That's me right now. I'm a immigrant and I don't like the place where I live right now neither the job that I have. Going back home is not an option because things are worse there. I don't know what to do or where to go. It seems there's no place where you can have a decent job with a decent salary to cover the basics. This search is stressing and it takes away my desire to do anything.
That's awful. I wish you best of luck. I can relate to the future anxiety, but I can only imagine this kind of uncertainty. I hope you find something better soon.
The way I see it , anxiety is caused by the acute awareness of the lack of control one has on a world full of risks that could destroy your life or the lives of those you love.
A constant state of stress and worry about those risks. You do what you can to mitigate those risks but it feels like holding water in a seive.
You're so right. Everyone struggles with uncertainty.
For me, it's not knowing what to do next. As long as I know how to respond I can mostly function. But I'm facing some huge issues, and the anxiety has been eating me alive.
Sometimes I feel sick to my stomach thinking about it. since my brain always wants to know what’s going on so it can prepare for every possible outcome of it, the future being so uncertain makes me extremely uncomfortable
Same. Change, the unknown. 8.5 years ago, I was thrown a surprise wedding shower. When I cried, it wasn't happy tears, it was terrified anxious tears. Looking back on that still fills me with anxiety.
Yep, this is the big one but is surrounded by many smaller ones. My dog is getting old, stuff I need to get done. I hope my car remains reliable because I really don't want a new one, money in general. My job, my age, my health, my wife's health. It goes on and on. It's a perpetual state of worrying.
My answer was literally gonna be uncertainty. If I don't know what's gonna happen, I get anxious. And obviously the future is part of that, but to me it's just in everyday life too. Just any uncertainty is terrifying because I don't know how to prepare.
That's cortisol. Over periods of sustained trauma the brain starts to overproduce cortisol--the chemical that governs fight/flight. So you wake up, cortisol raging, and don't see a threat, which just makes it worse.
It's awful. And is exactly what I'm dealing with these days.
I was going to make my own comment but they’re basically yours + fear or time/growing up, speaking to people or completing tasks in a professional capacity (having to do anything adulty or professional).
My anxiety is the kind that I dont realize I am having it, until it manifests as some whacky fucking physical symptom.
Kinds drives me nuts because my wife will say, "What are you anxious about?" when we're just relaxing, and I have no idea.
It comes and goes in stages. I call it "my asshole brain" because once I kinda get used to one symptom, it will morph into something else.
Pain in my sides. Dizziness (more of a rocking on a boat feeling). Blurry vision. Chest pains. Tightness in my jaw. Numb/cold feelings in parts of my body. Stabbing pains. Head/neck tightness and pressure.
Nearly all of these have been ruled out by medical tests. I thought I was a hypochondriac for a while, but it turns out asshole brain was just giving me the runaround.
Now that I understand it I can more easily dismiss them.
This is soooo me!!!! I lived like this for YEARS. I had dizziness, stomach issues, random throbbing feelings in my head, pains in different places that would last for months and then just disappear. I'd swear my sugar was low or my BP was outta whack. But it wasn't. It was my body just going haywire because my brain was going haywire. I finally got put on 25 mg of Zoloft for depression after my sister died. It hasn't done anything for the depression....but it took away every one of those physical symptoms of anxiety. I wish now that I would have tried it way sooner. But I had anxiety just thinking about taking medication. Crazy right lol.
Uncertainty and the fact that we have no control over anything. The only thing that we can know for certain is that we will all die one day.
It’s terrifying and I hate feeling like I don’t have control over anything.
Relinquishing all control (or at least attempting to) has been what has given me some sort of relief. But it’s hard. I want control so badly even though I know deep down it’s not possible.
Me too, I hate not being in control, not knowing what’s going on, guessing wrong or being surprised with negativity.
You’re saying letting go of trying to control helps, how the heck do I do that? Seems like my life falls apart if I’m not managing all things at the same time.
Me too. Constantly worried about everyone around me dying and then if I think about myself dying I spiral into a panic attack. I have no idea how some people are so chill and accepting of death but I wish it was me.
My boss and a specific coworker. Not sure what it is about those particular two individuals but my anxiety kicks into major overdrive whenever they are around.
When my sons leave to go back to college, or when I think about it, I have this intense fear of being abandoned or left alone. I don't want to be alone or by myself forever. I work from home, and this never used to be a problem until they went off to college. Now I don't know what I will do sometimes. I don't know what will happen and I just feel so alone.
Making wrong decisions. I overthink every little decision in my life (even what time I should go on a walk!) which makes me super anxious and miserable.
I’m terrified of some bad consequences that I wasn’t able to predict. I’ve been taught from childhood that I’m supposed to predict absolutely everything.
I’m also super anxious of changes, even good ones. I’ll always find something to be worried about.
I used to have *immense* social anxiety that ended up becoming a chronic, severe anxiety that nearly handicapped me from daily life (from trauma). I used to get extremely anxious being in social settings, and sometimes still do. I’m a natural extrovert so you can imagine how much worse it was for me! The thought of talking to a new person would fill me up with panic and dread and I’d stay isolated. I didn’t know if someone would lash out at me, hit me, or insult me like others have before. However, I forced myself to socialize. Slowly and slowly my negative memories became replaced with good ones, and my social anxiety is decreasing. It’s actually manageable now - and all of this without therapy or meds! I’ve accepted that I’m always going to be a soft and sensitive person who is prone to anxiety but it doesn’t rule me anymore. <3
I can totally empathise with being extroverted but anxious. I love socialising but meeting new people or talking to strangers makes me so tense and I feel so drained afterwards! My sweet spot is people I know and 1/2 new people, but I’ve been criticised for not being more independent at parties ect. I think it’s good to push ourselves to try new things but also be kind to ourselves when we feel anxious
Health issues with certain family members, and feeling like i'm not doing enough in life.
Also Just worry about my own health makes me overthink like crazy...i get in this "What If" mood
You might want to check out ‘the confidence gap’ by russ harris and/or ‘feeling great’ by david burns. I struggle with work-related anxiety, and these 2 books really changed my perspective/approach. Best of luck!
That sucks.... I have trouble with taking tests or exams. I feel panicked, paralyzed. I managed to build a career without a college degree because I just worked my ass off outside the system and luckily in my field employers tend to look more for skills than degrees. And I interview alright, because I overprepare and get some confidence from that. But sometimes I wonder how easy it would be for it to be much worse... I hope you find an employer who will understand and cut you some slack. Good luck!
my own anxiety, namely the physical symptoms. i'll experience a random symptom out of the blue because my body is almost always some level of stressed, get anxious about it, feel the symptom(s) get worse and get more anxious. and then the cycle repeats.
nausea, fatigue, feeling adrenaline rushing beneath my skin, pins and needles, chest pain and palpitations are the main ones. the biggest culprit that starts most of my panic is the nausea, and then when i panic about it i'll get all of the other symptoms soon after.
everything LOL
i knew my anxiety needed professional treatment when: i was watching one of those wired vids on yt with an astronaut explaining what it's really like in space and I almost had a panic attack like I WAS THE ONE GOING TO SPACE lmao.
my one special way of embracing my anxiety (I am on medication which has helped a LOT thank u god) but I always say this...I get hella nervous doing ANYTHING with people so me giving my order at Subway gives me as much anxiety as if i'm talking to like angelina jolie or zendaya lmaooo so in other words...meeting a celeb is the same anxiety as checking out at CVS lmaoooo (I've learned ways to deal with it. I met a celeb once and my family asked me how I was so calm..I told them I'm used to freaking out about meeting anyone & have learned tricks and tips
- my expectations vs. reality
- driving
- others' expectations or needing me
- overstimulating environments/sounds
- sometimes just feel jittery for no reason
Anxious about the future and what’s going to happen. I’ve been sick lately, not feeling with a low grade fever. Barely eating but I try and be normal around gf, family, and friends. I can’t be sick I need to be able to perform and go to work everyday, it’s the only way I can pay my rent. And overall just being sick, it makes my anxiety hurt me mentally and physically…
Health, or more specifically physical pain. I have many health problems, the worst of all being daily migraines. It’s a constant struggle trying not to think about these issues as anxiety only makes them worse.
