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how does one feel anxiety?

raspberrypie

i've always felt like i could 'feel' depression... down, low energy, irritable, in a coma... but anxiety - that's always been a mystery - except for when i just get a anxiety 'attack' or just fearful, etc... but i'm wondering about just constant anxiety. for example,  i feel i always am wary of danger, very careful about protection against theft, worry over activities and events so much that i just have written them out of my life. ...

i think 'hiding' in my house hides my anxiety from me. i think i use avoidance of things (no more air travel, no hotels, no movies, no crowds, all complicated by covid) a lot, and so also --- my anxiety might just be hidden from me. i have grown to 'accept' i will never do those things again. maybe that's the wrong long term approach.....

i prefer also not watching the news a lot ---- it's pretty disturbing, the world now.

anyone else experience anxiety this way?

i'm thinking of trying a medication for this ---  have been trying ritalin for about six months, trying to get the right dose. of course, ritalin is not for anxiety....  but now wondering about trying some mild anti-anxiety thing, to help me cope with life.

thank you!

Parents

  • Its important to realise that anxiety is something most people have (eg. job interviews), but it can be difficult for autistic people to regulate thoughts and feelings - so having an anxious thought about one thing can lead to floods of anxiety about other things, or getting stuck in a thought loop about an anxious thought/situation.  Autistic people also tend to like to be in control of things, and letting go of control can be difficult.

    Exposure therapy can work, if you just face the things that make you anxious and 'feel the feels' (as said, feel the fear and doing it anyway) - however, if your thoughts/feelings race out of control then you would need to work on controlling them for the anxiety to reduce.

  • in reply to Autimator

    the aspie-like people i no seem to really need lots of control.... for me, i'm like that too...  trying to figure out how to let go of some of that.... currently my strategy is trying to simplify everything... reduce things... trying meditation type things, audio asmr things...  just trying to get thru this current anxiety phase - and i need to recognize it better... it just snuck up on me, that is, from my normal probably pretty high level of it, to ultra high... my blood pressure today was 140 at my doctors, when normally its 120.... i did feel like it was probably high... just felt like it was. pretty stressed out.

  • in reply to raspberrypie

    One things which really helped me in CBT was undesrtanding that sometimes you have to tolerate the anxiety and pushing it away can make it worse.  That's not to say trying to reduce  anxiety won't help but for me at a time of peak anxiety, even relaxation methods didn't work. (You WILL relax!!) I also used to get really bad (and still do to some extent) anxiety about more anxiety. It's tiring and never ending. I also learned to move away from "good days and bad days" as having a good day would set me up for a fall when the bad day came back. So now I just see it as days. The ebb and flow of life.

    One things which I have difficulty with and it's still work in progress is that often times I cannot get past how I feel here and now. I can't remember having felt any differently and feel that it will always feel like the present. I'm slowly learning that it's not the case but it's work in practise. Keeping a dairy has helped.

    Hope you find a way through

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  • in reply to raspberrypie

    One things which really helped me in CBT was undesrtanding that sometimes you have to tolerate the anxiety and pushing it away can make it worse.  That's not to say trying to reduce  anxiety won't help but for me at a time of peak anxiety, even relaxation methods didn't work. (You WILL relax!!) I also used to get really bad (and still do to some extent) anxiety about more anxiety. It's tiring and never ending. I also learned to move away from "good days and bad days" as having a good day would set me up for a fall when the bad day came back. So now I just see it as days. The ebb and flow of life.

    One things which I have difficulty with and it's still work in progress is that often times I cannot get past how I feel here and now. I can't remember having felt any differently and feel that it will always feel like the present. I'm slowly learning that it's not the case but it's work in practise. Keeping a dairy has helped.

    Hope you find a way through

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