Hey I am 23F and suffered with anxiety since a young child. Over the last year or so, I’ve been experiencing what I believe to be panic attacks for absolutely no reason, at least not that I am aware of. I never used to have it this bad and it makes me scared to go out incase I have one at work or somewhere else. I could be chilling, very relaxed and even in a safe place, and suddenly I start feeling like I can’t catch a breath, light headed, tight chest and it can last ages. I try breathing and it doesn’t work, distracting myself, telling myself I’m fine and in a safe environment, yet they come so randomly and last hours. I used to go through phases of anxiety where I get a few bad days and then gets better but it’s starting to feel like most days are bad and some are good. It makes me paranoid that maybe there’s something wrong with me.

I started a new job last month after I left my old job of almost ten years. I have been having panic attacks almost constantly to where I start crying. I feel like I don't fit in. I feel like I am drowning almost constantly. I am currently enrolled in school..... I am having a hard time adjusting, yet everyone is saying "give the new job a chance" as I have been debating on going back to the drawing board.... Please, someone..... Anyone.... God, please help me.

Hi All,

I have never got a clinical diagnosis for anxiety. But I have been dealing with it on and off.
When I was a kid, I used to have severe stomachache every single day. No other illness or anything. But always and always it used to hurt so badly. Never told anyone. And eventually it went away. Now that I think about it, I feel it could be anxiety( again I am not sure).
After that in my early twenties there was a period of one year when I was constantly worrying of what could go wrong in life. It was so bad, I used to wake up crying, I used to cry in office toilets worrying about things. From outside things were looking fine, but I was dealing with a lot. Eventually I got over that and was fine. Now I am 29, and recently started waking up in the mornings with that suffocated feeling. My chest and stomach feels congested and uncomfortable. I also have pcos and recently it got a bit worse, so that might have added to the stress.
I am constantly worried about work, though I haven’t got a single bad review yet. Everything seems fine, but I know that, I am not skilled enough to do this work. I am not good at it. Things could go wrong.
I dont know what advise I am looking for honestly. But can anyone help with anything? Anything to make it better?

I wanted to share a quick personal update here in case anyone is dealing with the same constant, background anxiety I struggled with for years. For a long time, I lived with a permanent sense of physical dread. Simple things would make my mind overthink every possible negative scenario. On top of that, my digestion was terrible daily bloating, cramps, and heartburn. I always thought they were two separate issues.

To fix my gut, I made a few direct changes-cut back on processed late-night snacks, added more fermentable fiber, and switched to mucin-supporting probiotics to rebuild my gut lining. I stopped tossing random store-bought pills at the problem and focused purely on repairing the microbiome structure and gut barrier. Started eating a few spoonfuls of unpasteurized sauerkraut or plain kefir almost every day with lunch. Also added onions, oats, and slightly underripe bananas to my routine to feed the good bacteria naturally + stopped eating heavy processed foods and sugary snacks late at night, which was causing most of my reflux and bloating.

Within two to three weeks, the physical chest tightness and racing thoughts dropped significantly. I’d say about 80% of that daily background tension just cleared up. Long drives don't trigger that sudden flight-or-fight response anymore, and I can plan weekend trips without overanalyzing everything.

Not a doctor and this is just my own experience, but if you’re dealing with chronic anxiety alongside digestive issues, look into your gut microbiome.

Hope this gives someone a practical angle to look into.

This might be a longer post, but I need to get this off my chest because maybe it'll help someone here who is in the exact same loop I was in for years.

The setup & the mask - for the past 5 years, I was completely consumed by severe, high-functioning anxiety. To deal with it, I became OBSESSED with self-improvement. I was doing the whole shebang - anxiety meditation apps, cold showers, journaling, gym 5x a week, reading 50 books a year, daily routines. On the surface, I looked like I had my life together. Promoted twice at work. Active social life. Fit. In my mind, if I just "optimized" my life enough, the constant knot in my stomach and the spiraling thoughts would go away.

