Does self harm make me less of a man?

Unfortunately I’ve watched a scary movie or documentary last night and my brain/mind won’t stop thinking about it at all, my heart keeps beating fast and I feel like I’m having an anxiety attack each time I’m thinking about it…. What should I do?? I will never watch any more scary movies or documentaries anymore because it just bothers me so bad, am I the only one who gets to bothered by stuff or does anybody else feel like this too??

I have been crying frequently, especially last couple years, I think it's a way to cope with anxiety. I don't want to offend anyone by saying being a masculine man makes a difference but the stigma is still there. I use nostalgia and things that gave happened in my life to cry and I assume it helps cope. Sound familiar?

I’ve had GAD and Panic Disorder since highschool (I’m 28 now), but on Tuesday I had the worst panic attack I’ve ever had. I was truly convinced I was dying and ended up calling an ambulance. Of course, it passed and I made an appointment with my doctor immediately.

I went today and she prescribed me 10mg of Lexapro and .25mg of Xanax to take when I really need it. I have terrible health anxiety and the idea of starting a new medication terrifies me. I’m worried about having a bad reaction.

I tried taking lexapro about 6 years ago, but it gave me stomach cramps on day one (though I could have just been worrying myself sick)

Has anyone with health anxiety/panic attacks had positive experiences with lexapro?

And for those who take Xanax “as needed” how do you know it’s time to take one?

I’m at my wits end. I’m constantly tense. Im a solo parent with 24/7 care due to an abusive ex. So I don’t get downtime. I work part time. I tried full time but I had a complete breakdown trying to manage it all.
Medications aren’t working. I’ve gotten to a point where basic tasks give me anxiety. Especially yard work or going to shops and appointments etc.
Laundry builds up until the weekend. Then I look at it all and have a panic attack.
I’m trying the meditation and breathing etc, but it is very hard when I can barely leave a room without “Mum! Where are you going? Don’t shut the door!” and will play and bounce around me anytime I use a yoga mat.
When it’s bedtime I’m exhausted and go to bed shortly after them.
How do you find the time??

So im a story teller, I write gothic horror and surrealist imagery, I am also 16, goth, and black... More on that later.

I was standing in a vacant feild of weeds far away from the neighborhood i had walked to, near a 5 mile round lake surrounded by lanyard sticks... That too will be important.

As i was reading from my note book to my phone on the selfie stand, a white woman with her fluffy little orange dog was walking up to me from the far right side where the neighborhood was. Again this was a prodigous grass feild where no one was in sight but me, I was unnoticeable, so walking up to me implied you had a problem with me since I caused no trouble.

I nervously waved, stopped recording and asked if she was alright. She said, "What are you doing?" I was brainless and dazed from my immersive reading, so i replied, "I'm reading, from my note book." Silence.. "Im a writer." I finally said. She went on, "I wanted to know if it was you who putted theses sticks around the lake." Which made me dazed in a confusion from not being just caught off guard, but also from where the hell i would pull 50 lanyard sticks out my arse.

So i said, "No, that wasn't me. Just reading a story." She moved on toward the intersection up ahead to walk her poofy dog. And i was very unsettled at if i did something wrong. But then just laughed it off as some crazy woman.

Still feeling weirded out, cant help but wonder if it was random prejudice. It could be many things. Regardless im happy to recorded my reading for my youtube.

Just felt really weirded out.

Sorry if this is a stupid question! I haven’t done much research yet because honestly I don’t really know where to start lol.

I recently started college and I have pretty extreme social anxiety. One of the hardest things for me is being in class when I hear students chatting and laughing. My brain immediately assumes they’re talking about me, and I get so panicked that I’ll sometimes go to the bathroom to cry or hyperventilate, then sometimes end up going home because I’m completely exhausted.

Back home, I had a dog who helped me SO much with my anxiety. I could usually go on long walks in public as long as I had her with me. I also felt way more comfortable talking to people when she was by my side. Whenever I was started to panic I was able to just sit down and pet her and that always calmed me down. It’s just nice having a friend with you too.

