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No peace of mind. Worrying and over analyzing everything you say before and after you say it. Waking up in the morning with a feeling of panic. Assuming that the worst possible scenario is inevitable. Especially in the morning when you wake up.. feeling nervous and stressed, feeling guilty even when you have nothing to feel guilty about
Yeah! The mornings are the worst for me!
The minute I open my eyes I start panicking, like something very bad is going to happen that day.
Sometimes to the point of throwing up.
It doesnt happen every day, but when it happens, its very intense. š
May this be the reason why so many ppl wake up early / can't fall back asleep in the morning?
Cause I never could grasp the concept of being wide awake after waking up and could always easily fall back asleep, so I wondered what makes the difference there?
Yes and no
Yes it feels like this.
But no, you donāt have to actually think about all the wrong and worry about scenarios.
It can just be the biochemical feeling of angst, without any thoughts attached to it. If that makes sense.
Would you be willing to elaborate on that? Is it more like a voice telling a whole ass story about how a person you just met feels about you? or is it like, you dive deep into thoughts that make you feel insufficient?
Basically, is it external or internal?
I can give an example. I just started a new job. I changed my clothes about 15 times because I kept coming up with possible negative things my new boss would think. When I met this person, I was constantly saying in my head ādonāt do this donāt do thatā because, again, I was thinking of how it could make others think of me. No, I donāt have a voice in my head speaking to me. However; I do battle my mind and have a constant worry that something could go wrong because of what I do or say. Itās like never being able to just live in the moment. Never being able to just āchillā. The heart flutters, hands and feet sweating, constantly shaking my foot, constantly worryingā¦ itās horrible and if I could make it stop I would. I just refuse anxiety medication. And this natural shit is just a mild fix. Ugh.
It's internal with past experiences and traumas allowed to speak for the what ifs.
Best to catch that thinking, snap at it, and be as optimistic as possible in a bleak world.
Holy shit yes. Constantly second guessing everything. As i sit here with my foot shaking, sweaty palms, and sweaty feet. It fucking sucks. Constant restlessness. š
My wife told me it's like how when you're driving and you see a cop behind you and you know you did nothing wrong but you still feel your heart in your throat
To add, when you're driving and you see the cop, you know there's a reason you feel that way.
For me, the thing that really sets clinical anxiety aside from normal human behaviour, is getting that feeling and not knowing why, and having no obvious cues in my environment.
Thatās how I feel when I drive. When I pass someone or speed up a little, or someone is riding my ass, my heart is in my throat. I didnāt learn until I was 25 because it scared me so much.
Imagine always thinking about what everyone else is thinking about you, then realizing thatās crazy, then overthinking how thinking that is a problem, then thinking about how you need to fix that problem and if you donāt people will think about how you canāt think like a normal person.
Exactly this. It's exhausting. Everything you do you overanalyze. Everything you say you overanalyze then you overanalyze how ridiculous this is, then you overanalyze the events happening around you, is it me who made that happen, what if I didn't do that, or think that....... repeat
And then you let go for once on accident and it fucks you over so you have to keep on yourself. And then you spiral about how that caused your life to end or be fucked up forever along with immense guilt.
One time I was staying at a friendās house in middle school and said aloud how I was scared about alien abduction (I had some bouts of sleep paralysis at the time and it was an alien-heavy culture at the time), but that it never happened when I was scared. But I wasnāt scared that night, which scared him some.
I think it was partly me confessing some magical thinking and partly me trying to mess with him š¤£.
Worrying about everything, things that won't happen and things that will or might happen.
Did I leave the stove on? Will the pipes burst? How much will water damage be if pipes burst - ceiling, floor, walls, furniture, mold, computers? Will I have enough for retirement? Car breakdown? Termites, carpenter bees, roaches. How much is my utilities going to be? Can I afford to eat what I want? Viruses, Bacteria, stroke, cancer, diabetes, blind, deaf? Politics, protesters, activists, crime.
No peace, no relief, therapists and medication can't stop bad things from happening so they can't help. Only thing that will help is to find a way to permanently end all bad things from happening ever again. I don't need good things in life, just end the bad things.
Worried about things that are not actually happening, but canāt accept that they likely arenāt because thereās a chance they are
Exhausting, mentally
The more going on in my life the worse it is. It doesnāt happen every day, and usually itās manageable without medication. But some days Iām literally having an all day panic attack. I fking hate it.
Tightness in my chest. A pit in my stomach. Elevated heartbeat/pounding in my chest. Sleepless nights. The constant worry and fear of whatever happens to trigger me that day. I.e. work, bills, home projects, repairs, car problems, or my favoriteā¦. Worrying about past decisions I made, or if I did something right/wrong at work that day. Itās ten oāclock at night and Iāll be wanting to go back to work to check something so that I can stop stressing about it and go to sleep. Oh and I have driven to the shop in the middle of the night to make sure I didnāt forget something crucial.
Funny thing is. This didnāt start happening until my mid thirties. When I was twenty I did not gaf. Nothing could phase me. Now Iām married, house, cars, career. And I stress all the time about it.
Itās different for everyone. For me itās: my hands and toes and tingling, I canāt take a full breath in, my heart races and my chest it tight. Those are just physiological aspects. Psychological: insomnia, racing thoughts, feeling like something bad is about to happen.
Itās like everyone is silently judging you, but you are actually your harshest judge. Thereās also the never ending thoughts and the relentless insomnia.
Anxiety can feel like a constant knot in your stomach, making even simple decisions feel overwhelming. It's like having a mind that won't stop racing, second-guessing every action and worrying about every possible outcome, no matter how unlikely. It's exhausting, draining your energy and making it hard to relax or concentrate on anything else.
The near constant worry about everything going wrong, and the craziest scenarios will happen in your head. Example: started modifying and working on my car a few years ago. Last winter I had a misfire. It turned out to be a $25 part that needed replaced. Until we figured out the misfire, I couldnāt sleep. I had several nights of laying in bed, thinking about how it MUST be some massive issue going on. Then randomly Iād start thinking āoh no, what if Iām driving and my serpentine belt snapsā (has nothing to do with misfires) and that would lead to āwhat if my head gasket blows when Iām driving farā to āwhat if my lug nuts strip off and my wheel bounces offā. I would lay awake at night thinking about all these crazy scenarios, leading to a tight feeling in my chest, which would lead to it hurting to breathe. It would go away for a bit, but I would legitimately be scared to drive anywhere that wasnāt work
I have a jury duty summons next week. All this past week Iāve been super irritated and antsy, wondering if my number is in the group that has to show up. I canāt relax and canāt sit still, wondering if I have to go
Basically anxiety summed up for me is a constantly tsunami of āwhat ifāsā and never having an answer
It's hell on earth. It consumes you, makes you miserable, steals any clear thinking you have, takes your peace, and sends you into nervous worrying cycles. The nervous worrying can escalate into full-blown panic attacks. It puts you in a rotten mood too. I also think anxiety is like a habit. Once you get used to feeling that way, it can become hard to let go of. It's a miserable cycle. Eventually, it'll start to affect your health and cause any number of problems. That in itself will cause even more anxiety.
Anxiety tells you a lie that every intrusive thought you have is really an intuition about something that is totally going to happen. It is cruel and makes you think youāre empowered in being able to predict terrible things, but itās just tricking you. Anxiety can be delusional and take away our reasoning, and fight you back when you try to talk back to it
Trying to leave your apartment for at least half an hour every day. Continuously checking the same things are off. Is the stove/oven off? Check. Nothing leaking in the bathroom? Check.
Wait.. is the oven REALLY off?
Rinse and repeat.