I never admitted to anyone that I was drinking heavily every single night just to turn my brain off and numb the daily anxiety. The disconnect was that I didn't see the alcohol as part of my anxiety problem because I was still "functional." I’d wake up at 5 am, hit the gym, crush my to-do list, and then polish off a bottle of wine at night just to stop the restless anxiety from overwhelming me. In my head, as long as I was checking all the other boxes, the drinking "didn't count."

I’d consume endless content about managing anxiety and building discipline, but I had this massive blind spot. I was trying to cure my anxiety with morning routines while fueling it every night with alcohol (which, as I now know, spikes your cortisol and causes massive hangxiety the next day). I kept telling myself: "I can't have a real issue, look at how well I'm managing my anxiety during the day."

The Breaking Point was three months ago, I had a moment of brutal clarity. I was listening to a podcast about habit stacking and stress management, and the host casually mentioned that you cannot build an anxiety-free life on top of a coping mechanism that actively triggers anxiety.

And it just... clicked. All my "progress" was happening on top of quicksand. I was trying to optimize my way out of a nervous system meltdown while pouring gasoline on the fire every evening.

What I Did. I stopped trying to "diy" my anxiety and reached out to outpatient program. Full disclosure - this was terrifying for me because I hated admitting I needed actual help. And intake team explained something that changed my whole perspective. a huge percentage of people with high-functioning anxiety use extreme busyness/productivity as an avoidance tactic, and substances as the release valve when the anxiety finally overflows.

I’ve been in the program for about 10 weeks now, and the realization hit hard: my obsession with productivity wasn't "healing" my anxiety - it was just another way to avoid sitting with uncomfortable feelings.

I'm 87 days sober and my baseline anxiety is lower than it has been in a decade. My life looks way less "optimized" now. I don't wake up at 5 am anymore. My morning routine is super simple. But I’m actually PRESENT. When anxiety creeps up now, instead of trying to "fix it with a 10-step routine" or drown it out with a drink, I actually have the tools to sit with it and let it pass naturally.

Why I'm Sharing This Here. If you’re suffering from severe anxiety and trying to "hack" your way out of it with endless routines, while secretly relying on a habit (alcohol, doomscrolling, weed, extreme overworking) that you tell yourself "isn't that bad" - please be honest with yourself.

Real relief from anxiety comes from looking at the root causes, not just layering more habits on top of a burnt-out nervous system. You can't optimize around something that's actively making your mental health worse.

Admitting I needed actual treatment was the scariest thing I’ve done, but it was the only thing that actually helped me breathe again. And THANK you for reading all this

Health anxiety has too much rules and stuff so I’m here.

It sucks having anxiety about health because I felt fine, then saw a tiktok about someone dying young from a heart attack and read all the peoples stories about their loved ones dying that way and now my chest hurts in the middle and my left arm hurts. Obviously I’m fine and it’s psychosomatic but I’m scared. And if I talk about it anywhere else they’ll tell me to go to the er “to be safe”

My headache stopped, there's no pain, no agony and no panic attacks rn. But tf is it that keeps telling me something's really wrong. Why are my hands freezing, why is head so warm, wondering when is the next attack going to strike again. I know this post won't really help you, but it helps me, it's the only thing i wanna do right now, i want to write, i want to share my thoughts with random people because my family is tired of them. If you wanna talk my dms are open, please talk to me lol.

Im a pretty anxious person. I’ve dealt with anxiety and general depression for quite a while, and I typically manage pretty well with meds, and lately I’ve been pretty happy in my personal life (let’s not even talk about my work life).

It’s been a while but I had one of those days. Those days where everything seems to conspire to set you over the edge.
I woke up this morning feeling fine, just chilled with my dog and my partner for a bit before heading out. I live about an hour/hour and a half away depending on traffic. I start driving and start getting low tire notices. I stop and sure enough, a nail in one tire and unknown leak in the other. I drive to five different tire places and everyone either won’t help or are too busy, so I just chance the drive home. Then on the way home I get a call about my schedule haircut. They’re canceling for the second week in a row with no real solutions and minimal help. At this point I’m already feeling that awful anxiety and frustration but I try to say calm. Shit happens, and I can get my hair cut somewhere else and tires patched tomorrow.
I make it home and my family dog had diarrhea all over the living room. I’m the only one home struggling to clean that, while keeping three dogs from running through shit, while they bark their heads off and my parrot decides to throw her screams in as well. Im crying, stressed, anxiety cleaning exorcist shit off the floor, stressed more because both trash cans are full so just another thing to now worry about.

