My anxiety affects my life dramatically. It makes me change my decisions all the time. I feel my mind is racing with contradicting thoughts, and keeps evaluating them indefinitely. It makes me lose my credibility when these decisions involve other people. I cannot sleep because of it. I cannot talk to others because of it. I don't have a peace of mind because of it. My heart is most of the time pounding hard, and my breathe is most of the time short and fast. Anxiety-induced stress has caused me to suffer from a bad acid reflux, which causes me painful heartburn. Anxiety is something awful to have while not being able to control it.

[leejosepho]

Stress and anxiety have dominated my life in days past and still do at times. A few years ago I landed in a medical ICU after stress and anxiety had driven my blood pressure to a high of 280/140. I do not want that to happen again, so dealing with anxiety over fear of being stressed is one of my biggest challenges today. I might never be able to make the anxiety go away completely, but I have learned to try to look past mere fear and place my focus upon the reality of what I actually can or cannot do to change things related to things that are stressing me.

[*Laurie*]

Hi Mr. Stranger, I am so sorry you have such severe anxiety. Are you in the care of a doctor?

[Unrigged64072835]

I had really bad anxiety until I got on medication. I'm doing better now. Sorry that you're having a hard time.

I'm not seeing a therapist or taking medications for it. I'm trying to cope with it by myself. I especially hate it when I keep changing my decisions. It's so frustrating and diminishing to my self-esteem!!

[worrist]

Originally Posted by Mr. Stranger

I'm not seeing a therapist or taking medications for it. I'm trying to cope with it by myself. I especially hate it when I keep changing my decisions. It's so frustrating and diminishing to my self-esteem!!

I would suggest seeing a therapist. I had been living with these feeling for a better part of 25 years and finally went to see a therapist. It was the best decision I made. There were some good sessions and there were some sessions where I learned a great deal as to why I have anxiety. But I'm learning to deal with it and face it. Whereas before I would try to suppress these feeling and in the long run would make things worse.

You are experiencing what I was dealing with and what I still deal with on a daily basis. But now I feel like I'm building a toolbox of how to deal with anxiety. One particular powerful tool that I use is to write down any feeling with I feel anxious. I write down the feeling, what triggered it. I go back and write down the outcome. Did my anxiety feeling come true? It almost never does. But when I see it as data, it seems to help me deal with it when it occurs again.

Good luck to you. And know that you are not alone in this fight.

[thatgirllaughing]

Omg my anxiety is literally putting me in my bed under the covers all day long!!! Ughhh!!! Idk what to do?

[DechanDawa]

Medication and coping skills help. For me, learning new coping skills have greatly reduced anxiety. I use the herb valerian to calm down at night. PassionFlower is another herb that is particularly good for racing thoughts. Purchase a highly concentrated PassionFlower tincture and put a dropper full under the tongue when experiencing racing thoughts.

I agree that anxiety grabs a retched hold of us. It ruined my own life - because I didn't seek help until too late. I am keen adherent in CBT and similar therapy including self help. Aything that gets you engaging your anxious self and actively challenging it is positive. I like this because of the work and commitment involved.

Your anxiety will stem from a combination of the standard 15 problem thinking strategies. Recognizing them is the first step. Get to know the list and take note of your thinking patterns. The next step is challenging these anxious thoughts we convince ourselves of and identifying alternate thoughts instead.

https://psychcentral.com/lib/15-comm...e-distortions/

I've mentioned this to you I think before.

What are the coping strategies you currently use?

I don't use any. I'm not sure why. Probably it's because of ADHD (I cannot focus on any thing, whether it is reading, writing, or meditation ... etc), but probably also because I'm a little stubborn, which I admit is a problem in my life as a whole.

[Nova567]

My first time seeing a therapist was when I was 15, for overwhelming anxiety and panic attacks. My second therapist helped me so much learn to minimize my anxiety. My current therapist, my fourth one, is continuing to help me change my thinking patterns to prevent the escalation of my anxiety.
I really recommend seeking professional help, it makes a big difference.