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Anxiety experiences and support

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Original post by Riku
Can I ask, what time does everyone shoot for bed and in practice have you found an earlier night helps with everything?
2 years have mainly getting to sleep around or after midnight have made me feel crap, but I don't know whether I'm exaggerating the symptoms. It's hardly insomnia. :s-smilie:
Also at 19 people make fun of you for needing to go to bed for 10 or 11 >_<


it depends. as i have insomnia trying to go to bed at a certain time is jst not going to happen

i try n aim for 10.30 going to bed or maybe 11.30, for a 7.15am wake up. if there is insomnia then usually i cant sleep till about 2, when i then give up and read or something -.-

people shouldnt make fun. you are aware of what to do to not be tired, those making fun are probably extremely sleep deprived :P
Don't think I'll ever win this battle :frown:
Reply 2982
Original post by puddledancer
I struggled a lot in my first uni semester were I wouldnt usually be able to get to sleep till after midnight, on a good night, if I had uni the next morning and so I'd get about 5 hours sleep which would sometimes be enough. Other nights thoug I'd get 1-3 hours and it'd kill me.

I'm a bit better now but do get the occasional bout of insomnia. I do try and get to sleep around midnight now but if not I sleep in so it can become a bit of a bad cycle it depends how I'm feeling at the time.



Original post by megfashion
it depends. as i have insomnia trying to go to bed at a certain time is jst not going to happen

i try n aim for 10.30 going to bed or maybe 11.30, for a 7.15am wake up. if there is insomnia then usually i cant sleep till about 2, when i then give up and read or something -.-

people shouldnt make fun. you are aware of what to do to not be tired, those making fun are probably extremely sleep deprived :P


Well it's not that as much as I am actually pressured into constant socialising despite wanting to go to bed from feeling tense all day by my mum and others, if I say I'm tiredshe starts going 'fine don't go feel sorry for yourself lose your friends etc.
It's hard because I don't know whether I'm tired from anxiety and the depression accompanying it or actually really tired and that's making the anxiety. I know she's trying to help and I do still need to see friend otherwise the illness has won but at the same time I feel awful when I'm alone. What I do know is after a late night/when I'm tired the world feels really unpleasantly different, my entire state of consciousness is warped like right now :s-smilie:
Original post by Riku
Can I ask, what time does everyone shoot for bed and in practice have you found an earlier night helps with everything?
2 years have mainly getting to sleep around or after midnight have made me feel crap, but I don't know whether I'm exaggerating the symptoms. It's hardly insomnia. :s-smilie:
Also at 19 people make fun of you for needing to go to bed for 10 or 11 >_<


My usual routine is to go into my room when my family goes to bed (between 10 and 11 normally). Once I'm in my room I get ready for bed and usually go on the computer/watch a programme/read a book for a minimum of an hour or two. If I'm up early in the morning (6 or 7 o'clock), I'll stop and try to get to sleep around midnight. If I don't have anything on in the morning I often stay awake until the early hours.

I feel like in the last few years, I've got so little sleep that I've pretty much learnt to get by on a very small amount, so I don't actually need more than six hours to get by for the day. I always find it difficult to go to sleep early in the evening, so I've settled into a routine of getting the minimum sleep I need and going to bed as late as I reasonably can because it works for me. If I went to bed really early, I wouldn't sleep for hours anyway, and would just end up annoyed.

It's not necessarily 'official' insomnia, but it can still be seriously horrible if you feel like you're not getting enough sleep. Whether it's 'not enough' by an hour or two, or by a whole night's worth, it's still never a nice thing to have in the long term. As I said, for me personally, I feel better if I go to bed at a time when I feel tired and feel like I will actually go to sleep. If I went to bed a lot earlier and couldn't sleep for a long time, I would end up more annoyed and restless. Maybe you could try just staying up until you are actually tired and feel sleepy? If your body gets used to going to sleep as soon as you get into bed, you could gradually move your bedtime earlier until you were going to sleep straight away, and at a reasonable time. Just a suggestion though, different things work for different people.

Oh and the people making fun of you, I can't really suggest much about that. Everyone has their weaknesses, and I'm sure you know someone (or a few people) who don't drink, or don't like clubbing, or don't like eating out, or have some other random little boundary or idiosyncrasy that you wouldn't expect. People grow up at that kind of age anyway, and as long as you are matter-of-fact about it and don't make a big problem, then everyone will just accept it and get on with things.
Reply 2984
Original post by Amwazicles
My usual routine is to go into my room when my family goes to bed (between 10 and 11 normally). Once I'm in my room I get ready for bed and usually go on the computer/watch a programme/read a book for a minimum of an hour or two. If I'm up early in the morning (6 or 7 o'clock), I'll stop and try to get to sleep around midnight. If I don't have anything on in the morning I often stay awake until the early hours.

