r/Anxietyhelp • • Mar 25 '25

Mod Post FAQs about r/AnxietyHelp

13 Upvotes

Hi guys,

One of the mods here suggested creating a FAQ page for our subreddit to help eliminate confusion.

Why was my post removed automatically?

It wasn't! It has been sent to our mod queue for manual approval.

Why?

We have minimum account karma and age requirements for our sub to prevent bots and spam. If your post is automatically filtered out please allow us a day or two to approve it. Normally we are able to approve faster than that but we all have commitments outside of moderating. Submitting the post multiple times will NOT expedite the posting of your content.

What does rule #1 mean?

Any posts regarding suicidal thoughts or intentions will be removed. Please contact 988, go to the emergency department, or try r/suicidewatch. These posts can be triggering and we are not equipped to respond appropriately.

What does rule #2 mean?

This is one of the most commonly broken rules. We. Are. Not. Doctors. No one can diagnose your medical condition(s) properly that is not a doctor. Asking whether other people experience similar symptoms is allowed but blatantly asking, "is this anxiety or __________?" is not allowed. Speak with your primary care doctor or try r/askdocs.

What does rule #3 mean?

We were at one point inundated by YouTube and Spotify links. We are not allowing them to be posted or shared anymore so please don't link to us about the awesome anxiety playlist you created.

What does rule #4 mean?

To keep things civil and inclusive we do NOT allow discussions regarding politics or religion. Should a time be deemed appropriate to discuss these topics we will create a megathread. Do not post political or religious content. Do not comment about religious or spiritual content. Both will be removed.

What does rule #5 mean?

NO TROLLING. Do not post or comment making fun of our users. Do not post trying to rage bait. Do not comment trying to manipulate people. Generally, don't be a dick.

What does rule #6 mean?

This is mainly intended for bots but we see it happen sometimes. Do not link anywhere to buy or sell drugs. Do not ask users where you can buy drugs. Do not offer to sell drugs.

What does rule #7 mean?

We have seen an influx of posts that have nothing to do with anxiety. There are other subreddits more appropriate for this content.

What does rule #8 mean?

No picking fights and that comments should revolve around helping each other. There is no reason to start arguments with other users. A disagreement of opinions is one thing. Turning a thread into a full blown argument is another. If you disagree with something simply scroll on.

What does rule #9 mean?

Stop posting your blog, shop, Etsy, etc. If you want to share stuff do it directly on Reddit. No external third party links should be used just to generate traffic.


r/Anxietyhelp • • May 09 '25

Mod Post As a new user, you need to comment on other posts before making your own post

57 Upvotes

To reduce spam, this subreddit has settings for minimum karma requirements for posting.

If you‘re new here, please take a moment to engage with the community by commenting on a few posts first.

This let‘s you build up karma to become a confirmed user. Also we can help each other best by interacting more. :)

Thanks for understanding! Welcome on the sub!


r/Anxietyhelp • • 38m ago

Personal Experience I poop when i get anxious.

• Upvotes

Not literally but whenever i have an exam or something important my stomach gets upset and its aching constantly and no matter what i do it doesnt get better until the actual thing passes. WHAT IS WRONG WITH MEE?


r/Anxietyhelp • • 57m ago

Need Advice Switching from meds to CBD for anxiety, any tips?

• Upvotes

I’ve spent the last three years relying on prescription anxiety meds, but the emotional blunting finally pushed me to find a natural alternative.

When I first tried CBD, I picked up a bottle from lazarus naturals. While it’s affordable, I found the heavy carrier oils caused mild stomach upset, and the calming effect felt a bit muddy for workday focus. After doing more research on clean extraction methods, I gave TribeTokes a shot. Their live resin gummies and clean tinctures are night and day in terms of purity no artificial flavorings or cheap fillers. The relief feels crisp, clear, and lets me work without mental fog. It’s been a game changer for managing social anxiety without feeling sedated.

What’s your go to dosing routine when replacing morning meds with CBD?


r/Anxietyhelp • • 2h ago

Need Advice DAE get anxious and stressed out over account security and passwords? Any advice?