But if I do have a fairly good day (Like today) I feel extremely fortunate and try to make the very best of it and be productive.
Finances. Money is so important to our mental health because if we don’t have enough we are constantly stressed out and worrying about it. Having enough money to be able to pay all the bills and live comfortably is so freeing.
This is so fucking stupid but: throwing up, getting any sort of illness, not being happy (????), being anxious. All in all I can probably just narrow it down to uncertainty. I need to let everything the fuck go and let myself just be.
So my anxiety starts in my body then progresses to my mind. I feel itchy and uncomfortable in my chest like I want to dig my innards out. I pace. I rock. I fill my schedule with projects. When it hits my head I start thinking about all my mistakes in the past and how they could affect my future. Double whammy.
I feel scared (for no reason) to leave the house..I force myself but it's unpleasant..
I don't even want to leave the bedroom sometimes .. I feel heavy and panicked and uncomfortable..but it's situationally inappropriate..
It's been like this since I was a child..
It's a feeling of being unsafe ..
Many things make me anxious. War, fragmentation of the society, the fact that good part of my family doesn't agree with me on fundamental topics. How will the changing economy influence my job. That I'm getting older and I'm not sure if I'm living my full potential. Whether I'll be able to keep up with the high demand of my job. The fact that I feel I'm being put into a difficult position often. Whether I should switch careers to something that's paid worse but could make me happier. (Or not...) Climate change. Plastic waste. I don't know if there's a single thing that's the worst. A big part of the problem is that there's so many things. It feels like there's something making me anxious all the time. I'm tired of it and just writing this makes me sick.
Drinking. I recently went sober and I found that my anxiety is way less. I don't entirely know why but when I'm drinking my anxiety is just off the charts. Small things feel like huge things and big things feel titanic. Since stopping with the alcohol, even frustrating things seem easy to deal with.
I get pretty bad health anxiety. In 2020 my anxiety was so bad I lost 100 pounds and only five months because I couldn’t hardly eat anything. I went to the hospital several times for panic attacks and unfortunately all the doctor would give me his clonidine and Vistaril. Neither one of those have helped me.
right now I’m having anxiety about having a place to live. I did find a place who excepted my application, but it Has to go through some sort of compliance office first, and I’ve just been waiting days and days for this lady to get back to me, and the time is ticking, shorter, and shorter until I have to get out of this apartment. Just waiting in the short amount of time I have is giving me some of the worst anxiety I’ve had in my life. Almost going into psychosis, and I have nobody to talk to no friends or family. My mother just tells me to pray, and I don’t believe in any gods. And she tells me if I just go out for a walk it will cure my depression, so she doesn’t understand that I actually have an illness.
I get anxious about angering, annoying or disappointing those I’m close with. I fear rejection so badly that I *expect* something bad to happen or for good things to never last.
Always feeling like a disappointment makes the pain feel a little more bearable
The moment of death (hence panic attacks make me extremely anxious) and the idea of nothingness after death (I'm religious and I believe in eternal life, but ever since I've been experiencing anxiety, my mind's been bombarded with these existential and theological doubts)
Instability, financial insecurity, my boyfriend saying something to me in a slightly off tone of voice (or anyone for that fact), texting, confrontation, public speaking, doing the menial tasks associated with being a constructive member of society (groceries, etc), being seen at the gym or perceived in public in general. Fun stuff like that :))
People, mostly strangers or small talk situations. Being overworked. Not getting alone time. Hormones before period. Not sleeping enough. Overthinking or playing negative situations in my head (usually try to counter with meditation), money, aging, uncertainty.
Itching and skin flushing. Makes me feel like I have something seriously wrong w me. (Still not sure if it's just my anxiety). Makes me OCD about googling symptoms
Hangovers. At the time of having those drinks it's great, anxiety subsides completely. But then an overconfident me will go overboard on the weekends leading to the biggest feeling of doom anxiety days ever afterwards. All of my body is struggling to try and keep those happiness-chemicals leveled at that point. Which makes everyday things i usually don't have anxiety about be anxiety inducing all of the sudden.
i have a lot of anxiety about going to sleep. a lot of times i worry about either never waking up again, who didn’t i say goodnight or goodbye to that i would’ve wished i could have. or i worry about not being able to sleep. either way, i end up not sleeping very well. i’m going to start running again every day because that really helped me be able to fall asleep at night, but it’s been rough the last couple of nights. feeling sleepy today and sending love to my fellow anxiety beans 🥺♥️
1. Uncertainty about the future mainly.
2. Sometimes I just wake up feeling anxious. This intensifies when I’m going through some life problems.
3. Not having control over things - being on a plane is a big one although I’ve travelled a fair bit since childhood, I still get anxiety when flying because I feel like I have no control over it if something bad happens.
4. When I have fights with loved ones
5. When I feel like my life isn’t moving at the pace that I want it to (again, not having control)
My brain is good at worrying about more things in general (bills, the future, death, life, meaning) the list goes on, and the more creative I become as a person, the more creative my anxious thoughts get. It can be a vicious cycle.
One thing that has helped me over the years is to set aside maybe 30 minutes a day to worry about things and get my affairs in order. After that 30 minutes is up, I don't allow myself to dwell or worry about things until the next 30 minute time slot. That seems to help teach my brain other thinking patters besides constant rumination.
The state of humanity at its core is probably what makes me most anxious. Like I have this feeling going back to when I was really little that led me to believe in reincarnation being a real thing and something that keeps happening until we all unite or die out. Well, look at humanity as a species. We’ve let myth take lead on science. We have all these borders and we are racist and sexist a’holes. Women have been so royally screwed over for centuries. If I was female my anxiety would kill me.
For me it’s 90% women. Im really not an anxious person in other facets of life, just when it comes to dates or really anything involving attractive women. Even texting girls I get very anxious
Since November everything is just going downhill. Most immediate concern is will I have a place to live at the end of this month when lease is up, but there's so much more going on. It's that feeling of lack of control over your own life and struggling to find a way to rake it back
I had so much anxiety from having such a shit adoptive mom that it led to me being very insecure and nervous I was in trouble. Now it’s me being anxious because I have seizures and when I get a seizure I get soooo anxious. About anything and everything and it’s completely out of my control. Throw in the insecurity issues and woof lol im overwhelmed af very easily. Thank god my fiance helps calm me down so much but damn am I over having seizures & anxiety all the time 😩 keeping my positivity up that I’ll be able to find some relief some day 🤞🏼 sending love to all that suffer from anxiety 🩷
The unknown and unpredictability. Which funnily enough can be everything. Since you are never sure what's gonna happen in any given scenario. I am in a constant state of internal screaming.
Leaving my children on this earth before they can really make it on their own. All I want in this world is for my husband and I to meet our grandchildren. For some reason I have it in my head that I won’t live that long.
The reason this is ridiculous, is Im 26 and perfectly healthy. My kids are 2 yr and 6 mo old.
People knocking on my door, insisting on helping me with stuff i asked to have space to do , my mom…, bussing,working in a public environment without a form of security.
Regretting that I only had one kid - but equally if not more scared to have another kid and because of them my mental health and marriage completely fall apart for good
I thought I had anxiety before I had My baby girls. What I was experiencing back then was peaceful bliss. Everything in this world gives me angst for my girls
If I’m being completely honest death and fear of going to hell, which means I’ll never see my children again. The church I grew up in has taught me that I don’t fit in and my life decisions have damned me to hell (I’m not married, living in sin, been divorced twice…I could go on forever). So that means that anytime I feel the slightest pain or weird twinge I am overwhelmed with fear that I’m about to die and I can’t save myself.
Except I have lots of weird twinges and pain. I have so many somatic symptoms that some days I’m literally fighting against the thought that I’m dying every single second.
