New Acceptance of GAD and struggling...

I know exactly what you are going through.  What got me through and back on my feet was Rescue Remedy spray for the panic/emotional meltdown times, this is a natural remedy and safe for anyone inc children.

I also stopped ALL caffeine and alcohol and replaced it with lots of camomile tea which is also an excellent sleep aid.

Breathing slowly and deeply will also calm you down as will focusing on something you love. really concentrate your mind on a subject that makes you smile and if your mind starts to wonder to negative thoughts drag it back kicking and screaming.

This is not an overnight quick fix but i'm now doing well and gone from not going out the house for months to actually having my life back, it's worth the effort and involves NO addictive meds.

I hope this helps, and please stay strong you CAN and Will get through this

I didn't realise how huge caffeine impacted on me till after I stopped using it.  Tea conatins more caffeine than coffee and fizzy drinks also impact loads.  All I drink now is decaf coffee, cammomile tea decaf green tea and mint tea and for me personaly that was the biggest step to getting my life back on track.

Are you based in UK? if so I get my spray from holland and barrett but you can also get it from some supermarkets   When I first started suffering and I discovered Rescue Remedy I was going through a large bottle every week but now I have not used it for 2mths but its always with me just in case

Mel x

Stay strong and you will get through this take each day as it comes.  I used to put a note on my bedside table that said TODAY IS GOING TO BE A GOOD DAY so that was the first thing I focused on when I opened my eyes.

The smallest thing can make the biggest difference.

For me, the crying often comes from depression which presented itself when I realized that anxiety is not necessarily going to go away. When I was first diagnosed, I was motivated to fix myself and get everything lined up so I could be healed but then as time went on and I kept trying all of these different tricks and techniques and would STILL have anxiety, I started to get depressed.

What has helped me most is to understand that I can't fight it so hard. It's much easier said than done but a lot of times I will allow myself to just cry and think and feel however I need to---to let out the suppressed feelings from trying to pretend I'm so strong. It helps me. Also, counseling helps me a lot too.

I wish you the best of luck and lots of healing!

I have only just woken up and logged on , and was drawn to your story which is and sounds horrendous; the fact that your acknowledge your promlems and are willing to ask for help is for me very much your first steps to recovery, I am not sure what GAD is but once I have woken up with my cuppa I will google it and read up a little about it.

The things about your emotional state are very much my story, like yourself one small incident outside or anywhere can set me off and into uncontrolable tears and fatige , my breathing all goes wrong, my heart is pumping far too fast and I am often on the floor in a mess.

I have a real issue with noise and living 100 feet from the bust Fulham Road doesnt help this with sirens going by every 2 minutes and planes flying above my head, people all over the place and babies cryinh.

My nervous sytem is shot , and for me there is no escape from the hell it has become to me, even when I have tried to move the Housing Association who are not just rotten but evil in so many ways have blocked my move or found other ways to stop me from doing what I ensentially need to do move out to a quieter lifestyle.

I have had 4 years of hell in my housing association flat and this week am facing due to the wickedness of the Landlord facing a 3/4 hr trial before a judge in Court while the Landlord attempts to have me thrown out of the property.

I also happen to live with HIV (28 years), I have liver and lung problems, and chronic lymphodema.

The stress is unbearable at times.

However without going deeply into all my woes and health issues as it is inistelf depressing, I have accumalated the very debilitating illness of severe anxiety.

I am frquently in and out of hospital and even there I am finding my anxoety levels increase while we all watch and see the ruining of our N H S Hospitals and how run down they are, I often will walk out when the anxiety becomes too too much, and sometimes thats not a good thing , I have even pulled the drip out in anxiety and then caused myself to fall and slip in my own blood which is poring out of me.

So what I am trying to say to you here is , living with anxiety is a real learning curve, it requires a lot of support and nuture.

It is so important you get all the relevant help and support you can and often this you find will be a real fight and battle in itself.

As it has been for me fighting for 2 1/2 years to get a social worker, this was refused for the third time just last month.

I agree you should go see your GP and if you feel like your not being heard or misunderstood it may even mean finding a new sypathetic GP who has time for you .

Being relatively new in here I also cannot recomend this site more and more to warriors like yourself who know what the problem is and are learning like us all that the majoirity of mainstream sociaty havent a clue what it means to live with Anxiety and we are very much misunderstood everywhere we go.

Make this your daily bread  is my advice and use it like its you re building the damaged section of your home and clock in as I do and use the sight to gain all the knowlege and information and as I have found I am able to slowly get myself on a better levelled thought pattern and those dire thoughts that tells me everything is a disaster start to become actually very small and workable issues that  can be sorted out.

I cant confess I am any where near to my old happy go lucky person but I have found that accessing and using this sight is probably more benificial than having any soical worker come in and organize my life.

To have so many others here who understand me clearly and who are able to show me how they achieved things when they happened and to just have some peace and calmness to my day.

I am mumbling quite a lot here

I send you a hug and lots of encouragement right now.

PJ