Recovered Chronic Anxiety Sufferer

Thank you so much for your ray of hope. I have been experiencing major depressive disorder and general anxiety diorder for right at 2 years now. Some days...most days, I feel like it is never going to end. Anxiety being the worst. I do take medication and I hope to be off of it one day. I so want to be better and live a normal life again. I want to be ME again. Anyway...thanks. You gave me some hope.

Well Done, Very happy for you.

I have tried literally everything to heal mine.

I hope someday Im in the same boat as you

My boyfriend is in the thick of what I believe to be GAD. Rarely is there a day that goes by where he is free from anxiety and it is clearly exhausting him mentally and physically. It's been months now. He doesn't sleep well and he says he wakes up with a horrible feeling in his chest and isn't even really thinking about anything. It's just there and it makes it worse because he gets angry that there's no reason for it and I think focuses so much on his chest that he cannot escape it. He is not into group therapy and is trying to stay away from medication but I am running out of ideas. Mindfulness is not as easy as it seems when you are it the middle of anxiety. Any suggestions? I think he's losing hope that he can ever be free from it.

Hey Matt am 19 and I have been suffering with anxiety due to stress

I've been experiencing all the symptoms and this had made my life worse. I wish it could just go away😭

My life is not the same I just want to enjoy life as any normal teenager😔😔

Please help me 😔

Hi Matt

Thank you for your post ( it gave me hope to read of someone getting over thier anxiety.

You mention you researched and read to alter your mindset .Can you expand on that and tell me how or what got you over your anxiety?

Thanks

Geoff

Hello did you do meditation or mindfulness ? I am battling anxiety on and off for most of my life.

Would appreciate knowing which was the most helpful thing to get you on the right road.

Thanks

Dear Matt

At the start let me thank you for writing this post, in the last 14 months this is the first post that I have read that is positive and v helpful. It has instilled confidence in me that I can truly be 'cured'. I have been diagnosed with GAD since the past 14 months. However I feel I started about 20 months back when I was 3 months pregnant. I had some bleeding and got anxious about it, thought wld lose my child . I was working till then in Doha and had a v happy married life. However since I was a aging at 36 with my first child and with hypothyroidism, decided to lve my job and head back to India. Before my marriage I was working in Mumbai India and lived along with my aging parents. The anxiety only increased and all negative thoughts wld surround me. I was put on bed rest and had little contact with the outside world. To add to the misery one of the ultrasound showed a chord plexus cyst. Though the docs told me that it was an incidental finding, the negative thoughts wld not go away. I wld feel my child wld have downs syndrome even when docs said otherwise. To add to that I did have sleep for the next 7 months of my pregnancy.. 3 days into my delivery I had a massive attack. Severe loose motions, fever, pulse raised to 140. However all my reports seemed normal. It is after this, that my sis suggested me to c a pschatrist. Initially the docs thought it was postpartum. However it refused to go away after 6-8 months and the physical symptoms became more prominent I was later diagnosed with GAD. I was immediately put on medications and no therapy. The medication did offer some relief, was able to sleep at night. There after continued it for the next 10 months with little relief. The flare ups were even higher during my pre menstrual cycle. The wailing.,moaning,anger,frustration and the feeling of not wanting to live were really high those days. Days passed into months and my little one was a year. I have not been able to enjoy the joys of motherhood, Though I looked after my child and did all duties including the night duties with little happiness and more responsibility. My only reason to live was him. I have palpitations, sweating, urge to clear my bowels all this while I am anxious. However strange though is the fact that I get goose bumps when I am not anxious. May be when excited or asserting a point. (STRANGE). I have been blaming myself for all the hardship I am put through and always living in the past. Only negative thoughts surrounding me and all my Google searches have only added to it. The doc also says it's not cureable and manageable, however when I see your post it makes me feel the need to try.

