I'm new here. Had anxiety before but never this bad

[popkorngal]

Hi all.


I've read this forum a little bit over the years but now was time to sign up.


For the past week and a half I've had incredibly bad, severe anxiety. There are a few things which have set it off which I won't go into right now (maybe in another thread) but honestly I've never felt this bad before. It's at its worst in the mornings. I wake up shaking and feeling sick with negative thoughts going round and round in my mind. I haven't eaten properly in all that time as I just feel sick until about 2pm.


I went to my GP and she was really nice. I had already booked in with a therapist that day too. Luckily I had a bit of savings to pay as I've been waiting to sign up to IESO again for over a week now and no reply yet. My GP said I could try Sertraline if I wanted to but to see how I got on with going to the therapist. I've never taken any meds before and am really scared of side effects / feeling worse at first so I'm not keen to try them to be honest.


The first therapy session was yesterday and actually was really good. Today has been my first day of not crying in the morning for just feeling so awful. But I'm still getting the shakes and not feeling 100% still. I just want to feel 'normal' again. Every day this is coming back.



I'm trying my best to take one day at a time but it's really hard and the negative thoughts keep coming back after periods of me being able to concentrate on something else.


I think this all stems from depression originally as I've had a lot go on in my life which the therapist thinks I maybe never dealt with completely and now it's all coming out as anxiety, like my brain is trying to look for problems as a protection mechanism.


Things I'm trying to do to help - the therapist said try going for a brisk walk before breakfast, so i did that and it did help. One thing that exacerbates all this is that I work from home, self employed so I'm on my own at home a lot.


Anyway thanks for reading and I'm looking forward to talking more with you and being part of this community. I'm trying to get over this difficult period the best I can.

[venusbluejeans]

Hiya popkorngal and welcome to NMP

Why not take a look at our articles on our home page, they contain a wealth of information and are a great starting place for your time on the forum.

I hope you find the as site helpful and informative as I have and that you get the help and support you need here and hope that you meet a few friends along the way

[helloworld]

Hi Korn,

You know, i had bit of a similar thing. Always had some anxiety issues but then went to another level and was forced to deal with it.

For me sertraline was amazing... also did CBT.... just wanted to say you can turn it around... hope goes well you!

[popkorngal]

Thanks Helloworld. I've been doing a lot better the last couple of days. It's so nice to wake up in the morning and not have a ton of adrenaline swimming through my system!

I didn't try meds in the end as I was too worried about the side effects early on. I couldn't bear the thought of feeling worse before I felt better as I was totally rock bottom already.

I've gotten through it with the aid of a good therapist, a book I got from amazon, rigorous exercise, meditating with the headspace app and the support of my husband and a couple of close friends.

Also making sure I ate something even if I really didn't feel like it. Just something easy to eat like a banana or yoghurt. I was always worse if my blood sugar was low.