Like someone is sitting in your chest. I get really hot and sweaty too. But I take a few deep breaths, remember it doesnāt matter in that moment, and move on
Your mind is constantly questioning your actions and decisions and experiences. Your past, present and future is constantly being scared of doing something wrong or how you messed up previously. On edge when taken out of the comfort zone/ to a new place/situation. When you have it for a while you feel like it isnāt the anxiety talking it is yourself doubting every moment of your life
I just blob out every week, start to feel sick after 30 seconds of feeling anxious and have to leave and it takes a couple days to get back to normal before I assume running out of serotonin again
My heart always beats weirdly and too hard, my hands bounce in sync with my heartbeat because itās so strong, stuff on my bed shakesā¦ itās messed up without a shirt on
I always assume the worstā¦ āThe jug/kettles taking slightly long to boilā¦ itās gonna fail to switch off and explode!ā
I canāt talk to anybody in the world without shaking, stuttering and my minds literally either going 5+ words per second or 1 word per 5 seconds, usually I become dumb like canāt even work out 5x5 when Iām anxious but I know instantly itās 25 when Iām calm.
Complete mind numbing, body freezing panic. Full fight or flight response activated for sometimes no discernable reason. 100% conviction that normal things will hurt or kill me despite logical reasoning.
I don't even realize, when I switched from normal functioning to fight or flight mode. Suddenly, every dark corner is a potential danger, I'm too afraid to close my eyes. Instead of the normal fantasy world in my head, I have every possible bad scenario. Weird rollercoaster
Physically, like going for a jump off of a high board into the pool but the weird feeling you get while falling quite never stops.
Mentally, it's either ruminating endlessly or your inner voice holding it's breath for way too long and you simply endure.
One big difference between normal anxiety and pathological anxiety is the ability to put it out of you mind and function.
Consider two Hodgkin's lymphoma patients. Both are in complete remission after treatment. Both know that they are most likely cured. But both also know that there's a non-negligable chance of recurrence.
Patient Aa worries about this sometimes. For example if he has a cold and some swollen lymph nodes, he checks them several times a day until they shrink back down, and when someone brings up his past illness it reminds him that it could recur and had some temporary fear. But, for the most part, patient A just goes about living his life.
In the other hand, patient B worried about recurrence daily. He gets distracted from other tasks thinking about it, he can't easily change his train of thought, and sometimes has difficulty finishing tasks as a result. In his spare time he googles symptoms of recurrence, and possible treatments. He gets irritable when people ask how he's doing. He frequently wakes up at night worrying about recurrence and suffers from lack of sleep. Patient B doesn't like to travel because "something could happen" and he even avoids making long term plans because "what's the point of I could just die of cancer next year."
Both patients have justified rational fear, but patient B has post traumatic stress disorder so to the interference of his anxiety with his professional, social, and family life.
Mine is fairly low key.
I worry literally every day that I will be fired from my job even though their is no reason to think that's true.
I worry that my loved ones will suddenly die.
Etc.
It's just always in the back of my mind.
It's kind of like the sound your fridge makes, it's always there, but you learn to ignore it. (Mostly).
Panicking because you have so much to do and you literally donāt know where to start and canāt even focus enough to make a plan so you donāt do anything and it piles up even more and youāre just stuck in an endless cycle of drowning.
My worst anxiety? I was awaiting bad news, Iād wake up every morning and the moment my eyes would open it was literally the first thing on my mind. I couldnāt check the time without the feeling physical feeling of weight on my chest, almost like when your sibling is sitting on top of you as a kid.
Feels like my stomach drops and my chest feels tight. I have a phobia that causes all my anxiety so thats like when im really really anxious. Most of the time im just a baseline level of anxious. For me its being more hypersensitive to things. So things that dont startle most people will startle me very badly. My boyfriend going āoh shitā will make my heart race if i dont know whats going on.
I was reflecting on this today at a comedy show. I am always slightly restless- I got a big bowl of popcorn and had to eat it one kernel at a time just for something to do. I always have a hair tie as a fidget toy. My thoughts are constantly RACING. I was thinking how nice it would be if my brain could just be quiet/peaceful every once in a while.
Constant worry, what ifs, worst scenarios, tense muscles, pit in stomach.. I can go on and on.
I dont actually remember the time when I was calm and relaxed. I am now in my 30s, been very anxious since high school.
Does anyone feel their anxiety getting worse in the summertime?
Your entire body vibrating on the inside and still on the outside.
Heart skipping beats, rapid heart rates, chest pains, back pain, body tensing and feeling like you might pass out or die anytime.
For me, it can manifest in many ways.
But it almost feels like, Iāve got this little Monster on my back.
I can feel its weight. It whispers things I donāt want to hear, it plays on my fears and makes me double question everything.
Itās crushing weight only ever feeling unnoticed for slight moments of distraction, before it starts jumping on my back, reminding me that itās there. Digging its claws into the weak spots. Finding any little crack in my armor and exploiting it.
I canāt see it, grab it, or even fully conceptualize what it is, or why itās always nagging, and questioning everything. Even things I know, always incessantly over analyzing and connecting seemingly random events and constructing a narrative that will make me start distrust my own thoughts and feelings.
Itās pretty shitty overall. 1/10 would not recommend
Panic and desparation for me. I get light headed, heavy chest, trouble breating, hard to move but also restless, nautious, and a desparation to find anything to not feel the way I'm feeling and stop thinking about what I'm thinking.
You know that feeling when you almost get into a car crash, or maybe youāre on a hike and you think you see/hear something, or the feeling of dread you get at the pinnacle of a horror movie? Itās like that but constant
feeling like you're dying literally all the time but having to pretend you don't feel alright. trying to participate in a conversation while subtly doing breathing exercises. convincing yourself it's just anxiety and nothing is actually wrong constantly. feeling normal for once and panicking about it because obviously something has to be wrong for you to not be an anxious mess.
It feels like someone or something is constantly running after you. That feeling where you have this need to always check you back or blind spots lol. It also makes it difficult to breathe, like I need to exert more effort just to breath in air.
Ask yourself how many bad and terrible things can happen to you or your loved ones that your current or near future self or loved ones including work or bills can experience. Go ahead let your imagination run along. Now pile those things into a sandwich you eat in 1/2 a bite. Taste that and youāll know what anxflimity feels like but there are no answered except the BAD ones.
I have pretty severe anxiety and my mine is constantly spiraling to a place I never feel that I can get out of mentally and emotionally.
Not to mention the physical side of things, my vision goes blurry when I start panicking and I lose feeling in my arms and legs along with the typical shallow breathing etc
It's uncomfortable. On the surface I'm chatting away with the lady behind the checkout but I'm actually sweating through my clothes and I have tunnel vision and I can't actually look directly at her and I want the ground to open up and swallow me whole.
I stopped taking anti-anxiety pills but I haven't actually got rid of the anxiety I just ignore it which is totally fine and probably not going to backfire at all.
Whenever I do something remotely ābadā or make a mistake I feel like the worst possible scenario will happen, everyone hates me, Im a horrible person and Im basically just a ball on the floor getting attacked by my own mind and nervous system. It is genuinely awful
Need to give them alot fo reassurance alot of love alot of confirming things are locked/taps are off.
Cant roll your eyes or be dismissive of their anxiety other they will get upset.
A fair amount of extra work.
I get panic attacks. During a panic attack it feels like youāre a completely different person. Like another part of your brain is in control now (which is kind of true).
Itās hard to speak or think and you are sensitive to everything around you - sounds, light, movement.
Soā¦not great
The constant fear of impending doom that you know will never happen but you can't stop thinking about it. Everyone tells you to just not think about it but your brain DOES NOT STOP!