I feel like in the last few years, I've got so little sleep that I've pretty much learnt to get by on a very small amount, so I don't actually need more than six hours to get by for the day. I always find it difficult to go to sleep early in the evening, so I've settled into a routine of getting the minimum sleep I need and going to bed as late as I reasonably can because it works for me. If I went to bed really early, I wouldn't sleep for hours anyway, and would just end up annoyed.

It's not necessarily 'official' insomnia, but it can still be seriously horrible if you feel like you're not getting enough sleep. Whether it's 'not enough' by an hour or two, or by a whole night's worth, it's still never a nice thing to have in the long term. As I said, for me personally, I feel better if I go to bed at a time when I feel tired and feel like I will actually go to sleep. If I went to bed a lot earlier and couldn't sleep for a long time, I would end up more annoyed and restless. Maybe you could try just staying up until you are actually tired and feel sleepy? If your body gets used to going to sleep as soon as you get into bed, you could gradually move your bedtime earlier until you were going to sleep straight away, and at a reasonable time. Just a suggestion though, different things work for different people.

Oh and the people making fun of you, I can't really suggest much about that. Everyone has their weaknesses, and I'm sure you know someone (or a few people) who don't drink, or don't like clubbing, or don't like eating out, or have some other random little boundary or idiosyncrasy that you wouldn't expect. People grow up at that kind of age anyway, and as long as you are matter-of-fact about it and don't make a big problem, then everyone will just accept it and get on with things.


Well I tried paradoxical intention to pull off an all nighter and see that the worst thing that could happen is...so far it feels awful but I'm not dead :P Also I'm a little groggy and slow on conversation when with people but otherwise relaxed, which suggests some of the extreme tension alone could be down to the anxiety anyway? It's lke two entirely different states of being!

Thanks Amz. I think your idea of just waiting until we're tired is the best solution for now, rather than putting another worry on our minds. :smile:
Original post by Riku
Well I tried paradoxical intention to pull off an all nighter and see that the worst thing that could happen is...so far it feels awful but I'm not dead :P Also I'm a little groggy and slow on conversation when with people but otherwise relaxed, which suggests some of the extreme tension alone could be down to the anxiety anyway? It's lke two entirely different states of being!

Thanks Amz. I think your idea of just waiting until we're tired is the best solution for now, rather than putting another worry on our minds. :smile:


No problem. :smile: I've never done a full allnighter, but on days when I've been bouncing off the walls with anxiety, I've been out for a walk at ten o'clock in the middle of winter, and stayed wide awake til three, four o'clock.

My philosophy is you have to just embrace the anxiety. Accept that it is going to have a massive impact on your life, and accept that it has been having an affect for some time now. If it's going to mess up your life, you may as well try to get what enjoyment you can out of it, in every minute. If it's a choice between one minute of lying restless in bed and stressing yourself out, or one minute of reading a nice book, or watching a funny TV show, or getting sucked into the internet, then choose whatever will make you happiest in any one minute. There's no use making long-term plans or thinking about consequences. When things are at their worst, your only option is to live in the present, as difficult as that may feel.
was toying with the idea of posting in here before exams but didn't, but now have chosen to, so hullo :smile:
just hoping to share my experience and chat with others, see it from other people's perspective and whatnot

never thought of myself as an anxious person before this year :dontknow:
always thought I was quite chilled out and didn't understand why people got so flustered about things, but that all seemed to change around january, although I only noticed it over my exams which were 3 weeks ago. Last year over exams I was binge eating a lot, and smoking. This year though I pretty much lost my appetite over my revision/study leave, and gave up smoking at the same time. Was an anxious wreck. Also had ongoing financial problems and was due to move out of my flat a few days after I finished exams. It didn't really make sense to me, because I left myself more time this year to revise, plenty of time, and I always do well, and never stress about it, but something about these exams made my anxiety levels rocket. Exams went fine and I was hoping my anxiety would dissolve when I got my results (a week ago - did very well), but it hasn't seemed to. I find myself getting anxious for normal everyday activities now, find myself getting anxious over nothing; like for example going to the gym, I get anxious before that now (it's a new gym I just joined), even though I've been going for well over a year and never felt anxious beforehand. The anxiety often manifests as a bad mood and me being short-tempered. Sometimes I get this tight uncomfortable feeling in my chest. I got some insomnia over exams, and also had some back in January for a few weeks which I saw my GP about. I had full-on flu in march, then a bad cold, and I've got another now - I'm not usually this run down. I think I'm starting to realise that I've probably been anxious longer than I recognised, and a lot of it manifests as physical symptoms, does anyone else get that?
(edited 11 years ago)
I've been pondering the past few days about relationships. I'm not in one and have never had one because of my Anxiety but I want to be open to one if someone was to come along so here's a couple questions if anyone wants to answer them for me :smile::

How much did you confide in your partner at first if you had anxiety before meeting them? How did you manage to not run away because thats all I want to do?

