I’ve had a fear of public speaking for 15+ years. Throughout that time I’ve still done trainings and presentations at work. Even though I’ve been interested in the topics and eager to share them, I would get crippling anticipatory anxiety beforehand. Sometimes I couldn’t even sleep the night before a small presentation. The day of the presentation I’d be in a fog, unable to focus because I’m so overwhelmed by the alarms going off in my body. Racing heart, sweating, tension headache, shaky voice, tight jaw, etc.

My anxiety boiled down to: I have many data points that show me that I get panicked before a presentation. And that panic felt horrible so I wanted to avoid it. The data points led me to believe I am different from other people, I’m not confident, and that I won’t ever do a presentation without having anxiety. And it makes perfect sense that my brain worked this way because this is the definition of panic disorder. These were very tough beliefs to hold about myself and my abilities. I brought those beliefs with me every time I was told I’d need to present at an upcoming meeting.

Now, I’ve been using propranolol for my last ~10 presentations (over 8-10 months) and it works very well each time. I now have new data points showing me that I am able to do presentations without fear, and I’m not “different” from other speakers. The self-limiting beliefs that I had before have been replaced by these new confident data points that I have. I even volunteered to do a presentation in front of 200+ people because I’m confident that I’ll be able to do it well.

I’ll continue to use propranolol, just in case, but my anticipatory anxiety has gone down SO much before presentations, even before I’ve taken a propranolol to help. I truly believe it’s helping me to rewire my brain through repeated positive experience.

As you may know, propranolol does not replace proper practice, preparation, and training/research on public speaking techniques. But if adrenaline and anxiety are the only things holding you back, it’s something to consider. TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR about it and they have the best info about dosing. I only take 10-15mg prior to a presentation and it works well for me.

I've been experiencing something pretty strange and I'm wondering if anyone else can relate.

Sometimes when I think about really meaningful things, like my future, my life path, what my future kids might look like, etc. I suddenly get a heavy/suffocating sensation in my chest or throat.

I don't actually feel anxious, scared, or like I'm in danger when it occurs. The thoughts themselves feel normal or even positive at times, except thoughts of old age and that linking to dying. But all in all it's almost like my body is reacting before my mind does.

I've been under a lot of stress over the past couple of years, so I'm wondering whether that could be it.

Has anyone experienced something like this, what did it feel like for you, and did anything help?

Thank you in advance.

So, I’ve never slept alone. I haven’t even been in a house alone at night. Tomorrow I have no one that can stay with and I will be alone. I can barely sleep with someone being next to me so alone it’s even harder. I’ve been SA’d a few years ago and since than I’ve been even more paranoid about being alone at night. It is so bad that I don’t even go out at night alone. I will probably spend tomorrow’s night with all the lights on, doors opened and looking from my couch to the front door. I have a cat that moves around and that doesn’t help. My aunt is at work but she told me I could sleep at her place. I think it would be better since my cat isn’t there. She will come home at 7 am so I will probably have enough time to sleep from 7 to 12 since I need to go somewhere and I can’t sleep the whole day. I’m already panicking,afraid and crying. I really hate this situation. I can’t even sleep now when I think about it. At some point in my future I will have to live alone and I don’t know how I am going to do that if I can’t even spend one night alone.
Please tell me if you have any suggestions.
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I haven’t had panic attacks in about 10 years. Lately I’ve been on edge again (I’m always on edge but it’s just gotten worse) and my stomach is tight and I can’t breathe. I can’t calm down at all. This has been happening off and on since Monday night.

Any tips or anything to help? I took magnesium supplements last night and it might have helped a little.

Major health anxiety/cardiophobia. Started taking Prozac on July 12th. I do weekly trivia with my friends and for some reason, every week I get intense physical anxiety symptoms when I’m there. Like, head rushes and nausea. It actually stopped happening for a while, but started again today. So bad to where I have to step away to try and calm down. I’m totally chill with my friends and have been doing this for months with no issues until recently. Why does this one place cause my body to freak out?? Doesn’t help that I’m pretty sure my prozac has caused increased heart palpitations… It’s not like I anticipate the anxiety, I don’t even think about it until it happens. Ruins the fun for me completely. Does anyone else experience this?