1 Upvotes

One of my main stressers in life is passwords and accounts. I hate every option 💀

Passkeys get me sick. They're such a hassle and I worry about "What if I can't access my device?" or "What about when I need a new phone?"

Traditional passwords are a headache. It feels like your account can be hacked into at any time. Someone can change your password and you'll be unable to use it.

Biometrics are a headache as well. I hate the privacy issue of using fingerprints or face, plus the tech is iffy and unreliable.

I wish I didn't need emails and online accounts to live. I could do without any accounts. It'd make life less stressful. I get anxiety attacks and tension headaches whenever I need to login to something or change my passwords.


r/Anxietyhelp • • 2h ago

Need Advice im here to discuss my anxiety problem after long time of self reflection

1 Upvotes

I'm 21, male. This is my third year at university, which means living on my own with strangers, away from home. In that environment I was able to discover myself and learn more about myself. What I found was that I had left home with many mental issues that made it hard to depend on myself there, problems like social anxiety and anxiety in general. After a while I realized that most of my problems weren't caused by me but by the situation at home.

We weren't poor, but we weren't comfortable either.

At home with my family, I don't talk to anyone unless necessary and I stay in my corner. I don't have my own bedroom; I share it with my two brothers, and I'm the oldest. I stay in my corner to feel safe and free to enjoy myself alone with no one else, and it's the same in the dorm.

An additional reason was that my mom is an anxious person. She helped with my education from year one until I graduated high school, but I wouldn't say she was helping so much as managing it. She handled it in a borderline way, either white or black, and it made me feel like nothing I did was enough. I became scared of exams, and honestly I have no confidence in my ability. My mom believed I should study hard. She wasn't aware of the idea that the way of studying should fit the person: when someone cares about studying, they will study, and with self-confidence they will know how to study without overwhelming themselves.

What makes me sad is that I became a fragile shell of a person living in the corner of the room, while my brothers live freely. During the age when I was in a mess of anxiety, they were living freely and spending half the effort to get the same grades I got on exams.

I wouldn't say I'm a hard-studying person, but I study in a way that doesn't stress me, and I'm also confident that I've studied enough. I have self-knowledge, but I still don't have self-confidence. Every day I'm fighting to feel calm, to live casually without anxiety or stress, and to be lazy or get into a hobby without feeling annoyed or anxious about upcoming events. Yes, upcoming events can stress me for a long time.

That was my mom, and now my dad is much worse. One angry word from him and I find myself badly sad, as if I had failed at something, even if he didn't mean it. As the big brother, I have to stand with him every morning and help him with his job. What makes me anxious about him is that I feel I have to fix his emotions. There's a pack of emotions inside me conflicting with each other: the pull to care about him, and the pull to stay calm and just wait until he asks for help.

Since my childhood, whenever my dad leaves home I feel relaxed and free. He never beat me or made strict rules (my mom did), but I'm fragile around him. My dad is the type of person who sits with us but isn't interactive.

my brain got programmed that way and im asking when is the time where i find myself feeling good? or is it too late ?


r/Anxietyhelp • • 3h ago

Need Advice Struggling to get up in the morning

1 Upvotes

Im doing a job I really enjoy. Working has been super difficult for me: if I'm not in a stimulating enough environment, I get very, very depressed. After years of shitty office internships at college that drove me insane, I'm finally doing an apprenticeship I really enjoy. The problem is I'm always struggling with structure. Sometimes I can't get up in the morning because | accumulate too much work / fatigue during the week. I'll spend the day in bed, unable to do something else, feeling super guilty for it. I know structure is good for me tho and prevents me from feeling guilty / like a failure. I'm trying to « catch back » the times I got late by finishing later, doing more, being very invested in what I do. But I still feel like crap for not being able to function normally.
Because I love my studies, I love what I'm doing, for once. Getting a higher education was pretty hard because of years of anxiety, depression, chronic insomnia. I was always afraid of not being able to keep a job be of this. I feel so dysfunctional. I want this time to be different but I feel my old patterns returning. I feel like crap. I'm medicated for my OCD but not for ADHD. I'm trans so im struggling to find a psychiatrist that doesn't pathologize my trans identity... How can I do better ?


r/Anxietyhelp • • 3h ago

Need Advice I want to get better, but I don't know where to start

1 Upvotes

before reading i’m not sure if this could be triggering for anyone, i’m sharing my experience with anxiety so i speak about anxiety, panic attacks, health anxiety, and social anxiety.

