r/Anxietyhelp 3h ago

Need Advice A really terrible few days

2 Upvotes

I've been struggling really badly with anxiety and I'm hoping someone here can relate.

I'm currently tapering off clonazepam after being on it for over 6 years, and the last several days have been some of the hardest of my life. I've had panic attacks, cried for hours, barely slept, and I feel physically and emotionally exhausted.

The thing that's scaring me the most is these intrusive "what if" thoughts. They're not thoughts that I want to act on. They're more like, "What if I lose my mind? What if I snap? What if I hurt myself or someone I love even though I don't want to?" The fear itself is what consumes me.

The thoughts make me question everything. I keep wondering if I'm going crazy, even though I desperately want to live. I want to celebrate my birthday, travel, have a baby someday, be with my family, and enjoy my life. That's why these thoughts terrify me so much.

I even went to the ER because I was so scared, and they didn't think I was a danger to myself. I'm also seeing a therapist. But my brain keeps saying, "What if they're wrong?"

Has anyone else dealt with intrusive harm OCD or anxiety like this? Did it get better? Did you ever stop feeling like you were one thought away from losing control?

I'm not looking for reassurance that something terrible is secretly wrong with me. I'm hoping to hear from people who've been through this and came out the other side, because right now it feels like I'll never be normal again.

Thank you for reading.


r/Anxietyhelp 6h ago

Need Advice How to stop/get through nocturnal panic attacks?

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1 Upvotes

r/Anxietyhelp 8h ago

Need Advice Anyone else get insanely nervous after getting back in contact with someone you had lower to no contact with for a few months??

2 Upvotes

A friend of mine is at a uni in a different country and comes back here maybe every 6ish months. I can’t say we had no contact since she moved we called a lot in the beginning,sharing tiktoks and stuff remained,but it plummeted since January. I kind of distanced from two of our mutual friends so it might’ve been that idk rlly.

Anyways she reached out saying she’s in town until October if i wanted to see her and oh gosh did that make my stomach drop
I know I’m probably overthinking most of it,but fuck
I just hate this feeling :(
I guess the lesser contact/no seeing each other + the friendgroup dynamic falling off is what made me think she doesn’t want me involved anymore
Heck i dont know


r/Anxietyhelp 8h ago

Need Advice Feel fine when I’m busy but can’t relax

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2 Upvotes

r/Anxietyhelp 9h ago

Need Advice anyone else feel tired, nauseous, lightheaded, etc. when waking up? especially when waking up 2-3 hours later than usual?

2 Upvotes

I'm not sure if this is anxiety related - I'm not sure whether I even really struggle with anxiety, to be honest.

I usually wake up around 7:45. recently, I've been sleeping in, so waking up around 9:30-11. whenever I wake up at this time, I feel very lightheaded. not dizzy as such, but as though I am sick with a cold or something. it doesn't go away after eating or drinking coffee, only after a few hours, but no consistent time.

I suspect this is as a result of anxiety since I have been experiencing various other somatic symptoms recently - twitches, shortness of breath, shaking - without any actual worry. if anyone has had similar issues or has got any advice, let me know.


r/Anxietyhelp 13h ago

Need Advice Extremely short panic attacks?

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2 Upvotes

r/Anxietyhelp 16h ago

Need Help Been in a state of anxiety for nearly three weeks- dunno what to do anymore

2 Upvotes

I've always had terrible anxiety, for as long as I can remember, but this is some of the worst I've ever felt. I don't know why, or what started it, but about three weeks ago I couldn't sleep because I just kept thinking about the fact that one day, I'm going to die. My partner is going to die, so will my parents. And I got cold and shaky and overwhelmed in the way I always have in the past when I think about it all a little too hard. But it. Hasn't. Stopped. Normally I'm fine by the next morning. It's been nearly three weeks. I'm mostly okay during the day, mostly (except I'm scared of near everything giving me cancer, or being a sign that I already have cancer, more than normal), but it gets bad as soon as the sun starts to set. I can't sleep until the sun is up, so I've basically become nocturnal (shoutout being unemployed and not in school atm so. Not as bad as it could be) and that's... Not ideal. I can't really watch or read anything that has any sort of themes that are related to mortality like, at all, so I've literally been playing animal crossing and watching MLP until the sun rises and then sleeping until late afternoon. I'm on meds, I'm taking them, but nothing is really helping. Does anyone have any idea how to help, I'm getting desperate


r/Anxietyhelp 17h ago

Need Advice anxiety randomly making me feel like i ran a mile and the feeling lasts forever

