I surrender to the ultimate meaninglessness of this nonsense existence.
Steak, Iron & Sunlight.
You’re welcome
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Exercise, sunlight, and fresh air is generally how I deal with mine.
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Heyyy a kindred soul 
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I don’t think I deal with it well. Mine has been affecting my energy levels lately and stomach. But on a waiting list for a new therapist, so just have to wait it out.
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I hope you get one you like and it helps! I’m excited to go back to my therapist, good luck!
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What are you anxious about?
When I was younger, I had almost no anxiety or stress that matter. Then, a certain event opened pandora box and ever since then it’s been a reality of my daily life. At one point, crippling.
The divide between my brain and thoughts versus the response my body was having was staggering. Going to the hospital and being told it’s in my head was soul crushing, but, they were half, if not mostly wrong. To say it was in my head ignored what was happening in my body. I could feel a panic or anxiety attack come on. The first few years it crushed me, but I eventually dealt with it and pushed through and found was to mitigate the episodes.
The big one for me was diet. Cutting out things like rice, corn, potatoes, etc. helped curb my insulin response and my adrenaline. When it first started I should add, I was very healthy, fit, athletic, etc. but started getting PVCs (preventricular contractions) in my heart. Once I go those more under control, episodes tended to be easier to deal with. Then came breathing exercises. Episodes might last 15-30 minutes and knowing that gave me strength to keep pushing and reduced my panic response. It’s still weird looking back on life and knowing at one point I never had any of these experiences.
While medication can help, I know a lot of people who were different while they were on it. For a time, I was prescribed meds but never took them. Knowing I had the courage to seek help, get treatment, and had a possible solution was enough for me to keep pushing. I don’t look down on those who would take meds by any means. That should be the decision of the individual, not even the doctor. Knowing what’s best for you is important.
So, figure out why your anxious and attack that problem. Slowly if needed. Change your diet. Exercise. Just walking around the block can be good. Burning off some of that nervous energy. Change your diet. Change the little things. Small steps. Get more sleep. Turn off the TV or your computer. Ask yourself how important it is to get better. It’s tough to grapple with these things.
Funny enough, I played wow for a time to take my mind off my anxiety. I actually got pretty frustrated when it started affecting my game play. It was actually one of the reasons I decided to make changes. Getting arrhythmia during an arena match made me pretty angry… lol.
I still deal with it, most people don’t know. One day I’d like to completely overcome it and be whole and well like I was when I was young.
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I recommend getting screened for ADHD before committing to treatment for Anxiety.
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Not a bad idea. ADHD can mimic Anxiety or they can be comorbid (I have both.).
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I try to take things one day at a time, one step at a time. I have Autism Spectrum Disorder and C-PTSD and some days are better than others. If it is affecting your daily life, seek therapy and/or professional help. In the mean time find things that bring you comfort and utilize them. If you can try to create a support network, a group of people you can turn to when you are having a hard time. Remember that asking for help, and taking time to address your mental health are good things you do not need to be ashamed about or scared to do. I wish you the best and hope you are able to get the treatment you need.
I was gonna say, same here (Colorado) 
Personally if I had really bad anxiety I would exhaust every natural/alternative option before getting on the synthetic/man-made drugs and dealing with all the negative side-effects that come with them
I don’t use weed myself, but I have collleagues that do and they swear by it for relieving stress/anxiety. And of course, I haven’t heard of any notable side-effects from them either
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Therapy might help, they just give you coping skills like go for a walk read a book, take deep breaths , listen to music, do something fun, bunch of bs at the end… feel like i saved you a visit lol
If you drink coffee and energy drinks stay away from those
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Antidepressants and counseling.
Thank you! I wish you luck in finding what works for you.
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I do lots of therapy and so many medications, but I have a lot of stuff going on. SNRI, Stimulant, Benzo, thyroid hormone, tricyclic, nasal ketamine, and even a microdose of devil’s lettuce caplets. Even accupuncture because my insurance covers it so why not?
My advice is that therapy is good, both talk and cognitive behavioral therapy.
There are a variety of drugs and stuff like anxiety can be comorbid with other conditions.
Your lack of enjoyment of WOW may or may not be a symptom of the anhedonia, it may also being a symptom of Shadowlands sucking. Have you lost interest in other things you enjoy too?
Not all anxiety has a cause. Sometimes people just get anxious for no darn reason. It’s super frustrating.
Chances are they will probably start you on a garden variety SSRI like Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, or Lexapro. They might give you gabapentin to calm acute anxiety.
It’s important to realize that different people have different medication needs even within a family.
If the SSRI school doesn’t make you feel normal and functional such as being exhausted all the time, you might want to try a different medication, such as an SNRI (Effexor, Cymbalta), or an NDRI (Wellbutrin). They might combine one of these with an SSRI. They might also try other meds like Abilify or Lamictal in addition to your other meds.
If gabapentin and antidepressants don’t help you with acute anxiety they might switch to the more addictive but super effective Benzo school (Xanax, Klonopin, Valium, etc).
Finally, I’ve read things that claim things like chronic pain or other illnesses can contribute to things like anxiety and depression. It’s important to talk to your primary care physician as well. Especially if you have underlying pain or injuries.