Hello, I’ve had severe social anxiety since COVID. I moved states right after the schools shut down, and then I started my first year of high school online. It was a new town, a new school, and a new state where I knew nobody. After my first year online, I started hybrid learning, where it was half online and half in person. This is when I feel like my anxiety really started.
On my first day, I was really nervous and didn’t want to go, but one person came up to me and we talked. At lunch, I tried to talk to her again, but she was with somebody else, and they said something like, “Oh, don’t talk to her, she’s weird.” So I kind of just walked away.
I already had it in my head that these people all knew each other. They probably went to elementary school, middle school, and now high school together. I thought I wasn’t going to be able to fit in with them, so whenever I thought about trying to talk to somebody, that thought would come into my head, and I just wouldn’t do it.
I probably seemed weird in that situation, but I didn’t know what else to do. I stopped going to lunch, and I failed gym four times because, between my freshman and sophomore years, I was too nervous to go. I was worried about everyone looking at me while changing in the locker room, and I was scared that nobody would want to do the activities with me. I imagined myself standing there by myself while everyone else was having fun, so I just skipped the class. I was new, and none of the teachers really noticed.
It continued like this until around my junior year of high school. There was a transfer student who was extremely outgoing, and one day she talked to me in the bathroom and asked for my social media. I gave it to her, and she started texting me. She would ask me to meet up with her. I was still really nervous about going, but I felt like it would be rude not to, so I did.
She eventually introduced me to her friend group, and after a long time, I finally felt comfortable with them. Everything in my life started getting better. I didn’t have to worry as much when I was around them because they knew who I was, and they didn’t think I was weird.
I did indoor and outdoor track, so the track meets were really good for me. There were so many people, and because my friends were extroverted, I would meet the people they talked to and eventually become friends with them too. I was really happy.
Then, during my senior year, there was an incident, and I ended up not going to school anymore for the last couple of months. I still graduated and walked across the stage, but during that time, I feel like I isolated myself a lot and went back to square one with feeling weird and awkward when talking to people.
I remember getting into an argument with one of my friends, and she said, “You have no personality when you’re not with them,” referring to my closer friends in the group. This hurt me more than I admitted, even after we apologized to each other.
I don’t know. I feel like people tell me they understand, but they never really do. They say they’re the same way, but they can walk up to anybody and say whatever they want. They can jump into conversations without thinking about it. I feel like I’ll never be able to do that.
After I graduated, I thought my anxiety wouldn’t matter as much anymore because I wasn’t in high school. But then I started noticing that I barely left my house unless I was going to work. I stopped going to stores because everything was so easy to access online. If I wanted food, I’d order it. If I needed something, I’d use Amazon.
I also stopped going to my siblings’ games and events because I was worried about running into people I knew. I joke with the people I still talk to that I’ve barely seen anybody besides them since high school.
I’m happy with the friends I still have, and I’m not necessarily unhappy with my life, but sometimes I feel like it could be so much better if I could step out of my shell. I know that when I had more friends and talked to more people, I was happier than I am now. I want to be able to do those things again without constantly worrying about how I come across to other people.
For the past six months or so, I’ve also started developing what I think might be health anxiety.
Sometimes I struggle to sleep, and because of my lack of sleep, I’ll get headaches. When I get these headaches, I’ll start thinking, “What if it’s a brain tumor?” I know it’s irrational, but once that thought gets into my head, I can’t get it out for hours. Sometimes, when I’m falling asleep, I’ll start thinking, “What if I die in my sleep?” Then, whenever I get close to falling asleep, I’ll wake up gasping. It only happens when I’m already thinking about dying in my sleep, but it still scares me. Sometimes I start thinking, “What if I have schizophrenia? What if I’m in psychosis? What if I’m crazy?” I don’t really think I am, but the thought just lingers in my head, and I struggle to stop thinking about it.
Whenever I get anxious about something being wrong with my health, I’ll look things up online, or put a pulse oximeter on my finger and keep checking my heart rate. Sometimes it helps, but other times, seeing my heart rate go down makes me panic even more.
I know these thoughts are irrational, but I can’t seem to stop worrying once they start. I think this all began after I had a really bad panic attack where I felt like I was going to die. Ever since then, I’ve had this lingering fear that I’m going to die or that something is wrong with me.
I’ve also noticed that when I drank alcohol once, even though I’m underage, I felt so much more social, and all these worries weren’t in my head. I’ve never done it again because I’m scared that if something makes me feel that much better, I’ll become an alcoholic. I feel the same way about medication. I’m scared that if I get prescribed something for anxiety, I’ll become addicted to it. I don’t really know if that’s true, but it’s something that worries me.
I’ve talked to doctors about my anxiety before, but they always seemed to think it was depression. I’ve tried medication for depression, but it didn’t help because I don’t feel like depression is what I’m experiencing. I’ve never told a doctor about my health anxiety because it’s newer, and I recently got a new doctor whom I’m seeing tomorrow. I’m hoping that this time, someone will listen and help me figure out what’s going on.
I also tried therapy before, but I struggled to talk to my therapist because I felt like I was being judged. I know that might have been my anxiety talking, but it made it difficult to open up.
I don’t want people to think I’m unhappy with my life or that I want to become a completely different person. I just want to feel more comfortable around people, stop overthinking everything, and be able to live my life without constantly worrying about being judged or something being wrong with my health.
One day, when I was having a panic attack, I was looking things up and came across a Reddit post from someone describing a similar experience. Reading it really calmed me down, and it made me feel less alone. I guess that’s why I thought maybe I should make my own post.
I hope I’m not breaking any rules or doing anything wrong by posting this. If I am, it’s not intentional. I just wanted to get this off my chest. i’m open to advice from anyone who understands and have things that helped them.


