Nate88

Yeah he's a good guy, grew up together, we've always had eachothers backs. glad he stuck around. Probably be in a worse place without him

a private message

When i was at my very worst, my friend always used to turn up at mine and just say we were going out. He never said where or how long. but the spontaneity of it helped me get my first steps. He's seen me at my worst in panic attacks and can see when im about to have one. He tried to keep my mind off things by talking as much arse about random stuff as he could, but like everyone else here will know as soon as you start panicking all you think about is getting out of the situation. He would never drive me home when i was in that state. Told me to just sit and wait. Panic attacks dont last forever. Think its only physically possible to panic for 20ish minutes at the most. All i do is keep telling me this whole thing isnt rational and it will go, 20 minutes and its gone over and over and over. He would wait for me to calm down, then i would assess what would happen and just get on with things. You feel so much better for it. Repition of this is key. Dont let it slip once. dont give into it. Ive slipped back a few times. But like they say a few steps at a time If you cant handle the flight atm then you cant. Theres no point pushing it so far that you make yourself worse. Ive done that before and it normally puts me back to square one. But those times I couldnt shy away from those journeys (grans funeral, new years eve in london etc). Some situations you gotta nut up I know its scary and i feel so sorry that youre in this situation as well. You're not alone If you wanna chat about it just pm me if its easier, I can seem to relate to alot of your stuff here

i understand it 100% because thats exactly what im like haha. I dont think they fully understand what youre going through tbh, have you tried sitting them down to tell them properly? How often do you get out of the house if at all?

have you got anything that helps you take your mind off things? Video games do it for me

you should go get that boil checked out :/ haha

with your anxiety is it immediately after you take them or later in the night? I used to have anxiety after taking my meds but after a couple weeks of anxiety it subsided, i found like most things to do with anxiety is repetition and you'l notice you'll be less anxious about it after a while of doing it.

strangers cant really give help unless you give a bit of back story. like have you been to talk to any professional about this etc?

Aslong as i can remember to be honest. Diagnosed around 4 years ago. Have you seen a doctor or anything about it?

Not anymore, i love diving but not enough to do it in england, wayyyyyyy too cold. Ive been spoilt by 30 degrees waters haha. When I was around 15, I had 6 months of pure anxiety. I was young, didnt understand what i was feeling and had noone to explain it to me. Went to doctors but since all i was describing was nauseousness and weightloss they presumed it was something gastric. Alot of tests late I still got no answer. After a while I just got better. Obviously now I know what it is, but back then I was clueless. I wonder how many people went through the same thing. When i say dormant, I mean it wasn't anywhere as near its peaks. It was always there just not enough for me to think about it as a big problem.

I was thinking about my life earlier and how much anxiety has affected it, so i thought i'd write down a brief story of my life and see if anyone else has had the same experience. Well im Nate (Nathan) and i'm 25. And for the past 4 years i've been living with what was finally diagnosed as GAD and agoraphobia in the 3 years. I even just had trouble writing that i have agoraphobia because I think its ridiculous thing to have and find it embarrassing even to say among other sufferers. Anyone else suffering from agoraphobia knows well that it's not a good way to live. I get my good days where i can easily just walk out the house, go drinking etc etc, then others where im just so panicked that i can't even leave my room. I suffer more from the latter. I've lost alot of friends to this, and I cant blame people, Im at the age where everyone is moving on with their lives, gettin married, moving in with their partners etc etc. When I first told people close to me, they didnt understand but they tried to, Im glad they tried, I could of put more effort in too. But eventually they lose motivation etc etc. I have one close friend left. His names Tom, I hope any of you reading this have a friend like Tom in your lives because I don;t know where i would be without his help. I still till this day dont think my parents fully understand what it is. Ive got alot of pressure at home to achieve something of myself now and finding it a bit too much. What alot of friends said to me when I first told them/they found out some other way was 'I can't believe someone like you has this'. Which honestly made me feel worse about it because that's all i thought about.. Social gatherings included alot of talks (that i didnt want to have) about my condition and situation. Mainly didnt want to talk about it because ive talked about it a million times before. Then when youre in a social situation and the question arises 'What are you doing with yourself then' when said person has no idea about you. I find myself lying. I can say i definitely find anxiety an embarrassing condition. Probably the best way to describe me before was a social butterfly haha.I had loads of different groups of friends that i would go out with. Never the same weekend doing the same thing. Lived in a few different countries on my own and a fully qualified dive master (which leads back to what my friends would say 'youre the last person i thought would get that'. A year leading up to my diagnosis from my doctor was really bad for me. This is when i lost a majority of my friends. They thought I was just being rude when they'd ring me to go out and id decline (politest way i could). They would eventually get bored of asking. Which I think is fair enough. I didnt know what I had at the time, chose to not even think about it. I thought about it long and hard, and i know theres nothing I can do now to go back and change it, but i wish i could go back and get help when I noticed tiny signs. Just so It wouldnt be such a big deal now. When I think about symptons and things I can go as far back as 7 to my first anxiety attack. It became so normal for me that I didn't take note. Probably the several years of dormancy ln between panics let it reside for so long. Theres alot more to this and im pretty sure ive bored whoever reads this already. So il cut it short here. The things anxiety have taught me are: it can happen to anyone who your real friends are This whole post probably doesnt make sense and has alot of bad grammar, I havent proofed it at all, It was literally me writing it as i thought about it. I dont know really what I wanted to get across in this post. I just needed to say things I guess. Maybe one person here understands it and at least they know they're not alone Nate

yeah i know plenty of people on my facebook that display an amazing life in pictures and posts when i know theyre actually having a really tough time. If facebook makes you feel that bad then maybe take a break from it. Noone ever posts the bad moments of their lives on facebook

Yeah people get different symptoms, I dont get dizzy but like gilly said, i heard its a common side effect aswell

Hey, pretty much everyone here is in the same boat and going through most of the things you are. I suffer from GAD too, how long have you had it?

people react to drugs in different ways, and im not even sure if i even had those symptoms were from the drugs or due to anxiety about taking the medication in the first place. Either way, the side effects subside