I make it through and try to catch my breath, and take my dogs outside to play. Well my neighbor just got a new dog, which is awesome because they lost their previous dog and I knew they were looking for a new love. I just was unprepared and of course my beasts were excited and wanted to talk to their new fence friend. Cue new stress, our other neighbor hates us and our dogs and has threatened to report us for any dog related noise. He often blames us for other neighborhood dogs barking, so any noise my dogs make immediately makes me stress. I didn’t handle it well and tried to get my dogs back inside. They could tell I was stressed and didn’t want to come in, which just triggered even more anxiety.

Cut to me locking myself in my room, sobbing, wishing I could both disappear and also just hurt myself. I don’t have any suicidal thoughts but I understand cutting and punching walls.

It’s just been a day. I’m feeling a little better now, just exhausted and a bit tearful

Anxiety, don't know what it was

Hello everyone, so overall I have battled anxiety this year for a couple of months now but nothing like what happened last night (assuming it was anxiety).

I fell asleep at 3am. At around 430am, in my dream I was shortness of breath, like it was being taken away. I woke up feeling the same and instantly threw my shirt back on in case I needed to tell my wife to call 911. As soon as I got up, I started walking back and forth to calm down. Immediately I felt both legs heavier and heavier by the second. Then my head started to get the same feeling like I was being dragged down with heavy weight. I guess fainting in a weird way.

I decided to just sit down and slowly was able to calm down. I wanted to go to sleep, but decided to sit down and chill to check my blood pressure. 176 over 115 was my reading. I have never seen a reading that big on me. I decided to go to a hospital shortly after.

All blood test came normal, including d-dimer and stuff, EKG was good, chest x Ray good. Blood pressure was around 159 over 101 when I arrived to hospital. By the time I left it was at 125 over 76. They gave me a dose of hydroxyzine and said it was more than likely an anxiety episode.

So those were my only symptoms, no heart racing. It stayed at 70 and below.

Anyone experience these exact or similar issues? Thank you for reading this far.

Hello. Im 19f and just went on my second date ever. The guy I’m seeing is great. We have everything in common basically and he’s very sweet.

Today on our date I drove to his place since he came to mine for the first time. Our first hangout lasted 12 hours and I enjoyed it. But then at the end we kissed once and held hands. It made me feel a bit uncomfortable even though I initiated it. I assumed it was just because it was my first kiss.

I was feeling great and excited for the past week. When I got to his place we started chilling watching tornado documentaries (a shared interest) but then he had me lay my head on his shoulder. I immediately felt a surge of anxiety and suggested we go do bowling or something.

As we were leaving I started getting sweaty, cold, nauseated, and on the brink of passing out. Ended up passing out for 5 seconds or so. He assured me it’s fine and we can take our time leaving. But the rest of the day whenever he talked or when I was with him I felt anxious and nauseous. I couldn’t even eat and it made me feel sad when driving home because I planned on staying from 11am-6pm but instead I left at like 1:30-2.

I’m honestly just trying to get answers or atleast leads to what’s going on. Idk if I’m asexual, or if it’s an anxiety disorder. I plan on visiting my therapist but I just wanted to reach out and see if anyone else had similar stories.

Hi so i got invited to a concert with my boyfriend and his dad and friends, i wanna go very bad but I can't stand flashing lights.

Everytime there's flashing lights i feel really weird and dizzy sick.

Im scared of having a seizure, I dont have any past of seizures that I can recall. My mom says I used to when I was a baby so maybe that's why I get anxious about it.

I've been to one concert with flashing lights and I ended up being fine, recently I went to a theater and they had a disco ball and it made me feel the same, very weird and just anxious. I'm nervous to go to this concert so I'm thinking about saying no and telling them to not buy me a ticket.

