Newbie here

[Darlingtonia]

Hi everyone, here's your latest member. I'm a 24 year old female living in the midwest and I've been coping with anxiety since high school. Most of my anxiety revolves around intrusive, critical thoughts. I am hyper-critical of myself and all that I do (I am a scientist by day and an artist on my own time) and I am constantly berating myself about everything. As a result I am very anxious about making mistakes at work (and I work with a very critical/abusive coworker) in my art, in my behaviors, etc, and any mistakes I make are met with harsh mental criticism, angry and anxious outbursts,etc. I have some social anxiety as well, and usually I am standoffish and uncomfortable around groups of people at first (I do well one on one though) and I have anxieties about breaking my routine (even just watching a new movie) travelling (even though I dream about travelling and want to see lots of places) and doing new things. I also suffer from misophonia (anxiety triggered by certain benign sounds, look it up) and that definitely keeps me on edge, especially when I am anticipating trigger sounds. In general I have lots of mental chatter, I sweat constantly, I am pretty antsy and always have to have something occupying my hands and mind, and I have many dreams about being pursued by an ominous presence or having spiders crawling on me (I am very arachnophobic) which have been getting worse lately.

I joined this forum because I am so so so tired of basically bullying myself and having this anxiety rule my life with an iron fist. I feel like my anxiety is boxing me in more and more and it is keeping me from living a full life. Right now I am in CBT which is helping but I also would like to have a group of other anxiety sufferers to be a part of...I have only a few friends and I want to branch out a bit more and not feel so alone and crazy. Anyway it's good to meet you all and hopefully some of us will end up being friends!

[NixonRulz]

Welcome, Darling

You have to give us your first name. I feel like a am Thurston Howe from Gilligans Island when I call you that

You have a similar story to many so jump in

Most discussion is in the General forum

Glad you found your way here

[delboy]

Hi from London

Think it's all the same story, I am new member and can't stop reading peoples stories, has helped me so much when you read and realise that every symptom I have is mostly the same as everyone else is suffering with....

Hope the forum helps you too

Del

[BrokenWings001]

Welcome hun. A lot of people here have an idea of what ur dealing with. Feel free to talk about anything that's bothering u n we'll help the best we can! :)