Anxiety and Stress for an 18 year old

[soad342]

Hey everyone...I'm new to the forums. The past few days I've been having some "mini" anxiety attacks, which then causes me even more anxiety in fear of getting another one. The "attacks" aren't really attacks, my mind just races and I get a hot flash. I can't even describe what I think about, but I sometimes fear that I'm going crazy or something. It usually happens at night when I'm trying to fall asleep but can't. I talked to my mom about it and she said it's probably a lot of stress which causes the anxiety. I realized that I do have a lot of stressful things going on in my life: recently graduated, moving 2.5 hours away for college, my girlfriend and I just broke up a week ago, my father has been in and out of the hospital (nearly died twice due to a heart attack) and has been in a nursing home for the past 7 months, and I have my first MMA fight coming up in 2 weeks.

Another thing that scares me is that my late uncle had schizophrenia...and these anxiety attacks leave me fearing that I might get it too. I know I'm not schizophrenic, but it's just scary knowing that it's a genetic thing. Plus, I'm 18 years old and I know that it ususally develops in the late teen years.

I'm just looking for some support through these stressful times. I'm pretty shy but I do have a lot of friends and talk to them about my problems. At home, I usually keep to myself, but this anxiety has taught me that I need to develop closer relationships with my mother and sister, so I've been talking to them alot.
Also, i just called a counselor to make an appointment to talk about my anxiety and stress.
Can anyone help me out?

[dark_inferno_22]

Welcome to the Forums;

Personally I'm not sure what to say, its difficult - you're not alone - we're here for you as you struggle and as we all struggle in our own ways.
My anxiety attacks are nausea and difficulty breathing, at least that I've experienced so far.

I would suggest visiting your doctor and seeing if they can give you something for the anxiety, they put me on Celexa and Xanax. It doesn't hurt and there's a lot of people out there with the same problem. My aunt is trying to help me through mine as she goes through the same thing.

I really hope you, and everyone else, gets better. Together we can beat this.

[soad342]

Thanks for the reply....I understand that it's all in my head and I just need to stop thinking about having anxiety, because that causes even more anxiety & fear. I currently take a small amount of St. John's wort for depression, but I'd like to naturally overcome my anxiety through therapy before trying meds. All of these symptoms have only occured this past week (around when my girlfriend and I split up)...so hopefully it is just a temporary thing that I can overcome.