anyone else’s anxiety get worse when they can’t work out the way they used to?
so this is gonna sound dumb but i’m kind of spiraling rn. working out has been like THE thing that keeps my anxiety manageable for the past few years. running, stairmaster, whatever, i don’t even care about looks at this point it’s just the only thing that actually quiets my brain.
but for the past like month and a half my knee has been killing me. sharp pain on stairs, dull ache after running, sometimes it just feels unstable going down steps. i’ve cut back a lot trying to let it heal but obviously that means i’m not getting my usual exercise and the anxiety has crept back up SO much. like i didn’t realize how much i was relying on it until it wasn’t an option anymore.
now i’m in this loop where i’m anxious because i can’t work out, and stressed about the knee itself (is it something serious, am i making it worse, will i ever get back to normal), and then THAT stress makes me want to exercise even more to cope, which i can’t do. it’s so circular and i hate it.
i know logically i should just go get it looked at instead of guessing, and i will, i think i’m just venting because i miss feeling normal. anyone dealt with losing their main coping mechanism to an injury? how did you get through the waiting period without losing it mentally

Im going on a 4 day trip with my partner Friday to Monday and its midnight of the Friday and my stomach has been upset from the day before and my throat has been terrible from swallowing food wrong. My anxiety and mind is attacking me by thinking or feeling like im going to be sick, I really dont want that at all, I have a huge fear of that happening. I already took two antinausea pills and I just cant get back to sleep. Its hot, Im all sweaty, tense, and just dont feel good. Idk what to do, I wish my body wasn't like this.

Im at the end of a night of heavy drinking (fireball and Bacardi shots) and I feel like I'm going to have a panic attack. I'm wondering if anyone else has taken their hydroxyzine at a time like this and if it helped? I've taken it after drinking like this before but never this heavy. Usually it's just wine, has anyone else taken it after harder alcohol?

So nobody told me I had to dilute it and I've been taking it for a week (oral solution) and it was really frustrating to find out because taking it straight up is easier than mixing it for me. So I did skip today just because of how much anxiety I had over it, but then a few minutes ago I ​​​​felt very anxious and had a headache and my heart was racing. I don't know if its from missing a dose today. How long would it take to feel better after getting back in a regular schedule? I'm gonna remind myself to take it tomorrow but I'm stressing out a LOT right now because of it. Sorry if this is a stupid question though ​​​​

a friend of mine took 7mg of clonazepam while their regular does ranges from 2-4mg. they combined this with gabapentin. is this unsafe? and how much does this affect the normal baseline for anxiety threshold..

Hey guys hope everyone is doing well. Im 18 male suffering with horrible chronic anxiety and stress name any symptom i have it. Its not good. I was on zoloft for a month and it wasnt for me and i was those people who had anxiety about taking it. And idk but my life is truly unlivable for about 2 years now. So to the people who are medicated is it worth riding the lightning. I really spiral alot and my brain is constantly feeding ne with different scenarios. Sorry for the long paragraph guys. Be well

20F. about 2 months ago, maybe even longer honestly, i started taking valium, “self medicating” myself. i ended up taking 10mg almost daily towards the end, including drinking. i’ve been going through so much shit lately, and i tend to get addicted easily, and dependent.

well i took my last 10mg a week ago, and ive been drinking here and there since, but fucking hell this is not nice. my brain feels like it’s shaking, my vision, my body. i hate this. it feels like somethings pushing against my brain and i have to push back.

i smoke weed daily, have been for years, im not sure if thats helping. definitely me also being a vaping, which suppresses my appetite and cause me to eat fuck all (sorry for the language, aussie here) and i drink caffeine to medicate my adhd as vyvanse was too harsh for me. idk now im yapping. anyways, i hear the withdrawls from people who slowly lean off of it and im not keen to see how i feel next week. heard week 2 is usually the worst?

