Anxiety for no reason?

[Humph]

Hi all

I’m going through a rough time at the minute and just really want to chat to people who are going through/ have been through the same thing.

I’m new to the forum but not at all new to anxiety. I have suffered bouts of anxiety over the years since I was a child (I’m now in my thirties). I also suffer from a form of OCD which is usually the cause for my anxiety. This time however, I cant think of any cause for the anxiety I am currently going through. Usually my anxiety is caused with intrusive thoughts or thinking about things in the past and I can pin point the exact moment that a bout of anxiety began and what thought caused it to flare up. This time last week I was living my normal happy life, eating well, training well and generally positive about things, come the weekend and everything has well and truly fell apart. I couldnt make it into work yesterday (I put a day’s holiday in as too ashamed to take a sick day), I’ve been having multiple panic attacks during the night, and I’m barely eating and I can’t think of a single reason why all of this has came about. Has anyone else out there been through a similar situation where anxiety comes on for no reason?

Thanks for reading!

[Nameuser]

So sorry to hear you’re going through it right now :( I have definitely have anxiety come on for no reason (I’m sure there is a reason but it’s been picked up by our subconscious and we have no idea about it) so yes just know you aren’t alone! Hope you start to feel less anxious soon

[Fishmanpa]

Anxiety is like a campfire. When you're in the midst of a spiral the fire is burning bright and hot. When the flames die down, there's still a bed of red hot coals burning away just waiting for some more fuel. You may not feel anxious but your body is still on high alert and has a bed of hot anxiety coals inside just waiting to flare up. Just like a campfire, the hot coals of anxiety take a long time to finally go out.

Positive thoughts

[Humph]

Thank you so much for replying! And so quickly. I’ve been racking my brains as to why I’ve fell apart all of a suffen and the only thing I can think that it may be is that I’m particularly busy at work at the moment, but that’s never caused this reaction before. I just remember lying in bed on Thursday night and feeling a mild surge of anxiety but I was able to shrug it off and went to sleep. Then on fri night in bed I was thinking about work but I wasn’t anxious at all. Then on sat I was going to a mates to watch the football, as I was getting ready to go I started to feel a bit panicky but it soon went when I got to my mates and had a good time. From Sunday onwards it has been dreadful. I’m really anxious now because its getting closer to bed time and the past couple of nights I’ve had the worst anxiety attacks and I don’t know how I’ll cope. It is just hell!!

[mark84]

Hopefully you'll feel better soon, it could be a habitual thought (like worrying about why you're worrying), I think it'll pass soon,, if it doesn't maybe it's worth looking at any medicine you take to see if it's still working or having a little refresher of cbt if you've done that successfully before?

[Humph]

Hi Mark84. Thanks for replying. Worrying about why I’m worrying and being anxious about being anxious is definitely something I’m currently going through. I have felt a bit better today but I’ve came home from work and it seems my brain is doing the best it can to find something to be anxious about again. As if I’m deliberately looking for things to be anxious about becasue I’m feeling a bit better. This sounds crazy even when I’m writing it. Have you (or anyone else) experienced this before? I definitely think I need to review my meds. I’ve been on mirtazipine for almost 6 years now and this is the second time in 5 months I’ve had a bad bout of anxiety. I had a very bad time in the summer but I can sometimes go years without having really bad episodes. As far as CBT goes I’ve been to a couple of therapists, but every time I go it’s usually when I’m much better, and it seems the therapist just wants to address how I’m feeling at that current time and not go much into how I was feeling at the time of my anxiety! Would you recommend CBT?? Thanks

[Suziewuzie]

I definitely worry about worrying & feel anxious when I don't feel anxious so you're not alone! Basically any time I let myself think "How am I feeling right now?" It allows me to start my mind ticking & then eventually spinning into anxiety. Noticing that you're doing it is a good start - it's stopping the cycle that's the tricky bit. This is where CBT & mindfulness comes in, so basically learning to just notice the thoughts & let them go. With practise it will become second nature, but we all get floored by anxiety from time to time and as an "anxiety sufferer" it seems our go-to response is to think "Oh I'm feeling anxious. Oh no, I'm going to start feeling anxious all the time again now & oh no now I've got a million thoughts in my head & here come the physical symptoms & now I can't stop aahhhhh!"
Or maybe that's just me

---------- Post added at 19:45 ---------- Previous post was at 19:42 ----------

Oh and just to add; when I first had my massive anxiety episode a few years ago (which basically left me house-bound for weeks with panic attacks) my life was literally amazing & I didn't have a care in the world. For the life of me I still couldn't tell you now where it came from. Brains are mental!

[Humph]

Hi SuzieWuzie, everything you’ve said rings so true!! I know exactly what you mean. Like my mind will be occupied with something and I’ll just stop and think how am I feeling? or am I still feeling anxious? then that’s the que for the floodgates to open and let the anxiety flood in. So it’s definitely not just you lol...it could be just the two of us!? I know I really should give CBT a go but by the time I get an appointment I’m always much better and getting back on with my life so I’ll admit I’ve never stuck at it long enough to actually get into CBT properly. Sometimes my anxiety feels so strong that I cant see how simply changing the way I think will stop me from getting anxiety. Does that make sense? How has your experiences been with CBT? Would you recommend it?

[Suziewuzie]

I'm literally the same as you - referred for CBT twice via the GP but by the time the appointment comes through a few months later, I feel fine & really don't want to dig it all up again so don't go! I do have a CBT book & genuinley do the exercises suggested in there & genuinley find them helpful. They do tend to try & find out what you're REALLY worried about though and sometimes it's hard because it can simply be "I'm worried about never NOT feeling anxious" and I feel like that's not really helpful. But yeah I imagine in a face-to-face session it would be totally different & beneficial. And I suppose in a way it highlighted for me that what I'm REALLY scared of is having a panic attack so severe that I lose my mind. So then it challenges that; how likely is this? What's really the WORST that could happen? And then what? Etc. I do call on the techniques quite a lot to be fair.
I have counselling - more focused on a difficult situation I went through lately, and my counsellor does use some CBT techniques in her approach. I just completed an 8 week mindfulness course which was really helpful for me as it was all about just focusing on being present, what's physically happening NOW not what are you thinking, your thoughts don't matter. That was good for me, I think. But it needs to be fine tuned because it's not always enough to stop me when my minds already ran away.
Now when my mind is whirring I literally lie down & listen to a meditation or guided audio on YouTube and it seems to stop the cycle but that's not practical when I'm out & about obviously.
Honestly I think the only way I got over it last time was just saying to myself "Well this is life now. You feel anxious, tough. Suck it up & go to work, carry on with your life" and it was immensely hard at times but I naturally got to a point where happiness, normality, life just took over my brain so I had no space left for being anxious about anxiety. And it went away for a long time. But then it came back! But I know exactly why it's back so I'm trying not to ruminate on that too much.

[Humph]

Yep I’m exactly the same not wanting to dig things back up again in therapy when you’re feeling better. I’ve heard mindfulness is meant to be good too. I definitely need to find something to help during my panic attacks rather than smoking cigarettes. I quit smoking a couple of years ago and joined a running club, I got quite fit and healthy in the process but when I get bad anxiety I turn straight back to smoking as a way of coping, even though I hate he smell and taste of them now, they seem to be the only things that help at the moment. Not very anxious today, just feeling really effing fed up with things. And giving myself a really hard time for having smoked most of the week :’(