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Anxiety

I bet your respective younger sisters are both thrilled with that :rolleyes:
 
beakboo said:
I bet your respective younger sisters are both thrilled with that :rolleyes:
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No. I wasn't always thrilled with it, either. It's very hard to be taken seriously when you look so young. I would always have to wear makeup and dress really nicely when I needed other people to realize I was old enough to make my own decisions. In general, I was pretty reserved, so I don't think people thought I was young because I acted immaturely.

I think looking young and being curvy added to my anxiety. I was always being approached by people, it didn't matter how conservatively I dressed. If I felt threatened in a place, I wouldn't bother to take my coat off and often wore oversized sweatshirts and sweaters. People just wouldn't take me seriously when I said I wasn't interested. I think the "big brown eyes" made me look like easy prey.
 
TVgeek said:
Does anyone else have the Seasonal depression?
Other than bright lights whenever possible,
how do you handle it?

TVgeek
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I'm usually an annoying optimist, but occasionally the long, grey days of winter get to me. I tried St. John's Wort last winter but it didn't seem that effective. I find the best cure is to get outside as much as possible (I'm lucky in that respect being a Gardener!) and to get plenty of sleep! I think I sleep more in winter. Maybe working outside makes you more 'in-tune' with the seasons (and so I semi-hibernate!).

When I was a kid I used to worry about things all the time.
And I sometimes slip back into this. Forcing myself to get out and mix with people and do things helps.


There's a good forum that discusses Social Anxiety and ways to cope with it, here;-
SA-UK



Right, I've been stuck inside too long over the Crimbo hols. I'm off for a walk to catch some sunlight!:D
 
I also have had problems with anxiety, depression and panic attacks. The depression has come and gone, often in response to normal life events like a death in the family, or divorce. The panic attacks worry me most because I often feel that I am going to collapse.My heart races and my legs start to feel like jelly.

About four years ago I had a very vivid dream that a brightly coloured ufo was hovering over my garden. In the dream I rushed down to the back door to get a good look and a beam of light shot from the ufo and hit my legs, sweeping them out from under me, making me paralysed.

Ive been taking a beta blocker for about a year and it stops the heart racing, but I still get the problem with the legs and I still panic. It usually starts when Im under a lot of stress.I also fear going to places with stairs because of it, which inhibits my social life a bit . I know Ill have to keep on fighting it, or I could end up being completely housebound.
 
Keep fighting it Dish, my husbands fighting a similar thing at the moment. I think people who have to fight these things are braver than any "normal" person will ever know. And don't forget, we're here to support you online if you need a little shove in the right direction. :)
 
Conners_76 said:
Chalk me up on the list of periodic depressives / sufferers of excessive anxiety.

I've finally decided to sit up and tackle it by altering my lifestlye in a bit to change my thought process and eliminate the nagging concerns that become manic, obsessive thoughts.
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Ditto. I work from home and from their mine has developed. A lot of time alone left to think.

Handy little trick....get a cat.

Immense therapy comes from pets, you'd be surprised.

Another good one. try gardening. if you have a garden that is. It absolutely takes your mind off everything.

And lastly, get a PS2/Game cube/X-box or other. There's a huge amount of games that take your mind off any problem. Feeling anxious about problems such as money or debt...in the case of debt, a first person shooter tends to work, but in terms of working out minor finances, or greater personal problems, then puzzle solving games, like Tomb raider etc, really work wonders because they oil the brain more than you think.

And lastly, the most important one of all, never let your anxiety manifest physically (in the form of cold sweats or things like that)...you HAVE TO calm that bugger down. basically, close your eyes and count to or back from ten...and take lots of steady deep breaths. sounds nuts, but it helps prevent the anxiety from manifesting physically and that is REALLY important, because you don't want problems later in life.

And repeat.

;)
 
i'm an anxiety/depression sufferer too. plus two other people i know who suffers from depression(not sure if they suffer from anxiety) are into the fortean thing. i definitely think that there is a relationship with our mindsets and the world of strange. also all three of us are intelligent which i believe is definitely part of the cause of the illness, you need the thinking power to get in the state we do. i have my anxiety in check now and control my depression pretty well :)
 
Bannik said:
Same here. Often I know the answers to questions on a game shows (even though there's no way I could know them)
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i get this too, but i have always put it down to having quiz shows on even if i am not concentrating therefore taking stuff in without realising it. so when i do watch them i can answer stuff i never knew i knew
 
Hand's up.

Anxiety, Depression, Paranoia, quite unpleasant general psychotic stuff which all started with an audio perception problem.

I was convinced (and obsessed) that it was a brain tumour, so I had an MRI scan - it was (thank the Gods) all clear.

So it means it's a mental, not physical problem and looking up my symptoms on the Net (not a good idea when you are paranoid/obsessed) I more or less convinced myself that I had the onset of Schizophrenia.

