Anxiety Issues

[Freeforall]

Anyone else have Anxiety issues? I have them really bad, especially during winter time, I can explain it more if you want, but if no one is interested, or no one else has these issues, I guess this topic is pointless?

[God-I-Suck]

i don't have anxiety issues, but please, explain more (:

[Meiun]

Anxiety is pretty common, especially for people around your age. You are definitely not the only one. If you get it more-so in the winter you may have a bit of what is called "seasonal effective disorder." Despite the somewhat intimidating sounding name it actually isn't a huge deal. It pretty much just means that your body isn't getting the vitamin D that it would normally get from the sun during certain seasons, which can cause anxiety and sometimes depression and such. Try taking some vitamin D supplement pills maybe :P

[Jake]

I've got pretty serious anxiety that I've dealt with for many years. It's getting better with age, but I still struggle sometimes, especially when I'm out of my comfort zone. For me, I think it stems from my blood sugar disorder. I can be very high strung at times, and if my blood sugar is a little bit off, bad thoughts start popping into my head.

For example, I'll be totally fine one second, then my blood sugar begins to fall and unlikely events begin to creep up in my head. "Am I having a stroke?", "My hearts beating extremely hard and fast, I think I'm having a heart attack". All of this happens while the logical portion of my brain is trying to convince my emotions that they're wrong. "Breathe Jake, worse comes to worse, you pass out from hyperventilation", but sometimes the logical portion of my head loses and I go into a full blown panic attack that has resulted in me demanding someone take me to the hospital. Having these attacks is terrifying. I can't count how many times I've thought I was about to die. The funny part is that I'm completely unconcerned about external dangers. Close call car crashes don't phase me, people threatening me, etc. The reason for this is that I feel like I have control over external stimuli. If a car crash is about to happen, I can do something about it to stop it or save myself. I can't control whether or not I have a heart attack or a stroke (apart from eating healthier). Over-thinking things is definitely not good for people with high anxiety too. If I'm having an anxiety attack, I start to think about all my bodily functions, my organs, my blood flow, the specific configuration of molecules holding my hands together, or in other words... my mortality and how delicate life is. The idea that there's no safety net on the way these bodily functions are governed and if something were to happen to throw these systems out of whack, I could very well die.

Of course, if my anxiety is nice and low, the idea that I'm about to die is silly, and I also feel more relaxed about the idea of death itself. If I'm in a calm state, death seems inevitable, calm, apart of life. If my anxiety is high, death seems like a terrible evil thing that I want nothing to do with. It's interesting how our brains work.

But yeah, in terms of fixing your anxiety issues, my advice would be to make sure you stick to a somewhat healthy diet. Eat less simple carb foods and more fruits, vegetables, and whole wheat products. Complex carbs take longer for your system to break down, allowing you to receive a steady flow of nutrients that don't upset the balance of your blood sugar and insulin. Simple carbs cause your blood sugar to spike up and down (regardless of your age or health), and can be a huge underlying cause of anxiety. try not to go on meds unless you absolutely cannot function. Seriously, if you don't NEED them, don't touch them. They can eff with your head more than they help sometimes. Like Dustin said, suck up some vitamin D. Go outside (even if it's winter), and take some daily tablets. In fact, you may want to see your doctor and get your vitamin D checked. If it's in the low range (under 50 nmol/L), they'll prescribe you some hardcore pills to spike it back up. This actually happened to me a couple of years back. Also, find out whats triggering your anxiety and attack the source. Is it a phobia that can be attributed to an object, person, or circumstance? When is your anxiety at it's worst? When is it at it's best? Breathing exercises also help. In fact, you should start seeing a therapist asap. At the very least, just do a few sessions to get some pointers on breathing techniques, thinking techniques, and possibly above all else, someone to vent to about this stuff, because lets face it, reading some words on a forum isn't the same as true human interaction when it comes to these issues.

[Torch]

^ not to be a devil's advocate but most fruits contain a lot of sugar and will spike your inculin.

