I am new to this board and wanted to introduce myself. I have a lot of anxiety in my life. I worry about everything. For example, I worry that my husband or I will lose our job, then lose our house, then be destitute and living out on the street. I'll finally try to stop worrying about that and something else will come right along to worry about. It seems I am never without something to worry about. I jump from one subject to the next and then back again. Virtually everything has worried me at some point. I look at things that are going on in the world and worry about war, terrorism and the economy. I worry about my family, my marriage, my finances. I am just tired of worrying and I don't know what the answer is. I do not want to take meds because of the side effects and the fact that my husband and I are looking to have a family soon. I guess it just feels good to admit how much I worry to others who have the same trouble. I don't have full blown panic attacks but I do often have an uneasy feeling that can somethimes affect my eating and sleeping.

When I was little my dad used to say that our family had terrible luck. That if anything bad was going to happen it would happen to us. I'm sure he meant well, but I think that really affected the way I view life. Like everything is about luck and we don't have any. I figure that if I worry enough, I can find a way to ward off the bad luck by outsmarting it. My mother was a very anxious person and I guess it is true that you can pass that along to your children. I will be very careful of that when I have my own children.

Anyway, I look forward to being a part of this board and giving and getting support from those who understand.

welcome worrier

I have known people who have put themselves into mental hospitals simply thru non stop worrying

fortunately there are several good books about how to stop worrying, go to your local library and see what you can borrow, if the book is too difficult to read, get someone to read it to you

stay with us :jester:

I read a lot and actually read quite well! So far none of the books have helped though. Would just like some support and to know I'm not alone. I guess I could just get that by lurking, but wanted to post my story as well in case anyone could relate.

You sound like me.

It seems as if you might have Generalized Anxiety. I was diagnosed with it a few months ago. I don't have panic attacks...i usually just have dizzy spells and a racing heart...something my doctor describes as "mini panic attacks". That's only when I get super stressed out though. It sounds foolish to say, but I'd rather have a different anxiety disorder because with GAD, it's constant. You worry about anything and everything and meds don't help much. With other disorders, at least they only have one thing to worry about. What you said about jumping from one worry to another is exactly my problem. 95% of my day consists of me being depressed and anxious over all the "what-if's". I was prescribed different benzos for the dizzy spells and they work but unfortunatley, they don't quiet the mind. I saw a therapist but it ended up damaging me more...I started worrying I was a basket-case because he'd only focus on all my negative qualities. I'm still trying to recover from that experience. So basically, every method of treatment has failed me so I'm the only one that can help myself. I try my hardest to not let it run my life. When I start to worry about something, I tell myself to STOP and try to realize how unneccessary it is. So yeah, you're not alone.

You are not alone!!! I worry about everything under the sun and then some. I DID lose my job in June. My unemployment will run out in a few weeks, I suffer from chronic pain, my teenaged daughter is going thru the "teenager" mood thing, I live with someone I don't really like (but brings in the money).

I am soooo worried about being homeless too. I had a really good job that paid very well. I live in a small town that doesn't offer many jobs like that - PLUS, since it's been sooo long that I've had to look for a job I'm scared to death. In fact, I have been so scared that I have not been able to actually throw myself into looking for work.

It's really unbelievable. I cry every day and my Christmas wish is that I would die of natural causes. I can so relate to your worry issues.

Maybe you could try an anti depressant such as an SSRI? Sometimes excessive feelings of any kind can be helped by medication.

Also, try to relax and figure out why you worry about these things. You are still employed right? So when you worry about that think about if it's likely that you will lose your job - are there any signs? Are you doing a good job? Also think about that with your husbands job, etc. Maybe write down on paper your worry of the moment, then write down all the reasons the worry is unfounded - or founded as the case may be.

You may be able to lessen your worries by finding out that there is no validation for worrying about them in the first place :D

Good luck!
Angela

Sounds like me too.
I finally decided to start taking SSRI-type medication for depression. It wasn't until then that I noticed what a relief it was to not feel the anxiety.
I used to say, "I love to worry," meaning that I surely must love it, since I compulsively did it day in and day out.
Sometimes I would worry about one thing to keep myself from worrying about another. It really irritated my boss and family.
Since I'm doing better, I find people are more inclined to gently remind me not to think about the 'what if's.' I think that before, my worrying seemed so out of control that such admonishments seemed like 'casting pearls before swine' (I was pigging out on worrying! :D ).
I know at least some of my worry was based on a sort of superstitious belief that if I worried about some bad thing happening, then it couldn't 'sneak up' on me, and so might happen to some other, unsuspecting soul. Or at least I'd be prepared for it. But all I was doing was being anxious all the time. By the way, superstitious thinking also goes with OCD, of which my depression was/is a type.

Okay, enough about me.

But I do hope something in those words will give you an idea that can work for you. I know how it feels.

But I would tend to think it more likely that your Dad has the same brain chemistry as you, rather than you just going along with his suggestions of bad luck. And such brain chemistry probably did serve to protect our ancestors from some impending doom that wiped out the less worried folks.
But unless you plan on going out to the woods to hunt bear for dinner each night, I think you are correct in wanting to find some relief for this time-consuming, energy-zapping thing that we do.

and worry and worry and wory....

Yep, I worry my children are going to jump into the street the same SECOND the 16 year old 3 doors down goes racing by. I worry I'll be one of those mom's that say "I only turned my head for a second!"

I worry my plane is going to be that 1 in 250.

I don't park next to a van with no windows...I never open my door to stangers, I won't let teenage boys sit for my infant boys..

Yep. Worry.

I'm getting better, but if I had a choice, I'd handle this.

