Is this normal?

I'm learning from reading here and starting to understand how anxiety works with some people. My question is how common is it for people with anxiety to be fearful of everything. It doesn't seem like any one thing makes me anxious. It seems like everything I think about wanting to do or needing to do gets turned around and somehow becomes dreadful. It's so consuming that it makes it hard to think clearly. It makes it hard even to listen to someone without without going to the other place in my head where I try to cope. Anyway, i'm probably not making any sense.I was just wondering if anyone could shed some light on this for me.......Rob

Hey Rob,

This sounds quite normal for anxiety. Personally, simple tasks may seem daunting, such as homework, laundry, even enjoyable things like shopping! And when I'm feeling especially anxious, literally everything scares me. For instance, a bell rang once at my school and made me cry. :P

What I try to do is to focus on the positive aspects of the things I must do. For instance...laundry? I'll get clean clothes. Homework? Enriching my mind and good grades! Also, meditation is very helpful.

Are you currently seeing a therapist right now? They would be able to teach you healthy techniques to cope with your anxiety. Medication can also help if the anxiety is severe.

If you ever want to talk, feel free to send me a message.

Rob, what you describe seems to be symptomatic. My suggestion is for you have your doctor refer you to a psychiatrist for evaluation.

Good luck.

I agree with TheB. In my humble opinion, anxiety in general does not manifest itself consistently. Anxiety is the brain's flight or fight response that was built into us to keep us safe and to survive. The brain cannot sustain this state for a prolonged period, nor was it meant to. If you were placed in a situation requiring this sustained state such as in war or concentration survivor, your mind would go into a numb like state to protect itself. You would also develop malidaptive coping mechanisms such as task avoidance behaviors, PTSD, DID etc. I think a professional would be a great idea to get to the root of the matter so you can have a higher functioning and happier life. Source: The Anxiety Panic Internet Resource.

thanks for the advice everyone, I'm scheduled to see the doctor next month. I already explained my situation to them so that it may help with the eval. Hopefully they can get me going in the right direction. My real dad had what I beleive was some form of anxiety condition. He was diagnosed with this at a younger age than me and i'm 39. It's my understanding that mental disorders are not generally hereditary. I'm not exactly sure what he was diagnosed with. Back then everyone just said hes got bad nerves. Anyway, I have held this in so long that I now realize how distant i've been for so long from my family. It also makes me wonder why noone ever said anything to me about why I was so distant. I just want to get back to where I can see some good in anything. There is little that makes me laugh anymore and I just feel like i'm going to break from being wound so tight. Anyway, day by day....Rob

One other suggestion Rob since you will not be seen for an eval until next month. I would keep a journal and try and write at little each day. This may help with the eval. Also on this site somewhere, there is a mood tracker. I would use that on a daily basis and take the results and your journal in to share. This make cut months of work off a diagnosis or treatment. Now if I could find where that silly mood tracker is, I think I will start using it as well...haven't used it in a while.

Good luck, rob.

Thanks everyone, I need to find a way to talk more productively with my wife. It helps to talk here but I still feel isolated here at home. It's like I don't want to burden her anymore than I alraedy have. She understands that I have anxiety just not the severity. Anyway,i'm gonna camp out here for a while till I get in to see the doc if that's ok? Rob