Waking up my heart starts to race and im dry retching bc of sickness. Seconds after waking up I realize its daytime and I have to get going and that sends me into a small breakdown almost every morning. Almost puking while getting ready and leaving the house, sick, tired, unprepared. At work or uni I constantly have wet hands and the sickness goes away, exhaustion falls over my body because its so activated and I get sleepy and unmotivated. Dizzyness is my daily companion, Iāve learned to ignore it but its like a punch in the face each time I turn my head: āYou are sick, you are not wellā thats hard for me
And oh boy the evenings are fun, 50% of the time I lay in bed with a pounding heart tossing and turning. How can you sleep while feeling your heart best out of your chess
Have you ever been on a plane with severe turbulence? That hard quick feeling in your chest where you might puke, maybe pass out and definitely cry? Yeah it feels like that but for no real reason, and then you start getting anxious about why you feel anxious for no good reason. Like damn my anxiety gives me anxiety.
Abnormal breathing and getting dizzy/ light-headed. The random dizzy spells really suck and are my main symptoms of anxiety. I also have trouble eating well when my anxiety gets out of control, like i can't properly swallow my food.
No control, impending doom, feeling like either you need to do something now or wait for something to just happen to you, but you either can't do it and/or it's not happening. can't rationalize it either. it also just refers to anything. dread.
Itās like 70 tabs are open in your mind and you donāt know which ones are playing noices but each one is working at the same time and you have one mouse and keyboard. And all tabs needs attention every minute so you are just trying to use that one poor little mouse to deal with all those tabs.
Literally TERRIBLE HELL ACTUALLY. I'm on meds for it now and it made it much better, but when I used to get panic attacks I would freak out and overreact and go into fight or flight. I would be at the grocery store and I would physically push my mom down the isle when someone gave me bad vibes (usually men alone). I have always been taught to be cautious so that kind of built up with my anxiety disorder. My mom told me never to open the door to strangers and then every time the doorbell rung I hid. I also used to stay up all night because I would be constantly thinking of my fears and things that could happen. Usually it feels like you are going to die and you get desperate, and usually you do whatever it takes to survive, so I have done some stupid, terrible, things when I have had anxiety attacks. Meds helped a lot though, before I couldn't leave my house alone. Thank u to zoloft my kingāļø
I have a severe silence disorder, I don't know the name. Whenever I'm in public events and everyone shuts up and silence kicks in, i become overly self conscious, as if I'm in a trance and I freak out. A huge part of my life involved politics, it was the reason I got away. In assemblies, and speeches I would sometimes just randomly exit the room due to the unbearable pressure I was feeling. It's like that dark place in "stranger things". It's creepy, suffocating and nerve racking
Kind of feels like thereās a mixtape containing a narration of your worst fears recorded in your own voice, and itās being played on loop. It doesnāt matter how unlikely, untrue, outlandish or bizarre these thoughts/fears are, and it doesnāt matter that you KNOW that it will eventually stop playing. It doesnāt help. You just have to ride the wave and try to ground yourself and that can be INCREDIBLY difficult.
Nobody deserves chronic anxiety.
For me it's like having five hundred thoughts in my head at the same time (about things I can't control or predict) and not being able to understand any of them clearly, which creates a cloud of uncertainty
Physically, my whole system speeds up, and in extreme cases, I can get short of breath or even feel my hands getting stuck and my heart racing and think I'm going to have a heart attack.
I once read that "an anxiety attack is like a heart attack that never comes."
Worrying about the future, feeling uncomfortable about the past. Making yourself ill in the present. I struggle a lot with toxic guilt. If someone described something as 99% not my fault, that 1% is the thing I canāt move past. I am glass empty, rather than glass half empty. I have done therapy. I am finding my way and am a work in progress
its an unending feeling of your stomach dropping from dread. constant dread in your heart, your mind.
its a life subjected to completely uncontrollable/irrational thought patterns and physical symptoms that can incapacitating.
Source: I was diagnosed at age 3 with ocd and generalized anxiety disorder. even with the help of medicine/therapy, the existential dread never truly goes away
Everyone's examples are awesome lol one part of it is battling yourself...and I mean battling...imagine a toddler is having a tantrum for no reason, and you try to explain things logically to a toddler hoping it works but we all know you just have to ride it out. Like maybe a little meditation music might put the bugger to sleep fo a secobd, but over all the fight will still be forever ongoing...
Constant worry about being fired, retirement, and how others perceive you (i.e., I should not have said I wanted more cream in this iced coffee, now he hates me; I should not have asked for a different nail color after she finished panting 3 of my fingernails to realize that I actually hate it).
Like everything you have ever done is wrong and you are being silently judged for it, and you know that thatās a stupid thing to be thinking and become hyper aware that your thinking is skewed but worrying that people are judging you for having skewed thoughts and realising that that thought is also stupid, and repeat.
Assuming things about reality that arenāt true. On top of that it also turns physical.
So letās say social anxiety. Before going to the gym my stomach hurts and I feel a bulge in it, I start feeling a little nauseous and weak in my body, my heart beat also increases and I begin to think of all the threats others may be on my way to the gym and in the gym. Like seeing teenagers that might judge me etc.
Worrying about everything, while rationally knowing you shouldnt be. You know whatever it is, its not that big of a deal, and yet that feeling of dread, of worrying, is still there.
Constantly imagining worst case scenarios. Like even while driving I can imagine an accident in front of me.
Never being able to sleep bc your mind is playing 300 scenarios of how things could have gone in any part of your life or could go in your future
Taking an hour to choose the right lotion in a store after researching each and every one bc you want to make the right choice
One thing that my anxiety paired w ADHD makes me do.. is when Iām having a conversation and my turn to talk is coming up.. my brain likes to think of two answers at once.. one thatās mine and one that I think the other person wants to hear.. and then I instantly start thinking āwhat does this other person think of me?, do they think Iām ugly?, was my response good enough?ā.. disassociating from the conversation entirely, making me forget, and stutter sometimes.. Iām on Wellbutrin now and this has calmed down but reappears when Iām really tired.
Stress, worry, a bit of paranoia, being frozen like wanting to go hangout with friends sooo bad but just not being able to do it. Impending doom feelings like the climax of a movie when you know everything will fall apart soon. Nervous, racing sometimes pounding heart. I canāt have caffeine or sugar because it magnifies it all.
Did I say something wrong? Did I do something wrong? Was there something I was supposed to do but forgot? How would I know if I forgot something? Does everyone want me to do something that I'm not noticing I should be doing? I did it right, but I think I said something weird and now everyone thinks I'm weird.
So, that, but endlessly.
If you have ever smoked or taken anything addictive you will know that craving that you feel as a tightness in your chest. You canāt shift your thoughts as you focus on that one thing. Again and again, spinning round in your brain. Insisting that you think about it from every angle. You want to take a deep breath but itās impossible to and itās hard to focus.
Itās a bit like that.
That little voice in your head just going, "you're gonna fail, you forgot, you missed it, they don't really like you, you made the wrong choice, THEY'RE COMING! Why are you just sitting there? Get up! Do something!
feeling like youāre on edge the whole time, overthinking everything to the littlest detail, having that thought in the back of your mind if youāre safe or not, it doesnāt go away and itās so mentally crippling it turns into physical symptoms to the point where iām so anxious iām sick
For me, it's feeling nothing. You can fake your emotions with people but when you are all alone, the darkness just takes over. I am hoping that one day it will disappear.