3 Upvotes

Been happening the most in the mornings but my anxiety makes me feel the feeling after running a mile after you’ve finally caught your breath but you can still feel it in your chest. my physically body also just feels exhausted just the same, like i’m struggling to put 1 foot in front of the other, bc my whole body just feels worn out.

dos anybody experience this and now how to deal with it?


r/Anxietyhelp 18h ago

Discussion What is your health anxiety currently hyperfixated on?

4 Upvotes

I had unprotected sex with someone new and ever since, I’ve been stuck in this cycle of convincing myself I have something. Every little thing feels like a sign.

Literally the other day I was deep in my own head, fully convincing myself I had it, and then out of nowhere a reel started playing on my dad’s phone and said the exact word I’m terrified of. It’s just fueling my anxiety.

I feel like I hear or see that word everywhere. Sometimes it’s not even there, but my brain thinks it is. If it is there, my eyes lock onto it instantly. I even catch myself avoiding saying certain things because my brain is convinced I’ll somehow manifest it.

I’m getting tested after the window period, but the waiting is honestly the hardest part. Just wondering if anyone else’s health anxiety is fixated on something right now too.


r/Anxietyhelp 19h ago

Need Advice Heart Attack VS Stroke VS Panic Attack

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2 Upvotes

r/Anxietyhelp 22h ago

Need Advice Is this GERD, or is my health anxiety creating it? A month-long journey and a strange thing that happened tonight

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2 Upvotes

r/Anxietyhelp 22h ago

Need Advice I feel completely discarded by everyone (and have been my whole life)

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2 Upvotes

r/Anxietyhelp 23h ago

Discussion Have you seen anyone in your life cured from excessive anxiety?

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2 Upvotes

r/Anxietyhelp 23h ago

Need Help Im scared of ww3 but I want to feel safe in my country

12 Upvotes

Ive posted it in one other subreddit already but I wanted more people to help..Im 16yo. I've been having nightmares of missiles flying etc and it keeps me up at night all the time.

Russia-ukraine, Israel+Usa-Iran..and recently even Germany raised their safe levels to high-risk..I'm from Slovakia. But I'm very scared that one day there will be missiless flying. I really want not to worry.

Cause right now I'm very safe but I mean, what if usa will attack all europe? And China will get involved..in my country, we don't have any military base for them to even destroy, but they could still attack us, right? I just have a bad feeling that something horrible will happen. *I just want to feel safe in my country. Yes they dont have a reason to attack such a small country but..*


r/Anxietyhelp 1d ago

Need Help Anxiety, panic and endoscopy?

2 Upvotes

Has anyone with anxiety, panic, pvc, pac gone through an endoscopy (with sedation)?
Please share your experience and safety regarding that!


r/Anxietyhelp 1d ago

Need Advice Non-medication Tips/vent

2 Upvotes

I recently left a toxic job that I think, over time, really wrecked my nervous system. For the last year ish I have had really bad anxiety/OCD thoughts and tendencies. Mine is specifically health related (heart palpations, overanalyzing every feeling), but I can remember a time where I did not feel like this. When I am distracted, I do not have the symptoms, which leads me to believe it is anxiety related. Has anyone else felt something similar to this? I know everyone's body reacts to stress differently but it is like I cannot just calm down. Coloring and relaxing helps, but I am looking for other recommendations to help calm me down when I feel the symptoms come up. I just want to feel like my old self again!


r/Anxietyhelp 1d ago

Need Advice Began experimenting in college and now my social anxiety is really bad

2 Upvotes

Title is pretty self explanatory, i just started experimenting with different things like mdma, shrooms, that sort of thing this summer with a bunch of my friends that I’ve been raving with for years, but I’m about to go back this fall for my junior year at my SEC school that’s pretty conservative about this kind of stuff.

Before I began experimenting, I would hear of people doing cocaine here and when u heard of someone doing it, it was incredibly frowned upon and was “big news”. Granted I know of a bunch of people that do shrooms here, smoke a lot of weed, lots of people have drinking problems, but coming back to school after going to all of my raves this summer I have a lot of anxiety.