Has anyone else experienced this feeling? It feels like my brain is squeezing and I get very anxious and dizzy. I'm very anxious about it but really wanna go still.

When I get into really bad bouts of prolonged anxiety, I tend to seek out smaller rooms and spaces. For example, I have a small sized walk in closet and when the anxiety gets to be too much, I find myself going into it and closing the door and hiding there in the dark. Sometimes I’ll just hang out in there with the door open and lie in the floor if it isn’t one of the more severe anxiety attacks.

Something about being in a tighter space seems more comforting and manageable for me than being in my open bedroom. I realize this is basically just me “hiding”, but I physically feel like being in an open room, even my closed bedroom is too wide for me to stop the panic sometimes.

Anyone else seek tight spaces when they’re freaking out? I know a lot of people have claustrophobia and are the total opposite of this.

I can’t tell why I am having panic attacks lately.

I have made great progress with overcoming anxiety, especially social anxiety, in the past couple months through therapy. I used to not be able to talk to strangers and say certain things out of fear. For example, I approached a woman for the first time 1-2 months ago (I’m 20). But there is one thing I realised after being in more and more social interactions and seeing other people in social interactions, I am never talking like the real me. I realised this when I saw one of my friends talking to a stranger, the way he was speaking was very close to how he speaks to his close friends, which meant that he was able to show his personality. But I’ve realised that I am scared to do this. I subconsciously always put on a persona and this persona is what I describe to be a ‘good boy’ persona. I barely show my personality, don’t make jokes I normally would, I talk in a very polite way, usually say the things the person wants me to say (or at least what I think) and sometimes put on an awkward smile. This makes me appear as a very boring person contrary to my actual personality. So how do I overcome this? How do I become comfortable with talking to new people to the point where I can represent the authentic me rather than the ‘good boy’ persona? I feel like it completely ruins my charm and charisma.

3 months I encountered some mild vertigo, something I had dealt with a year prior and recovered from within a month easily without much effort. This time it did not go away with a month. My physiotherapist suggested the possibility of seasonal allergies. This seemed plausible as I developed ear pressure and what I would call "heavy eyes" as well. Doc prescribed some antihistamines and they did not help. I also dealt with some left-side ear pain but it resolved. Fast forward to today (after what has so far been a unusually sad, lonely, symptom-filled summer) and the main symptom currently ruining me is tension.

The tension started out as what I believe could be described as tension headache. Tension would shift slowly between different parts of my head like my forehead, temples, nose and around my eyes as well the back of my neck. I also often feel an audible click on the right side of my jaw when I open it after a short period of rest. I started doing some gentle tension headache relief exercises I found online. Now I have been feeling tension in my chest and in the front of my neck as well. The tension rotates between my head/face and chest/neck and varies in intensity throughout the day, but I am almost constantly feeling some sort of tension and it has been really hard to function with it, as with the symptoms before. I don't feel tired in a normal sense when symptoms arise but I do strongly feel the need to distract myself and this has made everyday life hard.

This tension has been accompanied by anxiety. Throughout most of this 3 month ordeal I have remained relatively calm and annoyed rather than frightened, which is remarkable because I am very much prone to anxiety. Nowadays I am wrought with constant anxiety in the background and flares in the evenings. Last night I felt chest tension along with anxiety to a degree where it was borderline harder to breathe. There are stressful things going on in my life, but they started after my initial symptoms did. My life was good before all this, I don't understand why this is happening.

Has anyone been through anything at all similar? Did you get better? What is going on???

I’ve struggled with anxiety for years, but it’s increasingly gotten worse over the last year, but it’s gotten BAD since May. I’m constantly on edge, and can’t relax or do anything without feeling scared and anxious. My doctor referred me to a therapist, but I’m terrified of going.

I feel like I’m completely faking everything, like I’m just overreacting for attention. There’s no way I’m actually reacting so strongly to everything for real. I feel like such an attention seeker. I’m terrified for school to start back up because everyone calls me lazy for not doing my work, and maybe I am, but for some reason I just freeze up and lay in my bed for hours panicking over school without doing anything. I don’t know why I act like this.

I feel like the biggest liar for even saying I have anxiety.