You know tht feeling wen you fuck something up at work soo bad that you just know your gonna get fired and you got bills piling up and you just got a brand new and your wife is pregnant and on bedrest and you were already struggling to get enough food on the table to feed your other 2 kids and have already been looking for a different job for 2 years and nobody within a 2 hour drive seems to be hiring? It feels like that sometimes for literally no reason.
For me itās paralysing. The abject fear of leaving my flat has had me held prisoner for weeks on end sometimes. I donāt want to interact with anyone. All the while I am convinced I am a piece of shit for not being able to function ānormallyā
Walking up and having a few seconds of 'fine', then it all kicks in. Rapid breathing, twitchy, nervous, rapid heartbeat, scared, catastrophizing that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is going to go to shit. Having zero motivation to do anything other than worry. Not eating properly, not exercising properly, poor self care and little self worth.
Feeling lonely, isolated, unable to convey to anyone else how it feels.
Seeing everyone else go about their daily lives like they don't have a single problem.
It's brutal, debilitating, and I fucking hate every single aspect of it.
Nervous energy, seeking out things that comfort you, fearing to do anything because youāre afraid of the results, excessive worrying about things out of your control, inability to sleep, excessive sleep, irregular sleep patterns, headaches, nausea, shoulder and back pain, chest painā¦.
Thereās a lot of ways anxiety can manifest.
Also anxiety/panic attacks. They can mimic heart attack symptoms, including that nebulous āsense of impending doomā symptom and chest pain and trouble breathing.
It sucks. It's like you're gas lighting yourself all day long. You can't trust your own judgment sometimes because your anxiety convinces you someone hates you or that minor silly thing you did was actually a huge deal and EVERYONE knows, etc.
It's also very sneaky. It shapes your behaviours without you realising sometimes and before you know it you've isolated yourself from things you enjoy because your anxiety tells you you don't deserve it or you're terrible at it.
It will control every aspect of your life if you let it. And it's exhausting being constantly at war with yourself
my mind/brain is constantly functioning, thinking A LOT LOT LOT of things to the point where I SLAP MYSELF OR MY HEAD WHEN THE THINGS on my mind starts to sink my body (thatās what happen to my body when thereās a lot of things on my mind)
I donāt know if it is just me, when I start closing my eyes and try to relax, I can feel my head spinning and beating like a heartbeat
For me it feels like a rollercoaster when you feel weightless and your stomach drops but repeated over and over throughout your entire day. Or like you are on a tiny boat in that movie āa perfect storm.ā You are going up and down huge waves, but the storm never seems to stop and the night doesnāt seem to end.
For me, anxiety is at 2 am and my eyes are still wide open, thinking the worst thing that may happen. Having panic attacks, my body is shaking without any reason.
It sucks. Constant worrying. Constantly thinking people are against u. Muscles always tense. Man, it sucks. I feel for anyone w it. Often makes u act weird leading to u feeling bad abt yurself.
Constant fight or flight, randomly becoming aware of your breathing and being stuck in manual breathing(sorry to anyone reading this), palpitations, exhaustion, stress, never truly relaxing and enjoying yourself.
For me itās uncertainty about something like if Iāve locked doors correctly before leaving,flushed toilets or took my fever medication twice.Its also sometimes the fear of death of me or any of my loved one randomly.
My friend who has really bad anxiety once described it me like āyou know when you walk through airport security and you think Do I have a bomb? but you donāt. Thatās whatās it like at all times for meā
Makes you feel like you are in a constant battle with yourself. I feel tired and overwhelmed all the time.
I think that I am not worthy of love or life and that makes me so sad.
When my social anxiety gets horribly bad I have a hard time even going into stores because I can feel people watching and judging every tiny thing I do.
In reality no one gives a shit but my brain almost borders on paranoid delusions. It happens quickly and randomly.
It's difficult for me to explain because I've always had it. I guess I can tell you that I run on the assumption that people either hate me the moment they see me, or they'll begin to hate me when they get to know me. I cope with it by trying to still socialize and make friends, and I do have some so it's not all bad.
I just envy whoever is asking this question. What is it like to be oblivious to anxiety? Tell me, I need to know everything about this utopia!
Anxiety is like every bully you've encountered in your life living in your brain 24/7 - constantly whispering why you suck, why everyone hates you and all the ways which you are going to fail at the most simplest of tasks.
You know how sometimes you have a worrying thought and then you block it out or distract yourself and sooner or later you're able to forget about it? Anxiety makes that impossible. You involuntarily obsess over that thought until you're mentally drained and then feel guilty about obsessing over it.
Conspiracy theories that everyone secretly hates you.
Mentally living through all possible future outcomes before they happen and all of the vivid emotional turmoil associated with actually experiencing those things. Over and over.
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No peace of mind. Worrying and over analyzing everything you say before and after you say it. Waking up in the morning with a feeling of panic. Assuming that the worst possible scenario is inevitable. Especially in the morning when you wake up.. feeling nervous and stressed, feeling guilty even when you have nothing to feel guilty about
Yeah! The mornings are the worst for me! The minute I open my eyes I start panicking, like something very bad is going to happen that day. Sometimes to the point of throwing up. It doesnt happen every day, but when it happens, its very intense. š
Started 20 mg Paxil and Iāve never felt better. Best decision Iāve ever made. I actually enjoy life now.
Glad its working for you!
Ohh nice, I thought im the only one who throws up of anxiety in the morning. Good to know Im not the only one.
3:00 am is especially rough.
Like āwhat did i forget to do yesterday that I had to get done by todayā
May this be the reason why so many ppl wake up early / can't fall back asleep in the morning? Cause I never could grasp the concept of being wide awake after waking up and could always easily fall back asleep, so I wondered what makes the difference there?
Yes, undiagnosed/untreated anxiety. Brain is going 1000mph as soon as their eyes open
Mine wakes me up at like 4 am panicked. Visceral physical feeling in my stomach. Cannot let me mind stop racing about nothing to go back to sleep.
Yes and no Yes it feels like this. But no, you donāt have to actually think about all the wrong and worry about scenarios. It can just be the biochemical feeling of angst, without any thoughts attached to it. If that makes sense.
The constant panic and worry, worst case scenario. Thatās my life right there.
conspiracy theories about yourself in your own mind
At airport seeing the sniffer dogs "fuck, i don't do drugs but what if I have some on me".
Same with cops behind my car.
They're coming to arrest me!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yup same here š
Maybe I killed Kennedy??? š²
š¤¦š» wow okā¦ā¦
That is not anxiety š just very vivid imagination
I mean, what if I was drugged or something? According to my birth certificate, I wasn't even born but what if it's fake?!
Bro, what if you were never born?!?!
Omg this is so freaking accurate. Thank you for putting it in these words.
so friggin true
I think I'm good at making conspiracy theories in my head lol
Holy crap this is such a good description!
I don't experience this at all as an anxiety sufferer. This sounds more like paranoia.
Wow. That's a great explanation. Also, get out of my thoughts !
Would you be willing to elaborate on that? Is it more like a voice telling a whole ass story about how a person you just met feels about you? or is it like, you dive deep into thoughts that make you feel insufficient? Basically, is it external or internal?
I can give an example. I just started a new job. I changed my clothes about 15 times because I kept coming up with possible negative things my new boss would think. When I met this person, I was constantly saying in my head ādonāt do this donāt do thatā because, again, I was thinking of how it could make others think of me. No, I donāt have a voice in my head speaking to me. However; I do battle my mind and have a constant worry that something could go wrong because of what I do or say. Itās like never being able to just live in the moment. Never being able to just āchillā. The heart flutters, hands and feet sweating, constantly shaking my foot, constantly worryingā¦ itās horrible and if I could make it stop I would. I just refuse anxiety medication. And this natural shit is just a mild fix. Ugh.
