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 guys,
I just want to start off by saying that I've been having a lot of anxiety lately. A while ago, I read something online about a girl who starved herself to death because she thought she was dead. I've been having these thoughts about why would that person not get help. This leads to me overthinking and start to think that I shouldn't get help. I don't know why I would think this, because I obviously know that with my anxiety, that I should get help which is what I've done. I started taking Cymbalta (an anti-anxiety medication) and I see a therapist once or twice a week. I also meditate and exercise and I try to eat well when I can. My fears change forms every once in awhile, but most of the time it goes back to this post that I read about this girl. I can't explain why it makes me scared. Just to give you a little bit more of an explanation, this post was about this girl who thought she was dead, so she refused to eat and this lead to starvation. I guess it might scare me because the story doesn't piece together, simply because I don't remember it all and I can't find it online again. This leads me to questioning why this girl didn't get adequate help or anything. I've heard of things like Walking Corpse Syndrome. If you look it up you'll find out more about it. But I figure that this is why this girl didn't get help because there was something wrong with her brain. It just scares me because it leads me to questioning reality, and whether or not I might already be dead, and if there's any reason to do anything. Can anybody relate to this or has anyone heard of anything like the story I'm describing?
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I was listening to George Birge radio on Pandora in my car yesterday. It sounded good but the lyrics are so limited with country music. I just couldn't hear another song about whiskey. Now I'm listening to Tori Amos. She is my female Elton John. I love their lyrics!
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When i was in the ER February 16th 2025, i was being admitted to ICU where i was for 3 weeks, then had to relearn to walk for 3 weeks in another hospital rehab floor, the nurse told me something that made me feel for over 18 months now that i was finally *safe*. She told me that the guy who raped and beat me 21 years ago now almost 20 years at that time, was in prison as of a month before that...
You're 18 years old, do you happen to work or go to school? Keeping busy with something to do every day will help keep your mind occupied with constructive and productive things that will keep your mind off of anxious thoughts. Having lots of free time can lead us to looking online and finding stories such as the one you found, which can make us feel anxious sometimes.
Keep up your medication and your therapy. Think about some other things you can do every day that keeps you offline. What are your passions, your interests, what do you want to do for a career, etc. Do you have family, friends, to go do stuff with? Going outside for fresh air, walking, hiking, bike riding, exercising.... all good things that will lower your overall anxiety.
Anxiety is so hard, I know. But it helps if we help ourselves, too. Give it a try!
And, if I don't get to it all, it carries over to the next day's list of things to do (ugh, lol!)
I don't really every recommend googling anything. However, looking up the actual symptoms of someone having a mental break, and the symptoms of suicidal persons...gave me relief because I have none of those symptoms. Just like, if you were to rationally think about the 'symptoms' of a dead person...you would meet none of that criteria.
There is a technique used by therapists where you can challenge these thoughts head on, to the point where they seem silly and eventually go away.
It sounds like you're doing all the right things. Ask your therapist about CBT and challenging those scary thoughts.
You'll get through this.
Just curious. . . Feel free to disregard the question, butttttaaaaaa? ? ? Do you, perchance, suffer an eating disorder, yourself?
For what it's worth
Forgetting to eat is one of my meanest anxiety symptoms. I have been in danger of starvation more than once because of that very symptom. It is not a suicidal act. I **just** forget. I've mostly gotten a handle on ^it^ but I still wonder from time to time if starvation would be an easy suicide for me.