Our neighbors let their 2 year old walk out by himself and he comes into our house...20 minutes later, they call to see if we know where he is. My mother-in-law can no longer stay with our sons after she "almost" gave my 4 month old a grape.

I try and let go of the little worries, but many of your worries seem legitimate. However, if it eats at you and you can't sleep...my doctor was a huge help.


Sorry, no magic cure, but you ARE NOT alone!

Oh, and thus the screen name....I always worry that the house will never be clean enough!

Wow! What a lot of great responses! I don't know the difference between Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Chronic... w/o looking it up on the net or in the DSM, but I sure suffer from anxiety and chronic worry as do most of the respondents. I too feel I have inherited it, from my mother. What bothers me the most is that I am often worrying (and or ruminating over past and often historical issues) before I am even awake in the am. I do not feel like I can control such thoughts and my anxiety, no matter how illogical, unlikely, rediculous... I am an educated man, but this seems beyond my education and training. I find that taking SSRI's, esp. Zoloft, and benzos, currently Serax (oxazapam) are my only relief. I found that words my X-wife expressed one time when I was anxious about my logging busines, she said, What's the worst possible senario? Well when I really looked at it, the worst possible senario wasn't that bad... We would have lived and farmed and eaten etc etc, not like we would have starved to death in a third world country, or been killed by bandits or whatever, or eaten by wolves and bears.
Thanks to all and hope this helps a little. :wave:

Thank you all so much for your replies. It is easy to start feeling like you are alone in having this problem. I'm glad to find a support forum in which we can try to support and help each other overcome (as much as is possible) our worrying habits. I too feel like I worry about everything so that nothing sneaks up on me. I hate being blindsided by stuff. I make up contingency plans for as many scenarios as I can. To some degree I guess that can be helpful but when it becomes constant problems and worries to solve (many of which don't even exist yet) then it is time to say enough.

Angela - I can't say there are any signs of losing my job right now. I just have a boss who makes every little thing into some big deal and likes to keep us on edge. My husband's employer cut his position a couple of years ago and then after about 5 months of not working there they hired him back for a different position. I keep thinking that if they did it to him once, they would do it again. When we start our family, I will no longer be working so it will all be dependant on him which is hard for a control freak like me!

Anyway, thanks again for responding.

i havent been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, but i constantly worry about everything. in fact, i worry about good things happening. when good things happen, i worry that it is just a sign something bad is going to happen soon. i find that i sabotage myself alot, afraid of the good as well as the bad. i sabotage myself by either obsessing about something so that it takes up all of my attention and requires too much effort to sustain, or by mentally checking it out- procrastinating, etc. i dont know how to be normal- i am either a crazy overachiever or a dismal failure... is there any hope? right now i am in a mental check out phase, i am so anxious about finishing my masters degree that i cannot work on my thesis...i surf these boards for hours....what do i do? i feel so helpless...will i always be like this?

You are not alone as the others said
I have been a worrier like this for sooo long, it makes me feel crazy, Im obsessive in thought. If my hubby is a few mins late, I know he is somewhere dead, its just crazy the thought and the things I worry about.

I am a bit better now that Im taking zoloft but its still not totally gone.


good luck to you

Have you tried Celexa? I have much more of the worry, worry type of anxiety. My husband once said to me very casually "stop worrying" and I replied "that's like telling me not to breathe". That's how it feels, like worrying is just a function of who you are. I had great luck with and unfortunately foolishly went off of it after only about 6 months - crashed hard and now I am back on it! Hoping to level off soon and have that moment where I realize that I was NOT thinking or worrying for a while!! ;)

There is an old saying that "misery loves company" and I guess that it is why it is so therapeutic for me to realize that there are others out there that are suffering in the same manner as I am. I wasn't always an obsessive worrier, but because of events in my life in the past year I have sunk to such an emotional and mental low that I have graduated into what someone else in this forum referred to as GAD or Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

It describes how I am exactly because I worry about "everything" and I mean everything. I even worry about worrying. I started having problems sleeping about a year ago and I started driving myself crazy with worrry that I was going to go crazy if I didn't sleep properly. I went to see a phychiatrist and he put me on a tranquilizer and I then started worrying that I was going to become addicted to it. I have been in hospital overnight twice in the past year with what I would decribe as "mini breakdowns"

I have started to develop a nervous twitching habit (mostly at night when trying to sleep which often makes getting to sleep a tourtorous nightmare at times).

I started studing the Bible and looking for answers in that area which has given me some relief but I still have a long way to go. I have had suicidal thoughts which I expect is probably "normal" for someone who goes through something like this. I don't want to die but I certainly don't want to live in a tormented state for the rest of my life.

I would like to offer encouragement to others in this forum that you are not alone and that there are others such as myself who can sympathize with what you are going through. Looking forward to hearing from you in the future.

Try not to worry about things you cannot prevent. Luck would fit into that category. The thing that keeps me from worrying is the thought that the only thing we cannot change is death. Everything else can be repaired.

aWorrier, your story on the first post sounds exactly like me! I mean everything you listed, I obsess about all day, every day and it is ruining my life. I am 23 and have that problem. Its is amazing that the biggest factors to my worrying, are what you worry about too. I guess I do find a little help in knowing that ya'll all have the same problem. I just want to crawl into a hole away from everything!

it is pure HELL!

And yes, I believe it is very normal to be suicidal with this problem we have. Heck, I'm not afraid of dying anymore because the pain, or worry, will be no more. Almost like I am looking forward to it because that means no more pain.

Lexapro is approved for treatment of GAD also. It seems to be the least side-effect ridden SSRI. I don't like taking SSRI's either...

Also have your thyroid checked.