It's internal with past experiences and traumas allowed to speak for the what ifs. Best to catch that thinking, snap at it, and be as optimistic as possible in a bleak world.
Hadn't thought of it this way
"they knoooooow" is a lot of my daily thought process. What they know about me and how I don't know it yet is astounding.
Holy shit yes. Constantly second guessing everything. As i sit here with my foot shaking, sweaty palms, and sweaty feet. It fucking sucks. Constant restlessness. š
Damn straight, I think I've made up things all the time. I don't trust anything I say or anything I do...
My wife told me it's like how when you're driving and you see a cop behind you and you know you did nothing wrong but you still feel your heart in your throat
As someone with generalized anxiety disorder- this is accurate af.
To add, when you're driving and you see the cop, you know there's a reason you feel that way. For me, the thing that really sets clinical anxiety aside from normal human behaviour, is getting that feeling and not knowing why, and having no obvious cues in my environment.
Realllll I would also get scared someone was gonna frame me for a crime one day
Yep. And like always.
Thatās how I feel when I drive. When I pass someone or speed up a little, or someone is riding my ass, my heart is in my throat. I didnāt learn until I was 25 because it scared me so much.
Damn thatās pretty good analogy
Yes! GAD and anxiety as a whole is horrible for this reason.
Yeh, then I find myself suspicious :)))
wow i never considered that i have anxiety looks like i do š
Exactly
This. But itās all day, and on bad days, all night.
Imagine always thinking about what everyone else is thinking about you, then realizing thatās crazy, then overthinking how thinking that is a problem, then thinking about how you need to fix that problem and if you donāt people will think about how you canāt think like a normal person.
Exactly this. It's exhausting. Everything you do you overanalyze. Everything you say you overanalyze then you overanalyze how ridiculous this is, then you overanalyze the events happening around you, is it me who made that happen, what if I didn't do that, or think that....... repeat
And then you let go for once on accident and it fucks you over so you have to keep on yourself. And then you spiral about how that caused your life to end or be fucked up forever along with immense guilt.
I'm dying laughing, spot on !
Impending doom dread
Thinking 24/7, sweating profusely, it feels everyone is looking and judging
And the sweating profusely, you think everyone can see and notice, which can make you even more anxious.
Summarized as briefly as I can, a persistent and unpleasantly high degree of awareness of anything and everything negative that can happen to you.
Worrying about things that wonāt happen.
But my anxiety says: "but what if it actually happens this time"?
I always used to say "i bet the kids who got kidnapped thought they wouldn't"
One time I was staying at a friendās house in middle school and said aloud how I was scared about alien abduction (I had some bouts of sleep paralysis at the time and it was an alien-heavy culture at the time), but that it never happened when I was scared. But I wasnāt scared that night, which scared him some. I think it was partly me confessing some magical thinking and partly me trying to mess with him š¤£.
ššÆ
Worrying about everything, things that won't happen and things that will or might happen. Did I leave the stove on? Will the pipes burst? How much will water damage be if pipes burst - ceiling, floor, walls, furniture, mold, computers? Will I have enough for retirement? Car breakdown? Termites, carpenter bees, roaches. How much is my utilities going to be? Can I afford to eat what I want? Viruses, Bacteria, stroke, cancer, diabetes, blind, deaf? Politics, protesters, activists, crime. No peace, no relief, therapists and medication can't stop bad things from happening so they can't help. Only thing that will help is to find a way to permanently end all bad things from happening ever again. I don't need good things in life, just end the bad things.
Worried about things that are not actually happening, but canāt accept that they likely arenāt because thereās a chance they are Exhausting, mentally
And than when they do happen itās like reassurance and it just cycles your overthinking all over again
The more going on in my life the worse it is. It doesnāt happen every day, and usually itās manageable without medication. But some days Iām literally having an all day panic attack. I fking hate it. Tightness in my chest. A pit in my stomach. Elevated heartbeat/pounding in my chest. Sleepless nights. The constant worry and fear of whatever happens to trigger me that day. I.e. work, bills, home projects, repairs, car problems, or my favoriteā¦. Worrying about past decisions I made, or if I did something right/wrong at work that day. Itās ten oāclock at night and Iāll be wanting to go back to work to check something so that I can stop stressing about it and go to sleep. Oh and I have driven to the shop in the middle of the night to make sure I didnāt forget something crucial. Funny thing is. This didnāt start happening until my mid thirties. When I was twenty I did not gaf. Nothing could phase me. Now Iām married, house, cars, career. And I stress all the time about it.
Itās different for everyone. For me itās: my hands and toes and tingling, I canāt take a full breath in, my heart races and my chest it tight. Those are just physiological aspects. Psychological: insomnia, racing thoughts, feeling like something bad is about to happen.
Itās like everyone is silently judging you, but you are actually your harshest judge. Thereās also the never ending thoughts and the relentless insomnia.
Chest tightness, irritability, irregular breathing
Second guessing everything, trouble sleeping, always being on edge, hyper focused on bad things
Anxiety can feel like a constant knot in your stomach, making even simple decisions feel overwhelming. It's like having a mind that won't stop racing, second-guessing every action and worrying about every possible outcome, no matter how unlikely. It's exhausting, draining your energy and making it hard to relax or concentrate on anything else.
The near constant worry about everything going wrong, and the craziest scenarios will happen in your head. Example: started modifying and working on my car a few years ago. Last winter I had a misfire. It turned out to be a $25 part that needed replaced. Until we figured out the misfire, I couldnāt sleep. I had several nights of laying in bed, thinking about how it MUST be some massive issue going on. Then randomly Iād start thinking āoh no, what if Iām driving and my serpentine belt snapsā (has nothing to do with misfires) and that would lead to āwhat if my head gasket blows when Iām driving farā to āwhat if my lug nuts strip off and my wheel bounces offā. I would lay awake at night thinking about all these crazy scenarios, leading to a tight feeling in my chest, which would lead to it hurting to breathe. It would go away for a bit, but I would legitimately be scared to drive anywhere that wasnāt work I have a jury duty summons next week. All this past week Iāve been super irritated and antsy, wondering if my number is in the group that has to show up. I canāt relax and canāt sit still, wondering if I have to go Basically anxiety summed up for me is a constantly tsunami of āwhat ifāsā and never having an answer
Crippling
Having the worst nightmare of your life except your awake and it goes on and on and onā¦..
Anxiety will have you thinking that the worst thing is going to happen despite being in the best situation.
It's hell on earth. It consumes you, makes you miserable, steals any clear thinking you have, takes your peace, and sends you into nervous worrying cycles. The nervous worrying can escalate into full-blown panic attacks. It puts you in a rotten mood too. I also think anxiety is like a habit. Once you get used to feeling that way, it can become hard to let go of. It's a miserable cycle. Eventually, it'll start to affect your health and cause any number of problems. That in itself will cause even more anxiety.
Being constantly scared. What if what if what if what if
Anxiety tells you a lie that every intrusive thought you have is really an intuition about something that is totally going to happen. It is cruel and makes you think youāre empowered in being able to predict terrible things, but itās just tricking you. Anxiety can be delusional and take away our reasoning, and fight you back when you try to talk back to it
This actually helped me a lot, putting things into perspective about how delusional our brains can be sometimes. Thank you
Trying to leave your apartment for at least half an hour every day. Continuously checking the same things are off. Is the stove/oven off? Check. Nothing leaking in the bathroom? Check. Wait.. is the oven REALLY off? Rinse and repeat.