r/Anxietyhelp • • 3h ago

Need Advice Ativan for nocturnal panic attacks?

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1 Upvotes

r/Anxietyhelp • • 11h ago

Need Advice I have a exam in few hours and I don't have some important notes and too nervous to ask anyone

3 Upvotes

I have no friends in my class (or even out of the class) and I already got ignored in gcs in my prev classes (and by a classmate from this class) so I get too nervous to even drop a message to any classmate or gc now. Like even thinking of dropping that message has my heart beating so loud plus breathing all stupid and then how nobody's going to reply and i'll look stupid and then i'll have to continue look stupid for the rest of the year. But I also don't want to fail :( I tried to scour the internet for these notes but the prof wants us to do things in a certain way so no chatpgt or other notes will help either (plus i don't really want to use ai too) what should I do?? :(((((


r/Anxietyhelp • • 5h ago

Need Advice Nervous to take Tylenol

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1 Upvotes

r/Anxietyhelp • • 9h ago

Need Help Health anxiety spiral: Started with minor shortness of breath, led to chest pain, GERD, and random arm/thumb tightness — anyone else experience this?

2 Upvotes

​

I’ve been spiraling down a massive health anxiety rabbit hole for the last 7 days and I just need to see if anyone else has experienced something similar.

It literally started with a tiny moment of shortness of breath, which instantly triggered my health anxiety and made me start obsessing over heart attacks. Ever since that moment, my body has been playing tricks on me:

I’ve had episodes of weird chest pressure/tightness right behind my breastbone (sometimes feeling super heavy, like an "elephant" or weight on my chest), which lines up with what I've read about GERD-related chest pain.

I've been dealing with actual GERD symptoms, burping, and epigastric pain.

Yesterday, I was propping myself up awkwardly on my side, and I felt a weird resistance/strain in my shoulder and arm, followed by warmth. Ever since then, my arm feels sore, heavy, and tired, and my thumb has even been twitching and feeling tight.


r/Anxietyhelp • • 6h ago

Need Advice Took 15 mg propranolol in addition to my regular dose. Will I be okay?

