[i dont matter]

I am curious if anyone else has new anxiety issues. What I mean by that is do you now have anxiety doing something that in the past was completely without anxiety?

IE Many years ago I was loud and goofy. I was in multiple high school plays. I performed solos in band. All with ZERO anxiety. (or at least I did not allow any anxiety limit me). I did find it very hard to make friends - because I have never felt secure in my own skin.....

Now I doubt I could do any of those things. Currently I get very anxious - to the point of feeling sick and having such an upset stomach if will give me diarreah (sorry if that is gross). I can not express how much I hate "small talk" with people. And I very literally have nobody that I would call a friend - with the possible exception of a few people I knew years back from high school.

So how did I get to this point when I once was pretty much limitless???

I do not know if that even makes sense to any of you. But I am curious for your input.

[SeekonkRay]

I used to drive alone all the time, I have even driven across country twice. Now I can't drive on the freeway during rush hour or when there is heavy traffic.

I am terrified to be left alone with children, yet I raised several children when I was younger.

I used to be fearless, now I spend most of my time afraid and alone.

People used to like me around, now they avoid me because I spook them...

I used to live in a vast universe of possibilities, now I live in a tiny box of my creation...

[Ruftin]

Hello ((( I don't matter))). I have experienced this.

I used to be very comfortable with public speaking, and one day right in the middle of a presentation, I suddenly became aware that every one was looking at me and listening to every word I was saying.

My hands began to sweat, I was short of breath and could barely speak, light headed, blood drained to my feet and I was having my first panic attack , I think.

After that, my fear of doing anything public just terrified me as I was afraid of going through that experience again. I did manage to over come it with practice, but when I allow myself to slip back into the background for any significant amount of time the fear creeps back up on me. Best wishes!!

[ManOfConstantSorrow]

Cannot put my finger on it but in general I am not as resilient as I was.

[Frankbtl]

Hi IDM, hate to say it but sometimes aging can create more anxieties for you See more of the world, see more risks............
But do you think depression had/has something to do with it too??? When you see yourself negatively, judge yourself, see all your flaws/what you think is wrong with you, the mistakes you've made/the mistakes you think you could make (and assume others do too!!!), feel less confident, less self esteem.......
But that's not to say that you can't work through it...........just need to see how AWESOME you are like we do!!!

Alison

[Symbolic]

I used to blog for many (15+) years, and suddenly stopped doing it, despite a lot of encouragement to continue by long-time readers. I'd made some personal mistakes, which ended up online, that led to ridicule and embarrassment, which made me want to go crawl under a rock. Which I did, and basically continue to do today. It's annoying, because it's something I really enjoyed doing, and was passionate about for so long.