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Anxiety: must be a cure?

Hope

I have had anxiety for most of my life, but it did not become disabling until around the age of 14/15. The anxiety takes the form of OCD (checking oven/lights and other appliances to make sure they are off, washing hands, fears around getting ill, and losing control); hypochondria (over-preoccupation with the body, interpreting tiny aches as signs of serious disease, which then brings on panic, hyperventilation, tension, and a feeling of dread, hyper-vigilance and a need to escape. The anxiety and bodily tension always disappears when I reach my home; mild agorophobia, brought on by the aforementioned hypochondria and panic  -it is easier to stay at home and not to venture too far away from familiar places.

I also have specific phobias: thunderstorms, dogs, lifts, crowds etc.

I am fed up with the anxiety. It stops me sleeping and relaxing, living life to the full, venturing too far from home, and generally prevents me from enjoying life.

I have tried CBT - it has not worked. I see a support worker 15 hours a week, and she has been invaluable in helping me to become more flexible with what I eat (due to contamination fears), and helping me to shop and cope better with crowds. But the extreme inner anxiety is still there, and it is making me unhappy. I have had CBT two times, to no avail. Is there no hope? What do I do? I have tried a short course of physiotherapy, which helped a bit, but the effects did not last.

I do not smoke, and  I eat a very healthy/balanced diet.

Parents

  • I've suffered anxiety all my remembered life and my simple observation is there is no one single silver bullet that solves it or lessens it. I don't know why I get like this but there seems to be cycles of anxiety that I can't control. Practical things that help me are getting deliberately physically exhausted through exercise, playing a musical instrument and trying to write songs, writing down my anguish always helps when it gets really bad...I don't advise this one but screaming makes me feel better, for which living in the country is a must!

    Concentrating on breathing is a strange aid for reducing anxiety...for stopping hyperventilation maybe but not anxiety. I don't know if this is any help but when I used to live in the city I would go out and feel agoraphobic but I would force myself to stay out but I would sit somewhere and just observe everything in minute detail. Perhaps when you go out you never stop and just let everything just BE. It's easy to go out and try and do a lot and go to a lot of places but I wonder if you ever just sit and stay out and just look at everyone passing by. I realise this could be a recipe for sensory overload but if you can find somewhere a bit quiet and a bit open it might help with getting over seeing 'home' as a quick sanctuary for rising anxious fears.

    After all that qualitative approach, I have to confess things were so bad a few months ago that I had to have medication and I found it helpful at first during the day to maintain my sanity but it began to make me very sleepy, so I just take it now to fall asleep if I'm feeling a bit hyper around bedtime. I'm hesitant to suggest this but if you've been anxious a long time, a small course of medication might help because I'd been forgetting what it was like to live without anxiety and when my meds stopped it for a brief time, the relief was immense. I really had forgotten what a non-anxious state was like. To not feel anxious felt a bit like a revelation at the time. 

    Do you feel it's actually possible to live without anxiety or would you be happy to be able to suppress it enough to fulfill your potential?

    I don't think I'll ever be rid of feeling anxious but keeping it manageable is an OK idea and would make me happy enough, being realistic.

Reply

  • I've suffered anxiety all my remembered life and my simple observation is there is no one single silver bullet that solves it or lessens it. I don't know why I get like this but there seems to be cycles of anxiety that I can't control. Practical things that help me are getting deliberately physically exhausted through exercise, playing a musical instrument and trying to write songs, writing down my anguish always helps when it gets really bad...I don't advise this one but screaming makes me feel better, for which living in the country is a must!

    Concentrating on breathing is a strange aid for reducing anxiety...for stopping hyperventilation maybe but not anxiety. I don't know if this is any help but when I used to live in the city I would go out and feel agoraphobic but I would force myself to stay out but I would sit somewhere and just observe everything in minute detail. Perhaps when you go out you never stop and just let everything just BE. It's easy to go out and try and do a lot and go to a lot of places but I wonder if you ever just sit and stay out and just look at everyone passing by. I realise this could be a recipe for sensory overload but if you can find somewhere a bit quiet and a bit open it might help with getting over seeing 'home' as a quick sanctuary for rising anxious fears.

    After all that qualitative approach, I have to confess things were so bad a few months ago that I had to have medication and I found it helpful at first during the day to maintain my sanity but it began to make me very sleepy, so I just take it now to fall asleep if I'm feeling a bit hyper around bedtime. I'm hesitant to suggest this but if you've been anxious a long time, a small course of medication might help because I'd been forgetting what it was like to live without anxiety and when my meds stopped it for a brief time, the relief was immense. I really had forgotten what a non-anxious state was like. To not feel anxious felt a bit like a revelation at the time. 

    Do you feel it's actually possible to live without anxiety or would you be happy to be able to suppress it enough to fulfill your potential?

    I don't think I'll ever be rid of feeling anxious but keeping it manageable is an OK idea and would make me happy enough, being realistic.

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