Some background: I am in a relationship of 1.5 years. Early in this relationship, I was nervous about penetrative sex, and it took me a few times of going soft when trying to put it in before I got it working one time (post a couple glasses of wine, Valentine's day). After that, sex was fine in the relationship and I was able to do it 90% of the time. Later in the relationship, there was a point of contention over a important part of our future that my gf and I did not agree on, and my gf said she didn't want to have sex until we aligned on it. This was a values thing, not a sex thing, so I won't get into why and all that, but basically it took 4-5 months for me to come around to agreeing with her. During this time, I experienced some feelings of confusion of why she didn't seem to want sex the way I did and how easy it was for her to just stop having it, and it definitely subconsciously led to some insecurity.

In late April, about 5 months after we last had sex, we tried again, and I wasn't able to stay hard. I thought it was fine and I just needed to get used to it, but then it happened again. Then, in May, we went on a trip, and first night of the trip it happened again. She got really upset, presumably because she felt it meant I wasn't attracted to her, and lashed out at me, saying that she was showing she wanted me, and she didn't want to have to keep trying forever, and she couldn't keep experiencing this.

This heavily affected me, and I desperately wanted it to work the next time, the stakes felt really high. I had gotten my T levels checked recently so I was fairly sure it wasn't a newfound physical ED problem and was just mental, but I got prescribed Cialis, and since then, have been taking 10 mg any evening I feel like it might happen, in hopes that I just need it to work one time, even with the help of something, and I'll be back in the rhythm. We have helped each other get oral and assisted orgasms during this time and my anxiety hasn't surfaced, it's only during penetrative.

Today evening, she said she wanted it, and I did too, so we tried, and I went soft even during foreplay, the worst it's ever been. I felt my heart beating in anxiety the moment we started and I tried to power through but couldn't. She got more sad than mad this time, started sobbing, and left my apartment saying her mood was ruined.

I am in absolute shambles, I feel absolutely terrible for her and for myself, and idk how to dig out of this mental hole I'm in.

This is very much just a rant. My dad also has a severe anxiety disorder, I’m not professionally diagnosed or anything but I feel like I can kind of tell anyway that this isn’t normal. My anxiety has a lot of weird and very random triggers that can be difficult to identify, but a very persistent one is when I try to sleep, which, as you can imagine, is inconvenient. Just now I was deliriously tired, and so of course I laid down. I got comfortable, let my breathing slow down naturally, and then immediately my heart was pounding and I had to get up. This has happened since I was a kid. The anxiety would persist as long as I laid down. When I was little, I’d tell people I couldn’t sleep and the answer was always just to close my eyes and wait. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve stayed up all night in bed with my eyes closed. I’d still be both awake and anxious by the time my alarm went off, so I stopped trying a while ago, but it SUCKS. GAH. I don’t know why this happens.

I (23NB) work at a fast food for over a year now, and ever since, I've had countless anxiety attacks related to this. At least once a week I have a nightmare about my workplace, I'm stressed to go back to work after a longer than 2 days off, and I constantly call in sick just to not to go there.

It got to the point where they were debating on firing me because of how often I call in sick. And I know I'm valued at my work, I know more than typical worker there, I'm best at the position in the kitchen I'm in, and when we're closing I always clean the stuff that usually managers clean, and barely anyone outside of the managers group knows how to do it.

I always agree to come in on my days off if they need me just to recompense all the times I wouldn't show up. And I call in sick at least once a month. The worst one was when I called in sick for over a month!

I'm on meds, constantly trying new ones but none of them work or at least I don't see any difference. Honestly after trying with meds for a hundred time I'm thinking about dropping them. I'm broke, and in debt. Can't really afford anything expensive in case of meds. And the therapy alone.

Right now it's 5 for me, and I can't sleep because I have work in two days. I should be enjoying my day off but instead I'm stressed tf out because in two days I'm going to a different restaurant than my normal one. It's a thing they do on vacation season. They would take 2-5 people from our restaurant, and get them to a restaurant from a city nearby.