[Jake]

^ not to be a devil's advocate but most fruits contain a lot of sugar and will spike your inculin.

That's true, but the sugar in fruits generally won't spike the blood sugar anywhere close to what a candy bar will do. As long as someone doesn't have any underlying blood sugar issues, the chances that a piece of fruit is going to effect their mood is pretty low. Still, it might be worthwhile to kick fruits from your diet for a while and slowly add them back in if you do think your anxiety could be somewhat related to the foods your eating. I had to go on a no carb diet a year ago, and my nutritionist had me kick fruits too. I basically ate lean meats, bacon, and celery all day, which totally sucked.

[stick d00d]

For example, I'll be totally fine one second, then my blood sugar begins to fall and unlikely events begin to creep up in my head. "Am I having a stroke?", "My hearts beating extremely hard and fast, I think I'm having a heart attack". All of this happens while the logical portion of my brain is trying to convince my emotions that they're wrong. "Breathe Jake, worse comes to worse, you pass out from hyperventilation", but sometimes the logical portion of my head loses and I go into a full blown panic attack that has resulted in me demanding someone take me to the hospital.

My mom has really bad anxiety and gets exactly like what you just described. We actually ended up taking her to the hospital a couple of times and she was completely fine. (though she does take blood pressure medicine).

As for myself I used to get really bad anxiety when I was in school. Whenever I had a project to turn in or a report to write, etc, my mind would start racing and I couldn't sleep at all the night before and start sweating really bad. I would actually even stay home from school "sick" because it was that bad.

Anxiety is pretty common, me, my sister, and my mom have it and I know a lot of other people who do. Try talking to your parents or your doctor if it gets really bad though, along with what Jake said.

[Mr Pwnage]

I'd say around from 5th to 7th grade I had some really bad anxiety issues, all of which I've now grown out of. While this probably sounds ridiculous (because it was), I had this fear of chemicals and other toxic things. While I really am not sure how I made these conclusions in my head, if I ever visually saw a container of bleach I would always talk myself into thinking I consumed it or something. It was really weird, and seemed extremely serious to me at the time...but than seemingly one day I just grew out of it. I'd probably associate that whole experience to just part of growing up, hormones, etc...

But yeah, I'm fairly sure anyone telling you they've never experienced anxiety is lying, it happens to everyone.

[DarkTrinity]

I think everyone's probably had an anxiety related problem, but I think some are just worse or more repeated than others. I have issues pretty much every winter with the cold, darkness and lack of sun.
Guys aren't usually into yoga(that I know of) but it taught me breathing exercises that really work wonders; they help calm you down, relax your mind, etc. It's especially nice to do them while doing yoga, because your mind has something to concentrate on. Deep breathing is the best one I think, you breathe in over a span of 8 seconds, then breathe out over a span of 8 seconds.
But I've had breathing problems which I chalked up to anxiety, because it usually happened during the gymnastic season(sometimes during practice) and during the school year.

[Freeforall]

I don't know what my anxiety issue is called, but I am terrified of illness or anything to do with becoming sick. I wash my hands 15-20 times a day. (Between every class period at school) My friend has an Anxiety/OCD problem where she pulls out her hair. It's pretty sad, I wish there was something I could do to help her out.

My anxiety is really bad during the winter, because it's flu season. I have it pretty bad. Any routine change (Like being off for Christmas break, or a long weekend) will trigger my anxiety. I can't go down to see my family. Last time I went to New Mexico to see my aunt, I was convinced I had some form of brain cancer. (Which obviously I didn't, but it seemed completely real to me) I really hate my anxiety, I wish I could get rid of it. Me and my friend Val have been struggling with it a lot lately. Her disorder makes me really sad, because it is genetic, and she said her children will most likely have it. No one should be cursed with that...

I am not stressed right now, I am fairly relaxed. My anxiety comes on at random times, sometimes. But anything will trigger it. My friend posted something about his stomach hurting on Facebook and I had a panic attack. Some weeks I am completely fine, and some weeks are terrible for me.