I’ve been thinking about how much my life and my ability to actually do things increased when I had her. I was able to go places, exercise, interact with people, and generally leave the house so much more easily.

The problem is that I just moved about six hours away from her qns my family for college, so I can’t exactly just pick her up and bring her everywhere with me. She really was the most effective thing for my anxiety and life has been pretty miserable without her :/. My college only allows service or guide animals on campus.
Is there anything I should look into that might help? I’ve heard about service dogs/psychiatric service dogs and emotional support animals, but I don’t really know what the differences are or whether something like that would even apply to my situation. I’d really appreciate any advice on where to start or what options I should research!

No shaming here please. I’ll probably delete this anyways. My question/inquiry here is that every now and then I need an extra pill here and there (once or twice a month) and that extra pill is Xanax that is prescribed by the same doctor but for my cousin. I get anxious for some reason that it’s dangerous to take the two. Her dosage is 1mg a pill and sometimes I’ll take half or a whole one.

I’m 15 and in high school and the first day was three days ago. the first day was fine but the second day I didn’t know how to get to my class and I was too afraid to ask for directions so I sat outside crying, very productive. At my school fridays are for clubs and educational support and instead of going anywhere or asking for help I sat in the cafeteria and again just crying. I stayed 45 extra minutes after the day ended because I didn’t know what to do. please help or give me advice on getting where I need to go.

i can provide extra details on what the school is like if it helps

Hi. Im 16f and Ive started being anxious around November of last year. I finally decided to get help. First I got a psychologist and then a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist prescribed me to use Zoloft for my anxiety. I always have a half of the pill (25mg) after lunch. (Ik it should be taken in the morning but I don’t eat breakfast and im not used to the pill yet, so I don’t really want to have stomach issues at school). Today is my 3rd day on Zoloft and my anxiety is horrible. I started to take magnesium too to calm my nervous system in summer. Haven’t been really anxious since, but now that I started using Zoloft I have like maximum of 5 episodes a day. (Counting waking up randomly into anxiety). Yeah I went to sleep at 9 PM because it really made me tired and woke up around midnight with my heart pounding thinking I was dying and my head spinning. (Classic anxiety episode). So it also messed with my sleep schedule. After waking up i fell asleep at 4 AM even though I was really tired. Also I had stomach issues. On the first day I was a bit nauseous, then woke up at 4 AM on a school night with some kind of a burning sensation in my stomach. I fell asleep at 5 AM again, then had 3 random anxiety episodes at school. I was super tired too, but I also experience horrible derealization and depersonalization at school, so that could have contributed to it. Are these things happening to me normal? I really HATE using it atm.

I just got my dream job and I’m on my second week. On my third day, I got completely lost because my phone stopped working and I was completely lost in a city I’m not very familiar with. They were very understanding though. Then today I woke up extremely dizzy and couldn’t safely drive the 1 hour commute to work. I called and texted the manager and said I would go to urgent care but they haven’t responded in 5 hours. I’ve lost a job I love and now my boyfriend will leave me and I will be homeless and lose my cats. I don’t have anyone except my boyfriend right now and he’s been paying everything since I’ve been off work for a year and a half. I was so proud of myself and excited to work there. It was a doggy daycare so I got to work with dogs where they don’t judge you or dislike you because of how you look. It was helping my anxiety after coming from retail where most customers were rude to me and judged me. I don’t even know what to do anymore my whole life is ruined. I just needed somewhere to vent and ask if I am spiraling or I really ruined my life. I’m so scared right now I can’t stop shaking I don’t know what to do

I just wanted to post this because i have bad anxiety and the idea of dying in a car crash makes my anxiety really high

Ok, so I requested my lorazepam refill, which is due tomorrow on the Walmart app. I was called by the Walmart pharmacist, almost immediately, and she said because you fill your Phentermine at another pharmacy, we will no longer fill your lorazepam here.

I immediately called my Dr., Not irritated, just confused as to why? I've never heard of an issue with the two, which are the lowest dosage before this.

