Anxiety Support Group
Anxiety is a physical condition marked by intense and persistent feelings of distress, fear, angst or dread. General anxiety caused by routine day-to-day stresses usually passes quickly and is experienced by almost everyone at one time or another. However, such feelings that linger over time and are very difficult to cope with, and which lack a clear cause, may indicate...
I'm new here. I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression when I was 14 but I had been dealing with it since I was 12. Though I think I had mini episodes before then. I recently realized that a lot of it is tied to my lack of self-esteem. I bought a self-esteem workbook and I'm slowly going through it. I thought it was going to be my cure but I'm also realizing that I'm probably never going to be cured. In the past, I would hope that one day I would have an epiphany and it would all go away. Now I feel like it's going to be a lifetime thing. How do you all know when your thoughts are your anxiety speaking and not the real you? Sometimes I get confused because I don't know if I should follow what I think and feel. I don't know if it's my conscience speaking or if it's my anxiety. Sorry if that doesn't make sense.
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I did the dumbest thing today. I charged my earbuds, unplugged the block and put the block in my little bag instead of the earbuds. I wasn't happy about that when I got to the gym. What a dummy!
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Ever since I stopped doing therapy because of insurance, I've been feeling that old tense and irritable sense of anxiety and stress. I hate that. I was making so many strides and changes during therapy, my therapist would acknowledge all of my progress and accomplishments, and I miss that reassurance. Today I thought about it, and I made those changes! She would always tell me that I chose to...
You won't necessarily have this forever! What you can do is find ways to manage it, on a daily basis.
Do you see a psychiatrist, therapist, counselor, etc?
You are not alone!! Welcome to the board.
My biology studies have me thoroughly convinced that I do not **want** to cure anxiety. It is a hard-wired part of our survival instincts and ? ? ? It's not nice to cure Mother Nature. I shoot to learn and work with Her instead of trying to tell her how to run Her Show.
My strictly personal survival instincts have been over-developed to the extent that I call myself, "A beaten crazy bitch wolf." A deeply wounded wolf will bite a helping hand as quickly as it will bite an avenging hand. I work to be gentle with myself in the healing process and to manage the resulting anxiety instead of hunting for cures. There is no cure for the common me. I'm not sure I want one, either. Crazy as I am, at least I have some clues what to expect from the me I already am and "New and Improved" is typically not a real improvement and the "new" is typically just in the package design.
But that is me. . .
Gentle support while you find what works for you. Welcome aboard. Listening.
I have a friend who has a 16-year old daughter that deals with anxiety because of low self-esteem. She’s not diagnosed but with all her symptoms my friend knows that she is suffering with anxiety. My friend was struggling every time she saw her daughter lonely and isolated herself. She encouraged her daughter to attend the youth fellowship at their church. At first, she didn’t want to because she was shy but because my friend was so persistent, she was able to pursue her.
That youth fellowship was a big help. Now my daughter’s friend is regularly attending a life group and she is not lonely, she is slowly trying to mingle with other teens in the church.
I’m sorry you are going through this. Have you talked to a counselor? A support group is also beneficial. You can learn coping skills from others’ life experiences.I hope you will get the help you need. Praying for you. God bless. Please keep us posted.
like you, I always believed that one day I would wake up and the problem would be solved -the anxiety would be completely gone. Sadly, there is no cure. There are however, really good coping skills you can learn. Someone else already pointed out CBT. Give it a try. I am always advocating for it, as it has helped me immensely in my own struggles with anxiety.
How do I learn to distinguish my own thoughts from anxiety? I'll give you a snippet of CBT: go through the following checklist and ask yourself these questions:
#1: Is this thought based in fact?
#2: Will this thought help protect my life and health?
#3: Will this thought help me achieve my short-term and long-term goals?
#4: Will this thought help me get along with others?
#5: Will this thought help me feel the way I want to feel emotionally?
If you can honesty say no to these questions, then the thought is the anxiety speaking.
The way I know it's anxiety beyond the shadow of a doubt is if I had the least stressful day possible - I mean everything went right. The sun was shining, it was 70, your coworkers were super nice, the workload was light, the kids behaved, etc. And you STILL have anxious thoughts - then you know it's the chemicals and not your personality or whatever.
Keep looking up. Hope I was able to help someone who read this today.