anxiety and my experiences

Hello people. I want to talk about my anxiety and see if anyone finds my experiences useful or of any help. I am a 31 year old electrician who has had anxiety since my school days. My parents are both very high strung people and very negative in their ways of thinking. Now a parent myself i realise how hard it is bringing up a family. I guess i can now say that my first experiences with anxiety were at school. I would become flustered about the least little thing, making me panic. I could not engage in conversation with people, didnt see the fun side in anything. At home i was well looked after but i feel i was smothered. For an example, my dad would always come out with things like, you dont wana bother with that, you wont do no good at that, or its not as easy as that.  I wish he was a bit more encouraging by saying go for it son, you can do it. My confidence has never been high either, even now i have wobbles. I have always sort of just pushed the problem of anxiety to the back of my priorities list. Avoided admitting that i had a problem. I would  sit there for ages just thinking about stuff at school, work etc, worrying about worst case scenarios that probably would never happen. Anyway. Work has always pushed my anxiety to its limits and i dreaded going to work. I am very good at my job and enjoy it a lot. But it is sometimes a lot of pressure having responsibility. My partner is great and listens to me and encourages me. She encouraged me to go for a new job and i got the job. Things were great for a while and then i got depression. I went to the doctors and was put onto sertraline. After this i found the drugs to work and my depression slowly went away. My anxiety also improved and this was a huge relief. Not wanting to be on sertraline for years on end i started to research things that could reduce my anxiety symptoms. Things i have adopted are, exercise, eating better, coffee reduction, relaxation and breathing techniques, herbal remedies like green tea. Time to yourself is important. I listen to my music if i need to relax. I guess what im getting at is that the anxiety can be fought. It is hard, but its not impossible. Work is work, thats rule number one. Bosses are more understanding than we like to think. If you run out of time then theres always tommorow. Put your foot down and say to yourself. Ive done all i can do for today. Thats that. I know work isnt always that black and white but your well being is more important. Talking to people about how you feel is one of the best things you can do. Cbt is great if you have the time. If you have anxiety, dont let it rule your life. Fight back and be brave. I hope this helps. I would love to hear from people if they wish. Thankyou.

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