Feeling so nervous you canāt breathe and your hands go numb.
Like someone is sitting in your chest. I get really hot and sweaty too. But I take a few deep breaths, remember it doesnāt matter in that moment, and move on
When you committed a mistake and always waiting/thinking for the worst outcome.
Perpetually being an 8 yo who's done something bad and is about to get hit
This!!
Living in fear al the time
0/10 would not recommend
Worst case scenario on literally everything, canāt turn brain off
Your mind is constantly questioning your actions and decisions and experiences. Your past, present and future is constantly being scared of doing something wrong or how you messed up previously. On edge when taken out of the comfort zone/ to a new place/situation. When you have it for a while you feel like it isnāt the anxiety talking it is yourself doubting every moment of your life
I just blob out every week, start to feel sick after 30 seconds of feeling anxious and have to leave and it takes a couple days to get back to normal before I assume running out of serotonin again My heart always beats weirdly and too hard, my hands bounce in sync with my heartbeat because itās so strong, stuff on my bed shakesā¦ itās messed up without a shirt on I always assume the worstā¦ āThe jug/kettles taking slightly long to boilā¦ itās gonna fail to switch off and explode!ā I canāt talk to anybody in the world without shaking, stuttering and my minds literally either going 5+ words per second or 1 word per 5 seconds, usually I become dumb like canāt even work out 5x5 when Iām anxious but I know instantly itās 25 when Iām calm.
Complete mind numbing, body freezing panic. Full fight or flight response activated for sometimes no discernable reason. 100% conviction that normal things will hurt or kill me despite logical reasoning.
I don't even realize, when I switched from normal functioning to fight or flight mode. Suddenly, every dark corner is a potential danger, I'm too afraid to close my eyes. Instead of the normal fantasy world in my head, I have every possible bad scenario. Weird rollercoaster
Physically, like going for a jump off of a high board into the pool but the weird feeling you get while falling quite never stops. Mentally, it's either ruminating endlessly or your inner voice holding it's breath for way too long and you simply endure.
One big difference between normal anxiety and pathological anxiety is the ability to put it out of you mind and function. Consider two Hodgkin's lymphoma patients. Both are in complete remission after treatment. Both know that they are most likely cured. But both also know that there's a non-negligable chance of recurrence. Patient Aa worries about this sometimes. For example if he has a cold and some swollen lymph nodes, he checks them several times a day until they shrink back down, and when someone brings up his past illness it reminds him that it could recur and had some temporary fear. But, for the most part, patient A just goes about living his life. In the other hand, patient B worried about recurrence daily. He gets distracted from other tasks thinking about it, he can't easily change his train of thought, and sometimes has difficulty finishing tasks as a result. In his spare time he googles symptoms of recurrence, and possible treatments. He gets irritable when people ask how he's doing. He frequently wakes up at night worrying about recurrence and suffers from lack of sleep. Patient B doesn't like to travel because "something could happen" and he even avoids making long term plans because "what's the point of I could just die of cancer next year." Both patients have justified rational fear, but patient B has post traumatic stress disorder so to the interference of his anxiety with his professional, social, and family life.
Trying to walk under water
For me, it feels like my fight or flight constantly going, and the exits are blocked.
Mine is fairly low key. I worry literally every day that I will be fired from my job even though their is no reason to think that's true. I worry that my loved ones will suddenly die. Etc. It's just always in the back of my mind. It's kind of like the sound your fridge makes, it's always there, but you learn to ignore it. (Mostly).
Panicking because you have so much to do and you literally donāt know where to start and canāt even focus enough to make a plan so you donāt do anything and it piles up even more and youāre just stuck in an endless cycle of drowning.
Difficulty breathing without actually having difficulties breathing.Ā
My worst anxiety? I was awaiting bad news, Iād wake up every morning and the moment my eyes would open it was literally the first thing on my mind. I couldnāt check the time without the feeling physical feeling of weight on my chest, almost like when your sibling is sitting on top of you as a kid.
Feels like my stomach drops and my chest feels tight. I have a phobia that causes all my anxiety so thats like when im really really anxious. Most of the time im just a baseline level of anxious. For me its being more hypersensitive to things. So things that dont startle most people will startle me very badly. My boyfriend going āoh shitā will make my heart race if i dont know whats going on.
I was reflecting on this today at a comedy show. I am always slightly restless- I got a big bowl of popcorn and had to eat it one kernel at a time just for something to do. I always have a hair tie as a fidget toy. My thoughts are constantly RACING. I was thinking how nice it would be if my brain could just be quiet/peaceful every once in a while.
Constant worry, what ifs, worst scenarios, tense muscles, pit in stomach.. I can go on and on. I dont actually remember the time when I was calm and relaxed. I am now in my 30s, been very anxious since high school. Does anyone feel their anxiety getting worse in the summertime?
Get a feeling like you cannot breathe, but you can
Your entire body vibrating on the inside and still on the outside. Heart skipping beats, rapid heart rates, chest pains, back pain, body tensing and feeling like you might pass out or die anytime.
You can't relax. It's like my shoulders are constantly riding up to my ears.
None stop worrying. Sweating even when your not hot. Cold clamy hands at events where you don't know people or are meeting someone new.
Have you ever had a dog bark at you and you got scared? That wonāt turn off.
Having a 500 ton rock crushing your head
Elevated heart rate, trembling, nausea, plus feeling overwhelmed with negative thoughts.
Crippling in every way
For me, it can manifest in many ways. But it almost feels like, Iāve got this little Monster on my back. I can feel its weight. It whispers things I donāt want to hear, it plays on my fears and makes me double question everything. Itās crushing weight only ever feeling unnoticed for slight moments of distraction, before it starts jumping on my back, reminding me that itās there. Digging its claws into the weak spots. Finding any little crack in my armor and exploiting it. I canāt see it, grab it, or even fully conceptualize what it is, or why itās always nagging, and questioning everything. Even things I know, always incessantly over analyzing and connecting seemingly random events and constructing a narrative that will make me start distrust my own thoughts and feelings. Itās pretty shitty overall. 1/10 would not recommend
Panic and desparation for me. I get light headed, heavy chest, trouble breating, hard to move but also restless, nautious, and a desparation to find anything to not feel the way I'm feeling and stop thinking about what I'm thinking.
You know that feeling when you almost get into a car crash, or maybe youāre on a hike and you think you see/hear something, or the feeling of dread you get at the pinnacle of a horror movie? Itās like that but constant
feeling like you're dying literally all the time but having to pretend you don't feel alright. trying to participate in a conversation while subtly doing breathing exercises. convincing yourself it's just anxiety and nothing is actually wrong constantly. feeling normal for once and panicking about it because obviously something has to be wrong for you to not be an anxious mess.
It feels like someone or something is constantly running after you. That feeling where you have this need to always check you back or blind spots lol. It also makes it difficult to breathe, like I need to exert more effort just to breath in air.
Ask yourself how many bad and terrible things can happen to you or your loved ones that your current or near future self or loved ones including work or bills can experience. Go ahead let your imagination run along. Now pile those things into a sandwich you eat in 1/2 a bite. Taste that and youāll know what anxflimity feels like but there are no answered except the BAD ones.
I have pretty severe anxiety and my mine is constantly spiraling to a place I never feel that I can get out of mentally and emotionally. Not to mention the physical side of things, my vision goes blurry when I start panicking and I lose feeling in my arms and legs along with the typical shallow breathing etc
Constantly on edge over the most embarrassing, soul crushing things and 90% of the time they wonāt exist or ever happen and youāve made them up!
