Anxiety experiences and support

I suppose pills can help, but i don't know if that's the path I'd recommend anyone like me.

Also stay away from anything with a high caffeine dosage. Red bulls had a major effect on my anxiety.
And stay far far away from things like weed and MDMA.

Yeah I think it is very dependent on the individual case. Only the patient themselves can really decide if medication is right for them.

I definitely agree about other drugs like caffeine, alcohol and stronger things, these are all know to have negative affects on mental health problems.

I think the particular person you see can also affect how you get on. If you are seeing someone you don't really like, you aren't going to want to 'open up' to them. I would say just keep trying until you find 'the one'.

CBT is known for taking a long time I think (I have never had it), but you could also try other types of therapy if you don;t thin kit worked for you. Psychodynamic 'talking' therapy is the type where you talk a lot and the therapist will sort of analyse and suggest what the root of the problem may be and how to deal with it (this is what I have at the moment). You could also try alternative therapies if you are into that sort of thing, such s acupuncture, or EMDR/EFT and other similar things.

Obviously anxiety is the root of my problems (e.g. OCD) at the moment. But I wonder what the root of the anxiety is? I didn't have any problems as a young child so I wonder if it is miscommunication between parts of my brain, or an absence of neurotransmitters. Us anxious lot would probably get selected for in nature to a extent, because we were the ones who worried enough not to venture into that cave with the sabertooth.

Did you or do you still suffer from anxiety?

Yeah I sort of mean finding the root of the anxiety. Like you, I had no specific traumas or anything as a child, although mental health stuff does run in my family slightly (dad with depression, aunt with depression, uncle schizophrenic...).

I don't really know enough about the brain to know any biological causes, but I guess the natural selection thing could work to an extent. Although maybe not so much when we are too anxious to go out and pick fruit and end up starving... :/

Yes quite, I sort of said it tongue-in-cheek because I doubt extreme anxiety would be of any benefit. What would be some roots of anxiety, do you mean certain events or behaviour?

I did and still do, as described in my OP. Short version: emetophobic (irrational fear of vomiting), leading to food anxiety, weight loss etc, and also more generalised anxiety about a wide range of other things, including travel, death, separation, 'stuckness' etc, the usuals.

I was just going to ask what about you and then remembered that's what your original post was about.

Aha it was a bit stupid of me to forget the op anyway aha.
That sounds pretty bad, do you usually throw up after eating? Bulimic?

If you don't wanna talk about it here, more than welcome to pm me if you do want to ever talk about it.

Well after seeing my therapist for several months, here are some things I/we have found: as a second child, I have quite low self esteem as a result of comparing to my older brother and only ever experiencing 50% of my parents attention. This isn't anything they've done wrong, but you can't help the fact that a first child experiences 100% of the attention for the first years of their life. This resulted in my feeling insecure about myself and uncertain about who I was, and my identity and personality. All this uncertainty and self-doubt generated anxiety, especially relating to control, which 'attached' to the phobia of vomiting (as something we have little/no control over).

That's about how far we've got so far. In recent weeks I've been surprised to find that my own self-confidence and self-esteem is so closely related to my anxiety, I had always thought it was simply *another* separate problem. It actually feels good to know they are related, as it means I can work on my confidence, which is a lot less scary than having to work on the anxiety/phobia itself.

That is very interesting, because I was the first child, so I guess the same might have happened to me, when attention became diverted away from me when my brother and sister were born. Going back to whether it is hereditary, it might be because my brother has bad OCD and has had panic attacks. My other brother and sister don't have any problems, but my mother is naturally nervous, so I don't know, there is probably a complex mix of factors in my case.

That's OK it feels good to be able to be effectively anonymous on here as no one I know.

It is pretty horrible, but I literally *never* actually throw up. That seems almost the whole point. The last time I was sick was probably when I was like 7 years old or something, maybe even earlier than that. This is why I am so scared of it, because if I could actually remember what it was like, I would probably know that it's not actually the end of the world.

The food anxiety thing is more like I worry about eating too much or too many sweet things etc, because I'm worried they will make me sick. I get paranoid about food being cooked properly and within use by date and so on, so end up eating less than I should. I am on calorie supplements at the moment to try and maintain my weight so that's good.

Hmmm yeah, i suppose its a tricky situation you have to slowly tell yourself that not everything is going to make you sick. Much easier said than done obviously, but its the only way i found to get round that type of illness.

At least your maintaining your weight, do you feel healthy or do you feel you need to eat proper food but just can't get yourself to do it?

I suffer from general anxiety and opening my email inbox is the most terrifying thing I do every morning. I wish I could get rid of it.

Why is that a worrying experience for you?

I assume it's because I generally get news that could affect my life in manners I don't always wish to happen. I hate picking up the phone for the same reason. Even going on TSR makes me go all jumpy because I know some stuff will get me upset or angry.

I expect every case is a big mixture of things, I don't think anyone could truthfully say "I have anxiety because..." without it taking them a lifetime to explain it.