Anxiety and no help

Shoebox1926

Hi everyone, this is more of a rant but im at my wits end. Any advice or input welcome.

I have social anxiety, general anxiety and what I can only assume is a sleep disorder. I want to add that ive never been given an official diagnosis for any of these issues but ive been dealing with them since my late teens/early 20's. Im now 30.
In social situations I shake, freeze, cant speak, cant relax, knots in my stomach. The thoughts of social situations leave me feeling sick.
As general anxiety goes I worry 24/7. Im constantly having thoughts of family/friends dying, becoming ill, having serious accidents or something awful happening to someone I care about. I constantly have knots in my stomach. I also take panic attacks.
Ive tried CBT, Mindfulness, breathing exercises, yoga, medication, therapy, hypnotherapy, positive thinking, exercise. Nothing works.
As for sleeping, I cant sleep. I can keep an ok sleep pattern for about 3 or 4 weeks at most and after that my body refuses to switch off, no matter what I do I cannot sleep at a reasonable time. Regardless of routine keeping, waking up early, no caffeine ect.

Ive been to a number of counsellors and found them useless. They all suggest the same things, breathing exercises and positive thinking. I leave feeling like I havnt been listened too and very patronised.
Ive been to 3 different doctors but again they wont listen to me. One of them put me on Lexapro but this exasperated my sleep condition, the doctor denied this and refused to change the medication. Ive also found it near impossible to get sleeping tablets and was only given a short prescription of very mild stilnoct which didnt work. Im not being taken seriously and im at my wits end.
My anxiety and sleep problems are so bad I havnt had a job in 5 years, I dont leave the house very often and havnt had much quality of life but GP's and therapists wont take me seriously.

I cant let this control me anymore, I decided to pursue a third level course. Ive been awarded a place but have registration at 9am this morning. Its now almost 3 am, ive been lying in bed since 11pm and cannot sleep. Ive been awake since 7am yesterday morning when I managed to get about 6 hours sleep but because I have to be up in the morning for registration my anxiety is high so I cant sleep.
When I dont sleep and have to be around people my anxiety increases x10, ive no alertness and the thoughts of this has my stomach in knots. How am I going to manage this course if I cant even manage the registration day?

redfox123

Ok I dont have all the answers but all I can say is right now, all you have to do is focus on One thing and that is get the registration done. You are letting your mind try to grasp at every possible thing that could happen, go wrong..every thing that could make you worry, fret, and it's all because you're afraid of your anxiety and you are trying to control everything and your reactions to situations.

But you need to step back, completely simplify,and get that one thing done today. Focus on that. Don't worry about talking to anyone, making any good impressions, anything. None of that matters right now. You've made a great step by deciding to do the course and congrats on being awarded the place. Have tunnel vision about this and get it done and then you when you've done so reward yourself with a little treat, relax and do whatever you want the rest of the day.

You're trying to control your mind which is impossible, so let it go into monkey mind, think whatever it wants, relax about that, because you know you're going to get the one thing that matters done today anyway.
Well done, you're on a positive path now and things are getting better and just baby steps day by day will keep the momentum.

AidanadiA

I hope registration went well and from the sounds of it you need this course.

If you are to be honest with yourself ask yourself a few questions about what you've tried so far ( I had to ask myself the same questions a few years ago)

How long did you practice any of the advice given to you?

How much effort did you put in before you gave up?

What other factors are going on in your life?

When was the last time you were physically tired from an activity?



Physical anxiety (panic attacks/insomnia) can come on from avoiding mental anxiety. Mental anxiety needs to be treated as a real thing, your thoughts and worries are real issues for you. Talking does help eventually but you need to find someone that works for you. I found after 5 different therapist 1 that worked. If you arent happy with the service you can go elsewhere without feeling bad or mean. If their methods aren't what you are looking for do your research and find somewhere that offers that particular service.

zoobizoo

There are two books I'd recommend:

The Feeling Good Handbook and Feel The Fear and Do it Anyway....

The former has lots of good excercises to do for the mind to reduce the anxiety.

The latter encourages you to believe that "I can handle it".... Give that a go


There's a big difference between going to a counsellor and seeing a counselling psychologist or trained CBT professional.

Anyone telling you to just "think positively" doesn't really know what they're talking about.