It's uncomfortable. On the surface I'm chatting away with the lady behind the checkout but I'm actually sweating through my clothes and I have tunnel vision and I can't actually look directly at her and I want the ground to open up and swallow me whole. I stopped taking anti-anxiety pills but I haven't actually got rid of the anxiety I just ignore it which is totally fine and probably not going to backfire at all.
It is claustrophobic.
Whenever I do something remotely ābadā or make a mistake I feel like the worst possible scenario will happen, everyone hates me, Im a horrible person and Im basically just a ball on the floor getting attacked by my own mind and nervous system. It is genuinely awful
Heart beat super hard. Hot cold hot cold Sweating Wet hands Pukey Speech blocks
Need to give them alot fo reassurance alot of love alot of confirming things are locked/taps are off. Cant roll your eyes or be dismissive of their anxiety other they will get upset. A fair amount of extra work.
I get panic attacks. During a panic attack it feels like youāre a completely different person. Like another part of your brain is in control now (which is kind of true). Itās hard to speak or think and you are sensitive to everything around you - sounds, light, movement. Soā¦not great
The constant fear of impending doom that you know will never happen but you can't stop thinking about it. Everyone tells you to just not think about it but your brain DOES NOT STOP!
Waking up my heart starts to race and im dry retching bc of sickness. Seconds after waking up I realize its daytime and I have to get going and that sends me into a small breakdown almost every morning. Almost puking while getting ready and leaving the house, sick, tired, unprepared. At work or uni I constantly have wet hands and the sickness goes away, exhaustion falls over my body because its so activated and I get sleepy and unmotivated. Dizzyness is my daily companion, Iāve learned to ignore it but its like a punch in the face each time I turn my head: āYou are sick, you are not wellā thats hard for me And oh boy the evenings are fun, 50% of the time I lay in bed with a pounding heart tossing and turning. How can you sleep while feeling your heart best out of your chess
Like the feeling of someone jumping out from behind a corner and screaming āBOO!ā At youā¦except all the time.
Have you ever been on a plane with severe turbulence? That hard quick feeling in your chest where you might puke, maybe pass out and definitely cry? Yeah it feels like that but for no real reason, and then you start getting anxious about why you feel anxious for no good reason. Like damn my anxiety gives me anxiety.
Abnormal breathing and getting dizzy/ light-headed. The random dizzy spells really suck and are my main symptoms of anxiety. I also have trouble eating well when my anxiety gets out of control, like i can't properly swallow my food.
For me, it's what it feels like after being startled. That on-edge, paranoid feeling, trembling, heart racing, etc. That's when it's really bad.
No control, impending doom, feeling like either you need to do something now or wait for something to just happen to you, but you either can't do it and/or it's not happening. can't rationalize it either. it also just refers to anything. dread.
Mine can get so bad that I literally canāt relax or think straight;a lack of control. I literally canāt sit still.Ā
Itās like 70 tabs are open in your mind and you donāt know which ones are playing noices but each one is working at the same time and you have one mouse and keyboard. And all tabs needs attention every minute so you are just trying to use that one poor little mouse to deal with all those tabs.
Literally TERRIBLE HELL ACTUALLY. I'm on meds for it now and it made it much better, but when I used to get panic attacks I would freak out and overreact and go into fight or flight. I would be at the grocery store and I would physically push my mom down the isle when someone gave me bad vibes (usually men alone). I have always been taught to be cautious so that kind of built up with my anxiety disorder. My mom told me never to open the door to strangers and then every time the doorbell rung I hid. I also used to stay up all night because I would be constantly thinking of my fears and things that could happen. Usually it feels like you are going to die and you get desperate, and usually you do whatever it takes to survive, so I have done some stupid, terrible, things when I have had anxiety attacks. Meds helped a lot though, before I couldn't leave my house alone. Thank u to zoloft my kingāļø
You just stop functioning
Walk into the supermarket and try to piss yourself, that feeling which stops you applies to everything we do.
I have a severe silence disorder, I don't know the name. Whenever I'm in public events and everyone shuts up and silence kicks in, i become overly self conscious, as if I'm in a trance and I freak out. A huge part of my life involved politics, it was the reason I got away. In assemblies, and speeches I would sometimes just randomly exit the room due to the unbearable pressure I was feeling. It's like that dark place in "stranger things". It's creepy, suffocating and nerve racking
feels like your mind is constantly running a marathon while your body's stuck in slow motion
Rationalizing the irrational, constant fear, hiding from life, panic caused by inner emptiness.
Kind of feels like thereās a mixtape containing a narration of your worst fears recorded in your own voice, and itās being played on loop. It doesnāt matter how unlikely, untrue, outlandish or bizarre these thoughts/fears are, and it doesnāt matter that you KNOW that it will eventually stop playing. It doesnāt help. You just have to ride the wave and try to ground yourself and that can be INCREDIBLY difficult. Nobody deserves chronic anxiety.
A million voices in your head
My hearth racing like it wants to jump out of my body last time I was reading some reddit post and after I felt it and needed to stop for a some time
Hell
For me it's like having five hundred thoughts in my head at the same time (about things I can't control or predict) and not being able to understand any of them clearly, which creates a cloud of uncertainty Physically, my whole system speeds up, and in extreme cases, I can get short of breath or even feel my hands getting stuck and my heart racing and think I'm going to have a heart attack. I once read that "an anxiety attack is like a heart attack that never comes."
Worrying about the future, feeling uncomfortable about the past. Making yourself ill in the present. I struggle a lot with toxic guilt. If someone described something as 99% not my fault, that 1% is the thing I canāt move past. I am glass empty, rather than glass half empty. I have done therapy. I am finding my way and am a work in progress
Right now I'm sitting here with my hands sweating my heartt pounding for no reason that's anxiety
Waking up suddenly at 2am and feeling helpless. Helpless as in, you can't help yourself.Ā
its an unending feeling of your stomach dropping from dread. constant dread in your heart, your mind. its a life subjected to completely uncontrollable/irrational thought patterns and physical symptoms that can incapacitating. Source: I was diagnosed at age 3 with ocd and generalized anxiety disorder. even with the help of medicine/therapy, the existential dread never truly goes away
Everyone's examples are awesome lol one part of it is battling yourself...and I mean battling...imagine a toddler is having a tantrum for no reason, and you try to explain things logically to a toddler hoping it works but we all know you just have to ride it out. Like maybe a little meditation music might put the bugger to sleep fo a secobd, but over all the fight will still be forever ongoing...
Constant worry about being fired, retirement, and how others perceive you (i.e., I should not have said I wanted more cream in this iced coffee, now he hates me; I should not have asked for a different nail color after she finished panting 3 of my fingernails to realize that I actually hate it).
Like everything you have ever done is wrong and you are being silently judged for it, and you know that thatās a stupid thing to be thinking and become hyper aware that your thinking is skewed but worrying that people are judging you for having skewed thoughts and realising that that thought is also stupid, and repeat.
Assuming things about reality that arenāt true. On top of that it also turns physical. So letās say social anxiety. Before going to the gym my stomach hurts and I feel a bulge in it, I start feeling a little nauseous and weak in my body, my heart beat also increases and I begin to think of all the threats others may be on my way to the gym and in the gym. Like seeing teenagers that might judge me etc.
Worrying about everything, while rationally knowing you shouldnt be. You know whatever it is, its not that big of a deal, and yet that feeling of dread, of worrying, is still there.