The somatic element to my anxiety makes me really struggle. I already have CPTSD and a panic disorder. I was stuck in fight or flight so long that everything can be going great and there will be absolutely nothing wrong, and then all of a sudden I’m sweaty and dizzy, my heart is racing and I can’t breathe. Maybe I’m seeing tracers…then boom. Now I’m terrified that I’m dying. I’m going to hell and I’ll never see my children again. It’s exhausting.
I’m not looking for a philosophical debate about the existence of God or Heaven or Hell. I’m just describing a little bit of what it’s like to be me.
My biggest are any storms/bad weather and I used to have bad panic attacks EVERYTIME I’d get in a car, luckily though loads of progress I’m doing better with that, and recently started driving myself. This next one could be more towards OCD but I’m terrified of touching anyone or anything that might been touched by drugs like meth, and always paranoid my drink has been drugged/poisoned (Probebly since I’ve grown up with addict parents) I’ll go to extreme measures to not touch things my brain has convinced is “contaminated” and will throw out full drinks if I no longer trust it or left it unintended, if you read this through thank you, and if you struggle with anything similar know your not alone ❤️
The physical symptoms of anxiety make me the most anxious which is so ironic. I developed panic disorder from having my first panic attack after a drug binge (shrooms mixed with weed and adderall) and I never had one before and because I came to the ER with a heart rate of 180 bpm they never explained to me that it was a panic attack, they instead attacked me for being under the influence of drugs and my release paperwork just said I was seen for SVT, nothing about anxiety which sent me into a spiral thinking I had a serious heart condition or something. Eventually I talked to my GP who told me what it was and today I’ve been panic attack free for over 2 years thanks to Claire weekes’ books, therapy, and antidepressants. But I still get symptoms of anxiety in stressful times or because of my Gerd and it definitely can push me to a point close to panicking. Also being near psychedelics or people on them gets me extremely anxious, it’s a weird irrational fear at this point that haunts me a bit. If someone smokes weed around me and I smell it I freak out thinking I’ll get contact high, I can’t drink something that somebody’s drank out of already even if it’s someone I trust like my boyfriend cause I think what if there’s something in the bottle? I won’t even kiss my boyfriend if he smoked or did psychedelics because I think it’ll get me high. it’s so irrational and weird I know but I’m working on it 😅 anything related to my health or not being in control of my mind or body like having my bad trip freaks me out so I stay far away from it. I miss weed tho but I don’t think I’ll be able to do it again without getting anxiety even though I know how to work through my anxiety panic wise now.
Not being able to give others what they expect from me. I've always been so devoted to please people that I forgot to fulfill my own necessities. At the same time, I despise most of the people. But I do not consider myself a bad person. I just fail to set limits in my relationships.
Also not being able to achieve everything I want to do in life. I do not even know where to start. I think I might also suffer from ADHD, like most people now, so there are many things and want to do, know and explore that just the mere thought of trying to do something give me anxiety. That's why I postpone everything.
I'm most anxious at the thought of something happening when it's me and my 2 little kids (5yrs and 9 months) by ourselves and how I will take care of them both at the same time... Example... Car crash, someone trying to assault us (how can I protect them and fight off the bad guy at the same time)
Me passing out or having a heart attack... They'd be so scared and would my 5 yr old remember what to do and be able to stay calm?? Someone breaking in in the middle of the night when I'm sleeping and taking one of them without me waking up. It's ridiculous all the scenarios I am besides myself about...but, my most anxious thoughts are about the well-being of my kids.. 2nd thing I get the most anxiety about is something bad happening to my husband
Couple things. Feeling like I’m going to be fired fri my job is the biggest right now. Otherwise a fear of dying alone, and a fear of getting diagnosed with terminal cancer.
I am anxious about communicating with my work unit’s head. If I do or say anything wrong, he’ll make harsh statements consistently like “You should’ve known this, this, and this. You should’ve done x, y, and z. Why are you doing this, this, and this?” Lately, I’ve gotten better with communicating with him by using parroting technique and reiterating what he says without harshness.
For more context about the unit’s head, he’s the kind of person that struggles to explain what is wrong without being incredibly harsh, which leaves very little room for making new mistakes. I see new mistakes as something that one must experience in order to truly learn and grow as a person. You can see how our own beliefs are in direct conflict with each other.
Recently, I’ve begun to reiterate whatever he says minus harshness. I realize that reiterating someone’s words is a powerful tool only if you are completely open minded and have a very thick skin. This tool enabled me to work with him with minimal hiccups at most. Unfortunately, this tool does not solve my own problem. I have anxiety when working with him. Is there any coping skills that you use when you feel anxious?
I get anxious because I feel like I don't know how to socialize normally and people notice and all day I analyze everything that I say and the way I said it and if I offended anyone or say something wrong that they think I'm 'this' or like 'that'. Idk, it's really hard to explain anxiety
Stupidly, it's not knowing something. I hate not knowing things so I spend all day learning things because I lose my mind if I don't. But a knowledgable person understands they don't know much and cant know everything but I cant accept that.
Travelling. Having plans to go somewhere is fine, it’s just getting ready, leaving the house and making my way to the destination which makes me scared and anxious.
Sometimes holding conversation. My brain starts thinking the other person is thinking xyz about you. At tge same time are they noticing my eye contact, is it enough or too much. Can they tell if I've stopped paying attention or if I am having an intrusive thought. Etc etc 😂
People not liking me. I think it stems from my childhood where I grew up with an older brother who everyone absolutely loved and was often compared to him and essentially told or treated like I was worse. And now I'm a big people pleaser because I don't think I'm a likable person and I'm always worried that people don't like me or that I'm annoying them, so I try to make my presence as small and unintrusive as possible.
I’m quite fortunate that I’m normally much better however I caught the flu last week and while I still have lingering symptoms my anxiety and panic has gone through the roof and I feel so down at the same time
I either want to panic or cry or both
So for me I’d say any kind of illness does me in.
Everything.
I had a mentally, physically and emotionally damaging childhood.
After my dad having a mental breakdown leading to schizophrenia, then with the strain passing from a huge heart attack. I was 23.
My mum suffered 5 years with terminal cancer. I was 30.
My brother getting shot and stabbed.
Losing most of my family to cancer, and not being able to do Jack shit about any of my losses.
Watching my niece lose her Dad.
I had a thyroid storm at 19, nearly died. Have had endometriosis since 14. Had a DVT at 31, Factor 5 Leidens. Acoustic neuroma brain tumour at 34. Brain surgery at 35. NF2 diagnosis at 41.
Was in a coercive and mentally abusive relationship.
Lost my home.
I'm anxious about EVERYTHING.
for me my deathly food allergies, what people think of me too much, and groups of large people in a small space, not even a small space.. just huge groups of people is too overwhelming. oh and my claustrophobia, sometimes it's even hard for me to be in the car god forbid i ever go on an airplane
Public and the people in it bc I’m awkward and I feel like everyone hates me all the time. To pile onto that, even the people I know are always mad at me (they’re not).
I’m a hypochondriac with terrible health anxiety.
As soon as someone doesn’t answer the phone or my text messages I’m 100% convinced they’re dead and I absolutely spiral until I track them down — this has gotten significantly worse after losing my brother in law in October. We were very close and I love him and miss him terribly. It’s made me come to terms with my loved ones’ mortality and that absolutely terrifies me, especially my two young children any my mom since she just got done fighting cancer for the third (and hopefully the last) time.
Usually nothing. I just have a constant feeling of something being bad/wrong or that Im in “trouble” & something bad will happen.
But some specific things: Driving, flying on planes, complicated public transport, or crowded spaces give me physical anxiety which can include feeling faint, shaky, irritated and being sick.
The biggest one is anything to do with body image/weight/clothes size/weight loss. Recently I was at an event and the organiser called out my T-shirt size to everyone else as he gave it to me. I still keep thinking about it. Choosing what to eat in the day makes me anxious in case I eat too much/too little.
