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Stress is taking over my life
I am constantly stressed out. I have tried exercise,therapy, even drinking, everything under the sun... it has been no help. I do not know how this started; all I can think of that causes my stress is that I fixate on negative energy whenever it is present. I am not good at letting go of things and I generally punish myself for what I know is not my fault. Things that should be blown off in a instant can cause me major mental blocks, panic attacks, and headaches. I am becoming very depressed and isolated. Once a straight A student I am now failing all my classes. This is painful because I am use to being such a happy social girl, but I can not seem to get anywhere close to that anymore. I am young, female, and in pretty good physical shape. Do you of anything that might help me?
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Hi,
I'm 17-dont know if thats older or younger than me but this sounds similar to me.
I used to experience panic attacks-these should never be underestimated because as you well know they are like the most terrifying thing you can go through.
What happened to me-you dont what to go through. My stress manifested itself and I had severe, uncontrollable anxiety, for a month I was detatched from the world.
So to get to stop this in its tracks, you need to get to the bottom of it asap.
Firstly, think why you feel stressed, what causes so much stress. Write how you feel, then write a rational thought next to it. You need to understand that you can become good at 'trapping' the anxious thought and just letting it go. So your aware of it, but you're not acknowledging it.
also, try meditation, that worked for me. Theres a thing called 'mindfulness'-look it up online. Its basically where you take time out everyday without fail to just relax, put things into perspective and things. This really helps to reduce stress.
Finally, try thinking about what you're eating. Caffine and other stimulants such as chocolate may cauase more anxiety. Make sure you have a good nights sleep as this reduces anxiety.
The main thing is motivation. You have to find it within yourself to want to do the mindfullness exercises, and to want to put the effort into writing your thoughts down. For this kind of thing, theres no drug that can cure you, its something you have to learn to do using your brain.
Hope this makes sense, good luck-nothing lasts forever so you can overcome this stressful time and with that you can become the happy girl you once were.
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Try not to get too mystical in your search for reasons and go off into a world of negative energy and karma and the like. The feelings, and most definitely the physical symptoms you are describing are classic signs of just good old worldly stress. With elevated stress levels you will not perform up to your ability or potential in any sphere. It's real. At a crucial time in your academic life, with exams and coursework to be sat, submitted and passed this is a far from ideal as you know. Doctors can prescribe beta-blockers which are very effective at controlling the headaches, panic attacks and general 'rabbit caught in car headlights' feelings. If you go down that path your doctor will be pointing out similar factors to these: It works better with a planned and effective (non-chemical!) personal stress-management program so you should work on getting yourself one. And that the tablets are a 'stop-gap'. To get you through your exams. You don't want to be using any drugs to control stress long-term. Dependency and addiction are not only possible, but likely. Being fit and taking exercise will be reducing the force with which the stress hits you NOW even though you don't think it's doing any good. Keep with it. The effectiveness of therapy depends on the quality of the therapy and even more so, your own attitude towards it. The thearapist can't live, and deal with your stress for you. I leave that in your hands then? Alcohol, well it certainly has ways of relaxing the body and allowing you to mentlly 'let go' a little. It would be wrong to deny this, even if I were strongly opposed to alcohol myself (which I'm not). So in moderation maybe, to wind down after a particularly tough day? But really getting 'oblivioned' is only going to help in the moment. When you sober-up it's all still there isn't it? Plus you've got the mother of all headaches eh?? Now you have acknowledged that stress-related performance problems will lower your grades. Which increase the stress, which in turn impacts further on your performance. The 'vicious circle'. The first thing you need to do is 'break the loop'. A circle with a break...isn't a circle anymore. Work on natural methods, but if you need the beta-blockers it isn't going to make you a sad junkie. Some use them to pass a driving test. They drive around town with their instructor in a competent and safe way...they can drive. But they repeatedly fail due the sheer anxiety and stress of the test environment. They simply 'go to pieces' on the day. Hope I've given you something you can work with. When your stress levels are managed properly you'll be the cool and confident old you again. Good luck.
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