After seeing my GP and presenting him with a well drawn up table of symptoms and their frequency, he commented that as I was talking about my symptoms rationally and in detached fashion, and that I actually 'knew' that something was wrong, it was unlikely that I was suffering with some sort of psychosis.

Then he said something weird:

"How much tea or coffee do you drink"?

"err...around 6 - 8 cups of coffee a day" I replied.

"That's probably it, then - caffeine-induced psychosis is one of the most common unrecognised disorders that there is - try giving it up for 2 weeks and see what happens".
(oh, also referred me to a psychiatrist, just to be safe).

So, I've been going cold turkey for a week. It's odd - the craving for a coffee is just as bad as wanting a fag (that's a cigarette to all you Americans - I'm happily married) when you're giving up smoking - and now that I'm over the awful migraine withrawal headaches and general blurriness, I have to say that I'm feeling great - not cured, but better for sure.

How stupid.

Caffeine. :rolleyes:

Anyone notice how life enjoys taking the piss?
 
fleeble said:
i get this too, but i have always put it down to having quiz shows on even if i am not concentrating therefore taking stuff in without realising it. so when i do watch them i can answer stuff i never knew i knew
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Not me. I don't watch them frequently enough. Very rarely in fact. Sometimes this happens if somebody I know asks somebody else a question. Even if the answer they give turns out to be incorrect that will be the answer that pops in my head. I suppose it could all just be coincidence. I certainly feels odd, though.
 
Quicksilver said:
Caffeine. :rolleyes:
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Been there and bought that T shirt. Currently sipping a nice mug of redbush tea, perfectly calm and sane. :)
What a good GP you have there!
 
I have to put my hand up to a brush with mental illness. When I was in my teens I had to go for couselling to deal with self harm. that's something that very few of my friends in RL know about. I fear that they'll think of me differently if they knew what I had done to myself.

I've also had bouts of depression. I've never been to the doctor about them- I get severe anxiety when having to go to the doctors. I used to feel sick when I saw him in the village.:rolleyes: I ended up housebound for weeks during my first bout. The second time I almost lost my job.

Touch wood I've managed to go a few years without having to deal with depression, but I blame that on my friends. They keep me on the straight and narrow.:)
 
:likee: Next time we meet we can compare scars Cider. No one can say we don't know how to enjoy ourselves ;)
 
as i suffer from depression and mild anxiety

i hate being in crowds especially in town. more than once while being in a crowd, ive found myself almost breaking into tears and wanting to scream at the crown to "just the f-ck out of my way"
 
melf said:
as i suffer from depression and mild anxiety

i hate being in crowds especially in town. more than once while being in a crowd, ive found myself almost breaking into tears and wanting to scream at the crown to "just the f-ck out of my way"
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Me too, Melf. :likee: Me too.
 
thanx bannik

and :likee: to all with the same problems
 
Hey people! I just found out about this thread (thanks fleeble) and I thought I would introduce myself. If you don't feel like reading it, don't bother. Basically when I was 4 years old I started to get worried about very bizzare things. My parents took me to the doctor and he said I had a rare panic disorder with obsessive compulsive tendencies. He put me on some medication and I have been on and off medication ever since. I recently went back on medication about a year ago when I became very depressed. It helps a lot, but not completely, and I am currently looking into getting therapy. I have recently been told that I have a social phobia and/or social anxiety disorder. Anyway, now that I have bored you with my life story, here is my opinion on people with anxiety and fortean stuff. I think it is very possible that people with anxiety are more likely to be interested in this stuff. I know a lot of "sane" people who think this stuff is irrational. Maybe people who are used to being irrational are more likely to be accepting of this stuff. Or maybe they actually are smarter (I think my IQ is about average, but I have heard IQ doesn't really mean much) and therefore these people are more capable of seeing these things even though many others can't. Sorry this is so long.
 
I never noticed this thread before RainyOcean bumped it up, so I'm going to out myself too. I've suffered from depression and anxiety/panic since I was a child. My mom has the same thing, and an anxious, overprotective mother (plus the genetic tendency) really is a recipe for disaster. :p I didn't get diagnosed until I was 22 or so, and was blessed enough to land with the best shrink in town (thank god for universities with med schools!) The o-fishul diagnosis is depression, panic disorder and agoraphobia. After some hellishly rocky times I'm pretty stable now, though I still get panic attacks occasionally. The difference is that I can cope with them now, and can talk my way through them. I can't sing the praises of cognitive therapy highly enough; it teaches you to change the way you think about things. Coincidentally, I'm seeing the shrink tomorrow. I've mentioned some of my Fortean experiences to him, btw, and rather than clapping me in the hospital he encouraged me to talk about them, because he thought they were fascinating. I know him well enough by now to know he isn't shining me on either. :D

The bummer is that I'm on the best antidepressant of my life, Serzone. I don't get ANY side effects from it except sleepiness, which is great because I'm the captain of the Canadian Insomniacs Team without it. Alas, they are discontinuing it because some people have had liver problems. Last time I saw my shrink he said he *might* be able to get a dispensation for me on compassionate grounds. I really don't want to start doing the medication dance all over again.