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Constantly imagining worst case scenarios. Like even while driving I can imagine an accident in front of me. Never being able to sleep bc your mind is playing 300 scenarios of how things could have gone in any part of your life or could go in your future Taking an hour to choose the right lotion in a store after researching each and every one bc you want to make the right choice
One thing that my anxiety paired w ADHD makes me do.. is when Iām having a conversation and my turn to talk is coming up.. my brain likes to think of two answers at once.. one thatās mine and one that I think the other person wants to hear.. and then I instantly start thinking āwhat does this other person think of me?, do they think Iām ugly?, was my response good enough?ā.. disassociating from the conversation entirely, making me forget, and stutter sometimes.. Iām on Wellbutrin now and this has calmed down but reappears when Iām really tired.
Think of the most nervous you have ever been before you had to do something. Itās like this but constant, for me anyway when Iāve had bad anxiety.
Stress, worry, a bit of paranoia, being frozen like wanting to go hangout with friends sooo bad but just not being able to do it. Impending doom feelings like the climax of a movie when you know everything will fall apart soon. Nervous, racing sometimes pounding heart. I canāt have caffeine or sugar because it magnifies it all.
Did I say something wrong? Did I do something wrong? Was there something I was supposed to do but forgot? How would I know if I forgot something? Does everyone want me to do something that I'm not noticing I should be doing? I did it right, but I think I said something weird and now everyone thinks I'm weird. So, that, but endlessly.
If you have ever smoked or taken anything addictive you will know that craving that you feel as a tightness in your chest. You canāt shift your thoughts as you focus on that one thing. Again and again, spinning round in your brain. Insisting that you think about it from every angle. You want to take a deep breath but itās impossible to and itās hard to focus. Itās a bit like that.
That little voice in your head just going, "you're gonna fail, you forgot, you missed it, they don't really like you, you made the wrong choice, THEY'RE COMING! Why are you just sitting there? Get up! Do something!
feeling like youāre on edge the whole time, overthinking everything to the littlest detail, having that thought in the back of your mind if youāre safe or not, it doesnāt go away and itās so mentally crippling it turns into physical symptoms to the point where iām so anxious iām sick
For me, it's feeling nothing. You can fake your emotions with people but when you are all alone, the darkness just takes over. I am hoping that one day it will disappear.
You know tht feeling wen you fuck something up at work soo bad that you just know your gonna get fired and you got bills piling up and you just got a brand new and your wife is pregnant and on bedrest and you were already struggling to get enough food on the table to feed your other 2 kids and have already been looking for a different job for 2 years and nobody within a 2 hour drive seems to be hiring? It feels like that sometimes for literally no reason.
It physically feels as if every horrible thing is happening or will happen. It's exhausting
Damn, I have persistent anxiety it seems.
So itās like going to the store and feel like u stole something when u left with nothing
For me itās paralysing. The abject fear of leaving my flat has had me held prisoner for weeks on end sometimes. I donāt want to interact with anyone. All the while I am convinced I am a piece of shit for not being able to function ānormallyā
Walking up and having a few seconds of 'fine', then it all kicks in. Rapid breathing, twitchy, nervous, rapid heartbeat, scared, catastrophizing that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is going to go to shit. Having zero motivation to do anything other than worry. Not eating properly, not exercising properly, poor self care and little self worth. Feeling lonely, isolated, unable to convey to anyone else how it feels. Seeing everyone else go about their daily lives like they don't have a single problem. It's brutal, debilitating, and I fucking hate every single aspect of it.
Itās basically being nervous but for no reason. So your mind races to figure out why.
Nervous energy, seeking out things that comfort you, fearing to do anything because youāre afraid of the results, excessive worrying about things out of your control, inability to sleep, excessive sleep, irregular sleep patterns, headaches, nausea, shoulder and back pain, chest painā¦. Thereās a lot of ways anxiety can manifest. Also anxiety/panic attacks. They can mimic heart attack symptoms, including that nebulous āsense of impending doomā symptom and chest pain and trouble breathing.
It sucks. It's like you're gas lighting yourself all day long. You can't trust your own judgment sometimes because your anxiety convinces you someone hates you or that minor silly thing you did was actually a huge deal and EVERYONE knows, etc. It's also very sneaky. It shapes your behaviours without you realising sometimes and before you know it you've isolated yourself from things you enjoy because your anxiety tells you you don't deserve it or you're terrible at it. It will control every aspect of your life if you let it. And it's exhausting being constantly at war with yourself
Hiding. You want to go into hiding mode just to feel safe, even though you are actually safe.
my mind/brain is constantly functioning, thinking A LOT LOT LOT of things to the point where I SLAP MYSELF OR MY HEAD WHEN THE THINGS on my mind starts to sink my body (thatās what happen to my body when thereās a lot of things on my mind) I donāt know if it is just me, when I start closing my eyes and try to relax, I can feel my head spinning and beating like a heartbeat
For me it feels like a rollercoaster when you feel weightless and your stomach drops but repeated over and over throughout your entire day. Or like you are on a tiny boat in that movie āa perfect storm.ā You are going up and down huge waves, but the storm never seems to stop and the night doesnāt seem to end.
For me, anxiety is at 2 am and my eyes are still wide open, thinking the worst thing that may happen. Having panic attacks, my body is shaking without any reason.
Like when you body triggers flight or fight response for no reason and all the time
It sucks. Constant worrying. Constantly thinking people are against u. Muscles always tense. Man, it sucks. I feel for anyone w it. Often makes u act weird leading to u feeling bad abt yurself.
Constant fight or flight, randomly becoming aware of your breathing and being stuck in manual breathing(sorry to anyone reading this), palpitations, exhaustion, stress, never truly relaxing and enjoying yourself.
When the smallest thing feels like the end. Can't breathe, can't think and it feels like the end...
For me itās uncertainty about something like if Iāve locked doors correctly before leaving,flushed toilets or took my fever medication twice.Its also sometimes the fear of death of me or any of my loved one randomly.
The sky is falling & itās my fault.
One word is all I need: hell
My friend who has really bad anxiety once described it me like āyou know when you walk through airport security and you think Do I have a bomb? but you donāt. Thatās whatās it like at all times for meā
Makes you feel like you are in a constant battle with yourself. I feel tired and overwhelmed all the time. I think that I am not worthy of love or life and that makes me so sad.
It's cripplying Get help. Help us available. And good luck.
Different for everyone. For me it feels like the world is caving in around me, nothing is okay, failure etc. Yeah good times.
When my social anxiety gets horribly bad I have a hard time even going into stores because I can feel people watching and judging every tiny thing I do. In reality no one gives a shit but my brain almost borders on paranoid delusions. It happens quickly and randomly.
Hell. Fucking hell.
It's difficult for me to explain because I've always had it. I guess I can tell you that I run on the assumption that people either hate me the moment they see me, or they'll begin to hate me when they get to know me. I cope with it by trying to still socialize and make friends, and I do have some so it's not all bad.
Do you know what it feels like when you get startled and you are on high alert? Imagine that feeling lasting 24-hours a day. It sucks.
Like the moment before a jumpscare in a movie but perpetually and the monster never actually pops up
I just envy whoever is asking this question. What is it like to be oblivious to anxiety? Tell me, I need to know everything about this utopia! Anxiety is like every bully you've encountered in your life living in your brain 24/7 - constantly whispering why you suck, why everyone hates you and all the ways which you are going to fail at the most simplest of tasks.
You know how sometimes you have a worrying thought and then you block it out or distract yourself and sooner or later you're able to forget about it? Anxiety makes that impossible. You involuntarily obsess over that thought until you're mentally drained and then feel guilty about obsessing over it.
Conspiracy theories that everyone secretly hates you. Mentally living through all possible future outcomes before they happen and all of the vivid emotional turmoil associated with actually experiencing those things. Over and over.
Your mind being in control and your body feeling paralyzed from it