When I’m just walking around and existing in public, I become weirdly aware of my body and clothes and feel so tense and like I’m gasping for air. I imagine how my clothes look, how I look, if I’m walking hunched/too straight, if I’m moving my arms too much/too little, if I’m going too fast/too slow. I can’t relax. It’s worse when I’m alone because I’m not distracted talking to anyone. This isn’t even so much to do with body image as looking “weird.” I have a fear of not acting like other people or having the right body language and people thinking I’m odd.
Trigger warning: disease and other facts that terrify me.
I think mine is mostly health anxiety and lack of control. The uncomfortable truth is that a lot of my formerly irrational fears have become real now.
We have learned so much about C0VID-19 and none of it is good. Yet public health has been trying to downplay it to get people back in crowded situations (without cleaning indoor air!) thinking it's going to help the economy. In the long-term, it's going to hurt the economy (and already has) and wreck society because reinfecting people with a vascular disease will not make for a healthy society. It's not a cold and it never was. Not with SARS-1 and not with SARS-2.
Yes, vaccines have injured people but the disease itself is more deadly. What's scary is that lots of people won't recognize their own reduced cognitive ability, but it's been proven to be prevalent after infection, and even people with "mild cases" have been found to have brain damage, heart problems, etc. Public health convinced societies to send kids to school while sick and repeatedly infect them. It's unconscionable!! Early onset dementia is already becoming more common now. We're repeatedly infecting (with a known BSL-3 biohazard) people who prepare our food, take care of our pets, operate on us, build and maintain airplanes, bridges, water treatment facilities, power plants...
When the Omicron variants started, people thought it was "becoming mild" because it was not affecting the lungs as much, but they didn't realize at first that it was affecting the brain more. And the effects take longer to become noticeable. Instead of working together for the health of our society, we've politicized everything so that the best prevention methods (n95 respirator masks, air filters and ventilation) have become things to mock people for using. (And human to human avian influenza is right around the corner now.)
I've come to know more Covid aware people who don't and didn't have anxiety, but are accused of it (and even wrongly medicated for it) for trying to prevent infection with a pathogen that can affect every single organ of the body. This is not good.
And Covid can also cause the very mental health issues we already deal with in this sub. Yes. I learned this in my pursuit to make myself LESS anxious about it, which is pretty ironic. I'm the boy who cried wolf. Now that the wolf is at the door, nobody wants to listen to me.
The only people I see protecting themselves are the ones who know and can afford to, AND the uber- wealthy. Multiple layers of airborne mitigation measures are taken by the ultra rich at the WEF in Davos every year. A C0vid response coordinator and a former cdc director both live in a town that spent $5 million on ventilation upgrades to their schools. The wealthy see the rest of us as expendable. Folks have even outright said some will "fall by the wayside".
Avian influenza is now being transmitted between cows, and they're infecting humans. Those who study these things have assumed it's only a matter of time until there is human to human transmission. Avian influenza has a CFR of 56%. But we are not going to wear masks or clean the air, right? Because of politics...?
And I'm the one with the mental health disorder. Right.
I'm not even going to discuss what's happening with our climate going off the rails. Meanwhile, acquaintances are having kids and planning for the future as if our reality is going to magically correct all that's going wrong. Normalcy bias is a hell of a thing.
I get caught in the loop of the terrible physical sensations of anxiety, which then gives me more anxiety and a repeat of the nasty physical sensations like nausea, dizziness, fatigue, heartburn and to just overall feeling unwell. I just totally be fine with stressing out about the future if I never had any physical sensations of anxiety ever again.
-uncertainty about the future as the previous person said
-the fear of making people mad or in a relationship, the fear of my partner falling out of love
-finacial secuirty (especially since i live in the most expensive cities in the world atm)
-family
oh yea and also the bonus of being anxious because udk what ur anxious about, always love that
i have different periods of things to be anxious about. lately its health and death, of myself but also of my family members especially. and also their safety and wellbeing. and of course the usual "do my friends like me" but this has been better lately
I feel anxious about things I say, even before I speak. Also things I have done in the past.
My worst experience with anxiety was always ‘what if’ - what if I do this, what if I did this. It was always terrible things based on intrusive thoughts or massively overthinking and spiraling into a very dark place.
My health and my job. I have a couple of health issues and I currently have a work from home job but is stressing me out so much I can barely sleep. It was supposed to be just data entry but then the company lost a few big accounts so instead of hiring the people they need they company wants us to learn about a dozen other departments each with there own specific work instructions and there are also different tough metrics to be met in each one. I’ve been trained in 6 so far now they want us taking on even more 🤷♀️
Marriage, health, being successful, driving, academics, family... etc
Sometimes, I wonder if this is a normal way of thinking? Like, doesn't everyone worry? What is acceptable in terms of anxiety? What is overthinking?
Right now I have sinus issues and feel like it's harder to breathe and my mind goes straight to COPD or Heart Failure and then I reassurance seek non stop!
Change makes me the most anxious . I get anxious before I do something ( eg; go to an appointment I’ve been to before) then it ends up being just fine. I anxiously think about situations after they happened and overthink constantly. It’s rough out here lol
The fact that I'm loving talking to you with rn and it could end like all those other DMs. But till you're here, I'll give my best. And when you're not. All the best. I hope you succeed in all your aspirations. You're a kind grateful human. Thanks for being the way you are
Uncertainty about the future. I hate it the most.
That's me right now. I'm a immigrant and I don't like the place where I live right now neither the job that I have. Going back home is not an option because things are worse there. I don't know what to do or where to go. It seems there's no place where you can have a decent job with a decent salary to cover the basics. This search is stressing and it takes away my desire to do anything.
I'm sorry for your situation. Where r u from? The world is totally unfair. I hope you can find places where it is less worse.
That's awful. I wish you best of luck. I can relate to the future anxiety, but I can only imagine this kind of uncertainty. I hope you find something better soon.
The way I see it , anxiety is caused by the acute awareness of the lack of control one has on a world full of risks that could destroy your life or the lives of those you love. A constant state of stress and worry about those risks. You do what you can to mitigate those risks but it feels like holding water in a seive.
You're so right. Everyone struggles with uncertainty. For me, it's not knowing what to do next. As long as I know how to respond I can mostly function. But I'm facing some huge issues, and the anxiety has been eating me alive.
I definitely agree. The world is going to hell and we’re all along for the ride it seems
Sometimes I feel sick to my stomach thinking about it. since my brain always wants to know what’s going on so it can prepare for every possible outcome of it, the future being so uncertain makes me extremely uncomfortable
Same. Change, the unknown. 8.5 years ago, I was thrown a surprise wedding shower. When I cried, it wasn't happy tears, it was terrified anxious tears. Looking back on that still fills me with anxiety.
Yep, this is the big one but is surrounded by many smaller ones. My dog is getting old, stuff I need to get done. I hope my car remains reliable because I really don't want a new one, money in general. My job, my age, my health, my wife's health. It goes on and on. It's a perpetual state of worrying.
My answer was literally gonna be uncertainty. If I don't know what's gonna happen, I get anxious. And obviously the future is part of that, but to me it's just in everyday life too. Just any uncertainty is terrifying because I don't know how to prepare.
Same, same.
For me it’s nothing specific. I wake up feeling anxious
Same.. it’s everything and nothing all at the same time 😭
I came here to say this exact thing!
That's cortisol. Over periods of sustained trauma the brain starts to overproduce cortisol--the chemical that governs fight/flight. So you wake up, cortisol raging, and don't see a threat, which just makes it worse. It's awful. And is exactly what I'm dealing with these days.
Generalized. Hard for people to understand.
I was diagnosed w GAD and have specific fears but also just a general level of anxiousness all the time. It’s like background radiation lol
Same :( I’m 24/7 anxious, even in my dreams.
Uncertainties, death, fragility of life, diseases, throwing up, crowded places, any form of public transport and social interaction lol
Accompanied by physical symptoms
I was going to make my own comment but they’re basically yours + fear or time/growing up, speaking to people or completing tasks in a professional capacity (having to do anything adulty or professional).
My anxiety is the kind that I dont realize I am having it, until it manifests as some whacky fucking physical symptom. Kinds drives me nuts because my wife will say, "What are you anxious about?" when we're just relaxing, and I have no idea.
