I'm hopeless : , I've had anxiety all my... - Anxiety Support

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I'm hopeless

anxiousalexis profile image
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, I've had anxiety all my life but it got worse in 2014 where I had my first panic attack. The trigger was my health because I was experiencing head sensations. I went to a doctor and I was perfectly healthy, it was just my anxiety. I started going to therapy and got prescribed xanax and zoloft which definitely helped. I've been good since, well with some attacks here and there, but nothing to stop my everyday life. Now my anxiety started again bad, I believe it was triggered by a decaf coffee i drank, since im very sensitive to caffeine. It started to bring fears I threw to the back of my head. I start panicking over my health, growing up (im 18) and just having anxiety in general. Now I'm just in the state of constant anxiety and symptoms. I went to my therapist again today and it helped but I just wanna be back to normal and I'm starting to feel hopeless and trapped in life. I cant find any comfort zones and I can give myself anxiety for anything. I just want relief and to start enjoying life again.

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Jeff1943 profile image
Jeff1943

Alexis, as you know your problem is anxiety and I don't think that a cup of coffee has made it worsen, it takes more than that. You are doing the rightthing in continuing with therapy. Maybe you need to examine your life and find what is causing you stress and worry leading to anxiety. Only you can answer that, it may be relationship problems, difficulties in your work or at college, lack of confidence in your ability to succeed in life, it could be anything. But if you can identify what it is that is causing your nervous system to become over sensitised then you can direct your attention to solving that problem as your top priority. If you have difficulty in finding a solution then confide in a family member or friend that you can trust and whose judgement you trust.

Sometimes the original cause of our anxiety has passed and it is just the anxietyvitself that is perpetuating your condition: anxiety causes symptoms which causes more anxiety which causes more symptoms and so on in a vicious circle that just goes on and on. Recovery lies in breaking the vicious circle which will stop the continual resensitisation of your nervous system by bombarding it with never ending fear.

The way to do this, the only way I know of and the one that always succeeds in the end, is to stop obsessing about the symptoms, stop fighting them,cease your constant introspection as this only creates more and more fear that feeds the anxiety. Instead you must frame your mind to do the very opposite which is to accept the symptoms and bad feelings for the time being with the minimum of fear. After all, the bad feelings andthoughts that trouble you are only glitches in your tired nervous system, tired of being bombarded with fear month after month.

So I say again, accept the bad feelings and symptoms without paying too much attention to them, calm yourself when they come despite the discomfort they cause. Imagine you are a rock on the shore and the wavescrash over and past you but the rock endures.

If you can cultivate Acceptance then you stop bombarding your nerves with fear and they recover to their normal state and you will recapture your quiet mind once more. Acceptance is the central theme for recovery of many self-help methods, it takes practice and persistance but offers certain victory over anxiety in the fullness of time. I wish you God's speed on your progress along the path to recovery.

TMD84 profile image
TMD84

Hi Alexis, I know exactly what you are going through. Since I watched my grandmother passed away last year September I have suffered with many symptoms and issues related to anxiety. I have had everything from fast heart rate to chest tightness to shortness of breath to aches and pains, head feelings where I feel like my brain is moving slower than my eyes, burning and tightness in ribs under breast and the list goes on. I have had many many many test and most come back normal and the ones that do not the doctors are not worried about at all but obsess over them and I cant seem to get my mind off of that something is wrong with me and they are just missing it! I just find it so hard to believe that anxiety can cause all of these symptoms but now I do. I believe it is very emotional and physical and take you to a very dark place. What Jeff said is right, accept it and stop fighting them and obsessing over it. I am still in the throws so to speak and I am glad to know I am not alone.

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