That’s what I notice. There’s so much giving in associated with anxiety. Any help people try to give is just downplayed as if trying to empower anxiety.
Yes, it’s normal in that everyone feels it at some point. No, it’s not normal to live like this. At some point a person has to do something about it.
I live by homer simpson wisdom - why bother if tomorrow you might get hit by a car… though i rarely leave my house for that
You can do all of those things with anxiety. I have anxiety and I do it. Having anxiety doesn’t mean you’re a recluse incapable of engaging with other people.
I was in my mid twenties when it started for me. I eventually was the same way, always worried, never leaving the house. Even quit driving.
Almost mid forties now and have not been working to change it for long. One of the few regrets in my life.
The excuses are just ridiculous. Don’t need to tackle it all at once just start somewhere.
At 29, you’re basically a fetus. You can become anything you like. If you say otherwise, then that’s a choice that you are making.
Welcome to the club.
That is 100% me.
I wouldn’t suggest this. Your normal MD would simply refer you to a psychologist anyway. They have little to no experience in dealing with any of the therapies and or medications needed for these types of disorders.
Like any relationship if its not a good fit go back to searching.
Ugh that truly sucks, it took me more then 10 years to find one that was willing to help and then it wasn’t a good fit. I decided to just work through the DBT workbooks myself as medication never had any positive effects (it rarely does in BPD patents.)
As far as the original topic I recommend grabbing a CBT or DBT workbook (https://adoeci.com/sites/default/files/grupos/dbt-skills-workbook.pdf) and working through it yourself if you don’t want to see someone (this is hard work and will be far slower without help though.)
Download discord and join a channel and just listen. After a couple of weeks when you get to know some of the people talking introduce yourself. Its going to be hard, it may feel like you can’t breath or need to puke but force yourself to follow through. Every day jump on and just say high. After a a couple of weeks you will get somewhat used to this. After that its just a matter of forcing yourself to interact more each week.
I went from saying I didn’t have a headset in legion to a raid lead, GM and pugging in the low +20’s by the end of BFA doing this. It still makes me want to puke and I still go through weeks were I say nothing at all but I’ve found that when I do I can now have fun and with some people my anxiety no longer exists.
It depends on the extremity of the anxiety and any comorbidity.
For example I have not left the house outside of work for more then 3 years now (7 years if you don’t include hiking with my daughter in the park.) In that same length of time I have had no contact with anyone outside of online friends.
Someone should start a guild like Anxiety Sucks or something similar and people can battle it together.
I suffer from it a little bit, everyone had some anxiety especially when facing the unknown (yeah I know, Duh to me). I just plow thru it but realize not everyone can. Kinda like a phobia you cannot understand but people have it.
One thing that helped me as a kid was over coming the feeling of being judged. So I keep a few things in mind. Do I care when someone messes up? Nope.
Did I care when someone gets up in front of the class to give a report? Nope. No person on the planet ever or ever will be born with prior knowledge of anything, everyone learned what they know. So learn away, and don’t worry about being judged by others. (try to keep it at a minimum anyways)
Hope it helps.
This sums it up perfectly for me as well. I don’t even do normal dungeons if I can avoid them. Especially since WoD, dungeons have gotten so frenetic over the past few expansions.
Ive got anxiety too. Ive had it for a long time and realized its mostly up to me to handle it. Some days I succeed, others not so much. With social situations in game, I have to feel like I can in order to participate. On days where I feel anxious and very shy, I end up questing out somewhere secluded. Like last night, I was on an alt in Sholazar Basin. Ive never quested there in my entire wow game life and I had the best time.
If anyone here with anxiety wants to pug group or quest, etc, I’m happy to. At the very least you’ll know someone understands.
I did suggest it, and it stands as great advice.
If you won’t see a psychiatrist then an MD will either deal with it or send you to the appropriate place.
Ask me how I know this?
I hit the big 4-0 this year and that’s when it really dawned on me. Life is both long and short. Its too short to waste on things you don’t like.
And it’s too long that we lose sense of scale. I used to think ‘4 years is an eternity’. Now, the idea of going back to school for 4 years seems like an entirely doable “blip” should I be able to get my financial ducks in a row to do so. I’d only be 44 when finishing. If it meant the next 20 years of work were more enjoyable than the previous 20? That’s actually a fantastic time investment.
I went back to school the last time at 28 as well. Best decision of my life at that time (even if I didn’t finish)
As a referral yes.
However they do not have the required knowledge to deal with this. Prescribing medication as a general practitioner is highly unethical for mental illness. They do not have the training to know if it is properly working or to look for the signs that it in fact made it worse (some anti depressants can cause people to self harm and commit suicide.)
If you have cancer you go to an oncologist, if you need surgery you go to a surgeon, if you have a mental illness you see a psychologist. Medicine at this point is extremely specialized and a general practitioner is there to deal with normal accidents. Anything outside that preview they refer you to a specialist.
I care. 
You can replace it with innate cynicism that makes you keep people at arms length at all times.
And we agree, great stuff, see I knew I was right, and that’s really all that matters in life.
Anyway, nice meeting you and all, /hugs, /nervous laugh, have a great weekend!
I once tried an arena, and then we lost and I quit arenas for like a year. I was just so worked up on the potential I caused it, lol.
Yeah it took a bit because I’m a “Quiet” BPD. meaning I have all the usual symptoms of it except it’s a lot more introverted / internal. Teensy bit harder to spot for a diagnosis.
I can’t post it here because of the language but Bojack Horseman nailed their depiction of how that feels. There’s an episode in season 4 where it starts with hearing Bojacks thoughts in the morning.