[Khione]

Hi, I posted another thread a few days ago about how my therapist was a bit useless and how I feel as though I have some anxiety issues which are affecting my life a great deal yet my therapist is prioritising Asperger's assessments..

I am now planning to talk to my therapist properly and get her to take the whole anxiety issue seriously. But I don't want to go in and talk to her for her to turn around and say "that sounds nothing like anxiety" or whatever. And so I'm looking for you guys to give advice (I know you can't diagnose etc) on whether this sounds like anxiety.

Anyway, I am always on edge, always anxious and always feel alert and worryful. That's just a given when it comes to me. I get anxious in certain situations and have 'triggers', I guess. For example, walking down my street. I don't like open spaces or long spaces.. I am terrified of someone coming out hurting me or assaulting me etc. My mind goes through a million and one scenarios which all terrify the hell out of me. It's the same in other circumstances.

I do believe I have social anxiety - I can't do buses, I have to but I go with my boyfriend as much as I can or I sit at the back with music in and not looking around. I don't leave my house on my own unless I'm meeting my boyfriend or going to college. I don't hand work in at college, I'm to worried about the marks I'll get back or what my teacher will think of it. Anxiety around this has caused my attendence to drop below 80% (which is the required attendence to stay in College) and I'm currently under review.

Other than always feeling anxious (which makes my stomach feel like it's got constant butterflies, I sweat and get hot flushes and I often get shortness of breath when I am in one of those situations), I don't have too many exact examples of what makes me anxious because I'm so used to it in the way that when I do have an anxiety attack (hot flushes/shortness of breath etc) I kind of just try to move on and end up forget about what caused it in the first place. A lot of the time it's random, some days I wont have an attack on the bus but other days I will. Things like too much noise or too many people make it worse than it would be without those things and such.

Does this sound like some form of anxiety disorder? I've researched a few and my boyfriend thinks it sounds like Generalised Anxiety Disorder. My therapist has suggested Social Anxiety Disorder before but never taken it seriously. This anxiety (whether its a disorder or not) does impact my life a lot and it feels like my therapist isn't taking it seriously.

So I'd like your opinions?

[stuck1978]

Hi,

It's quite possible this could be GAD. Whether it is or not, your therapist should hear about your concerns. I feel if he/she doesn't, this is going to cause even more anxiety on your part.

So I think what you could do is come into the session and before you begin, state very clearly that today you would like to focus on discussing the anxiety and would like for the therapist to hear you out, why you think this could be anxiety and tell you his/her opinion. You could then follow up and say that if he/she doesn't think this is anxiety, you would like an explanation why as it would put your mind at ease.

Another thing that you should consider is one of the techniques that the therapist could use is specifically not focusing on the symptoms in order to be able to identify the root. It's just a technique so that you yourself don't focus on the symptoms and don't worry so much about them. But this, in itself, could cause more anxiety for you especially if you're self-aware.

So the solution could be to address is with the therapist head-on politely, but directly.

- stuck

[Khione]

Thank you stuck. I thought about whether she might just be not mentioning Anxiety, however, she's suggested Social Anxiety a number of times and she also knows the root of that social anxiety as we've talked about Social Anxiety a lot but she seems to brush it off whenever I mention an overall feeling of Anxiety etc.

Thanks for the reply.

[gayleggg]

It does sound like an anxiety issue. I think it would definitely be worth exploring.

I get anxious and nervous in crowded stores, in fact, I prefer to shop like at 6am if I can find places open. The earlier the better. Even the parking lots make me nervous. I don't have a lot of problems with social anxiety, except after I'm out in public I always worry that I talked too much or bored people, so I do kind of avoid such things to avoid the afterward worrying.

Check it out with your therapist. I think you have a legitimate concern.

I use deep breathing exercises when I can't avoid a stressful situation.

[mountain human]

Hi Khione, I can't diagnose you here but I have social anxiety and my symptoms are similar to yours. As was mentioned, learning to control your breathing is a big 1st step when having a panic/anxiety attack.