Agoraphobia: lovely disease, that. :rolleyes: Yes, I've been housebound. All of this fun mental health stuff has seriously delayed (if not irretrievably buggered up) me finishing my PhD, and it stretched my MA out a bit longer than it should have, although having my dad die in the middle of that degree didn't help. I also spent ~7 years in a long-distance relationship which probably didn't help.

I'm so much better now. I hate to be obnoxious, but I just want to tell everyone that there is hope, and there is recovery. I still have my days, but I feel a lot better and I hope I never go back to where I was. The fear of relapse is still very real. I can also thank my boyfriend for my current state of wellbeing; having a flesh and blood bloke around is a lot better than emailing several hours a day, not to mention the countless benefits of being with someone who treats me well (see the "vile exes" thread for hints of what the ex was like). I'm getting regular sleep, exercise, and nookie. :yeay:

As for looking younger...I'm 34 and am regularly taken for younger. Some new co-workers said just the other day that they thought I was 27, and I've been carded while buying cigarettes lately! (hrm, maybe it's the zits I was kvetching about in the whinge thread) I've also been wearing sunscreen on my face daily since I was about 13, *and* I refuse to buy into that belief that women over 30 must get short matronly haircuts. I do what I want and don't let age bother me, really.

That's not true. It does bother me. It doesn't seem to be affecting my life adversely though.

To all my fellow sufferers: :grouphug:

PS: years ago I hung out on the newsgroup alt.support.depression. I DON'T recommend that place if you're depressed, frankly. A dear friend and I went down to a group meet in Boston and were loudly chastised for actually talking with each other and seeming to have a good time. We were also chastised for getting better. I'm dead serious. Avoid, avoid!
 
I just want to tell everyone that there is hope, and there is recovery. I still have my days, but I feel a lot better and I hope I never go back to where I was.
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Hey, thanks for saying that. I have been to so many doctors and on so many different medications lately I'm starting to feel like I can't be helped, which of course, just makes me feel even more hopeless and depressed, so thanks.
 
As a relatively anxious, somewhat depressed, routinely Fortean and hopelessy romantic individual I can only agree with the majority of sentiments expressed so far.

I also drink coffee, smoke ciggies and occasionally go on anti-depressants...

People like US actually rule the world, you know!
\:)
 
Have always had fortean tendencies like my mother and grandmother before me and the only time i was ever prescribed anti depressants was after my mother died but i didn't take them.....
 
FrancesFelixe said:
All my "magicky" friends are falling to bits but are invariably happy people and look much younger than their years (another Fortean trait!).
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Frances (or anyone else), where did you learn that this was a Fortean trait and why do you suppose it is a Fortean trait?
 
I'm not falling to bits but am often accused of looking far younger than my years. I put it down to a lively interest in life, Belle Color and never smoking.

Caffeine-induced psychosis - new one on me. I'm off to look that up.
 
I've tried to ' avoid ' real life since I was ten. Naturally I know it's there but I try and get around it by reading MB's like this or sticking my nose in any book or magazine relating to Fortean Phenomena. ( Or diving into Tolkien)
I am frequently verbally bullied for this attitude.
I am told I look ' young ', no lines or wrinkles etc, although I smoke, occasionally drink like a fish, lost 5 years to anti-depressants and have been depressed and frequently in a suicidal fame of mind since I was about sixteen.
I didn't think it was Fortean, I thought it was Retinol anti-aging creams, hair colours and having no children that did it. :)
 
I am frequently verbally bullied for this attitude.
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I know the feeling, Lethe. Makes you just want jump out of your isolation and take part in the outside world when people do that doesn't it?:rolleyes: ;)
 
The experience of complete helplessness experienced by the poor man in the linked video is not one I have ever had to face this publicly, thank god.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08...phic-nature-photographer-of-the-year/11408742

However, the humiliation of public judgement in a professional setting became heavy and routine in the final years of my brief academic career. I am very pleased that this condition gets so much more exposure today than it did when I was working, and moreso since last this thread was bumped. The routine of old school management to dress down the employee is neither constructive or humane. The impact of bullying discipline has a devastating affect on those with this heightened stress condition.

The imperative to 'grow a pair', 'harden up', 'tough it out' rarely works. In those suffering anxiety disorders, the effect is the exact opposite. The heightened physical sensation of failure and humiliation that results is seeing more fine minds give in to despair daily, and the scrap heap is growing, which places all sorts of added burdens on those more resilient to distress.

The public perception of our problem needs to change. Anxiety kills. It is, by many accounts, at epidemic proportions. I'm afflicted. I'm not a victim. I do, however, want to be understood.

I'll be posting here as much helpful information as I can find. This I can do while in retreat.
 
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