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...
This is the first time I've used one of these forums, on advice from my mum. I'm 25 years of age, I've dealt with anxiety for around 7 years as a constant in my life. It started when I was a child and came out again as I was in my late teens in the form of panic attacks. These days, I have a handle on it for the most part. I've attended CBT, I'm on sertraline medication and I've worked a lot on my mental self image and my body, building up my strength. The main issue I run into these days is physical discomfort in the form of chest pain, it feels like someone is stood on my chest and it can last with varying degrees of severity for days on end. Tonight, it finally got to me and I broke down in tears. I'm just very tired of dealing with a phantom that doesn't really exist. It's all due to my thoughts and then it manifests in my body. My thoughts can suggest all sorts of non sense, and even the thought or memory of feeling anxious can trigger it. It's affected every aspect of my life to date, but I feel I've got to credit myself for how far I've come. I would just like to be free. I suppose the reason I'm writing this is to share my experience in the hopes someone relates, and to perhaps ask what you would suggest to help me alleviate chest pain.
thanks, L
-
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...
-
Sometimes, I think I have ODD. I can be oppositional. It seems that the only times that I feel like cleaning are when I should be doing something else or I have to go somewhere. Well, not everytime but most of the time. Yesterday, I was supposed to be doing online training for work but instead, I decided to work on my kitchen table. Most of the time, I don't know where to start and give...
You've taken the important first step in writing it out.
What happens when your anxiety helper goes into overload, often a physical reaction that goes away with gentle motion and even breathing to calm.
Keep working out everything and know you're going to find your better balance.
I thoroughly disagree that your physical symptoms are not fully and devastatingly real. The longer you treat them as phantoms, the worse they will get until the damage becomes permanent and progressive. Anxiety triggers very real and potent hormones into our bodies which produce very real and physical side effects. Those chest pains are among those symptoms.
The good news is that there is quite allot you can do about those symptoms. On no level do I believe they should be ignored nor minimized. Breathing exercises are my number one tool for alleviating this particular symptom. I tend to hold my breath when I am anxious. Of course my chest will begin hurting as a result.
But that is me and expert I ain't. . .
Gentle support while you sort your own case. Welcome aboard. You are not alone.
Anyway, for me, I have found body that if I just sit for a minute, do some breathing/meditation work, those feelings often go away for me.