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...
In the last 2 weeks I was diagnosed 4 different things! I am exhausted, I don't feel like listing all of them right now, but this morning I was in the doctor's office for one thing, and a couple hours ago I discovered that I have an oral thrush due to medication that they gave me for something else (10 day antibiotic treatment). I never had this before, my mouth hurt and I even have a fever!
I have been working really hard this past days to get better, to think about the future instead of dwelling about the illness, i got out of my comfort zone, i worked hard, I even got a job interview. And all for nothing, I keep trying to think well this will be over soon, but it's never over, I always get something else.
My husband says I should let this things ruin my day but I am so upset that I don't want to put more effort on anything else. I have health anxiety so for me not worrying is a very big effort, and things always get worse for me. Why should I keep making so much effort?
You are not alone. I am going through health issues,too. Like you, I also have an anxiety disorder and part of my disorder is that I am preoccupied with my health. So, believe me, I know what you are going through. I got shingles in November and that knocked me out. Then, I got the nerve pain that sometimes follows shingles. I am in pain all the time, but I can't take the strong drugs doctors recommend because I am allergic to them. My anxiety disorder has become worse because of my chronic pain so I feel sort of in panic mode all the time. Sometimes, it is hard to believe I will ever be able to have a normal life, but I just keep trying to tell myself that I will overcome all of this somehow. I really love life and don't want to give up. Remember that constant worry and anxiety only makes your body weaker so that you cannot heal as well. I have found ways that help me feel better. Here are some: try to calm yourself by telling yourself you will get better. It just might take you some time. Make sure to practice relaxation meditation so you can rest and sleep a lot. Don't eat junk food--cut out sugar, caffeine, alcohol and fast food. Eat a lot of vegetables and drink a lot of water. Make getting well your main priority.
Find some calming activities to do like reading or watching a soothing show on TV. Listen to soft music, take a warm bath. Pamper yourself and focus on the fact you are not dying. You are trying to focus on healing and living. I have some good days when I go out and socialize--getting out and appreciating friends, seeing the sky, sun and flowers all help me feel better. Take your mind off of your health problems sometimes. You will be surprised how much better you will feel.
Freud called neurosis a disease of the upper class: which is to say, people who had the time. The worse your life is, the less time you have to worry. Anxiety is like an immune disorder: you need more real disease for your body to react to. Right now it's jumping at ghosts.
Here is an example of what's wrong with anxiety. I have a mother with anxiety disorder who has spent her life screwing herself up and ranting at us over every effing thing without realising she was making this stuff up. I too believed it was real till I had a nervous breakdown at forty and suddenly, the whole wall crumbled and I could see it was just rubbish.
Anyway she has deduced somehow recently that I have disowned her. I have no idea how or when, but her mind has gone round in circles for long enough that it's come upon this beautiful idea. Well what the hell, that's a relief if anything. I can avoid the whole weekly visit, drunk phone calls stuff. It's quite restful. She can get very time consuming and exhausting as she appears to have bottomless energy and she has never worked a day in her life so she just lives in fairyland regarding what I do all day.
So it's wonderfully fine except it's mothers' day in New Zealand on Sunday. Now, under normal circumstances I'd call and take her out for a coffee or lunch or something, and we'd all have a nice time. But in this disownership situation I now have to wonder.
(a) i have an exam in 4 weeks
(b) I'm in the middle of budgets at work
so do I have the time?
Well, time what for you ask? Time for mother's day? Of COURSE I have time for mother's day. But do I have time for the ginormous fucking psychodrama she's cooked up? Do I have time to trigger whatever the hell she's got going in her mind?
how nice it would be to just take her out to lunch or something. But it's so not worth it.
I guess I'll take her out, and I guess I'll endure the crap, and setting her off again, That is of course if she even answers my calls, she's been known to not answer my calls for months.
Where am I going with this? Well, that her anxiety controls her. She thinks what she thinks is real. She doesn't question it. And she has been a giant fucking nightmare to live with all of my life. All of my life. And she's raised me in such a horrid way I've ended up with GAD and major depressive disorder and codependent disorder and all manner of crap that I've had to crawl my way out of, slowly, at the cost of marriages, careers, nearly lost me my children.
So... get a job. Get a job like your life depends on it. Which it does. Just saying.
Doesn't matter what job. Any job. But don't sit around at home deteriorating and crawling down inside your own navel with anxiety. It's tough after 40 yrs. After 70 it's just not pretty at all.