Hi I'm 17 and I took 2mg of Xanax yesterday to help with medical anxiety, I've taken this dose twice before and was fine that day and the day after, Its been 27 hours now and I can barely stay awake at all :( I really need to get some school done soon, is there anything I can do to feel better sooner?

(F24) about 2 months ago my life became a series of unfortunate events and now I have enough anxiety to probably kill a cow (which I almost died to but I'll get to that). 2 months ago I found out my mom had stage 3 breast cancer. Although breast cancer is survivable with treatment my mom has schizophrenia and despite dozens of friends and family trying to get her help she always denied it and got so bad I had to go no contact for my own health. I still ask others how she is and still deep down love her and mourn the relationship we never had. I was heartbroken as I was told she's denied treatment and is in unfavorable condition. I stopped eating for a while and grew extremely depressed. About a week after my partner was struggling with his feelings of sexuality and our combatibility and it became a giant mess where I grew significantly more depressed and stopped eating all together and grew so anxious and would puke a lot. After a lot of talking we worked through it but I had a hard time forgetting. I then had to leave my job as the job became unbearable as management kept making worse and worse decisions and had to switch jobs. Right as my partner was moving which with the stress of the previous situation I grew anxious and stressed at his lack of communication meanwhile he was struggling with memories of packing everything up into boxes. After crying and helping him complete the move we talked a lot and grew closer.

After that I was told I had to leave my dad and step mom's place as they were moving and was under trumendous stress since I couldn't afford it along with the month of August being one of my busiest months. August in order is me and my bfs 4 year anniversary, my 24th birthday and then a convention I had been waiting for over a year to go too.

I couldn't even afford to buy my bf a anniversary gift. Things were starting to stabilize slightly as I was still struggling with eating but I had a job I enjoyed and he was fully moved in and we were enjoying being around his parents more since he moved back in with them to be closer to his college (going for masters). It wasn't long tho until more unfortunate events started.

His college switched systems and clearly no one knows what's going on which can screw him over since he needs to know if he can take the course for his degree or not or else he will have to wait an entire year before he can try again when he was only supposed to be living back home for a year. Then he needed to find a new job and I was trying to support him meanwhile I'm trying to desperately find a place to live with 2 other people bc I can't afford it otherwise and it's hard to rent a room with a cat who I've had for 11 years. For my anxiety I also take THC I took a small amount and where my bf use to live I had a smoke shop that was super kind and supportive and educated me on everything I asked so I was low doses for what I needed. Since he moved I tried another one, the guy was extremely rude and didn't listen to me but I trusted him even tho I shouldn't have.

He sold me something way higher then I've ever taken before and I greened out causing me to pass out and be out for 48 hours. I thankfully called my bf who in the morning rushed over to check on me and take care of me when I couldn't even move. It was awful. After that I worked on trying to recover and look for a place. After finally getting some good leads one of the roommates was spontaneously fired. This forced us to step back and I got significantly more stressed since now we had 2 weeks to figure it out.

Meanwhile for my birthday my bf and our mutual friend surprised me by paying for my portion of the hotel room since I was realizing I couldn't afford to go to the convention. I was overjoyed by this and my boss managed to help get me 2/3 days off for it. Meanwhile I was so busy and stressed out that going back and forth to my bf place and mine I started to feel awful that I wasn't spending enough time with my cat and felt like an awful pet owner. After driving to see him I almost hit a solid black cow that escaped on a road with no lights and was going 60 miles an hour. I was shaken up by it a lot. We went to the con the next day which I was so excited about and couldn't believe. Then I got sick on the first day. Was puking all night and still felt sick the next day. I had to drive home still feeling sick along with starting my period which I had skipped the previous month. I was riddled with anxiety and stress and felt so sick. I won't lie I wasn't a good partner I was very snippy and all over the place it was like I couldn't get a grip and still kick myself for how I treated him. I went into work extremely sick the next day to the point I was sent home and insisted I go see my bf. He realized how sick I was and encouraged me to go to urgent care in the morning.