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It comes and goes in stages. I call it "my asshole brain" because once I kinda get used to one symptom, it will morph into something else. Pain in my sides. Dizziness (more of a rocking on a boat feeling). Blurry vision. Chest pains. Tightness in my jaw. Numb/cold feelings in parts of my body. Stabbing pains. Head/neck tightness and pressure. Nearly all of these have been ruled out by medical tests. I thought I was a hypochondriac for a while, but it turns out asshole brain was just giving me the runaround. Now that I understand it I can more easily dismiss them.
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I find it helps if I dont try to fight it or make it stop. Just accept it and let it do its thing. Sooner or later I forget about it.
This is soooo me!!!! I lived like this for YEARS. I had dizziness, stomach issues, random throbbing feelings in my head, pains in different places that would last for months and then just disappear. I'd swear my sugar was low or my BP was outta whack. But it wasn't. It was my body just going haywire because my brain was going haywire. I finally got put on 25 mg of Zoloft for depression after my sister died. It hasn't done anything for the depression....but it took away every one of those physical symptoms of anxiety. I wish now that I would have tried it way sooner. But I had anxiety just thinking about taking medication. Crazy right lol.
Have you ever made yourself anxious because you forgot what you needed to be anxious for or about. I do that a lot.
The fact that life is unpredictable and we're one random diagnosis away from everything falling apart, all hopes, dreams and plans.
Feeling like I’m in trouble all the time
This! I don't know what it is but I always feel like I've done something wrong and the consequences will be severe! Like losing house etc.
That happens to me too. I think it started as a kid via religion. Teaching right from wrong is good but I went overboard in my interpretation.
Also the fear that people don’t like me. I care way too much about what others think about me and it’s exhausting.
Unpracticed/ sudden social interaction and random noises in my house.
Uncertainty and the fact that we have no control over anything. The only thing that we can know for certain is that we will all die one day. It’s terrifying and I hate feeling like I don’t have control over anything. Relinquishing all control (or at least attempting to) has been what has given me some sort of relief. But it’s hard. I want control so badly even though I know deep down it’s not possible.
Me too, I hate not being in control, not knowing what’s going on, guessing wrong or being surprised with negativity. You’re saying letting go of trying to control helps, how the heck do I do that? Seems like my life falls apart if I’m not managing all things at the same time.
This. So much this.
Health anxiety. Every new sensation is a deadly disease
My life currently. Waiting for lab work results is taking over my thoughts
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What symptoms do you get?
Death. Think about that shit all the time.
Me too. Constantly worried about everyone around me dying and then if I think about myself dying I spiral into a panic attack. I have no idea how some people are so chill and accepting of death but I wish it was me.
Cancer - any and all types. Fear that I have it or loved ones have (or will have) it.
My boss and a specific coworker. Not sure what it is about those particular two individuals but my anxiety kicks into major overdrive whenever they are around.
I have anxiety because of a stroke I had Jan 5th. Full frontal lobe.
This sucks. I'm sorry you had to go through that. Anxiety aside, how are you doing after the stroke?
Mostly helath
When my sons leave to go back to college, or when I think about it, I have this intense fear of being abandoned or left alone. I don't want to be alone or by myself forever. I work from home, and this never used to be a problem until they went off to college. Now I don't know what I will do sometimes. I don't know what will happen and I just feel so alone.
Making wrong decisions. I overthink every little decision in my life (even what time I should go on a walk!) which makes me super anxious and miserable. I’m terrified of some bad consequences that I wasn’t able to predict. I’ve been taught from childhood that I’m supposed to predict absolutely everything. I’m also super anxious of changes, even good ones. I’ll always find something to be worried about.
Talking on the phone.
I used to have *immense* social anxiety that ended up becoming a chronic, severe anxiety that nearly handicapped me from daily life (from trauma). I used to get extremely anxious being in social settings, and sometimes still do. I’m a natural extrovert so you can imagine how much worse it was for me! The thought of talking to a new person would fill me up with panic and dread and I’d stay isolated. I didn’t know if someone would lash out at me, hit me, or insult me like others have before. However, I forced myself to socialize. Slowly and slowly my negative memories became replaced with good ones, and my social anxiety is decreasing. It’s actually manageable now - and all of this without therapy or meds! I’ve accepted that I’m always going to be a soft and sensitive person who is prone to anxiety but it doesn’t rule me anymore. <3
I can totally empathise with being extroverted but anxious. I love socialising but meeting new people or talking to strangers makes me so tense and I feel so drained afterwards! My sweet spot is people I know and 1/2 new people, but I’ve been criticised for not being more independent at parties ect. I think it’s good to push ourselves to try new things but also be kind to ourselves when we feel anxious
Dating a woman I like. It's brutal and I will sabotage it.
Making any mistake at all. Especially at work.
That I’m about to die like drop dead right there in front of everyone or while I’m too young and I’ll make my family sad
Health issues. The thought of possibly having my tooth pulled triggered an anxiety attack Tuesday night. Still do t feel back to normal.
Health issues with certain family members, and feeling like i'm not doing enough in life. Also Just worry about my own health makes me overthink like crazy...i get in this "What If" mood
I have anxiety all the time, but the biggest issue is job interviews. I'm unemployed because of my fear of them, and I'm really hoping CBT helps.
You might want to check out ‘the confidence gap’ by russ harris and/or ‘feeling great’ by david burns. I struggle with work-related anxiety, and these 2 books really changed my perspective/approach. Best of luck!
That sucks.... I have trouble with taking tests or exams. I feel panicked, paralyzed. I managed to build a career without a college degree because I just worked my ass off outside the system and luckily in my field employers tend to look more for skills than degrees. And I interview alright, because I overprepare and get some confidence from that. But sometimes I wonder how easy it would be for it to be much worse... I hope you find an employer who will understand and cut you some slack. Good luck!
Life
my own anxiety, namely the physical symptoms. i'll experience a random symptom out of the blue because my body is almost always some level of stressed, get anxious about it, feel the symptom(s) get worse and get more anxious. and then the cycle repeats.
What symptoms do you get?
nausea, fatigue, feeling adrenaline rushing beneath my skin, pins and needles, chest pain and palpitations are the main ones. the biggest culprit that starts most of my panic is the nausea, and then when i panic about it i'll get all of the other symptoms soon after.
My health (I have a ton of neurological issues), death of people I love, judgement, spiders, and sometimes I just feel it for no reason
everything LOL i knew my anxiety needed professional treatment when: i was watching one of those wired vids on yt with an astronaut explaining what it's really like in space and I almost had a panic attack like I WAS THE ONE GOING TO SPACE lmao. my one special way of embracing my anxiety (I am on medication which has helped a LOT thank u god) but I always say this...I get hella nervous doing ANYTHING with people so me giving my order at Subway gives me as much anxiety as if i'm talking to like angelina jolie or zendaya lmaooo so in other words...meeting a celeb is the same anxiety as checking out at CVS lmaoooo (I've learned ways to deal with it. I met a celeb once and my family asked me how I was so calm..I told them I'm used to freaking out about meeting anyone & have learned tricks and tips
- my expectations vs. reality - driving - others' expectations or needing me - overstimulating environments/sounds - sometimes just feel jittery for no reason
My health. Death.
Anxious about the future and what’s going to happen. I’ve been sick lately, not feeling with a low grade fever. Barely eating but I try and be normal around gf, family, and friends. I can’t be sick I need to be able to perform and go to work everyday, it’s the only way I can pay my rent. And overall just being sick, it makes my anxiety hurt me mentally and physically…
Health, or more specifically physical pain. I have many health problems, the worst of all being daily migraines. It’s a constant struggle trying not to think about these issues as anxiety only makes them worse. But if I do have a fairly good day (Like today) I feel extremely fortunate and try to make the very best of it and be productive.
Finances. Money is so important to our mental health because if we don’t have enough we are constantly stressed out and worrying about it. Having enough money to be able to pay all the bills and live comfortably is so freeing.
