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...
Hi everyone, I'm new to this group but anyways, here's a little bit about me...
I suffered from anxiety, mostly social anxiety, for as far as I can remember and always managed to deal with it, well kind of. However, for the past year it's been extremely hard to cope with it and and it's getting harder by the day. I started to avoid social interactions with people I didn't know due to excessive stress, but now it's affecting my relationships with family members and close friends. I manage to talk with my family because I still live at my parents but lost almost all contact with my friends. It's as if i can't think of anything to say or talk about due to the overwhelming stress, I can't think about anything else. I've stopped seeing my friends because the last encounters were mostly filled with plain silence, as if we were complete strangers who didn't know what to talk about. Now it's been months since I've had a proper conversation with someone and I'm feeling very lonely and depressed, I could really use someone to talk to because I feel like it's never going to get better.
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Lately I've been feeling scared and full of anxiety. I recently found a lump under my nipple. I hurt my back too. I'm in the process of moving. I'm run down. Everything is hard
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Just wanted to give a thank you to Mid, Arfie, Malibumark, Greeneyes, Mlro, Girlincalif, and Suncloudjd! You all always have such helpful tips and advice, but I always forget to write on my posts when I see you post, lol. I would lose my head if it wasn't attached to my body, lol. Thank you all so much! I'm starting to use my AI app as a sounding board again. I used to use it as that before...
Attempted humor aside. . .
Gentle empathy on the social anxiety. Mine has gone through phases rough enough to make me wonder if ^it^ had graduated to agoraphobia or some such. Is there such a thing as peoplephobia?
Having places such as this one where I feel safe talking about ^it^ and the ways ^it^ weaves into my daily life sure helps me in taming the beast. Welcome aboard. Hope you find stabilizing companionship here.
Vent and/or sort freely. Welcome aboard. Listening. . .
But to get back on the subject, I actually think my social anxiety is also turning into agoraphobia, I avoid going out during the day and instead go out later at night to avoid bumping into too much people. Maybe there actually is such a thing as peoplephobia...
I, surprisingly, also feel very comfortable sharing things like that on here, even if it's the first time I do it, just writing this today felt really good, like a burden taken off my shoulders. I hope I'll get better by speaking to people that go or went through similar stuff. It's hard to seek my friends help because most of them are very outgoing and stress-free people and the few times I tried to explain them my anxiety problems they didn't seem to truly understand what I was saying, even though they tried to.
Anyways, thank you for taking the time to read my post, it feels great to know that someone out there finally understands me.
You've taken the important first step in writing it out.
Sit down, write out five sentences about the place you're in. Then, write out five sentences about something specific you see, hear, and/or smell.
Last, write out five sentences about how you feel, think, and what caught your attention. Do this in three separate paragraphs. Put it aside and then come back to it later and do another three sentences with different details.
What this does is help you begin to find ways to converse to open up the conversation when silence sets in.
This gives your anxiety some specific task to focus on, and puts it to a better balance.
Best wishes as you find your way to a better balance.
Thanks again.
Reach out to your friends and let them know what your going through and how they can support you, the same with family. Truth be told, I thought if I shared my PTSD with friends I would lose them. In reality, they wanted to know what they could do to help. We have become closer because they understand what I have been through and what I can’t talk about. Even with this pandemic they reach out and we have had zoom meetings doing movie night, game night and social night.
If you haven’t all ready talk to a therapist and let them know how you are feeling. Journaling will also help. It is a way to get out your feelings and emotions and identify what brings on the anxiety. It will also allow you to challenge your fears by seeing if they are realistic. You can also set aside an hour a day to journal out as many fears as you can. Then go back and see if the fears are realistic and how to resolve the ones that are real.
I hope you feel better soon.
I actually walk my dog every night for 1h30 and it clearly helps to evacuate most of the stress I endured during the day, the problem is that it keeps coming back the next day.
Also, my family members have known for a while about it and I told a couple of friends too but didn't really know how to adress it and kind of ended up avoiding the topic and told them it was minor anxiety issues, but nothing too serious. I'm clearly going to talk more frankly about it and also adress it to more of my friends so that I can get all the help I need.
I haven't talked to a therapist because I'm not in the best financial situation either and I didn't think it was worth it. Does it really help?
Yea, social anxiety can morph into agoraphobia with the most natural of ease. I enjoyed working night shift (as much as work can be enjoyed) because of the mellower people contact. Well. . . Night shift is mostly mellower but the exceptions are mind rippingly exceptional.
Anyhoo. . . You are most definitely not alone. Sort freely. Sort often.
Still listening. . .
I decided to write out a few questions and just memorize them so I could easily pull them up when I needed to make small talk.
I also began giving a compliment if I couldn't think of something (such as "I love those shoes!"). It often would lead to a small conversation about where they got them, how many they had, etc. I honestly didn't care about that.... but it felt great to connect!
Sometimes we have to show interest in THEM and what THEY enjoy. Over the years, I have come to accept I am NOT someone who enjoys small talk. It is uncomfortable.... and noise to my ears... but at moments when needed, I CAN do it for a little bit.
With friends, perhaps do an activity like bike riding, cooking/baking, painting nails, or trying new hairdos. It may take pressure off of small talk, yet provide someTHING to talk about.
Gentle hugs..... If I can do it, you can, too. :)