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JimmyB
05-01-2007, 03:02 PM
As far back as I can remember I have always suffered some sort of anxiety, as a very young child before I was at school I was very independant and did everything by myself or on my own. I was a first child and did not spend much time around my mother as I was busy on my own doing my own thing playing etc.

When I first started school I can remember how daunting it was, I didn't want to go in, I was bullied by the other children and also by my teacher at time causing me mental scaring which still lives with me today I am socially anxious and also fear the higher person (managers, wiser people, people who think they are better etc.) When I was 8 years of age my parents split, my Mum met someone else and we moved away for 6 months until my Dad got custody of me and my bro and we moved back. It was also my choice to move back with Dad as it had not been my choice to move out in the first place. I guess at the time I was trying to get my Mum to stay by staying myself. My Dad was spoilt and never did anything for himself so looking after 2 children was probably quite a challenge for him, he had to leave work to look after us, we never had what the other kids had, life was real hard.

I was bullied throughout school and never really had that many friends but I stayed true to the friends I had. My Dad remarried to someone who had no experience with children and don't think wanted to either. It didn't last 4 years and at 13 years of age we were back at a loose end.

My teen years were ok, I had fun with my friends and stuff but it wasn't until I finished college when I realised that I hadn't really achieved much at school, I had only a couple of friends and I couldn't go to Uni because I my poor grade. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life and I began to become really anxious.

This got a little out of hand and I began to worry about my health and felt really nervous in social environments but I didn't let this stop me. I was about 19 but I worked through it, got a job, started meeting people and my confidence grew gradually until my anxiety problem was very manageable and could do almost anything including drawing attention to myself in a public place if I was feeling good about myself that day.

Last year I was in my 3rd year at a job I really enjoyed, I'd achieved a lot and even got an award recognised worldwide. The department had just expanded but there was a member of staff in the place of work who bullied me all the time who was to supervise the new department. In the past he'd had some involvment in our team but he had an anger prob and always critised my work, he always made me feel under pressure and stupid.

For 11 months I put up with the bullying, I became depressed, the anxiety I'd managed to almost eliminate was getting out of hand and I completely lost all my confience through working with this living Hell, the work load also increased 10 fold so I was under a lot of pressure. I also realised that I was with the wrong girl and parted with my girlfriend whos friend I then went on to work with at a new job and she'd always tell me what my ex had been up to when I didn't wanna hear about it.

Since he beginning of last year I have suffered with my nerves real bad and I have been really depressed. About 2 months ago I lost the temp job I started in Nov as I was not turing into work. The day I found out I'd lost my job I had a major panic attack and I didn't know what was going on, thought I was gonna die or something. I've been working through some major anxiety/depression issues recently but they are getting better slowly, I feel a lot calmer and I haven't had a panic attack for a few weeks now and my anxiety/depression is slowly lifting, I didn't sleep for the first 5 weeks of this episode but I find my heart rate reducing before bedtime now too so I am sleeping a lot better, other symptoms are also reducing. I'm still struggling to focus on things and I still feel really spaced out and stuff but I've been through anxiety before so I think I can pull through.

I'm currently taking St. John's Wort, exercising, eating fruit and veg, taking vitimins and keeping focused on things to help me pull through, I'll also be starting 2 therapy courses starting this month to help me out a bit.

What have you guys been through and how did you/are you overcoming them?

Jimmy B (25)

squirt
05-02-2007, 03:20 PM
I was in a cbt group and it has helped me immensely. If you can join one I would highly recommend it. If not there are lots of good books on cbt you could get. One of the ones we used in my group has a really good introduction to the whole process called Been there, done that? do this! by sam obitz. The tea form exercise in that book has helped me a ton and I still do them all the time when I get upset or anxious. Best of luck to you and try cbt one way or the other!

JimmyB
05-02-2007, 04:37 PM
I've joined a group therapy course for anxiety and I'm also going to be seeing a therapyst through my GP. Combined with St. John's Wort and breathing exercises I rekon I got a good chance!

squirt
05-09-2007, 12:28 AM
Good for you Jimmy. I hope it works for you too and of course it cannot hurt. Is your therapy cbt based?

JimmyB
05-09-2007, 04:14 AM
I'm hopeing that it will be CBT based, I'm going to ask as soon as I go in. My first appointment with the GP therapyst is on Friday - WOOP!

I actually can't wait. :)

squirt
05-12-2007, 01:05 PM
I hope it went well Jimmy and is in fact cbt based therapy. Let me know and keep that great attitude about it and you are bound to be successful :D

JimmyB
05-13-2007, 06:58 AM
Thanks squirt. It turns out that it was not CBT therapy. The guy was a counciller. It was helpful to get everything out in the air though.

It also turns out that I knew more about the condition than he did? Not as helpful as I expected, he did say to see the positive in my bad experiences though. I'm also starting a group telephone conferencing CBT therapy soon which is for an hour a week for 14 weeks (3.5 months) so that will be very helpful.

The councilling was only for 30mins and my next appointment isn't for another 3 weeks - no a great service in my opinion but I got the other therapy group to back things up! :)

squirt
06-01-2007, 12:45 PM
Nice to hear from you Jimmy. I'm sorry that counselor was so worthless but it sounds like that cbt group will be a big help to you! Just remember to get the most from cbt you really have to work hard on the exercises everyday. If you don't have time to do all the exercises everyday make sure and at least do the tea form one everyday. I still do them and it was the one that really helped me. Let me know how you are doing too and feel free to ask any cbt questions :)

squirt
10-14-2009, 03:35 PM
Jimmy how are you doing? I hope you gave CBT a whirl :)