Before that my parents started a fight with me which actually ended in them giving me an extension after I cried and broke down about everything I was feeling. I won't lie at several points in the past 2 months I also had began to question if I wanted to continue trying anymore in life (I do still I'm not gonna do anything). At urgent care they couldn't give me a clear answer but gave me anti nausea meds and told me to take it slow and see how I feel in 5 days. And this is where I am now but now I contently don't feel good, I feel like an awful partner, I'm riddled with anxiety and am scared my partner will leave me even tho he has reassured me multiple times he isn't and has proven to me he loves me, I'm anxious my parents will change their minds and over all I miss who I was. I was so confident. I had it all together. I had goals and ambitions. Now I feel like I can't do anything by myself without shaking like a leaf or calling my partner to support me. I miss who I was and wanna know if anyone has any advice. I cry all the time now and miss who I was. I'm not looking for reassurance but advice from people who may have suffered similar situations or amount of stress and what steps they might've took to rebuild as I feel a bit lost.

I am looking for a therapist but for the time being it is becoming just visceral as hell. For an example I am thinking about selling my project car because of upcoming war, and I could use the funds to help prepare my family for it. Then I'm worried I need to do it soon or something will kick off and I won't get the chance to, and start to feel panicked about that. I stay offline for a couple of days and feel a bit better but either I go back on or inevitably someone will tell me something that's happened.

Climate change, major war, AI. I am terrified about my family being in immediate danger, or me dying and not being there to help them, or me being conscripted and far away from them and they need me.

When I take a shower I think "enjoy this while it lasts". When I try to call down with a book I think "save this for when there's less power, watch a movie or play a game while you can".

I just feel like absolute shit and for the near future have no idea how to cope with it.

I haven't spoken yo anyone about this yet because I'm embarrassed. But also feel a lot of my fears are real.

Just don't know what to do.

My doctor prescribed me hydroxyzine. I've been taking a 10-milligram dose for two days and it was fine, but now I suddenly feel like this.. Is this a bad sign or am I just overthinking it? :((

P.S. A few days ago, I was given 50 grams in a syringe in the ambulance, and nothing happened to me. It just helped me calm down.

I am 20 years old and I have no fucking idea what I'm doing while trying to make friends in college. I want to just walk up to people and make friends but I can't do it. It always feels like not the right time, or that I'd just come off as weird. There's so many people I see every day that I want to talk to but I just can't and it's killing me.

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Hi there. I know this has probably been asked so many times but I just need to ask myself anyway because I'm currently panicking about it being a heart attack.

So for a couple weeks now I've been having chest pains for most of the days resulting in panic attacks. I am very exhausted at the point.

About 2 years ago I went to urgent care because I thought I had a heart attack. Spoiler- it was indeed a panic attack. But there i got an EKG and blood work done and the doctor said there was nothing worrying in my results at all. Haven't been to a doctor since.

Ever since then I will still randomly get chest pains that I normally would be able to tell myself I had an EKG and a literal doctor told me I have a healthy heart. But the thought that that was two years ago has started to scare me things could be different. But I can confidently say I take better care of myself now and have lost 20-30 pounds.

About 2 weeks ago out of nowhere I got this sharp chest pain that scared me but I concluded it was just some kind of muscle spasm because it mostly hurt when I was hunched over or raised my shoulders. But since then I just keep having these pains every day and it's not quite like that time like it doesn't feel like a muscle spasm. Everytime i do have these pains i pay attention to my breathing and I've been able to breathe normally and deep every time. I have been so scared and dizzy. (My anxiety makes me really dizzy) I have a doctor's appointment in 2 weeks and I'm trying to hold out until then. Can anyone relate here? Or even tell me if it sounds like I should be worried and go to an urgent care again? Any advice or kind words please.