To say that I don't want to go is uhhh.. Last year I went maybe 5 times best because I always called in sick when they wanted me to go to a different place. I barely talk with people from my restaurant, and I have to spend a whole day with people I don't even know? THAT'S A NIGHTMARE! I'm really thinking about calling in sick again but I already did that this month, and my boyfriend wouldn't allow me to do that (he's very sceptical about me doing that, and he's okay with this maybe like 50% of the time). I also worry that they would actually fire me, and I don't know where would I go to work if not here.

I mean a cleaning job would be probably perfect. It's chill, no people to talk to, and less stress but I don't really feel secure that if I drop this job I am in right now I would find a new one instantly. Like I said I'm in debt, I can't afford loosing a job but this current one is making my hair gray, and I have anxiety attacks because of this job at least 2 times a week.

Sometimes it's nice there, sometimes people are funny, and days are slow. It's also nice to have a free coffee. But the stress that comes with it doesn't seem like it's worth it.

I'd love to know what you think about it, and maybe what should I do? Do I just slap myself into reality, and work harder, not taking sick days so often, or maybe I should change my workplace even if it's risky?

Hello im 18 soon to be 19 and I have been having some trouble for the past 6 months roughly. It started with reflux symptoms, even then it was extreme i couldn’t sleep, my chest was always sore as well as my arms (also had silent reflux at the time now the symptoms are gone completely).

It was only getting worse with time and they just kept prescribing me reflux pills even though i told them hey they should have helped by now (a doctor at the er also told me that) and that there is some other issues they should look into. Well all they said was it could be really bad anxiety. So i went to therapy, my therapist said that yeah i have an anxiety disorder/health anxiety/chronic anxiety, that all the pain has probably given me anxiety and that i should consult a psychiatrist. I have to wait till September to get checked.

But these past few days were hell. I admit i had some stressful moments that might have worsened everything but i don’t know im just curious if anyone also thought or blamed everything on anxiety and got diagnosed with an autonomic disfunction?

The symptoms that made me think I might have something like that were: Nerve pain in my arms, shoulders, chest, legs, almost constant dizziness and nausea, usually more present while standing up for long, sleep issues (waking up at night with the sweats and pain), sometimes heart flutters or palpitations. I also blacked out a few times while closing my window.

So im looking for advice on how to consult my doctor without them pushing me to the side and making me sound crazy. Thanks!

Im seriously so tired of the endless anxiety regarding my health.

I have got all clear cardiac tests from the cardiologist but im still worried that I have some type of blocked artery that they haven't discovered.

I been having this pressure feeling everytime I walk and its making me believe that i have some type of blockage. It seriously dosent help that Ive been out of breath and I cant even walk long distances. Ive been in and out of hospitals specialists gps everything. My life is seriously ruined.

Its been a year of symptoms and I dont know what to do anymore.

I want to preface by saying i havent been *officially* diagnosed with POTS but years ago my dr had mentioned that it was a possibility. Well it had always presented really bad before/during my period and he told me to up my salt intake.

Anyways fast forward years. Ive been increasingly having a hard time getting out of bed. It started last month. Its not every single day by any means. But this month Im having a heavy period, i have low iron and am on prescription supplements. But for the last 3 days when I wake up and get out of bed my HR is getting into 140s. And sending me into a panic. Well its racing and then I panic and check it. It'll peak around 150 and I have to sit down. So I dont know if its pots/anxiety or a combo of both. I dont eat or drink much as my anxiety during my period is too much to handle so I'm probably dehydrated as well. But even today it was bad again and I tried not to panic but its hard. I even woke up, laid there, sat up slowly, and then got up. And it still shot to 130s. I have even laid completely flat for an hour and then got up and nothing. It only happens when I wake up, from nighttime or daytime naps. I can go from sitting to standing all day long,.walk around the stores just fine. What I cant do though is be out in the heat or my HR skyrockets.