When you see a psychiatrist, they’re going to first tell you about their privacy policy called HIPPA if you’re in the US. They will probably go down a list to check your general behavioral health well-being, you might be asked to fill out some forms on how you are feeling. These help them track your mood between visits. Don’t be alarmed. They might ask you even more questions. So many questions.
You might also want to try a mood tracking app where you can say how you feel and write notes about what is going on. There may be patterns to your condition.
For example, ny health slides every March and gets better every November without fail. Some people are totally fine then turn into a pile of malfunction during the winter.
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I also have this condition. I am 47 years old, and I struggled with anxiety and panic attacks. I been on so many different types of medicine and finally my psychiatrist and I decided that medical M license was the way to go.
I do not smoke; however, I use gummies and I started with just 5 mg because I never used anything like that. So, I buy 22 mg gummies and cut them in quarters and when it starts to hit me, I take one and in about 30 to 60 mins I start to calm down. It has done wonders for me to be honest.
If you have any questions, I will try to help anyway I can. I feel your pain and I wish you the best because this is a serious condition and a lot of people do not understand but, for those of us who do, there is relief but, you have to take the proper steps to get it.
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I had a phobia, got obsessed with a certain something. Had me paranoid, got panic attack and very severe anxiety. This was about 10 years ago.
I want to make this clear, you choose how you want to go about this. Personally, I took the raw way through, no docs, no meds. I did try paxil like twice, hated how it felt.
Sounds corny, but there is an anxiety book for dummies, which was a huge life saver for my route of no meds.
First thing you want to practice is nose breathers. There’s several different kinds, I suggest looking them up. Most can be done anywhere and very relaxing. It won’t be a miracle worker right away, just a nice weapon and open door for healing.
Second, you want to stay active. Try not to burn yourself out. If this is the start, you’re starting at high levels and over active will be very tempting. Park walks, grass cutting. Volunteer. Help a neighbor, family, friends. Anxiety is a form of energy. You can burn it off.
Third, anxiety feeds on negative brain signals (or however the technical wording is.) From what I understand, your mind can’t produce positive and negative at the same time. The goal is keeping your brain happy. Very tricky considering the overwhelming factor of anxiety. It’s like a ping pong effect. Anxiety is feeding off negative brain signals, negative brain signals is caused by anxiety and sometimes depression.
Volunteering, listening to favorite music, eating good foods and deserts can fight the negative signals and weaken anxiety. Watch a comedy or anything that makes your brain happy.
At the start, you really have to force yourself through those steps. Anxiety can feel like end of the world and make you want to give up. Biggest rule is don’t let anxiety control you. If there’s a new movie out you like to see, take your nose breathers and see the movie. I promise you will feel weird as heck at first. Over time, it’ll start to weaken and you will notice. You wake up one day and the mess is gone like I did.
I’ll admit, took a good couple of years to get over it. Thought I would live like that forever, then the day I woke up and it was gone was the best day ever.
Let me emphasize the nose breathers are your biggest weapon.
Also, over the 2 years, it was getting easier and more tolerable.
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There is some good advice in the answers. My 2 cents worth:
Please don’t ask “What is wrong with me?” , rather “What happened to me?”
You have taken the first, and most significant, step: realizing that there’s something wrong and that you are looking to treat it.
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SLEEP MANAGEMENT.
Keeping a sleep schedule is essential for managing my own anxiety.
Speak with a therapist (I recommend cognitive behavioral therapy), and speak with your doctor about the different options for medication and whether he/she thinks any of them would help you.
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I’m on a few different meds for mine. Helps take some of the edge off. Not all. But enough that I can ignore it better.
The last time I had a big spike of anxiety was when I first set up an appointment for the covid vaccine when they started going out. I panicked and cancelled it. ( I got it later, no worries )
Most of the time I just play games. Oh man back in my early 20s I wasn’t in a great living situation. I would play WoW and basically shut my brain off or disassociate while leveling up alts and stuff.
There are times where my brain goes “oh man that was a SPICY traumatic memory. Here mate lemme just shut off most of your brain and I’ll get to work rebooting it”. That’s kinda how I explain the whole disassociate thing.
I also sometimes hug a plush if I get one of my “I’m going to die eventually and nothing can stop it. Nothing forever no no no no” panic attacks. Those tend to happen a lot when I try to sleep. I have this old Piplup plush that I can just hug and curl against til I calm down. Or sometimes I give my Mango plush a little squish
https://www.makeship.com/products/mango-plush
Good land shark
Edit: I forgot. I also draw sometimes. I used to draw a lot back in the day but. Well. Reasons made me slow down. I’d rather not get into that. I still doodle sometimes.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/57c6bc96cb75748718f06a9b16b0c96b/a946c81dc8217e7a-1e/s540x810/816f18898f11e8b1c87360632b202e79409b0070.jpg
Like this fella. I made him as a fan character for the world Fennah made up on youtube. His lower half is a centipede I just didn’t draw it. His 4 arms can be placed together to form a sort of make shift bat wing. I had a lot of fun working on him
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