out. Could be seasonal, could be hormones, could be stress, I have no clue. Everything's making me nervous to outright panicky, though, and I can't trust myself to be rational any more. I don't really want to go out, and the thought of work fills me with dread.

I'm petrified of redundancy, of my financial situation, and every so often I'm getting little niggling twitches of health ancoety that I'm trying my best to squash. My parents' phone has been engaged for the past 3 hours, which could mean thstit's broken or could mean that something awful has happened to one of them - out of all my fears, this is the one that's not that irrational. My husband got up late and had breakfast and so didn't want lunch today, and there's just that tiny niggle that it's a cancer thing even though he's now cooking dinner early because he's hungry.

I just can't shake the feeling that something awful is going to happen. It has, of course, I'm having an anxiety flare-up, but... you know.

Can't bring myself to meditate even though I know it will help, and I'm not quite ready to up my meds just yet.

The aim with this thread is to try and prove that it's possible to maintain some shreds of a normal life whilst dealing with persistent and fairly severe anxiety (I call it that because I'm back at the point where I'm constantly hearing voices telling me to off myself).

Wish me luck, and come with me on this journey?