Need to do more to help myself

[Orchid19]

Hi everyone and happy New Year!! I have just signed up to this forum.

I have been diagnosed with anxiety with 18months or so, it's been a rocky journey and has affected my ability to hold down a job. I really do want to work but I keep getting into jobs that I can't do and make my anxiety worse (basically I take them for the money). However I'm now in the process of studying towards a job I do want and just need to get my foot in the door. Unfortunately anxiety is stopping me from doing that as well...

I really want 2018 to be the year where I become in control of my anxiety instead of it controlling me. I have tried medication with limited success and I didn't find therapy such as cbt and group work that helpful. I just don't know what other techniques to try but I do believe I need to speak to someone and get more support or else I'll just be forever stuck in a negative cycle of failed jobs and not following my goals due to fear.

I'll feel so demotivated and apathetic now and I'm scared that's going to discourage me from finishing my studies as well. I would like to continue my year not feeling like this but I need to do more to help myself, I just don't know where to start tbh!!

Thanks for reading.

[Agora1]

Hi Orchid19, Welcome to the Anxiety Support Group. Having a goal, such as the job you want so much, is a good start. We all need a plan, a direction to go towards. Otherwise, we become lost in a ocean looking for land and not seeing it. (a psychiatrist once told me that) And it's true. Each one of us responds to a different method in getting back control of our lives. CBT wasn't for me either, but there are other options out there. Therapy is only as good as the therapist. If you don't relate to them, it's worthless. Medications need to be the right one for you along with the right dosage. So you see Orchid, it takes some work on our own to find what works for us. Being on this forum will open you up to a lot of the methods and techniques that others use and have found beneficial. It will give you some ideas that may work for you as well.

I tried it all from therapy to hypnosis, acupuncture etc. What turned me around was finally realizing that I had to accept anxiety as not harmful. Accept it as just a negative thought out of control in my mind causing these physical affects. Once you truly believe that anxiety is not dangerous and allow it to flow past you without a flinch, you are on your way. Besides that I use daily meditation and deep breathing. Both keep my mind and body in a lower stress level so that should anxiety arise, I am literally able to breathe it away without it taking hold.

You will find what works best for you. When you do, practice it over and over and don't wait until you need it. You will then be prepared in taking charge of your life. Your future will be in your hands and not the hands of anxiety. Good Luck xx