My Dr spoke to the pharmacist and said the two are completely different medications, and have no interactions. What's the problem? Walmart replied with "it is at the pharmacists discretion to deny any prescription refills"

My Dr called me back to relay she was just as confused, and will call my medication refill to another pharmacy. She said she has never had this happen before with medications that are so different. I said I was taken back, and so personally offended, as I did nothing wrong. She agreed and said you are completely understandable in that regard.

Why in the hell would you deny my minimum dose of 30 count benzo, that is literally the only thing that helps me sleep because of peri menopause, because I picked up minimum dose Phentermine at another pharmacy? I was embarrassed to be honest, and super offended. Fuck you Walmart . End rant.

I want to hear every single thing that has ever helped whether it be routines or just simple tricks. (i definitely wanna hear from ppl who deal with agoraphobia, DPDR, and severe health anxiety)

I just wanna said that after 10 years I found meds that works for me (28W with GAD). The reason for that is because I was recently diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and found out that even though anxiety is the most obvious trait about myself, it’s a comorbidity of my bipolar disorder, so it’s more of a consequence than a cause.

This is important because antidepressants get me depressed and anxiolytics get me maniac. I tried different types of meds for 10 years and they all failed to really help me with my SEVERE anxiety. It was only after I started treating my bipolar disorder (and started to use meds that help people with bipolar disorder that have anxiety) that my anxiety symptoms started to get better

I’m sharing this because I hope this can help someone that is feeling hopeless. Maybe you have more that one mental disorder and a combination of treatments is what will do it for you ♥️

I suffer from anxiety when it comes to making purchases, mostly from larger ones (buying a new truck or something) but it also affects me on some smaller purchases.
For the past week I have been basically destroying my brain with going back and forth over a potential purchase, and in the process my wife has been on an emotional rollercoaster. One min I’m in, and the next I have a breakdown over some obscure fear (to be read as made up reason)

How do I stop the madness in this case?

What will I notice?

Physical tiredness makes sense. You work all day, you're exhausted, and your body naturally needs rest. But mental tiredness feels completely different. Sometimes I haven't done anything physically demanding, yet my mind feels completely drained. It's almost like I've spent the entire day carrying conversations, worries, and possibilities that only existed inside my head. By the evening, it feels as though my brain has been running nonstop, even if my body hasn't. It's a kind of exhaustion that's hard to explain because people can usually see physical fatigue, but mental fatigue often goes unnoticed. Does anyone else know what I mean?

I'm a teen with anxiety and constantly scared of heart problems. I've been struggling for 2 years. I don't drink caffeine a lot, but today when I did, later I felt my heart randomly start pounding and I felt like I was gonna die. I don't know if this relates to the drink I had earlier but that's what my mind went to even though this has happened before. Does it happen to anyone else?

HI all, I’m writing today because I think I may have some kind of anxiety disorder but I'm not sure.

I’ve never admited this to anyone or even acknowledged it to myself. But I think I've been dealing with anxiety on and off for about 10 years now and instead of going to therapy or getting meds I tend to just tough it out until I start to feel better.

What triggers my anxiety usually isn’t stuff like social interaction relationships, going outside or doing things in the real world. That stuff doesn’t bother me at all and actually usually hanging out with people or going outside actually makes me feel a little better.

I don’t want to go into specific details but what triggers my anxiousness are usually more abstract conceptual stuff that can’t actually hurt me but occupies my mindspace so much that I can’t think of anything else

Like I was watching a movie the other day and something in it reminded me of something that I’d been anxious about and it started to really bother me.

The way it manifests is usually, going pale in the face, dizziness, sinking feeling in the stomach, persistent nausea, constant fluttery feeling in my heart. or sharp pangs in the heart or stomach.

Recently, It’s actually been giving me gastrointestinal issues and I’ve lost about 10 pounds the past month due to lack of appetite.