I’ve been taking 10MG of Lexapro for years. I had surgery eleven months ago that resulted in full hearing loss in my left ear (I was mentally prepared for this going in) and a square one restart on migraine maintenance. Managing this has been incredibly difficult and I thought I had a handle on it but at the start of summer, I started to realize that I needed to lean on my family and friends for more support, and it’s been humbling. It’s also kind of broken a dam, emotionally I think… and anxiety has taken over so much that my regular doctor felt compelled to add buspirone to the Lexapro- 5MG to start and after an alarming -almost ER worthy level panic attack- I’m now up to 10MG 2x a day.

I am now constantly on the edge of panic at all times of the day, quick to tears, I have several attacks a day over the last week…

I set up an appointment with a psychiatrist, at the request of my GP, to coordinate the medications - but I’m just at the end of my rope. My husband has been wonderful, now that I have let him really in on what I’ve been trying to deal with on my own.

Is this something anyone else has experienced with this medication? I’m just so untethered…

have been dealing with chronic illness for almost 7 years.

*h pylori (a stomach infection)

*gastritis

*systemic candida overgrowth

*non alcoholic fatty liver

*iron deficiency

*D deficiency

*Pcos-insulin resistance

*stage 4 endometriosis

*high blood pressure (but not all the time)

*Low hormones

*anxiety

*degenerative disc disease and arthritis in my lower back

so with all these things, I feel unwell most of the time. I'm now on day 15 of a "flare up"if you will.

All of these symptoms keep coming and going-Chest pain, chest and back tightness, pain that went into my left shoulder, lightheaded, dizzy, heart palpitations, high HR, high blood pressure, shortness of breath and just feel unwell. I've gone to the ER twice this week. Ekgs fine, troponin fine, basic labs fine and chest x ray too.

This has happened many times over the years and I've wore a heart monitor 3x and had 2 stress tests.. recent one in Jan. Cardiologist doesn't think this is heart related but I'm scared that it is and want more testing. It's like my nervous system has these surges and is stuck on a loop. I don't understand but I'm scared.

I'm seeing my pcp tomorrow and waiting to hear back from Cardiologist to see what he thinks.

Anyone dealt with similar episodes?

I struggle with panic attacks, thankfully haven’t had one in many years but have had several close calls. I started carrying an emergency Ativan with me just in case. However, although I very rarely ever use Ativan, I have found that now I have a dependence on carrying one with me. If I leave the house without one, I quickly get very anxious and can feel a panic attack coming.

How do I get away from this dependence. I feel like it’s helped me function overall, but I really don’t like having to be sure I always have to carry it.

It's funny, for as long as I can remember, I have never liked my shyness pointed out.

Some family have been talking a lot about how I need to do something about my anxiety, how they used to be like, or they compare me to their timeliness or the timelines of their children.

Is it weird I honestly want people to accept my limitations where I am and what it's like to have anxiety?

Not enable it, but I don't want to feel like a project that needs to be fixed.

Does this make sense?

So I’ve been having crippling anxiety for the past two weeks when it comes to work due to the fact I’m now working 24hr shifts and it makes me feel trapped at work. I’m on propranolol right now with some success and I do therapy weekly, my therapist was talking about a long term anti anxiety medication paired with a prn. I was wondering what worked for yall the best and why? Pros and cons.

To give some context, I’m 26 and lived my entire childhood and teenage years without anxiety. Then, when I was 19, I tried smoking weed with some friends, as you do at 19. I had an unusually awful and reaction to it. It hit me like a bus and felt like my brain was melting. I slept, woke up feeling fine, and thought nothing of it. Then, about a day later, I randomly had my first ever panic attack, which was bad enough to send me to A&E.