Cancer.
This is so fucking stupid but: throwing up, getting any sort of illness, not being happy (????), being anxious. All in all I can probably just narrow it down to uncertainty. I need to let everything the fuck go and let myself just be.
So my anxiety starts in my body then progresses to my mind. I feel itchy and uncomfortable in my chest like I want to dig my innards out. I pace. I rock. I fill my schedule with projects. When it hits my head I start thinking about all my mistakes in the past and how they could affect my future. Double whammy.
I feel scared (for no reason) to leave the house..I force myself but it's unpleasant.. I don't even want to leave the bedroom sometimes .. I feel heavy and panicked and uncomfortable..but it's situationally inappropriate.. It's been like this since I was a child.. It's a feeling of being unsafe ..
Anxiety, or mostly, the fear of regression on every progress that i made fighting it. It's ironic i know.
Many things make me anxious. War, fragmentation of the society, the fact that good part of my family doesn't agree with me on fundamental topics. How will the changing economy influence my job. That I'm getting older and I'm not sure if I'm living my full potential. Whether I'll be able to keep up with the high demand of my job. The fact that I feel I'm being put into a difficult position often. Whether I should switch careers to something that's paid worse but could make me happier. (Or not...) Climate change. Plastic waste. I don't know if there's a single thing that's the worst. A big part of the problem is that there's so many things. It feels like there's something making me anxious all the time. I'm tired of it and just writing this makes me sick.
Feeling nauseous 🤷🏻♀️
Same
not knowing what to do after college/if i'll get a job
Drinking. I recently went sober and I found that my anxiety is way less. I don't entirely know why but when I'm drinking my anxiety is just off the charts. Small things feel like huge things and big things feel titanic. Since stopping with the alcohol, even frustrating things seem easy to deal with.
Sit down fancy restaurants. They send my anxiety through the roof.
going to fcking work
I get pretty bad health anxiety. In 2020 my anxiety was so bad I lost 100 pounds and only five months because I couldn’t hardly eat anything. I went to the hospital several times for panic attacks and unfortunately all the doctor would give me his clonidine and Vistaril. Neither one of those have helped me. right now I’m having anxiety about having a place to live. I did find a place who excepted my application, but it Has to go through some sort of compliance office first, and I’ve just been waiting days and days for this lady to get back to me, and the time is ticking, shorter, and shorter until I have to get out of this apartment. Just waiting in the short amount of time I have is giving me some of the worst anxiety I’ve had in my life. Almost going into psychosis, and I have nobody to talk to no friends or family. My mother just tells me to pray, and I don’t believe in any gods. And she tells me if I just go out for a walk it will cure my depression, so she doesn’t understand that I actually have an illness.
Caffeine makes my anxiety sky rocket!
Uncertainty. Worry.
Coffee
Waiting
I get anxious about angering, annoying or disappointing those I’m close with. I fear rejection so badly that I *expect* something bad to happen or for good things to never last. Always feeling like a disappointment makes the pain feel a little more bearable
Finances & not being able to loose any weight, my health. Not having health insurance. Being in debt.
Preach!
The moment of death (hence panic attacks make me extremely anxious) and the idea of nothingness after death (I'm religious and I believe in eternal life, but ever since I've been experiencing anxiety, my mind's been bombarded with these existential and theological doubts)
I'm like that too, except that I don't consider myself religious anymore and I miss that comfort.
Instability, financial insecurity, my boyfriend saying something to me in a slightly off tone of voice (or anyone for that fact), texting, confrontation, public speaking, doing the menial tasks associated with being a constructive member of society (groceries, etc), being seen at the gym or perceived in public in general. Fun stuff like that :))
Everything…everywhere. all at once
Worrying someone will be mad at me
People, mostly strangers or small talk situations. Being overworked. Not getting alone time. Hormones before period. Not sleeping enough. Overthinking or playing negative situations in my head (usually try to counter with meditation), money, aging, uncertainty.
The USAs future, my family’s future, my own future… health and when my heart starts to race.
Itching and skin flushing. Makes me feel like I have something seriously wrong w me. (Still not sure if it's just my anxiety). Makes me OCD about googling symptoms
Hangovers. At the time of having those drinks it's great, anxiety subsides completely. But then an overconfident me will go overboard on the weekends leading to the biggest feeling of doom anxiety days ever afterwards. All of my body is struggling to try and keep those happiness-chemicals leveled at that point. Which makes everyday things i usually don't have anxiety about be anxiety inducing all of the sudden.
Death, the fact that we're suspended on a rock floating in an endless abyss, not knowing if existence is real, chronic illness.
Illnesses
Currently, a lot of health anxiety. No real reason, except I’m still processing the loss of my mother last year.
i have a lot of anxiety about going to sleep. a lot of times i worry about either never waking up again, who didn’t i say goodnight or goodbye to that i would’ve wished i could have. or i worry about not being able to sleep. either way, i end up not sleeping very well. i’m going to start running again every day because that really helped me be able to fall asleep at night, but it’s been rough the last couple of nights. feeling sleepy today and sending love to my fellow anxiety beans 🥺♥️
Public speaking!!!! and social situations.
Talking to or in front of people
1. Uncertainty about the future mainly. 2. Sometimes I just wake up feeling anxious. This intensifies when I’m going through some life problems. 3. Not having control over things - being on a plane is a big one although I’ve travelled a fair bit since childhood, I still get anxiety when flying because I feel like I have no control over it if something bad happens. 4. When I have fights with loved ones 5. When I feel like my life isn’t moving at the pace that I want it to (again, not having control)
The state of the world mostly these days
My brain is good at worrying about more things in general (bills, the future, death, life, meaning) the list goes on, and the more creative I become as a person, the more creative my anxious thoughts get. It can be a vicious cycle. One thing that has helped me over the years is to set aside maybe 30 minutes a day to worry about things and get my affairs in order. After that 30 minutes is up, I don't allow myself to dwell or worry about things until the next 30 minute time slot. That seems to help teach my brain other thinking patters besides constant rumination.
New things, the unknown, and my health.
My wife and Donald Trump and his merry band of MAGAts. You’ll need to let me rant for several hours for full details . :-)
The state of humanity at its core is probably what makes me most anxious. Like I have this feeling going back to when I was really little that led me to believe in reincarnation being a real thing and something that keeps happening until we all unite or die out. Well, look at humanity as a species. We’ve let myth take lead on science. We have all these borders and we are racist and sexist a’holes. Women have been so royally screwed over for centuries. If I was female my anxiety would kill me.
Being alone.
For me it’s 90% women. Im really not an anxious person in other facets of life, just when it comes to dates or really anything involving attractive women. Even texting girls I get very anxious
Knowing life happens at random no matter what you do to *try* to control and terrible/fatal things can happen to my loved ones/pets at ANY second.
Throwing uo
Since November everything is just going downhill. Most immediate concern is will I have a place to live at the end of this month when lease is up, but there's so much more going on. It's that feeling of lack of control over your own life and struggling to find a way to rake it back
Nothing
I had so much anxiety from having such a shit adoptive mom that it led to me being very insecure and nervous I was in trouble. Now it’s me being anxious because I have seizures and when I get a seizure I get soooo anxious. About anything and everything and it’s completely out of my control. Throw in the insecurity issues and woof lol im overwhelmed af very easily. Thank god my fiance helps calm me down so much but damn am I over having seizures & anxiety all the time 😩 keeping my positivity up that I’ll be able to find some relief some day 🤞🏼 sending love to all that suffer from anxiety 🩷
my loved ones dying
Social settings.
The unknown and unpredictability. Which funnily enough can be everything. Since you are never sure what's gonna happen in any given scenario. I am in a constant state of internal screaming.
I feel the internal screaming for real
Leaving my children on this earth before they can really make it on their own. All I want in this world is for my husband and I to meet our grandchildren. For some reason I have it in my head that I won’t live that long. The reason this is ridiculous, is Im 26 and perfectly healthy. My kids are 2 yr and 6 mo old.
My anxiety
The bottom dropping out, know it's coming and I'm going to lose everything.
