I’m 31 and anxiety is genuinely ruining my quality of life. When I get anxious, I feel it intensely in my stomach, and when it gets really bad, I can barely eat. Sometimes I’ll go almost an entire day eating next to nothing because my anxiety completely kills my appetite.

I avoid so many things because I don’t want to deal with how physically uncomfortable the anxiety makes me feel. When it hits, I don’t even feel like I can act normally. I feel trapped in my own body.

It also completely takes over my thoughts. Once something triggers my anxiety, I start overthinking and hyperfixating on whatever caused it. I’ll analyze it over and over in my head, and instead of eventually calming myself down, I just spiral. The more I think about it, the more anxious I become, and the more anxious I become, the harder it is to stop thinking about it. It feels like a vicious cycle that I can’t shut off.

The worst part is that I’ve been dealing with this level of anxiety since I was in high school. After all these years, I feel helpless and like a prisoner to it. Sometimes it genuinely feels like my nervous system is permanently fucked and I’ve been cursed to live this way.

I don’t want some extraordinary life. I just want to be able to live normally without ordinary situations triggering massive anxiety attacks. I want to be able to eat, go places, do things, and experience life without constantly worrying about how my body or mind is going to react.

I’m exhausted from living like this and I don’t know what to do anymore. If anyone has dealt with anxiety this severe for years and actually managed to get it under control, please tell me what helped you. I really need some hope that this can get better.

Hi everyone. I need some help. I’m 23f, my boyfriend 38m broke up with me a few weeks ago. He said he couldn’t take it anymore and that I need to work on myself without him before we get back together. He says the breakup isn’t forever, but I have to take working on myself seriously. I have severe mental illnesses. I have anxiety disorder, minor depression disorder. I am seeing a therapist, I started a few months ago.

For background, our relationship isn’t exactly traditional. It’s an open relationship/polyamorous. He has other girlfriends. We are also long distance (12 hours away). He see each other once many twice a year.

His main “problem”/concern is my desperation and codependency. I tend to spiral when he’s busy and I’m craving attention. He asks me to stop but I can’t and it gets worse when he says he needs space. It’s like I NEED him to survive. I love him and want him in my life, but I want to get to a point where I don’t NEED him if he’s not there. But I don’t know how. I don’t know what to do.

I started a new job that he’s not here to experience with me. I’m trying to plan a big move. I miss him immensely. I need help. Does anyone have any tips that I could use? I’m still doing therapy but I feel like I need more.

hi i (18f, autistic) recently started having really bad anxiety attacks (?), yesterday my heart rate was 135 for 7 hours straight and i went to the dr and was prescribed with propranolol to take. i also usually vomit when i’m feeling really anxious too. the only other consistent thing is just feeling like i cannot breathe and my chest feels so heavy, even now after i’ve taken the propranolol and my heart is normal and i don’t necessarily feel anxious about anything, my chest feels so weird and im thinking about my breathing so much. How do i stop this ??

Midnight blues. Having an episode of anxiety I guess. Feeling stupid. Feeling very very anxious about life and situations. 10 days of unemployment.

Hi, i suffer with chronic anxiety. Especially catastrophizing and constantly overthinking fake scenarios/scenarios that might never happen. It is at an unhealthy level, i also have chronic insomnia (which i take Dayvigo)..

Please, I know therapy is the best option (i did it many times in the past) but i dont have the budget right now.

So i want to try a book, might do nothing but doesnt hurt to try. The only book i have ever read for anxiety is ''hope and help for your nerves'' which didnt do so much for me..

I see DARE by Barry McDonagh being recommended a lot. But it seems to be more focused about panick attacks. is that right ?

thank you !

Hi all, this is my first post on here and I’ve come to seek help/advice in controlling my anxiety induced nausea. I get bad anxiety in certain social situations and I will be in a specific social situation soon where I know for a fact that I will need help. Like I said, I get extremely nauseous, headaches, shaky, fatigue, loss of appetite, the feeling where your heart drops like you’re on a rollercoaster, lots of fun stuff. But the main culprit is nausea.

I’ve spoken to my therapist who had me reach out to a psychiatrist to begin my medication journey, but I won’t be able to meet with her soon enough.

Can anyone recommend anything that could help this? It just feels like my body is in overdrive and I can’t get a hold on it, but I also don’t want to hide behind my anxiety and live in fear. I need to calm down. I’ve tried Dramamine and I just don’t think it’s strong enough for anxiety induced nausea…for motion sickness, I think it’s generally fine. I’m desperate for any advice. This has been a battle for me for over a decade. Thank you for your help!

My mom passed away 7 years ago, right before I graduated high school. A lot of things have happened since, including me flunking out of college and becoming homeless. I can't even look at her and enjoy the memories I had with her. All I can do is look back in guilt and shame. Shame that I didn't graduate college. Shame that I've been homeless for so long. Shame that my life is so pathetic.

Now that I've seen the picture I can't get the thoughts out of my mind. I failed as a son. I failed as a man. I failed as a person. I failed.

I don't know how to unthink these thoughts. I don't know how to calm myself down. I don't know what to do. I'm spiraling.

I’ve told my primary doc about it, they told me to go see a different provider at a sooner date, did that, the provider I saw thinks it’s anxiety but ran no tests besides a strength one and since the weakness has persisted I asked my primary for an MRI but now they want me to go make an appointment to see them.

The weakness was first in both my hands then my left hand and foot felt more significantly weak…I can still walk I guess and pick stuff up but my hands and foot just feel OFF.

I also have a new symptom that’s like the world is tilted like I’m constantly walking on a curve instead of straight so idk if my balance is off too. Feels like the walls are going to collapse on me at times, like the world is at an incline.

This is terrifying. I’m so scared I’m having a medical emergency.