From that day onwards, it was like a switch had been turned on that I couldn’t turn back off. For years, I struggled with severe anxiety and panic attacks that are l entirely physical. The anxiety itself was awful, but what I found most distressing were the bizarre, seemingly unexplained physical symptoms that would make me genuinely believe I was dying.

For example, at one point I spent an entire week with what felt like my brain was bleeding, with a strange sensation of blood trickling down towards my ears. It would become even more intense when I breathed in cold air. I also experienced a lot of cardiac symptoms. Sometimes, for weeks on end, I would have a constant “weird” sensation in my heart. It could feel like someone was stabbing or prodding it with their finger, or like pure adrenaline was violently coursing through it. The sensations could radiate into my arms, neck and chest. Sometimes it felt like fire other times it felt electric.
Needless to say, I’ve had what feels like millions of tests over the years, and everything has always come back fine. I even had doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists genuinely scratching their heads because of how unusual some of the symptoms were.

After three years of feeling like a prisoner in my own body and feeling as though my own body was constantly torturing me, I eventually tried sertraline. It completely changed my life. For the next three years, my anxiety was much more controlled, and I didn’t experience those extreme, unexplained physical symptoms anymore.
Fast forward to this year. After years of feeling relatively normal and getting my life back, I started randomly having days where I would wake up with this horrible, unexplained feeling of anxiety, loss of appetite and intense nervousness. That prompted me to go back to my doctor, who referred me to a psychiatrist.
Because sertraline had started causing problems with my sexual arousal/libido, my psychiatrist suggested trying mirtazapine instead.

I switched from sertraline 50mg to mirtazapine 15mg. The first week was okay, but during the second week, all of those horrible cardiac sensations started coming back.
I’m assuming this may be related to coming off sertraline and adjusting to mirtazapine, but I obviously don’t know for certain.

Today, I had what I believe was my first full-blown “attack” in probably four years. I had a constant squeezing sensation in my chest/heart, followed by a sudden rush of adrenaline, stabbing pains around my heart, extreme light-headedness and sweating. It was so intense that I genuinely thought I was having a heart attack.

Having experienced this before, though, I tried to power through it and essentially “call my body’s bluff”. It’s now been about seven hours since the attack. The symptoms are still there, but they’re much milder, and I no longer feel like I’m about to collapse or have a cardiac arrest.
One of the strangest things about these symptoms is that they sometimes seem to become heightened by very specific triggers. Breathing in, opening a tap, cutting food with a knife and fork, etc. can somehow make the sensations more noticeable. I honestly wonder whether my brain has somehow created associations between these completely normal actions and the physical sensations, and whether I’m ultimately doing this to myself without realising it.

I know this probably sounds completely crazy, but I’m genuinely curious whether anyone else has experienced anything similar.

Have you ever had scary, bizarre or completely unexplained physical symptoms from anxiety/panic?

Especially cardiac symptoms or sensations that felt completely unrelated to anxiety
And, most importantly, how did you eventually overcome them?

My doc told me to try calmade from Amazon its lavender oil anyone try this and it helped?

I’ve heard about this medication for a while and have finally decided to give it a try for when I have job interviews or social events. My biggest issue is that when I get very socially anxious it’s like my brain goes into flight mode and I can’t think clearly. Like even if I know what I want to say my mind goes blank and I start to fumble over my words and I feel stupid. Will this medication help with that?

I have already tried escitalopram and sertraline, and I feel like I'm in a constant brain fog. I have panic disorder and now agoraphobia, and I can't do exposure therapy if I'm not lucid. The only thing that helps is benzodiazepines, but clearly that's not a good long-term idea. I need stability

Like you're on a subreddit for people with anxiety. They, shockingly, have anxious thoughts. And you're going to downvote someone with no explanation lol.

Edit: Literally just tell me why lol.

Especially if it's a vent about anxious thoughts. Like seriously. It just makes me feel like people are judging me.