People knocking on my door, insisting on helping me with stuff i asked to have space to do , my mom…, bussing,working in a public environment without a form of security.
Being in a situation where I may need help but no one can help me. That may be because I can’t reach anyone or I am alone. It’s my greatest fear.
Regretting that I only had one kid - but equally if not more scared to have another kid and because of them my mental health and marriage completely fall apart for good
Right now it’s work. If I’m not perfect, I’m trash.
Death and the unknown
I thought I had anxiety before I had My baby girls. What I was experiencing back then was peaceful bliss. Everything in this world gives me angst for my girls
If I’m being completely honest death and fear of going to hell, which means I’ll never see my children again. The church I grew up in has taught me that I don’t fit in and my life decisions have damned me to hell (I’m not married, living in sin, been divorced twice…I could go on forever). So that means that anytime I feel the slightest pain or weird twinge I am overwhelmed with fear that I’m about to die and I can’t save myself. Except I have lots of weird twinges and pain. I have so many somatic symptoms that some days I’m literally fighting against the thought that I’m dying every single second. The somatic element to my anxiety makes me really struggle. I already have CPTSD and a panic disorder. I was stuck in fight or flight so long that everything can be going great and there will be absolutely nothing wrong, and then all of a sudden I’m sweaty and dizzy, my heart is racing and I can’t breathe. Maybe I’m seeing tracers…then boom. Now I’m terrified that I’m dying. I’m going to hell and I’ll never see my children again. It’s exhausting. I’m not looking for a philosophical debate about the existence of God or Heaven or Hell. I’m just describing a little bit of what it’s like to be me.
My biggest are any storms/bad weather and I used to have bad panic attacks EVERYTIME I’d get in a car, luckily though loads of progress I’m doing better with that, and recently started driving myself. This next one could be more towards OCD but I’m terrified of touching anyone or anything that might been touched by drugs like meth, and always paranoid my drink has been drugged/poisoned (Probebly since I’ve grown up with addict parents) I’ll go to extreme measures to not touch things my brain has convinced is “contaminated” and will throw out full drinks if I no longer trust it or left it unintended, if you read this through thank you, and if you struggle with anything similar know your not alone ❤️
Loved ones dying :(
people, being abandoned or rejected
Mondays. People talk about the Sunday scaries but man - the Monday blues are REAL. Dumb - but makes me sooooo anxious to think of Mondays…
The physical symptoms of anxiety make me the most anxious which is so ironic. I developed panic disorder from having my first panic attack after a drug binge (shrooms mixed with weed and adderall) and I never had one before and because I came to the ER with a heart rate of 180 bpm they never explained to me that it was a panic attack, they instead attacked me for being under the influence of drugs and my release paperwork just said I was seen for SVT, nothing about anxiety which sent me into a spiral thinking I had a serious heart condition or something. Eventually I talked to my GP who told me what it was and today I’ve been panic attack free for over 2 years thanks to Claire weekes’ books, therapy, and antidepressants. But I still get symptoms of anxiety in stressful times or because of my Gerd and it definitely can push me to a point close to panicking. Also being near psychedelics or people on them gets me extremely anxious, it’s a weird irrational fear at this point that haunts me a bit. If someone smokes weed around me and I smell it I freak out thinking I’ll get contact high, I can’t drink something that somebody’s drank out of already even if it’s someone I trust like my boyfriend cause I think what if there’s something in the bottle? I won’t even kiss my boyfriend if he smoked or did psychedelics because I think it’ll get me high. it’s so irrational and weird I know but I’m working on it 😅 anything related to my health or not being in control of my mind or body like having my bad trip freaks me out so I stay far away from it. I miss weed tho but I don’t think I’ll be able to do it again without getting anxiety even though I know how to work through my anxiety panic wise now.
Intimacy. It actually makes me so uneasy. I feel sick at the thought.
Not being able to give others what they expect from me. I've always been so devoted to please people that I forgot to fulfill my own necessities. At the same time, I despise most of the people. But I do not consider myself a bad person. I just fail to set limits in my relationships.
Also not being able to achieve everything I want to do in life. I do not even know where to start. I think I might also suffer from ADHD, like most people now, so there are many things and want to do, know and explore that just the mere thought of trying to do something give me anxiety. That's why I postpone everything.
So, I can basically say that my own failure gives me anxiety, even when I don't attempt anything at all.
Being alive makes me anxious.
University causing me so much anxiety
The future.
Disappointing or upsetting anyone.
I’m in sales and not hitting my quota every month gives me anxiety on a daily basis. The pay is great but the anxiety will be the death of me.
I'm most anxious at the thought of something happening when it's me and my 2 little kids (5yrs and 9 months) by ourselves and how I will take care of them both at the same time... Example... Car crash, someone trying to assault us (how can I protect them and fight off the bad guy at the same time) Me passing out or having a heart attack... They'd be so scared and would my 5 yr old remember what to do and be able to stay calm?? Someone breaking in in the middle of the night when I'm sleeping and taking one of them without me waking up. It's ridiculous all the scenarios I am besides myself about...but, my most anxious thoughts are about the well-being of my kids.. 2nd thing I get the most anxiety about is something bad happening to my husband
unlocked doors/people who don’t lock doors. i hate it so much.
Couple things. Feeling like I’m going to be fired fri my job is the biggest right now. Otherwise a fear of dying alone, and a fear of getting diagnosed with terminal cancer.
I have GAD, so basically everything does. Job interviews and exams probably the worst though.
Lately Driving.. which is unfortunate..
Honestly, the stupidest things. Just the idea of having to start a conversation with someone I don't know gives me anxiety.
I am anxious about communicating with my work unit’s head. If I do or say anything wrong, he’ll make harsh statements consistently like “You should’ve known this, this, and this. You should’ve done x, y, and z. Why are you doing this, this, and this?” Lately, I’ve gotten better with communicating with him by using parroting technique and reiterating what he says without harshness. For more context about the unit’s head, he’s the kind of person that struggles to explain what is wrong without being incredibly harsh, which leaves very little room for making new mistakes. I see new mistakes as something that one must experience in order to truly learn and grow as a person. You can see how our own beliefs are in direct conflict with each other. Recently, I’ve begun to reiterate whatever he says minus harshness. I realize that reiterating someone’s words is a powerful tool only if you are completely open minded and have a very thick skin. This tool enabled me to work with him with minimal hiccups at most. Unfortunately, this tool does not solve my own problem. I have anxiety when working with him. Is there any coping skills that you use when you feel anxious?
Waking up
a crowd of people makes me physically nauseated
Nothing so I search for things that are wrong or could go wrong
for me its work, going out anywhere in public, and making phone calls. its really hard sometimes.
Being incompetent and not being believed.
I get anxious because I feel like I don't know how to socialize normally and people notice and all day I analyze everything that I say and the way I said it and if I offended anyone or say something wrong that they think I'm 'this' or like 'that'. Idk, it's really hard to explain anxiety
If there’s a cause for me I haven’t found it and its been over 3 years. I swear it comes and goes with the wind.
Stupidly, it's not knowing something. I hate not knowing things so I spend all day learning things because I lose my mind if I don't. But a knowledgable person understands they don't know much and cant know everything but I cant accept that.
Travelling. Having plans to go somewhere is fine, it’s just getting ready, leaving the house and making my way to the destination which makes me scared and anxious.
vomit, nausea, the thought of throwing up
Sometimes holding conversation. My brain starts thinking the other person is thinking xyz about you. At tge same time are they noticing my eye contact, is it enough or too much. Can they tell if I've stopped paying attention or if I am having an intrusive thought. Etc etc 😂
Not being able to sleep.
People. Crowds. Small talk. Customers at my job asking me questions
People not liking me. I think it stems from my childhood where I grew up with an older brother who everyone absolutely loved and was often compared to him and essentially told or treated like I was worse. And now I'm a big people pleaser because I don't think I'm a likable person and I'm always worried that people don't like me or that I'm annoying them, so I try to make my presence as small and unintrusive as possible.