I'm bored of being alone and I can fake it a bit, I do at my new job, but I never know how someone will react and yes I know if they react badly they aren't worth it blah blah but I want to make myself less closed off to people.

Unfortunately there is no one at the minute so this is just curiosity.
Original post by Riku
Can I ask, what time does everyone shoot for bed and in practice have you found an earlier night helps with everything?
2 years have mainly getting to sleep around or after midnight have made me feel crap, but I don't know whether I'm exaggerating the symptoms. It's hardly insomnia. :s-smilie:
Also at 19 people make fun of you for needing to go to bed for 10 or 11 >_<

Hm, apart from all what was said, I think it is not good to sleep not enough and you just try to get more sleep, because that will make you more resistant to all kind of stuff, at least to my experience. On the other hand I am someone who really needs a lot of sleep/likes siesta/sleep in general. Perhaps you can make your bed more cosey and more comfortable, just to love to relax there. (I mean not necessarily sleeping, but music and so on, not as good, but better than stressing around.)
But there are a lot of young people with an unsual sleeping pattern and it is not the end of the world, even when you don't get a lot of sleep. (Some people really don't need more.)

But the most important is that not sleeping doesn't mean stressing around. Get some nice books, comedies to watch before sleeping, exercise, work for school,...

In addition you can try all the typical changing sleeping pattern/anti-insomnia stuff. Most of them are not to weired or particulary stressing, so stuff like certain types of light out, not to embarassing movies/films, rituals, etc.

Personally my sleeping pattern varies, hardly any sleep in bad exam times, early sleep when working in a factory(physical work is an easy way to tackle normal sleeping problems :wink: ), sleeping only when my supervisor/tutor (don't know the right word) doesn't want anything from me, siestas every day, hard to fall asleep but sleeping until 13 o'clock, ... So you see, nothing uncommon to be not the norm
I've suffered anxiety for eight months now, it ruined my life as I left university and my part time job and pretty much stopped going out. I have improved greatly since then through counselling and go out a lot more. The only problem is that I've started feeling a bit more anxious recently, I've had a couple episodes where I've either had a panic attack or being on the verge of one. My boyfriend is leaving for university soon & I have to do quite a bit of travelling, I'm also considering travelling to France or Holland before he leaves but I'm at a point where I struggle when travelling into town. I guess I just want to get over this and not let it rule my life, I want to have the same experiences as everyone else without being ridden by anxiety, I'm determined not to let this beat me again. Does anyone have any advice/words of wisdom?
Original post by Riku
Can I ask, what time does everyone shoot for bed and in practice have you found an earlier night helps with everything?
2 years have mainly getting to sleep around or after midnight have made me feel crap, but I don't know whether I'm exaggerating the symptoms. It's hardly insomnia. :s-smilie:
Also at 19 people make fun of you for needing to go to bed for 10 or 11 >_<


I go to bed about midnight and tend to wake up about 11... feeling crappy... I'm such a heavy sleeper that even two alarms doesn't help, coupled with the fact that quite frankly I'd rather be asleep than awake and having to deal with the world and the weird emotions and things going on in my head doesn't make for a good routine.
Original post by Simone.xox
I've suffered anxiety for eight months now, it ruined my life as I left university and my part time job and pretty much stopped going out. I have improved greatly since then through counselling and go out a lot more. The only problem is that I've started feeling a bit more anxious recently, I've had a couple episodes where I've either had a panic attack or being on the verge of one. My boyfriend is leaving for university soon & I have to do quite a bit of travelling, I'm also considering travelling to France or Holland before he leaves but I'm at a point where I struggle when travelling into town. I guess I just want to get over this and not let it rule my life, I want to have the same experiences as everyone else without being ridden by anxiety, I'm determined not to let this beat me again. Does anyone have any advice/words of wisdom?


Ruined your life? No, try not to think like this, exspecially considering your whole life.

Concerning the travelling, I would just plan it, but without pressure, so that you make clear for you before that it won't be a disaster, when you e.g. just stay home. Are you travelling alone or do you have someone to comfort you? Any chance you have reasons which can be confronted in a more rational manner? Perhaps it is easier, when you plan your holiday carefully, without many surprises (e.g. searching a youth hostel after arriving late in the night), so that it looses a lot of possible stress factors.
Are there places you feel more comfortable?
Original post by Nathanielle
Ruined your life? No, try not to think like this, exspecially considering your whole life.

