What now..?

[Mclovin147]

I'm at a loss as to what I can do in my life.

Iv suffered with some form of social anxiety for the past 4-5 years, where it got progressively worse, to the point where I now do not walk into town in the day, don't go to restaurants etc

I say a 'Form' of social anxiety becasue I'am ok with conversing with people, before all this started, I was a confident person, could get up and speak publicly etc ..And that still shines through in brief encounters with people.

But being in public places, and around other people makes me feel physically sick, or at least what I think is sick, I panic, can't concentrate, fidget and constantly look for a way out of the situation...my main problem is that because I feel sick, I worry I'm going to be sick, and make a fool of myself, as silly as it sounds. Being sick doesn't bother me, it's the fear of doing it in front of people I guess.

Anyway, Iv tried CBT once and it didn't really work, Iv also tried beta blockers to no prevail either...I'm debating going back and asking for something stronger, I can't keep being/doing nothing and constantly hiding away from the world.

I'm 20 years old and have Absouletly no prospects...I would love to go to university to study psychology or even medicine, but neither are realistic with my anxiety (I tried college 2 years ago, lasted 3 days)

What should I do? ..How can I make money? ..Any ideas/thoughts would be great.

Hope anybody reading this is doing well! :)

[gypsylee]

Hi and welcome Mclovin (love the name lol),

You'd probably benefit from SSRIs - Prozac, Zoloft etc. They aren't a quick fix or a magic bullet but I found them a huge help for social anxiety (which is my main form of anxiety). Do you have a doctor you can talk to about how you feel?

Take things one step at a time - deal with your anxiety and then think about careers. Otherwise it's all too overwhelming. At 20yo you have plenty of time to work things out.

There are also lots of non-drug ways you can work on anxiety (and some people here prefer to avoid meds). Things like diet and exercise, breathing, meditation, therapy and so on. But if you're at the point where you can't function I recommend meds, and if they help then you can do other stuff.

Anyway you've made a good start posting here :)

Gypsy x

[Mclovin147]

Hi and welcome Mclovin (love the name lol),

You'd probably benefit from SSRIs - Prozac, Zoloft etc. They aren't a quick fix or a magic bullet but I found them a huge help for social anxiety (which is my main form of anxiety). Do you have a doctor you can talk to about how you feel?

Take things one step at a time - deal with your anxiety and then think about careers. Otherwise it's all too overwhelming. At 20yo you have plenty of time to work things out.

There are also lots of non-drug ways you can work on anxiety (and some people here prefer to avoid meds). Things like diet and exercise, breathing, meditation, therapy and so on. But if you're at the point where you can't function I recommend meds, and if they help then you can do other stuff.

Anyway you've made a good start posting here :)

Gypsy x

Hey Gypsy!

Thank you for taking the time to reply!

Yeah Mclovin is a nickname of mine from school :D

I think I will have to look at getting help in the form of SSRI's. I just need something I can take before big events, such as job interviews/weddings or the first few weeks of college so I can hopefully acclimatise and continue drug free.

I'm just about to get back into a workout regime funnily enough! Used to weight lift (Used to be really skinny, 8.5st guy at 18! Lol) and put on 2 Stone, but my anxiety got the better of me and I stopped going to the gym. I have just started running again, and I am encorporating Bodyweight/Calisthenics workouts on the football bars inbetween interval runs, so exercise is ok.

Never really tried yoga, I'm going to look into it, but how can this help anxiety? Struggling to see how yoga in the morning/evenings would help me in an anxious situation hours later/earlier? :)

Guess I'm just sick of wasting my life away, day in day out, stuck in doors with no financial income etc ..It's pretty demoralising :/

[gypsylee]

Hey Gypsy!

Thank you for taking the time to reply!

Yeah Mclovin is a nickname of mine from school :D

I think I will have to look at getting help in the form of SSRI's. I just need something I can take before big events, such as job interviews/weddings or the first few weeks of college so I can hopefully acclimatise and continue drug free.

I'm just about to get back into a workout regime funnily enough! Used to weight lift (Used to be really skinny, 8.5st guy at 18! Lol) and put on 2 Stone, but my anxiety got the better of me and I stopped going to the gym. I have just started running again, and I am encorporating Bodyweight/Calisthenics workouts on the football bars inbetween interval runs, so exercise is ok.

Never really tried yoga, I'm going to look into it, but how can this help anxiety? Struggling to see how yoga in the morning/evenings would help me in an anxious situation hours later/earlier? :)

Guess I'm just sick of wasting my life away, day in day out, stuck in doors with no financial income etc ..It's pretty demoralising :/

Well SSRIs you take continuously rather than as needed. But as I say, I found them really good for social anxiety - I was heaps more sociable and confident once they kicked in. They do make the anxiety worse at first though, which can be rough.

Yoga works on anxiety in that it combines exercise and breathing. Both of these work on the nervous system.

Also, have a look in the Medication section at a thread called "Supplements For Anxiety" or something, and read the reply by jessed03 - it's really good.

:)