Anxiety never stops

My hair went years ago - apart from the sides! Knowing months ahead that I was locked into a best man's speech took care of the rest of what was already thinning. Accelerated it massively to the point where tons of it was coming out in the sink with even the lightest rinse. Ah well. Hair today.... etc.  

I've recommended on other posts: Nootropics can help for long-term and a low dose of benzodiazepines for occasions where it's interrupting sleep or to help reason clearly for a difficult situation in order to leave it.

I take a mushroom compound with Lions Mane and Rieshi, which seem to help with the biological issues (there are now a few good studies which prove the autistic and ADHD brains produce this over-excitement which isn't being regulated properly. It's also related to gut health.)

Situational anxiety is also thing to sort & if we can, take control of environments and work toward resolve with relationships, which sometimes means making hard decisions like stepping away from people who are (knowing or unknowing) doing more harm than good - note, this will never be your child. 

And then making sure to sort surroundings: LEDs can unknowingly give a low-grade anxiety, make sure to have a few halogen lamps in the house. Harmful scents and VOCs can cause a sub-conscious state of danger, electrical hums and buzzing, there are a great deal of unnatural sources of subtle sensory assault that can all add up. 

Shardovan said:

Is this unusual?

I doubt it.

I think it goes hand in hand with untreated depression, personally.

Antidepressants (if you are not already on them of course and they aren't working) should help considerably.

Sorry you feel so rotten

Yep.  This is the case for me and I've mentioned it often on this forum.

My antidepressants (Seroxat) work beautifully and don't have any serious side effects (for me).

I've been on and off antidepressants all my life, and the times off were far worse than the times on.

I remember saying to my GP once: 'I feel locked into a state of anxiety'.

It was ever present, now it's just something that occurs when there is a 'good' reason.

I'm glad you feel so much better G.

Shardovan, I am saddened that you find your anxiety to be mostly all-consuming. My own anxiety seems to fluctuate from one extreme to the other. As I've got older, I've become aware that when my anxiety is bad, it can feel considerably more debilitating than it did when I was younger.

To me there is "worry" anxiety and there's "autistic" anxiety from the way we process the world. I think there's also burnout stress and autistic people can find things traumatic which neurotypical people don't. My life was regularly feeling sick in the morning - a fact since childhood. I was operating on a base layer of anxiety on top of unknown autism. This base layer I realised was far higher than other people's because I was used to pushing myself through a normal day finding things difficult other people do not and not knowing this. I thought it was normal to feel like this. I also think we have a heightened fear response in general.

I've tried CBT several times and anti depressants which didn't work. I was trying ALL the things to help the parasympathetic nervous system but nothing helped or made it worse. I couldnt relate my phsical symptoms to classic anxiety ones and thought i was going mad. (That feeling you get on a near miss in your car or jump into cold water....) Sleep didnt give me a break. Physical illness (which I don't recommend as a treatment for anxiety!) has forced me to take a step back, reflect, learn and prioritise. My environment and set up has had to change. I take lions mane WHICH I CANNOT RECOMMEND ENOUGH. 

I'm saying in a very long winded way that I know exactly what it's like and its beyond exhausting.

Dearest Shard, please go and talk to your doctor! 

I think I was always on edge, too, and feeling low but thought it was just a normal state of being. I finally spoke to the doctor and she said "that sounds like anxiety" and straight away gave me some meds.  

I had no idea how low I'd become until these things kicked in and now it's like, is this I was supposed to feel all along?  Why didn't I get these 30 years ago?  

To be fair, there are still things that worry me, but the difference is that I now feel like I have the strength to deal with them. And I haven't woken up with that feeling of deep dread since I've been on them.

I know that it doesn't always work this well for everyone, but I do think it's worth a try.  Brain chemistry can affect how you cope with things so much.

Yes! This is me every single day. I've got generalised anxiety disorder and the anxiety train never stops moving. It affects my sleep so I'm tired all the time, either too anxious to sleep or wakes me up throughout the night so I'm sleeping pills which don't really work lol. I'm also calmer when I'm on my own. When I'm out it's terrible and it's not great when with my family. My thoughts are constantly anxious. I get a lot of anxiety physical symptoms, pains, breathing, dizziness, nausea... I have medication for these but am starting to think I'll need to take a proper anti-anxiety from the doctor in the end but reluctant to give in to it. Currently I try to stay in my room, it's the only place I feel dare I say relatively calm.

Hi, you have described a normal day for me, I don’t really have any answers, I try to slow deep breath through some of it. It’s like having a tight chest all the time and my brain is scanning for what might happen next, even if I’m busy anxiety is still running in the background. It’s worse if I’m with someone like a customer, the fear of saying something wrong and remembering to smile at the same time is hard work. Sleep does allow a short break but dreams normally involve me being hunted so no break then. The anxiety sometimes leads to bouts of alopecia, I try to be on my own as much as possible,  food an I aren’t getting on very well at the moment but that’s another story.