Concerning the travelling, I would just plan it, but without pressure, so that you make clear for you before that it won't be a disaster, when you e.g. just stay home. Are you travelling alone or do you have someone to comfort you? Any chance you have reasons which can be confronted in a more rational manner? Perhaps it is easier, when you plan your holiday carefully, without many surprises (e.g. searching a youth hostel after arriving late in the night), so that it looses a lot of possible stress factors.
Are there places you feel more comfortable?


To be honest, I do think I could do it, but I don't want to book a holiday in case I can't do it. I get extremely uncomfortable in crowded places and the only job available to me right now is Manchester United on match days so I have to get over that. I feel comfortable usually in quiet places.
Original post by Simone.xox
To be honest, I do think I could do it, but I don't want to book a holiday in case I can't do it. I get extremely uncomfortable in crowded places and the only job available to me right now is Manchester United on match days so I have to get over that. I feel comfortable usually in quiet places.


At the end you can insure your bookings. (Of course I have no idea of your financial abilities, so I just give general advice, as worrying too much about money can make life harder than it is, as long as you can actually afford to loose some of it.)

Quiet places, ahhh, so nice...
I'm seriously anxious about my induction day at college this Friday... it's just the idea of having to meet my future new friends, and the need to make a good impression on the teachers; I have this odd sort of "need" to be the best at everything I do - whatever the cost. I just constantly worry about my voice breaking (which annoyingly seems to be happening all the time - it sounds rather rough) or people thinking that I'm weird.

I'd really appreciate some advice, or just motivating comments! Thanks x
Reply 2995
I remember this one guy got so nervous in preperation for a big exam that he had to leave and throw up midway through it
Have to go do a massive food shop in Tesco tomorrow with my Dad and I am so, so nervous. The atmosphere and the lights and everything about that place sets me on edge :frown:
Just wondering has anyone ever tried any natural therapies?
I'm looking at Bach Rescue Remedy, it's essentially plant extracts and specific ones can calm panic and anxiety.
Original post by Simone.xox
Just wondering has anyone ever tried any natural therapies?
I'm looking at Bach Rescue Remedy, it's essentially plant extracts and specific ones can calm panic and anxiety.


Hi,
Yes I have tried Bach Rescue Remedy and I think it really can help. I don't know about the specific formula ones where the extracts are intended for certain things (although I would love to try those- I am all for natural therapies and refuse to get prescribed medication from the doc.) but I have used the general/ original formula. Whether or not the calming effect is psychological or what it does seem to ease my anxiety slightly. Ive been suffering with severe panic attacks for over 6 months, that have led to slight agoraphobia.

I had CBT which I found helped me to get through my A2 exams and I can now walk my dog by myself, which is a little small achievement). Now, when I go out I find that the Bach Rescue Remedy is my best friend! The original formula is available in the bottle which is applied on the tongue or in liquid with a few drops from the pipette, but I find this is not all that practical when in public. I recommend trying the soothing Bach Rescue Remedy pastelles that you can get in a little tin- they come in Blackcurrent or Original(elderflower and orange) they are really tasty too! They are available in Tesco and probably other supermarkets/ health shops/ online.

If you are suffering from extreme anxiety or just have an anxious moment, give them a go, hope this helps
:smile: xx
Original post by Cinnamon93
Hi,
Yes I have tried Bach Rescue Remedy and I think it really can help. I don't know about the specific formula ones where the extracts are intended for certain things (although I would love to try those- I am all for natural therapies and refuse to get prescribed medication from the doc.) but I have used the general/ original formula. Whether or not the calming effect is psychological or what it does seem to ease my anxiety slightly. Ive been suffering with severe panic attacks for over 6 months, that have led to slight agoraphobia.

I had CBT which I found helped me to get through my A2 exams and I can now walk my dog by myself, which is a little small achievement). Now, when I go out I find that the Bach Rescue Remedy is my best friend! The original formula is available in the bottle which is applied on the tongue or in liquid with a few drops from the pipette, but I find this is not all that practical when in public. I recommend trying the soothing Bach Rescue Remedy pastelles that you can get in a little tin- they come in Blackcurrent or Original(elderflower and orange) they are really tasty too! They are available in Tesco and probably other supermarkets/ health shops/ online.

If you are suffering from extreme anxiety or just have an anxious moment, give them a go, hope this helps
:smile: xx


Thanks, that really helps! I think I'm going to try them, just for getting through things that travelling!
I used to love walking my dogs round the park, well one of them is really big now and pulls on the lead, but keep going out for walks! Sooner you'll be able to go on longer walks and it's a really good way of clearing your head.

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