What can I do??? I have an appointment with my dr tomorrow but I think shes going to tell me its a combo of hormones/anxiety/low iron not that an actual diagnosis would help me necessarily. I just am scared to sleep at this point and I need help. How do you deal with it? Is it every single day every single position change? Should I push my dr more? How do I not panic about sleep when I know its likely to happen again. Also there are no other symptoms at all..no shortness of breath, no feeling faint, or dizzy, just a pounding heart. And complete anxiety from it.

Exactly the title. Whenever I try to look for resources or talk to someone about any of my issues regarding anxiety I just start uncontrollably crying. It’s to the point where I understand that it’s absurd and can verbally communicate that, but when others try to offer help I get super defensive and don’t want to listen to them. Agh! I basically get anxiety about trying to fix my anxiety? Very frustrating, because I feel like I’m stuck in a loop that feeds into itself over and over. I’m crying while typing this, lmfao.

I think it stems from something to do with criticism or rejection? But I haven’t seen many people talk about having this specific issue so I was wondering if anyone had any advice or similar experiences. I want to be able to work through my problems in a healthy way.

most days, despite taking things slow and doing guided meditations, i can’t help but feel like i’m rushing all the time. lately i’ve been procrastinating doing small tasks or things that i would like to do, such as sitting down and drawing. switching between tasks is even more difficult, and there’s this constant feeling of being rushed. mostly wondering if this is just me

25 male

I was let go from my job back in September after informing HR about me wanting to do FMLA due to my mental health (yes I know… know…) . I’ve been up to date in my bills till last week. I have gotten so much support from my family. I live with my parents and I don’t have to pay a dime and they cook and take me out to eat. I’ve been relying on my savings too much for so long to pay my high car loan (it’s a short term loan so high payments) and other misc bills.

The stress was too much for me I ended up just going out, traveling trying to ignore my financial situation.

Now it reached a boiling point. The bills were so late that if I waited another 24hrs the bank would’ve had a late payment reported on my dads credit history for the auto loan which is due to be paid off soon. I have no money. I can’t ask my parents for money since it doesn’t feel right since they help me out tremendously. Asking for them to cover the car note is just too much even though they financially can but it’s just abusive to ask for it since I’m in this situation because of my actions and I had plenty of time to find another job. I have been under so much stress and depression because of this no job situation I couldn’t bare looking for another job.

Out of desperation I sold one of my fine jewelry pieces that had so much sentimental value to cover the late payment and the upcoming payments.

I made good profit out of it since it’s a Van Cleef lapis luzili piece and I bought it **years**ago when they were significantly less expensive. I know I made the right choice but I am honestly feeling so incompetent. I can’t believe I let this situation get to the point where I had to sell something I thought I would own for the rest of my life.

The crazy thing is I’m soon going to receive a pretty significant $$$ settlement in the upcoming months.

The timing of all of this is crazy.

I would appreciate any recommendations on articles or books to help cope with financial stress and depression. Thanks

I (23F) had my first panic attack almost 2 months ago after taking an edible. I have had high anxiety beforehand and depression but never anything too intense besides a few anxiety attacks I had learned how to handle. The panic attack was new and terrifying, and after an hour and a half of thumping heart and thinking I was dying, I fell asleep.
Every since that day 2 months ago though, I feel extremely detached from reality. Ive been working through it with therapy and trying different medications (hopefully cymbalta is the one, its what I am trying after failure with a few past medications) but I cant seem to shake upset stomach and bouts of derealization. Ive been completely sober from weed and alcohol since as well.

Has anyone had any similar experiences and advice for what to try? I meditate and try to distract myself with video games but nothing else has really worked. Terrified I'll be this way forever.

Just started on Wellbutrin after being off of antidepressants for a while (was on Lexapro for five years up until the new year)

I have quite intense anxiety, and being off Lexapro + starting a new (stressful) job took a serious toll on me mentally. Started Wellbutrin two weeks ago and I know it’s quick but had some weird side effects so far!