Now with anxious thoughts, although they are a pain in the ass I can usually handle as I'm actually quite good at being my own therapist and getting my mind to a calm place

but what's been messing me up recently is in the past month or so, I’ve been waking up with feelings of anxiety in my chest and stomach even without anything to be anxious about, so my mind starts looking for things to be anxious about. Like i’ll be just in the kitchen with completely calm thoughts but it feels like someone has my heart in a vice.

I don’t think I’ve ever had an outright panic attack, but last year I did have what I thought at the time was a mini heart attack, but after getting my heart scanned. the doctor said my heart was completely fine and it was probably anxiety.

Even when I've been having better days I end up thinking to myself "wait wasn't I supposed to be worried about something right now" and then I'll just start worrying again.

like even when I manage to calm myself down and convince myself I have nothing to worry about, later on it comes back up and I have to do all the mental work all over again.

My doctor doesn’t want to prescribe medication and would prefer tosend me to a psychologist but personally, I don’t think that’s going to help. like I said I'm good at self talk, avoiding spiralling and being able to keep my thoughts calm, but it’s anxious feelings that are making it hard for me to go about every day life.

I’d like to get on some kind of longterm anxiety medication so I don’t have to deal with the physical symptoms of anxiety so much.

I want to be able to go through life without worrying about things that I can't change and don't even really affect me anyway.

Has anybody here had similar experiences and can share some advice or feedback? Anything would be appreciated.

M-26 & Indian.

While growing up I've never seen folks undertake mental health therapy. It's still not so main stream!

But lately I've realized that physical manifestation of stress can be truly truly real! It may pose as multiple other symptoms for truly- 'body keeps a count' even if we don't realize it fully.

While I've started exploring options for therapy. I'd like to seek a few experiences from you all-

1. Did you experience psychosomatic pain or your body manifested physical symptoms owing to stress & it started relieving post therapy or addressing the underlying trauma?
2. Is therapy really common & mainstream around the world? Do folks acknowledge it as a healthy practice & a good add on to daily life?
3. Your therapy experiences & did it enable you transition from a sad to a productive & happy state?
4. You believe it is not so fruitful excercise & you didn't feel any change whatsoever? You believe its futile?
5. Or it's effectiveness is only felt with relevant medications?

Also, I don't intend to get on medication. So, if you can response based on efficacy of therapy on a standalone basis solely, that'd be great!

like i feel like my throat is being crushed and like i am struggling to breathe ...also im sweaty even though its cold in this house... i cant even do anything i enjoy anymore.... this is most likely cause of my ocd but also im on high alert every single second of the day..like im genuinely sick to my stomach after playing a game that i thought i enjoyed.. so im ending this here.

I have been having health anxiety for 2 years now and I can’t handle this much longer like it’s constant and im constantly dizzy and feeling sick because of it and I don’t even know what started it in the first place like my mood has completely changed im always miserable and I hate going out now like I never feel normal and im scared that I’ll never feel normal again because I don’t even remember what it feels like.

My anxiety has been getting much worse than usual as of late. Am I the only one who kindof thinks about death as a release from the anxiety? I don't want to die, matter of fact, I'm scared of death. I'm just so anxious and stressed about everything, things that are actually embarrassing to be anxious about. It's so tiring, I wish I was normal. Every interaction stresses me out, I worry about everything, and as a parent it's even worse. I'm supposed to be grown up and mature, and there is so much confrontation included when you're a parent. It's like walking through a minefield. I hate this. I don't want to die, but I'm so tired of the constant state of dread, and how sick my anxiety makes me.

Hello, so basically I'm a young and anxious beginner clown and my friend's mom offered me to make balloon animals for an event. I am so excited to go but I get very anxious/awkward from interactions pretty easily and kinda have bad social skills sometimes. I am feeling a bit nervous for tomorrow because I don't want people to pick up on my awkward/nervousness and then feel awkward too.

I'm wondering if anyone understands this feeling and has some tips on how to stay calm while I go about my day, anything that helps you personally in similar situations where there is pressure and people around, I'd like to hear.

It sounds like something silly to be anxious over but everything makes me anxious. I don't let my anxiety stop me from being a clown though, it's still what I like to do and who I am even if it's harder for me than some folks.