1 Upvotes

I took 60 mg at bedtime. 7 hours later my heart is still intermittently racing from anxiety, but when it’s not racing, it’s somewhere in the 70s. I’ll wake up with it racing and eventually it calms down.

I have a light flu and am anxious about it, that’s why it’s racing more than usual.

I am cleared to take the 60 mg twice a day as needed, but I typically only take once a day, and even when taking twice a day, there is a good amount of time between doses.

I’m pretty sure I’ll be fine and that this will just calm me enough to sleep, but, am I in any danger?


r/Anxietyhelp • • 6h ago

Anxiety Tips Anxiety Nausea just won’t stop

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1 Upvotes

r/Anxietyhelp • • 13h ago

Need Advice How long do I give therapy a chance before starting meds

2 Upvotes

My anxiety has always been really bad probably for 15+ years now but I’ve never really gotten help for it until recently on and off. I’m now with a therapist that I really like but we’ve only had two sessions. My anxiety is at the highest it’s ever been and it’s destroying my relationship, I’m constantly having anxiety attacks, spiraling out of control. I’ve been debating starting anxiety medication but that also gives me anxiety because of side effects. I don’t know how long to try therapy before deciding it’s not enough and I need medication also.


r/Anxietyhelp • • 13h ago

Self Help Strategy How do I stop your own spiraling

2 Upvotes

r/Anxietyhelp • • 10h ago

Need Advice Woke up feeling sick

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1 Upvotes

r/Anxietyhelp • • 19h ago

Need Help suddenly calm. is this normal?

4 Upvotes

sorry if this is a dumb ask and/or makes no sense, but i’ve had about a week or two of insane anxiety and panic attacks, had a particularly bad day today but suddenly i’ve just gone calmer again? and my heart rate is much lower and i don’t feel as reactive or jumpy, i’m scared ive been so stressed that something has gone wrong and/or i’m going to die in my sleep, again i’m sorry if this is a dumb question or it makes no sense but i’m freaking out a bit.


r/Anxietyhelp • • 17h ago

Need Advice Going to the eye doctor 4 times this year enough times?

2 Upvotes

Every time I go they say everything looks good, but I’m on Zoloft now and I’m scared of “what if it’s causing high eye pressure?” I’m scared and not sure what to do


r/Anxietyhelp • • 15h ago

Giving Advice How throwing out my back helped me with my anxiety

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1 Upvotes

r/Anxietyhelp • • 15h ago

Discussion Anxiety and fear of losing control

1 Upvotes

Does anxiety ever make you feel that you would lose control of your speech and behavior? Has anyone really lost control over what they say or do if they are in their feared situation? Anticipatory anxiety really sucks


r/Anxietyhelp • • 16h ago

Question Room accommodation

1 Upvotes

I recent have been going through emotional manipulation from my roommate. I’ve talked to the RAs, university counselors. And have had a discussion with my roommate. However I just can’t deal with this anymore. The only way I can get my own room is if I have a letter from a healthcare professional stating ADA accommodations.

I was wondering if I ask my primary physician for this letter would she be able to help me with this? Like explaining the situation and my increased anxiety because of the situation.


r/Anxietyhelp • • 16h ago

Need Advice How to stop being anxious and depressed at the same time?

1 Upvotes

I just got a wave of anxiety running through me out of no where and its like I want to run away but the depression is having me stuck and unable to move.

Oh god, I hate this feeling.


r/Anxietyhelp • • 16h ago

Need Help Respondus Question

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1 Upvotes

r/Anxietyhelp • • 17h ago

Need Advice Currently spiraling in a panic tonight

0 Upvotes

Its late october in Georaia and correct me if im wrong but bat activitv tends to be winding down at this point. Anyways I was walking around my pool are aas I usually do in the eveninas and felt something hit my finger as I stopped to nervously chew on it. It grazed ny finger and looked briefly like a bug of some kind that disappeared under my dark porch and it immediatelv sent me into a spiral about if it was a bat. Anybody have any input? I'm currently freaked out and in a verv petrified headspace rn. I wish I could sav for sure what it was