When I’m with my friends and in the rave scene, I’m pretty comfortable because people don’t judge u there, but going back to school for some reason I feel like everyone’s gonna be looking at me with a giant sign that says I do drugs on my back.

I guess this anxiety really is honestly ramping up because I just took a few friends from college who don’t really rave to a wooli show because they’ve been telling me they wanted to go to one of these things for a while, and I asked them if they wanted to try any of the things I had, and they said no, but the way they said it kind of threw me off, and then later in the night I asked if they wanted to go to afters and they again turned it down but they seemed kind of uncomfortable in the way they said it despite seeming like they had a super fun time throughout the night.

I’ve never dealt with this kind of anxiety before, because usually I don’t care what others think, I mean this is my life not theirs why would I limit my experiences because of a select few people’s judgement, but now that I’m actually going back knowing people from my school have been talking about my festival and rave goings (my Instagram stories always get 100+ reshares when I post me at them, but there’s never any suspicious behavior in the videos) I feel like everyone’s gonna think something bad of me or I’m gonna feel isolated from groups.


r/Anxietyhelp 1d ago

Need Help How do I help my boyfriend?

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2 Upvotes

r/Anxietyhelp 1d ago

Need Advice What do you want to do so bad that absolutely terrifies you??

5 Upvotes

I have chronic vestibular migraines with bad anxiety. I want to go on a beach vacation so bad. But it scares the living hell out of me to get through the airport to get an Uber to get to where I need to go. And all out spend my vacation by myself making all the decisions by myself.


r/Anxietyhelp 1d ago

Need Help Anxiety affecting my sleep

10 Upvotes

I’m writing this as I am currently coming off of one of the worst sleeps I’ve had lol. The title is sort of what it is, is that when I have things that I know I need to get done or things that are just on mind, no matter how much I tell myself that I will get it done or that I don’t need to worry about it, my anxiety still goes through the roof. When I first go to sleep, I usually feel fine because I tell myself that everything is fine and that I don’t need to worry but then I guess my subconscious after a couple of hours tells me otherwise because I’ll wake up with my heart racing and head pounding, and sick feeling in my stomach that doesn’t allow me to sleep soundly again or sometimes even go back to sleep.

So I’m sort of just wondering if there is anything I can do to sort of help myself lower my anxiety or just reduce this from happening because it makes it so difficult to do anything in the day after with the way it leaves me feeling.


r/Anxietyhelp 1d ago

Need Help Panic and Heartbeat

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3 Upvotes

r/Anxietyhelp 1d ago

Need Help Suffocating

2 Upvotes

im still so anxious i dont know how to calm myself. i did everything i was told. my anxiety is because of my upcoming exam. im behind amd i made myself a new plan to prepare and i even went back to my parents home befause i felt lonely and i thought i would feel less anxious being woth my family, but im still so anxious, which is kinda distracting when studying. i just dont know what to do anymore


r/Anxietyhelp 1d ago

Need Advice I need advice if I should get a restraining order against my sister and dad

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2 Upvotes

r/Anxietyhelp 1d ago

Personal Experience Thinking of people around me as NPCs has helped my anxiety a LOT when I’m out in public.

7 Upvotes

I have issues with thinking people are judging me in public, even for very minor things like getting gas, and lately I’ve been thinking of people as NPCs in a game and it’s helped shape them in my head as just people passing by…strange but very helpful to me.


r/Anxietyhelp 1d ago

Need Advice Anxiety

2 Upvotes

Hi, this for all seniors and peers, I really need help. I have my unis in 10 days and i cannot stop being anxious. I know a lot of people date during med school and im one of them, have been dating since the past two years, the last year was ldr and this year he’s moved to a new college in mumbai and the class ratio of girls to boys is well 53 girls 7 guys, and 6 of those guys look and talk like shit. I hope you see where im getting with this. I keep spending my time trying to feel better and distract myself and i just cant study, i feel so bad because ive done well throughout the year and i dont want this to change anything. This is more emotional than related to studying to be honest but i need to learn how to be more secure or maybe i need to learn how to sit with it all and still continue working, i know this seems like a minor issue to a lot of you reading this but trust me its not, that guy is my only friend,ever. Hes been my backbone.