[Yankyal]

I don't know what my anxiety issue is called, but I am terrified of illness or anything to do with becoming sick. I wash my hands 15-20 times a day. (Between every class period at school) My friend has an Anxiety/OCD problem where she pulls out her hair. It's pretty sad, I wish there was something I could do to help her out.

My anxiety is really bad during the winter, because it's flu season. I have it pretty bad. Any routine change (Like being off for Christmas break, or a long weekend) will trigger my anxiety. I can't go down to see my family. Last time I went to New Mexico to see my aunt, I was convinced I had some form of brain cancer. (Which obviously I didn't, but it seemed completely real to me) I really hate my anxiety, I wish I could get rid of it. Me and my friend Val have been struggling with it a lot lately. Her disorder makes me really sad, because it is genetic, and she said her children will most likely have it. No one should be cursed with that...

I am not stressed right now, I am fairly relaxed. My anxiety comes on at random times, sometimes. But anything will trigger it. My friend posted something about his stomach hurting on Facebook and I had a panic attack. Some weeks I am completely fine, and some weeks are terrible for me.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002485/

This could be what your friend has. I had anxiety issues with sickness too, until I decided that getting some sicknesses will actually enable my body to fight them better the next time they come around.

I also have anxiety with dying. I always constantly think about how anything can kill me. I could be in an airtight room with walls of diamond, but I could have an aneurysm at any moment. Again, I dealt with that by deciding how pointless it is to worry.

If I am worrying I follow this thought process:
Can I do something about it? If yes, then I do whatever I can to fix the issue. If no, then what is the point in worrying? There is none.

[Scotty]

If I am worrying I follow this thought process:
Can I do something about it? If yes, then I do whatever I can to fix the issue. If no, then what is the point in worrying? There is none.

^ This.  This applies to so much.

Seriously, so many people get worked up over stuff they have no reasonable control over.  I don't understand it.  If you can't (again, within reason) control the situation, don't sweat it, it's not worth the effort.  if you can though, it is your fault if you don't do something, so keep that in mind.

[Jake]

If I am worrying I follow this thought process:
Can I do something about it? If yes, then I do whatever I can to fix the issue. If no, then what is the point in worrying? There is none.

^ This.  This applies to so much.

Seriously, so many people get worked up over stuff they have no reasonable control over.  I don't understand it.  If you can't (again, within reason) control the situation, don't sweat it, it's not worth the effort.  if you can though, it is your fault if you don't do something, so keep that in mind.

It's the stuff that I can't control that scares me the most. If I found out I was going to die in 24 hours, regardless of what I do, it would do nothing to quell my fears.

[stick d00d]

I don't really worry about myself dying but I have random times where I worry about my parents/sisters/friends dying. For example when my dad's out working and I try to call and he doesn't answer after 2 or 3 times, I start freaking out. I call his phone again and again and i start worrying, "what will I do if he dies?". "how can me and my mom make it without him?" "why didn't I say good night last night?". I get really anxious about that sort of thing. I know I can't control it, and that makes it worse for me.

I do agree for much less serious issues, reminding yourself you can't control it helps.. but when it comes to death/dying, it doesn't help at all (for me at least).

[Lucifer]

If I am worrying I follow this thought process:
Can I do something about it? If yes, then I do whatever I can to fix the issue. If no, then what is the point in worrying? There is none.

^ This.  This applies to so much.

Seriously, so many people get worked up over stuff they have no reasonable control over.  I don't understand it.  If you can't (again, within reason) control the situation, don't sweat it, it's not worth the effort.  if you can though, it is your fault if you don't do something, so keep that in mind.

*points at signature*

My sister has anxiety all the time, she works as a bus driver for mentally disabled children and adults, which can be a very stressful job at times. If shes lost her phone, wallet, keys, etc the night before work, she'll go into a total meltdown. I do my best to remind her that it's happened before, and every time she's found what she's looking for after she's calmed down a bit. I'm the kind of person that would get terrible anxiety if I were involved in constant stress, pretty much runs in my family, and I do my best to stay out of any kind of stress-inducing situation.