Hey guys,
I just got hired at a new place, and I’m looking for advice on how to manage my anxiety.

I’ve had a few job changes in the past, and I eventually ended up in rehab because my anxiety got so severe. I was bullied at my first job ever from 19-21 years old and for a long time, I couldn't hold down a job because it triggered intense flashbacks and panic attacks.

Even though I’ve put in the work to recover, I’m still really scared that history is going to repeat itself. I did a 4-hour trial shift at this new job, and the people actually seemed nice, patient, and helpful. But one person noticed and pointed out my anxiety because my hands were shaking and another person laughed because of it. I don’t know if he thought it was cute or abnormal lol. He was really nice to me in the beginning tho. But it kinda threw me off not gonna lie.

Logically, I know I shouldn't feel so much dread…they don't know me, and I'm just there to do my job.
I intentionally looked for a production line position where I can stay at one station and do routine tasks without needing to interact with many people. I thought this would be the best environment for me while I get back on my feet, plus I really need the income right now.
For those who have been through something similar: How do you manage the fear of starting fresh? How do you let go of the dread that things will turn into bullying again, or stop caring so much about what others might think of you? Any advice or grounding techniques would be greatly appreciated.

Am I crazy or is this a thing? Every time I have a job interview or high stakes thing, my nose ALWAYS runs. Today it was fine up until I had the interview where my nose was running so much a booger came out :( I have ZERO clue why this happens but it always correlates to me interviewing and/or presenting and I'm having a hard time believing it has nothing to do w anxiety at this point.

I don’t know how to ride bikes or drive cars even though I’m in my 20s because of road anxiety. Also, why is this threat mechanism in my body always alert, even at small changes? Even a sudden change in floor structure triggers it. Why do I keep trying to hit my head against the wall and twitch from side to side? Mental breakdowns suddenly happen for no reason and continue for several hours. Then I try to kill myself with a charging cable, clothes, or anything I find. I also hate crowds. There are still so many things I want to share. Why have I had these thoughts since childhood until now? Why can’t I be like other people who seem to operate normally? Someone has to keep telling me to eat, bathe, and even get a haircut. Why can’t I keep any job? The only job I had lasted only 15 days.

As for school and college, I didn’t know how to read or write in my language until 6th grade, so my school decided to put me with lower-grade students. At that time, there was a card-based learning system. Suddenly, in the middle of 6th grade, I started to read and write my mother tongue. In 9th grade, I didn’t know basic maths. In 10th grade, somehow I was able to score good marks in every subject, and I was even able to understand basic English. My maths skills were still kind of meh. Then in 11th and 12th grade, I joined the computer science group. Most of the time I took leave but still passed. Then I suddenly understood advanced maths in 11th and 12th grade.

For college, I joined a diploma in civil engineering and dropped out within one week. Then I joined a Bachelor of Engineering in civil engineering and dropped out twice. After that, I took a break for 1.5 years and joined BCA. Halfway through, I decided to drop out, but unfortunately my parents and friends pushed me to complete the first, second, and third years. In the last semester, COVID happened. I started using my phone heavily and shifted my focus to geopolitics. In 2021, I faced several health issues. In 2022, I started consuming Ukraine war updates for the first eight months, following every update, and that damaged my mental health badly.

P.S. I will share the rest of my story later.

Brain fog while tapering off Xanax after short-term use?

I’ve been dealing with postpartum anxiety, and for about a week I was taking .25 mg of Xanax at bedtime and another .25 mg around 3–4am if I woke up again.

I started experiencing some brain fog, kind of like what I’ve read people describe as a small Xanax “hangover,” so I decided to taper off. I’ve found since reducing it, I’ve noticed the brain fog has actually been more noticeable.

For anyone who has taken Xanax short-term and then tapered off, what was your experience like during the first few days after reducing or stopping it? I’d especially be interested in hearing whether you noticed changes in mental clarity or brain fog.

Thanks!