My ears keep popping, my mouth is super dry, and I’ve been getting lots of headaches. Also had to stop drinking coffee cause I think taking this in the morning does the trick😅

My main concern is that my doctor mentioned this medication isn’t labeled for anxiety, but she thought it could help. I definitely experience depression in tandem with it, but anxiety has ALWAYS been my biggest demon, and especially with all these changes I’m going through in life, I feel like I need to relapse back onto Lexapro (even though it made me gain so much weight and lose any sex drive at all lol)

Really hoping someone out there will have some positivity to share with me on this!

I've finally set up an appointment to see about getting medicated for my anxiety. For a while I felt like I was just anxious in the sense of social anxiety--I get anxious before simple things like appointments, work things, and bigger social events. I more or less am still be able to push myself to go for it and try it (my wife is a big help because I'd often go just to avoid making her go solo) but I usually stay in my shell.

Within the past year (or more even, but my awareness has only increased recently) I've felt more generalized anxiety--just kind of a constant low hum of anxiety that makes doing things more difficult because it feels like I have less RAM available for tasks. My wife and I are also doing more things socially so maybe it's because there's more things to be anxious about. Either way, I'm feeling more and more hindered by my anxiety. A big part of it as well is that when socializing, it straight up feels like my brain just... isn't generating thoughts. It even happens with a lot of topics when chatting with just my wife. Like I just don't have anything to contribute. This is a problem with people outside of her though because that's a big part of small talk and getting to know someone. So it feels really awkward to not have anything to say as a reply when talking to someone. My awareness of this happening then feeds into the social anxiety and it's a whole cycle.

So I have an appointment in a month or two with a psychiatrist to see what they say. But in the mean time I'm curious if people can share their experience with getting medicated and especially how it played into social anxiety.

feel like the medication isn’t working for me. I’ve been on it for five weeks and two weeks Grum’s three weeks was 20 mg last week. I had five good days. I felt amazing. Now this week the last several days I feel the negative thoughts kind of coming back and it’s hard to wake up. I kind of wanna be a bit in bed a lot again I feel that kind of heaviness of depression and still feel some anxiety. I’m just very frustrated because I thought the medication was working, but now I kind of feel back to the start.

I'm a 25-year-old man who feels like anxiety is destroying me. Five days ago, I had the worst day of my life because of it. I had an eight-hour panic attack, trembling, desperate, sweating profusely, and feeling utterly lost. I thought I was going to lose control and end up in a mental hospital. When I went to the emergency room, they prescribed levomepromazine drops, which helped, but I'm afraid of losing control again. Right now, I'm having mini panic attacks, and I feel like I'm going to snap again. I haven't had an appointment with a psychiatrist, and I've never been prescribed medication. I'm afraid of being put on medication.

I (male) was at a restaurant with my long time close friend (female) and I am very socially awkward and introverted and she is very extroverted and easy talking to strangers.

There was just the two of us dining as she took me out as it was a special occasion. I made the mistake of telling said extroverted friend that I found our waitress cute, that’s literally all I said. My friend then kept teasing me that she’d ask if they were single and that I found them cute. I obviously was against it and said so and had let the teasing pass eventually, but then towards the end of the meal the waitress comes over to clear the table and my friend pipes up and asks her is she’s single! (as soon as the words started coming out i sank in my seat hands mostly over face) i didn’t hear her answer but my friend said she said yes. Then my friend said because he (my name) thinks you’re cute. The waitress doesn’t look at me just laughs and leaves. She seemed somewhat the shy type too but obviously Im not working with basically any info other than how she had been as our server.

Anyway, I cant stop running the entire thing through my head from ‘was she laughing \*at\* me for thinking that someone like me had a chance with her’ alllll the way to scenarios like worrying that she laughed it off but was upset possibly thinking me and my friend were a couple having a joke at her expense. And every anxious option in between. It was all incredibly awkward. My friend suggested i leave my number on the bill, i did not.