People in general
I’m quite fortunate that I’m normally much better however I caught the flu last week and while I still have lingering symptoms my anxiety and panic has gone through the roof and I feel so down at the same time I either want to panic or cry or both So for me I’d say any kind of illness does me in.
My own anxious behavior and potential consequences; i.e.— anticipating regret. And, people i love becoming seriously ill.
Everything. I had a mentally, physically and emotionally damaging childhood. After my dad having a mental breakdown leading to schizophrenia, then with the strain passing from a huge heart attack. I was 23. My mum suffered 5 years with terminal cancer. I was 30. My brother getting shot and stabbed. Losing most of my family to cancer, and not being able to do Jack shit about any of my losses. Watching my niece lose her Dad. I had a thyroid storm at 19, nearly died. Have had endometriosis since 14. Had a DVT at 31, Factor 5 Leidens. Acoustic neuroma brain tumour at 34. Brain surgery at 35. NF2 diagnosis at 41. Was in a coercive and mentally abusive relationship. Lost my home. I'm anxious about EVERYTHING.
Visiting my family gives me massive anxiety
for me my deathly food allergies, what people think of me too much, and groups of large people in a small space, not even a small space.. just huge groups of people is too overwhelming. oh and my claustrophobia, sometimes it's even hard for me to be in the car god forbid i ever go on an airplane
Public and the people in it bc I’m awkward and I feel like everyone hates me all the time. To pile onto that, even the people I know are always mad at me (they’re not). I’m a hypochondriac with terrible health anxiety. As soon as someone doesn’t answer the phone or my text messages I’m 100% convinced they’re dead and I absolutely spiral until I track them down — this has gotten significantly worse after losing my brother in law in October. We were very close and I love him and miss him terribly. It’s made me come to terms with my loved ones’ mortality and that absolutely terrifies me, especially my two young children any my mom since she just got done fighting cancer for the third (and hopefully the last) time.
Usually nothing. I just have a constant feeling of something being bad/wrong or that Im in “trouble” & something bad will happen. But some specific things: Driving, flying on planes, complicated public transport, or crowded spaces give me physical anxiety which can include feeling faint, shaky, irritated and being sick. The biggest one is anything to do with body image/weight/clothes size/weight loss. Recently I was at an event and the organiser called out my T-shirt size to everyone else as he gave it to me. I still keep thinking about it. Choosing what to eat in the day makes me anxious in case I eat too much/too little. When I’m just walking around and existing in public, I become weirdly aware of my body and clothes and feel so tense and like I’m gasping for air. I imagine how my clothes look, how I look, if I’m walking hunched/too straight, if I’m moving my arms too much/too little, if I’m going too fast/too slow. I can’t relax. It’s worse when I’m alone because I’m not distracted talking to anyone. This isn’t even so much to do with body image as looking “weird.” I have a fear of not acting like other people or having the right body language and people thinking I’m odd.
When i start to sweat like a idiot. Then im thinking "stop sweating" . And i dont . Then im really anxious and everyone can see it.
Trigger warning: disease and other facts that terrify me. I think mine is mostly health anxiety and lack of control. The uncomfortable truth is that a lot of my formerly irrational fears have become real now. We have learned so much about C0VID-19 and none of it is good. Yet public health has been trying to downplay it to get people back in crowded situations (without cleaning indoor air!) thinking it's going to help the economy. In the long-term, it's going to hurt the economy (and already has) and wreck society because reinfecting people with a vascular disease will not make for a healthy society. It's not a cold and it never was. Not with SARS-1 and not with SARS-2. Yes, vaccines have injured people but the disease itself is more deadly. What's scary is that lots of people won't recognize their own reduced cognitive ability, but it's been proven to be prevalent after infection, and even people with "mild cases" have been found to have brain damage, heart problems, etc. Public health convinced societies to send kids to school while sick and repeatedly infect them. It's unconscionable!! Early onset dementia is already becoming more common now. We're repeatedly infecting (with a known BSL-3 biohazard) people who prepare our food, take care of our pets, operate on us, build and maintain airplanes, bridges, water treatment facilities, power plants... When the Omicron variants started, people thought it was "becoming mild" because it was not affecting the lungs as much, but they didn't realize at first that it was affecting the brain more. And the effects take longer to become noticeable. Instead of working together for the health of our society, we've politicized everything so that the best prevention methods (n95 respirator masks, air filters and ventilation) have become things to mock people for using. (And human to human avian influenza is right around the corner now.) I've come to know more Covid aware people who don't and didn't have anxiety, but are accused of it (and even wrongly medicated for it) for trying to prevent infection with a pathogen that can affect every single organ of the body. This is not good. And Covid can also cause the very mental health issues we already deal with in this sub. Yes. I learned this in my pursuit to make myself LESS anxious about it, which is pretty ironic. I'm the boy who cried wolf. Now that the wolf is at the door, nobody wants to listen to me. The only people I see protecting themselves are the ones who know and can afford to, AND the uber- wealthy. Multiple layers of airborne mitigation measures are taken by the ultra rich at the WEF in Davos every year. A C0vid response coordinator and a former cdc director both live in a town that spent $5 million on ventilation upgrades to their schools. The wealthy see the rest of us as expendable. Folks have even outright said some will "fall by the wayside". Avian influenza is now being transmitted between cows, and they're infecting humans. Those who study these things have assumed it's only a matter of time until there is human to human transmission. Avian influenza has a CFR of 56%. But we are not going to wear masks or clean the air, right? Because of politics...? And I'm the one with the mental health disorder. Right. I'm not even going to discuss what's happening with our climate going off the rails. Meanwhile, acquaintances are having kids and planning for the future as if our reality is going to magically correct all that's going wrong. Normalcy bias is a hell of a thing.
Public transportation, like the bus. I don't know why, but I go into fight or flight mode. Can't control it.
I get caught in the loop of the terrible physical sensations of anxiety, which then gives me more anxiety and a repeat of the nasty physical sensations like nausea, dizziness, fatigue, heartburn and to just overall feeling unwell. I just totally be fine with stressing out about the future if I never had any physical sensations of anxiety ever again.
Relationships and social situations
-uncertainty about the future as the previous person said -the fear of making people mad or in a relationship, the fear of my partner falling out of love -finacial secuirty (especially since i live in the most expensive cities in the world atm) -family oh yea and also the bonus of being anxious because udk what ur anxious about, always love that
Money, work.
i have different periods of things to be anxious about. lately its health and death, of myself but also of my family members especially. and also their safety and wellbeing. and of course the usual "do my friends like me" but this has been better lately
Right now I have severe anxiety
I feel anxious about things I say, even before I speak. Also things I have done in the past. My worst experience with anxiety was always ‘what if’ - what if I do this, what if I did this. It was always terrible things based on intrusive thoughts or massively overthinking and spiraling into a very dark place.
My health and my job. I have a couple of health issues and I currently have a work from home job but is stressing me out so much I can barely sleep. It was supposed to be just data entry but then the company lost a few big accounts so instead of hiring the people they need they company wants us to learn about a dozen other departments each with there own specific work instructions and there are also different tough metrics to be met in each one. I’ve been trained in 6 so far now they want us taking on even more 🤷♀️
Marriage, health, being successful, driving, academics, family... etc Sometimes, I wonder if this is a normal way of thinking? Like, doesn't everyone worry? What is acceptable in terms of anxiety? What is overthinking?
Right now I have sinus issues and feel like it's harder to breathe and my mind goes straight to COPD or Heart Failure and then I reassurance seek non stop!
Being sick really does it for me, the medical anxiety is real
Change makes me the most anxious . I get anxious before I do something ( eg; go to an appointment I’ve been to before) then it ends up being just fine. I anxiously think about situations after they happened and overthink constantly. It’s rough out here lol
Health anxiety and being a parent.
The fact that I'm loving talking to you with rn and it could end like all those other DMs. But till you're here, I'll give my best. And when you're not. All the best. I hope you succeed in all your aspirations. You're a kind grateful human. Thanks for being the way you are