Hey so like has anyone ever had basically an anxiety attack without the anxiety part?
Like I have all the physical stuff – heart beating too hard, chest feels tight, shaking slightly, etc. – but I’m not like…upset about anything? At all? And nothing has happened that would provoke this?
Of course the weirdness of it is now *adding* an emotional anxiety component to things, joy of joys. But that definitely came second.
Yes, husband has this happen. Sometimes it’s a building thing… little anxieties, things he’s not actively worried about, but that have him on higher alert. They pile up and he starts having a panic attack over literally nothing, except it’s not really nothing, it’s just that it’s not any one thing in particular. Sometimes it’s a response to stimuli he doesn’t consciously recognize – for instance, if the door is open, it aggravates his agoraphobia. But he may not realize it is… he just passes the open door and his body starts responding to it even though he’s not actually thinking about the thing.
Tag: anxiety
a good thing to do for your friends with anxiety disorders: if you have a question you need to ask them or something you need to tell them, explain the subject of the question/the statement in the same message as your opening one!
so basically: instead of saying “can i ask you a question?” and sending just that (which, as a person with an anxiety disorder, makes my anxiety go into hyperdrive) go “can i ask you a question about ___?”
it’s a little thing but honestly few things make me anxious like “i have a question for you” or “there’s something i need to tell you” without immediate explanation. thanks!
What to Expect When Dating Someone Who Has An Anxiety Disorder.
– Them asking you the same question at least 10 times.
– Them saying “I’m sorry” at least 5 times a day.
– You promising them everything is okay.
– Ordering food for them.
– Making phone calls for them.
– Repeating the same directions 3 times.
– Texts as soon as you leave.
– Sweaty palms.
– Constant reassuring.
– Them constantly changing their mind.
– ALWAYS BEING EARLY.
– NEVER BEING LATE.
– Directions never being clear enough.
– Answering the same question MULTIPLE times.
– Them being nervous for seemingly simple tasks.
-Friday nights in.
-Weird triggers you will never understand.
-Tears. Lots of tears.
-Sudden silence when they feel an attack coming on.
-Trouble going out to eat in a restaurant.
-Stomach aches.
-Late night phone calls.
-Giving them cuddles when they need it.
-Finding out signs they are nervous.
-Taking care of them when they are having an anxious day.
THIS THIS THIS
Anxiety is like perpetually hearing the boss/enemy music but never seeing the threat.
This is the best description I’ve ever heard.
Think for a second
Imagine with me.
You’re an athlete. You’re gearing up to run the next 5k in your town.
You get there, and your number’s on your chest just like everyone else. You’re at the starting line, just like everyone else.
Bam, off goes the start signal.
Suddenly, you feel a little funny. Everyone else around you is gaining a lead they shouldn’t otherwise gain. Even the little old lady who does this for fun is now almost 50 feet in front of you.
But you keep pushing, right? You’re bound to catch back up, you’re an ATHLETE.
You pump as much of your strength as you can into your legs. You’re using what feels like every ounce of effort you have in you to just get your legs moving. All the while, that lead that everyone has on you is getting bigger and bigger…
People are suddenly farther and farther away…
You keep going You have no choice. You’ve GOT to finish. And you do.
But that’s when you collapse from exhaustion. Everyone around you is looking at you now, very concerned, wondering what could possibly have gone wrong, you were fine yesterday. You looked fine even the whole time you were running! What could POSSIBLY have happened?!
You can fill in the blanks with any invisible malady you like: heart problems, asthma, fibromyalgia, sciatica, what have you. But it’s SOMETHING that nobody can see. It’s something even YOU didn’t see.
Welcome to mental illness.
EVERY DAY is that 5k. Waking up in the morning is the start signal going off, and no matter how much energy we could put into something as simple as making breakfast, suddenly everyone else around us has their day’s tasks half way done and we’re still standing in the kitchen choosing eggs or bacon as though our lives depended on it. And sometimes, it does.
Eating is a chore. Standing up is basically like asking us to climb a mountain. Taking care of ourselves is tiring. Let alone taking care of someone else, if we need to.
That collapse at the finish line of the day could be a panic attack, it could be a fit of tears, it could be the mounting and exploding feeling that you’re a failure, you’re worthless, why do you even bother. It could even be an angry and persistent suggestion that you should just kill yourself so you’re not wasting space.
And let’s not forget, we didn’t do this to ourselves. We couldn’t have predicted this, we aren’t just sitting there asking for people to pamper us, in fact sometimes that makes us feel WORSE.
And at the end of the day, quite possibly the best thing you could do is hold us, tell us it’ll be okay, and just listen.
Most often, there’s no rhyme or reason to our thoughts. I was a straight A student for a long time and if I got less than 80% on ONE test, I flipped out and resigned myself to failure. But anyone else would’ve been like ‘Sweet, I passed!’ People tell me I’m doing well at work, and I’ll just focus on that one mistake I made two weeks ago and oh well, I’ll get fired tomorrow.