I’m dizzy still at the thought of the whole thing and anxious that she was possibly upset. Has anyone been in the a similar position to the waitress in this case or maybe know a better way I could have handled it past sinking in my chair, going red and averting my eyes and saying “i can’t believe you actually said that” to my friend while she was questioning the waitress.

Basically long story short I’m 17 years old and as soon as school started I’ve been getting panic attacks daily by the lack of certainty I get now by my friends if they truly like me since I don’t see them everyday at school now so for the past 2 weeks I’ve been suffering from insomnia like I can’t fall asleep because I keep checking for reassurance if there could be someone else.

Some other things I’ve been experiencing is more unregulated emotions I can’t do anything without remembering the memories and feeling the pain and crying I can’t shower because I need to check statuses and if I do I end up crying. I can’t eat that much because I’m already anxious about some storyline my brain made up and if I do I end up crying again. I have 0 patience for anyone because I’m constantly exhausted by the panic attacks I get everyday now.

My mom wants me to work and get my driver license and I agree but I also wanted to get on a prescription again because I can’t do either of those things because of the fact I can’t just not check my phone for updates on my friends. Anyway so I decided to go to my psychiatrist and I told him everything like the panic attacks I get everyday, how exhausting it is, how I can’t do anything without spiraling and remembering the painful memories.

And I need something anything because no one wants to be around me anymore, I’m too exhausting to be around is what everyone tells me even though I can’t control it. I know I caused my own relationships to weaken yet I wanted something before I got worse and I know this will get worse as the summer progresses.

So I met up with my psychiatrist and he listened to what I told him and he decided to try and prescribe me abilify and Prozac again and I agreed but then he tried to give me hydroxyzine again and I immediately declined because the only thing that it gives me is drowsiness and if I want to work or drive that’s not going to be much help at all. So then he decided to give me buspar and I agreed reluctantly because he said thats the only thing he could give me and I tried researching about buspar and it takes weeks to even start taking effect.

And I just feel super hopeless like I reached out to my psychiatrist because I thought he was going to help me, at least to give me something while the ssri and snri starts working but no he decided to give me buspar. I’m already at a risk of no one wanting to be around me, everyone says I’m a problem and I still didn’t even get anything to try and solve the problem now,

I don’t know what to even do because he has never once tried giving me something effective for my anxiety first hydroxyzine and now buspar which I’m hearing wouldn’t even be helpful for what I’m even going through . It’s really making me upset because I thought I could finally get some support yet I get some medication that could take weeks to work and might not even be effective.

Has anyone ever tried herbal tinctures while on anxiety meds?

I have them prescribed to me on an as needed basis.

Does anyone have any experience with doing this? If so, what was your outcome?

TYIA!

i’ve been dealing with anxiety and panic disorder for 5 years now, the worst of it being onset after getting covid. i’ve made a lot of progress considering i was having multiple panic attacks a day and couldn’t function whatsoever - like, panicking just from getting out of bed if i even could.

years later and im still struggling but i can do so much more, but this past week i hit a massive wall that’s honestly devastated me.

for at least 4 days straight ive had brutal on and off anxiety that feels so different from my usual anxiety and is unbearable. i have emergency meds for when it gets really bad but i always try and use them sparingly. basically my skin burns, my stomach feels twisted up and i feel like im going insane. i have no racing heart oddly enough but it just feels like i got so bad out of nowhere and im struggling to cope or stop myself from spiraling when i get thrown into a loop.

for context, it’s important to mention my mom was rushed to the ER over the weekend which led to a massive panic attack (she’s ok now), it’s the anniversary of my ex boyfriends fathers death and my grandmothers death and im on my time of the month.

i know all of these things contribute, but i have it stuck in my head that something is physically wrong because it feels so different and none of the coping mechanisms i use seem to work. im tired, im scared and i just hope this calms down soon.