All this while my husband did now about the magnitude of the situation and it is only last week when I broke down that he realized how bad it has been for me. He asked me to positive and did a lot of counseling on his part. He wld advice me to stay positive and told me only positive thoughts wld get positive results. Don't know but somehow just felt convinced with what he said and decided to start a fresh 3 days back. I have started my first baby step towards what I wld believe a cure. IT is yesterday that I read your post something positive which kind of reaffirmed my belief of what my husband told me. When you think positive, positive things wld happen. Your post is one such positive findings. During the last 3 days I have had the attack once daily. But I have decided to stay positive. Wanted to know if this would be my road to recovery and I am going in the correct direction. Also now I am thinking a little more rationally,and feel it is not my over thinking during pregnancy but even before that there were several health issues with regards my family, and high pressure job which is the reason why probably my brain said enough. However since I do a lot of reading, via the various searches on the Internet I have understood essentially the flight and fight mechanism has failed. If that is the case can I get it back to normalcy. Also I am unable to keep myself devoid of thoughts, like am I going to be cured, if so I have lost 14 months of my life to this illness how many more. In the past I have been too eager to get well and feel have delayed my recovery process. Also have been living the past thinking what I could have done better to not have had this illness. Also that I did no wrong to be punished with such an illness.

I would like to know from you, how you have been able to get back to normal life. Did u also have the same feeling that I did.how long did it take to get back to normalcy. Also did you also face the same problems I did initially since I have got the attack once daily since the last 3 days that I have been trying to be positive.

Please do reply, I would like to get back to work, enjoy joys of motherhood and live a happy life like before.

Thank you

Regards

Jyoti

Hi Matt.....hope i dont bore you........ive suffered from anxiety for many years. However, i cojld alwa6

ys deal with it through meditation and relaxation therapy. ....but then, i started having chest pain.....after sever visits to the emergency and being told it was anxiety;i finally got to see a cardiologist. ...he put me through several tests and assured me that their was nothing wrong with my hear.....just anxiety he said.....he promised me that i would not have a heart attack any time soon......guess what....i had a massive heart attack a few days after.....i was very lucky that they got my stopped heart beating again.....now im a basket case....i have severe health anxiety and nothing is helping me.....meds.....and everything else ive tried; and i tried a lot.....im so happy that you are healed from the pain and agony of anxiety. ....i hope that some day i will feel better has well

I am hoping to one day over come this beast . I suffer from health anxiety and it is over whelming . It is hard to find support from people who have overcome this . This story really opens my heart to possible hope that I will be normal one day

Hi Matt

Ive just seen that your post was over a year ago but im hoping you are still on here !

I found your post really helpful - light at the end of the tunnel hopefully!

I have been suffering with anxiety - panic attacks etc on and off since 2012. I am a professional actor so this has been at times catastrophic. I had to leave a theatre tour 3 weeks early last year as i was panicking every time i went on stage.

I have had CBT in the past but it didnt really help. I would really appreciate any ideas you might have.

Deb

Hi,

I have recently acquired anxiety that is very similar, if not, exactly the same. I've been trying to cope with it for a little over 2 weeks now. My anxiety never leaves me; it's there when I wake up, it hangs over me like a cloud, till moments before I fall asleep. Sleep seems like the only thing that seems mormal to me. My anxiety feels like a terrible "tired high", with elevated heart rates, shortness of breath, clammy hands, irrational thoughts, etc.

And like you said, I, like very many, have searched and searched aimlessly trying to find a ways to recover. After seeing your post, I do inquire on how you managed to. I caught bits and pieces of it on your replies to other people's posts, but wanted direct insight. And I think you're right. I can't take iniate my path to recovery until I accept the disorder for what it is and nothing more. In the two weeks that I learned about it, I've learned how to cope with it and haven't had a panic attack since and I'm pretty sure that's a step in the right direction. I feel as though I get lost in my thoughts from time to time. I can usually get through my day filled with college nursing exams and class, but at the end of the day, I do tend to feel super exhausted and break down crying just to let it all out. Although it is a way to vent, I tend to let my negative thoughts consume me. My fear of worrying myself into something worse is my biggest weakness. And just doubt in general. I tend to lose faith easily.

I haven't seen a doctor, I'm not exactly professionally diagnosed. But I am convinced I have GAD. As a nursing student, (and currently taking pharmacology), I have been acquainted with the side effects of anxiety meds. The thought of the adverse effects of medication does scare me and I would rather take an herbal approach with coping strategies.

I really do appreciate your post, and I know your post has been posted quite a while ago, but I hope you do see this and get the chance to reply back.

As far as questions go, how exactly did you cope? How long? What were your methods/strategies to recovery? Did you take a herbal remedies? What do you recommend I do now?

Thanks for listening,

Cassie