Anxiety ladies-help me,please?

[Duchess1]

Can you tell me how you knew it was above and beyond just being cautious, a worrier etc.? Did you have other symptoms,triggers? How do you manage it? How are you doing now?

If you would rather not post publicly please feel free to PM or FB me. Thanks so much.

[thiswillbe]

It's not something I struggle with, but I have several close friends who do. I think it might be helpful to run some of the concerns by another person and see if they think they are outside the norm. Also, I'd consider it problematic if the worries/ thoughts felt intrusive and/ or if you felt like you couldn't shake them and/ or if they were impacting your daily life. Definitely anything that starts to lean towards OCDish thoughts or behavior should be run by a professional.

[ElsaVonM]

For me it is very clear - I experience a bizarre physical feeling like scary deja vu, like trying to remember a horrible dream. It's intrusive and although it lasts just a short time, I'm distracted and repeat myself or lose track of the conversation when it happens. Happens on and off several times a day for a few days and then goes away again. I finally figured out that getting enough sleep is the best way to manage it. If I get less than 5 hours of sleep, I will experience bad anxiety symptoms for a few days afterward.

I'm doing great now. It was the worst during 2000-2001 (a hectic and sad time for many reasons) and flared up again from 2004-2007 (law school). Very rare these days, thankfully - once or twice a year, if that. I watch my sleep.

[hensmum]

Well for me, its anxiety paired with depression, so it's a bit different. I would think if sleep is a good way to control it, and it's not often, that's a good thing.

When my anxiety flares up, I am anxious All The Time. It's a constant feeling of near panic. Stress, feeling like I have a tightness in my chest, or my heart is racing ( when if you took my pulse - its normal).

Something you might (since you can't always guarantee sleep) is a B-Stress Complex Vitamin. Find it in the multivitamin aisle. I have found it to be helpful with my issues, and take it daily.

[hensmum]

Oh sorry, I read this wrong. I thought Elsa was the OP, I mushed her description in with your original question.

I still recommend the vitamin. And I would say that you know it's Something More when it interferes with your daily life, to a point that it's hard to accomplish your responsibilities.

[rikkiandjulie]

I've had anxiety the most of my adult and teenage years. It's a constant panic, and worry. I can take the simplest thing and then my anxiety will spin it out of control.

For example I need to go grocery shopping. Sometimes my anxiety will start to tell me "You need to go right now bc if you don't xyz will happen" For me they are never rational things. Sleep does help but I am still constantly anxious, I'm always fidgeting, it takes me 2+ hours to fall asleep, I worry about everything all the time.

It's getting better now, I met with a phsyciatrist who gave me the proper medication, and is treating me for depression as well. The anxiety is bc of my depression. When my depression is bad so is my anxiety.

[kershnic]

The line that professionals often use is whether it's impairing your daily functioning. Are you able to meet your regular responsibilities, or does it get in the way of regular work/household management/child care providing/etc.

[ballandchain]

I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and depression in February. I think the depression is partly/mostly? the result of a long TTC process ending in miscarriage, but anxiety and depression are often linked so who knows. I would say I probably had the anxiety disorder for years but just never thought of it as a clinical problem.

I was put on Prozac for the depression, but was told it would probably also help the "ruminative" aspects of anxiety. So it doesn't keep me from worrying, but it means when I worry about things I don't obsess about the details over and over and over the way I would before.

I have been working with a therapist for a little over a year on managing my anxiety without meds, and she has mostly pushed me toward mindfulness practice. Meditating, breathing exercises, visualizations, etc can help. I'm not that good at it yet but I'm working on it. There is a book called The Mindful Way Through Anxiety that I found helpful in working on this.

I also try to use logic to give my anxiety less power. For example:
Worry: I am going to cough my embryo out.
Logic: People cough. They also reproduce. It doesn't work that way.
Logic: My RE knew I had a cough. If I could cough out the embryo, they would not have transferred it.
Logic: Your uterus is built to hold the embryo safely inside, so no amount of coughing is going to make it come out.

Etc.