Anxiety has taken over my life .. help

[nataliesara]

I've had anxiety for about 2 years now and its getting worse than ever.

I was starting to get better until December when me and my family went to a restaurant and I had a really bad anxiety attack. Ever since then I've been more scared and have gone out about 4 times. I have tried therapy and it doesn't work for me. I have even started to get anxiety attacks in the house. Ive tried all the coping techniques and itddoesn't help. Can anyone help with suggestions or something please

[Jexii]

Hi! See my post I just made about what I did for my anxiety. It may not just be "in your head". It could be related to what's happening in your gut literally. Your digestive bacteria might be out of whack. If you are somewhere that has a functional doctor, look here: functionalmedicine.org/prac... go see one. They will help look beyond just the mental and see if there is an underlying health condition that is causing you to feel anxiety.

[vielpunkt]

I know how you feel. Have you had a check up to make sure it's not physical? Also, have you tried meditation or prayer? That can help.

You also need a therapist or some kind of support group. Don't let anyone tell you it's "all in your head".

Everyone is different, but I found that the more I just stayed hidden in my apartment the worse I felt. I started a new antidepressant six weeks ago and it's helped me tremendously. Does any of this help?

Feel better ...

[tisnoti]

Hi - what I am going to say - you won't like - but it is really really important that you go out - what you are experiencing is (as I was advised by my Doctor) the beginnings of agraphobia. Once you give in to it you may end up spending years not going out.

Have you been to the doctors to get medication? I only take mine at night as I drive for a living but there are others that can be taken through the day. Please please try to make sure that you find a "safe place" where you can go everyday - be it a library, a local shop or anywhere - even for a few minutes at a time. You will eventually realize that, although you are getting the same feelings in that place - nothing ever happens to you there - and you can then move to another safe place. It sounds stupid but although I have never been able to get rid of the feelings, I now see it for what it is - and work my way through it.

I went on a Cognative Therapy Course and the doctor explained it me this way - when we are get scared - our body produces adrenalin - which is what makes you strong enough to lift a car off your child, or run fast enough to push someone out of the way of a car. When you do either of these two things - the adrenalin is naturally absorbed once you have "used" it to perform what you need to do. Have you ever been in a real situation of danger - although you have NOT been hit by the bus - or your child didn't put his hand on the iron - your body pumps with adrenalin and you shake and feel a little faint - that is the adrenalin that you body sent out - to enable you to jump out of the way of the bus or dash to your child to stop him grabbing the iron.

Unfortunately, when you get an anxiety attack - your body realizes that you are scared - produces the adrenalin because it assumes you will need it (the flight or fight syndrome), but - there is nothing there. Your brain cannot make sense of this, can't see any danger, no bus, no iron - so it creates a situation to justify the release of adrenalin - hence the pain in the head - the pain in the chest - the fear of something bad happening - everyone seems to produce their own symptoms. These are known as psychosomatic pains - when a doctor tells you it is all in your head - he is not telling you you are making it up - it is your brain creating symptoms that it can relate to. This sounds very long winded for something that happens in a nanno second I know, but as I was told, you want to pick a cup up - you don't think - "hand move to pick up the cup" - it just does it. But a message has gone from your eyes to your brain and then to your hand - before you even blink.

I'm sure you can look into these on google etc to verify what I've said - but I found that once I realised that I only got the chest pains, the head pain then I got the adrenalin rush - I found that I could control everything a lot better. It didn't go away - but I knew what was causing it - and why.

Hope this helps.