We DO NOT DO THIS ON PURPOSE. And it’s not as easy as saying ‘Oh just stop being so hard on yourself.’ That’d be like asking your athlete self to just grow some new lungs/muscles/heart valves and you’ll be fine.
We know you want to help. ❤ And most of us appreciate it SO MUCH, OMG THANK YOU. But sometimes, cuddles, blanket forts and movie binges are enough to keep us going. We don’t need to talk or reason things out all the time.
I feel as if the gods are giving me the cold shoulder & my luck has left me. But I’m also bi polar, have PTSD & an anxiety disorder. I can’t tell what’s just in my head & what isn’t. I feel lost. What can I do?
My perspective is colored by experience and, well, my viewpoint as someone with Borderline Personality Disorder (which has some similarities to Bipolar and PTSD, among other things, enough that they get confused for one another) and with anxiety disorder. And psychosis, too. So take from this what you will.
My experience, and I’ve seen this mirrored with some other people who struggle with mental health, is that when things are extra stressful, all of that makes a whole lot of “noise” and you’ll feel abandoned. If you can normally see spirits, you won’t see them. If you can normally “hear” spirits, you won’t. You’ll overlook signs, or see signs that aren’t there that confirm your worst fears because your anxiety will be ramped up because you’ll be weirded out by the fact that you want reassurance and that sense of the gods being present just isn’t there.
What I’ve always done is realize that it’s unlikely I just got abandoned (unless I have a good, solid reason to suspect I’ve pissed a god off, like breaking a specific oath that I remember or something), that it’s just a normal swing of bad luck, and concentrate first and foremost on self-care and doing what work I, personally, can take care of, one step at a time. It’s really disconcerting to feel that the gods aren’t there, but it’s more likely that you’re just so stressed out that that static noise is completely drowning out your normal sense. They’re there, you are just having trouble perceiving it. Keep talking to them, keep asking for help, but also work to help yourself. When you feel a bit calmer, your sense of presence should come back.
okay if you suffer from anxiety, or depression, or even insomnia, or you just feel shitty all the time, listen up you little shit because what i’m about to say might just help you like nobody’s business
you see these motherfuckers right here? these crayons are like little sticks of wax joy that will never fail to help you in your time of need. these are your buddies right here. You don’t meed a million crayons like me, I just happened to buy these the other day for another project and then loved them so much. any crayons will do.
{colored pencils work too, but you want some crayons because that’s what works the best. don’t ask me why, but you feel 3000% better coloring with crayons than you do with colored pencils or even markers. IT BRINGS BACK THE CHILDHOOD INNOCENCE OR SOME SHIT LIKE THAT}
tl;dr just get some crayons i don’t even care what brand if you want to be a disgusting little shit go ahead and buy RoseArt you just need crayons.
okay, so it’s really simple. you just color. if you have a coloring book, awesome. if you don’t, look up some stuff on google and print it. get stuff that makes you happy, like your favorite disney princess or cartoon character. just type in something like “little mermaid coloring pages" and you’re good to go
now, here’s the best part. grab a crayon and just fucking go for it. don’t even think about anything else, just focus on coloring the picture however you want it to be and don’t stop until you’re completely satisfied with it. when you’re done with that one, color another one.
i promise, by the time you’ve finished coloring to your heart’s content, you’ll feel so much better. i have no idea why it happens, but coloring with crayons just lifts your stress away, even for a little bit. keep some blank coloring pages on hand and your box of crayons close to you for easy access should you really need it one day.
pro tip: when coloring, spill your crayons out
just take your time and spill all of them out from the box and then like run your hands over them and kinda mess the pile up because that shit is the most orgasmic feeling in the world i don’t know why but it just is
okay, i hope this helps. and if anyone looks at you funny or says that you’re too old to color with crayons, don’t get angry just pity them because they think that there’s an age limit to happiness and they obviously don’t remember how awesome it is to color so just offer them a crayon and if they don’t take it, well, sucks to suck
bringing this back because it’s the only thing that’s gotten me through this summer
Literally this is one of the most helpful things for me
Yep. This works for me, and worked really well with many of my clients when I did social work.
the semicolon project
Sensory Overload and how to cope.
(click on images to zoom)
So important.
I also find I can get SO from thinking too much, like brain-over-stimulation. Though that is kinda like audio input for me because of the way I think. After all, my go-to overload thought is “quiet please, make it stop”.
thank you for posting this, i needed it
This is wonderful and so needed
My last SO situation I had allodynia all over, and all the skin sensory input just destroyed my ability to think.
The thing with Anxiety and Depression
- You can feel really confident in yourself but when someone comments badly on you, you begin to crumble.
- You doubt yourself a lot.
- Your head begins to hurt when you over think.
- You forget to eat sometimes.
- You get quiet around friends.
- You break down more often
- isolation.
- You’re confused
- You don’t know why your confused because you’re over thinking all the bad decisions you’ve made in your in your life.
- You forget your value, You forget your worth.
Holding the Bowl 