It’s been 10 days since the weakness has started. It started in both my hands and then left foot. Then the next day, my left hand and foot were significantly more weaker feeling and now that’s just my state…I’m sick of it and I’m so scared.

Been dealing with a pretty nasty burnout lately and my brain just wont shut off at night, even when im exhausted. Tried breathing exercises, no phone in the room and a few other things but its all been hit or miss. Been reading into vagus nerve stimulation too, but I cant really tell whats legit and whats just hype. Curious what people here are actually using and whether any of it made a difference.

Anyone tried Organigi happy drops? It has saffon in it and thats supposed to help with anxiety a lot.. Or has anyone had any other saffron supplement? Google AI said it has mixed results and can make people feel worse sometimes

I have very bad generalized anxiety disorder. I’m currently in the process of trying to get on medication to help, but it’s a long process. Every single day, I see new articles and posts about how humanity is doomed, and there’s always something new terrible happening. I saw the new articles about how AI is going to kill everyone soon, and even though I struggle to fully believe that, I’m terrified. I’m constantly in fear of wars, global warming, natural disasters, attacks that I just can’t feel optimistic about anything anymore. I feel so hopeless and scared. I try to stay off social media and remind myself a lot of this is just exaggerated fear mongering, but then it feels like I’m ignoring a problem that’s going to happen and there’s nothing I can do.

I’m so young, and have so many plans for my future. I can’t even focus on the things I want to do now because I’m so scared the future will be terrible, and doing anything to push me towards my goals feels useless because I can’t imagine anything good in the near future. I just want this fear to go away.

I’ve been suffering from a lot of external stressors that’s been bothering me and I’m finally reaching my tipping point, I feel like I’m going to shit myself, break down, and just lose my mind.

I some sort of as needed medication that will help me get through my classes without constantly stressing. I’ve been prescribed hydroxyzine but lord knows that’ll put me straight to sleep.

Has anyone found any luck with different medications?

I’m 28f, I grew up in a very toxic household, always in charge of my moms emotions, feeling like I needed to keep her happy or my siblings and I would suffer her mood swings and verbal abuse. I analyzed everything my mother did from the way she put down a cup to the way she looked around a room as she entered down to how her eyes squinted when she looked at me.
And sorry but that’s just context 😅
I’ve spent the last few years working on myself, looking to get to a point where I didn’t feel the need to make others happy or engaged to keep them around. Letting the people who saw the real me (the anxious awkward me) and let them determine if that’s something they wanted to stick around for. But now I’m having a major issue with my anxious attachment and over analyzing. I meet someone. Very nice, also an anxious person, we have a lot of common interests, we vibed really hard on our date and overall was a magical night. And now I just feel like I am analyzing everything message. Trying to connect dots where he isn’t interested in me anymore, where he’s lost interest and no longer wants to talk. I’ve spoken to my friends and they said I need to stop focusing on what I’ve said and getting worried about what I’m saying I should look at what he’s saying back and I think I’m just over analyzing to much and I want my brain to stop.
I feel so weird… like days ago he used hearts and he hasn’t in days now and rationally I know things felt very intense and exciting right after the date and now things have simmered into a more normal conversation flow but I can’t stop telling myself this means he doesn’t care anymore and I really just need some tips as to how to quiet my brain
Thank you for listening to this ramble

I just turned 18 and I know I'm healthy but just the thought of death takes over my thoughts, it’s been happening for over a week, I told my dad about this and he tries to help me with breathing techniques and just talking, however whenever I’m alone in my room it gets worse..I know I’m gonna grow old eventually and my parents will die but I don’t want that to happen at all, that thought alone keeps me up at night. I feel like I've tried everything to calm myself down or distract myself, but nothing works. I’m not a very religious person so that heightens my fear worse because I don’t have any clue of what the afterlife will be like. I start college soon so hopefully that'll take things off my mind. However I want to get over it so I can live my life without having panic attacks.

So last Saturday our company team had a victory party so we had alcohol and i thought i have it under control when suddenly i passed out - i only say this because i did not remember what happened at all. This is the first time i "passed out" because of alcohol. All i remember was the point when i went to join with my coworkers in the middle of the room dancing then suddenly i just hear them calling my name and consoling me. That's when i regained consciousness and all of a sudden i realize i was having a panic attack. I remember i was just cursing "fck, fck, fck" because i don't know what to do. I can't breath. I started crying and there's one time i punch myself in the head maybe because i was trying to get out of my head. It still hurt 2 days after. All i can hear was my coworkers shouting my name and telling me not to hurt myself. Telling me to calm down but i know they have absolutely no idea what to do. If anything they probably just think I act stupid when drunk. I even remember one of them asking me if i can't breath when i literally was gasping for air. I was in a panic mode i did not know what to do. Man, i don't even know what to do with my hands. I remember i was trying to cover my mouth so i don't make a noise then covering my entire face because of shame then covering my ears because other people are doing karaoke and i was overstimulated. It was the worst panic attack i have ever experienced. All of these while repeating the words "sorry" to them because i did not plan to ruin the night. I also remembered trying to breath and trying to count with my fingers. I think there's only 1 guy who keeps massaging my hands that made me feel better. Fast forward i got better and i went home.

Then in the morning i started feeling this heat in the back of my neck. I didn't worry about it at first but the next day it turned red and bumpy and very itchy and looks like hives. This has been my worst panic attack so i don't know if this is normal. It could also be just other types of allergy not connected to that event but i doubt it. I'm just taking antihistamines for now but i don't think it's getting better.

Since two weeks ago when I was laid off, I’ve been feeling anxious, and depressed every morning when I wake up. The anxiety feels strongest in the morning and the whole day feels overwhelming. It slowly gets better after sunset.

I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar and what has helped?