A safe place for anxiety sufferers to share.

Hope that you continue to work on things to feel better and that you can help others & be helped here.
Never feel alone.

Wishing you will feel better and better. It is a good thing to start a thread like this, to give and get support.  Hugs to you!

I'm so sorry for your loss lastexitlondon.

I too suffer from an anxiety disorder. Like some others, it was originally triggered by a traumatic event some years ago (before then I never experienced anxiety a day in my life). Really this kind of disorder seems to be in the PTSD family I guess. Although I may have had a predilection towards it anyway, since my sister also suffers from an anxiety disorder (worse than mine in terms of the severity and frequency of her attacks), and my mom has had issues with anxiety too over the years and shows pretty clear signs of certain obsessive behaviour, her sister has OCD and anxiety ... seems like there must be a genetic factor at work here. But it was definitely very specifically triggered. I do wonder if I would have ever had any issues like this if it weren't for the traumatic event that got it started. I very much doubt it.

I did go through therapy - it was validating at the time. Eventually that need for therapy receded. For me, the anxiety seems more like a physiological/chemical condition rather than one that continues to rest in specific feelings and emotions. I kind of settled into a manageable zone with the disorder. I tried meds for some time but it was a complete disaster. So now I just manage via my lifestyle... oh, and I also use medical marijuana, which does help, but let's be honest - I used it before I had anxiety too, lol. I try to keep stress to a minimum, plain and simple, and since I don't have kids, I'm actually able to do this easily. I avoid making too many plans in too short a time frame so that I have enough time to just take it easy, be alone and calm, keep pressure off of myself, and not get overwhelmed or anything, because that can trigger me. Basically, I've just learned the usual triggers and do my best to avoid them. This usually keeps my anxiety down to a low-grade hum at worst. But when it spikes I don't really mentally feel anxious in my head. Instead I'll get dizzy/woozy/lightheaded, my heart rate gets irregular, and I get pain from muscle tension, my chest gets a bit tight, that kind of thing. Then maybe a few times a year or so I'll randomly get more serious attacks, which involves all those symptoms, but also nausea, stomach pains, complete insomnia, and the inability to function properly. When that happens I just have to call in sick and ride it out. I'm just thankful that this isn't very frequent, and that it never lasts more than 2 or 3 days at a time. Could be a lot worse! I do wonder if it will ever go away though.