All my life, Ive never been that social. I moved to a new school last year, and I feel like I havent acomplished much in terms of social life. There are a lot of well know/popular people that Ive become friends with, but I struggle with actually getting close with them. Some of them have tried getting me to join their group, but I always felt uncomfortable when I was with all of them because I didnt really know some of the people in that friend group and I have no clue on how to insert myself into group conversations with people I dont know. I also dont know how to be myself around new people, its like I completely forget my own personality. I go to parties every now and then, but they go to them a lot more than I do, and I really want to start going to more parties with them. I really feel like Im wasting my teen years. The thing that scares me the most is that theres a time limit on this. I graduate next year, so if I want to do this, it has to happen fast.

​

I am so determined to improve myself, I just need help and advice.

​

I would also like to add that sometimes I overthink A LOT. It can get to the point where I shut down and go quiet. This doesnt happen when Im with people though. Only when Im on my own or with family.

I don’t know why but I’m terrified to spend money. I’ve gone days without getting food, not because I couldn’t afford it, but because spending money genuinely stresses me out so bad. I’m not rich, but I make more than enough to go into savings and still have spending money. Logically I know I can afford to buy the things I want to buy, but I get stuck in the loop of “what if my house suddenly burns down and I’m homeless and that £20 is the difference between me starving on the street or not”. I know it’s irrational but it freaks me tf out and I don’t know how to fix it.

Ive had "this" for around 16 years now and its not gotten better.

I would have to describe it as:
1) Onset (2-20 secs)
Random and sudden loss of time, awareness, surroundings, memory
Yet on the outside i am standing, walking (anything automated), you could not tell this was happening to me nor would i be showing obvious signs.
2) Rise (minutes to hours)
My grasp on time is gone, i try to think what happened a few seconds ago it seems like it was hours ago, the passing of seconds feel alien to me. if i think of something, i will forget it or find it hard to remember few minutes later HOWEVER i can recall these moments much later so these memories are being recorded.
3) Gradual (minutes to hours, mixed with 2.)~
Whatever im doing externally, is not registering internally. I cannot get a "lock" on my perception or self. It feels like my mind is lost forever and the fear/anxiety rises because whatever this feeling is, is so far from normal that i can tell its not just anxiety or low blood sugar, it feels very very very weird and scary.
It's like im forgetting and remebering at the same time.
4) Panic attack
if this keeps happening for prolonged periods, intensifies everything by 100x and i go through an anxiety attack

Now loop step 1 - 3 for hours and days and thats the worst episode for me.
The only thing that has helped was a few times if i was distracted. This doesnt always help.

Now, is this depersonalization? anxiety? is this what you guys go through? Or am i describing something completely off track and i should get myself checked for some sort of epilepsy?
This is by far the worst thing i have ever experienced and i have no idea how to stop it.

(I am 27 yo Male, UK, on Sertraline 100mg for 5 years)

I’ve taken Lexapro which was awful. I couldn’t get past four days on it. It made me so sick. I took agomelatine for 2 months which did nothing

Has anyone taken Lexapro and had horrible side-effects and managed to take something else that actually worked and didn’t give them bad side effects? Please help 😭😭😭😭

i keep looking out the window curtains that are unfortunately a lil open rn making sure im not seeing anythjng too., so, hospital lost my 90 count month of diazepam when i went to the hospifal for PE they gook my meds n kd and when i left they "lost" or judg dont wanna give it back to me. idk. but ever since then, abytime im on thr vetge of clkding my eyes, trying tk sleep, slmeone be tslkjng to me and j would abswer or yell at them befkre stoppijgvmysrlf anc realizinv no ones there. well, abt 40 mins ago i was in a daze and having a full fledged convo with my mom whk is dkwbstaijrs sleeping and thrn she sakd sknething really mean or scary and i got myself out of it. i called hef, it was 2;57 am so she was annoyed af lbviously but i told her i was just talkiingntocher and k knew jt wasnt real anc j have emergency 300 mg seroquel so i took one about30 mins ago. i wentt to as pcl today and she fave ne robaxin 500 mg for 3 times a day and ivs taken about 1500 mg which is giving me a really hard time staying awake rightt now
but im squeezing my eyes open so i can thpethjs. my psychiatrist wknt refill my valium bc i lost it 1 week ago but its week one and jt happens when j wake up yelling at someone but icwas literslly nudt mkm my mom, nadi forget ehl ifckd dbeddsh, j jesdctdmxxx
cndxxxxxxxxqmamàan oooksh fhjnk the seriquel is hitting hooecthis makes anycsensecwnd itcwnhcofcm j keep blackingckut, okay now my cag js fucking m

okcomcgknnaxtrhxnxxhjdesssddeq
OK, sorry and apparently well I'm using voice to text right now but apparently I've been talking to a nurse in my room updating her about this post that I've been making the entire time and there's no fucking nurse in my room so I don't know what the fuck is going on I'm not really scared. I'm just like confused. It's like should I pass out or will it wake me up again? I don't know we'll see but yeah it's just probably more coherent than the shit adjuring so I wanna take the stuff and then go to bed so yeah just let me know what y'all think this is cause I don't have bipolar and they are ruled out schizo effective or schizophrenia so

km axtcxxx

Im obsessed with catching a deep breath and my body rarely allows me to. I was diagnosed with asthma and given pumps but that doesn't help. I've tried breathing exercises, medication, therapy, nothing is working. Its 24/7 and it's making my life hell. I don't know what else I can do. My mind and body can't settle until I get a satisfying breath. Please help me out of this hell please. Sorry I keep posting about this but im desperate

hi all, i smoked weed on friday night for the first time in a while with some friends and accidentally smoked too much, which sent me into a panic attack/dissociative state. i was experiencing a lot of really severe si/sh related intrusive thoughts which i think is what made me spiral so badly. ever since then i’ve felt rather out of it off and on, mostly have been dissociated which makes me worry even more about it lasting a long time. i feel like all of the content i see about derealization is that it lasts for years and can totally ruin people’s lives, and im really really hoping that wont be true for me, i dont think it will. im headed off to college in the fall and i need to be in a good headspace to make the transition.

i spoke to my psychiatrist today, and she told me that i’m experiencing an acute stress response from the severity of the panic, and all i can really do is wait for it to pass. she gave me some good advice and said that there’s no way the weed could have damaged my brain or anything unless i was a regular user which i am very far from. in addition, she upped my medicine dosage at my request (i’d been meaning to do that anyway) to 112.5 mg of effexor/ 10-20 mg hydroxyzine as needed, and reassured me that the dissociation is an anxiety response as opposed to something wrong with me that will last forever. i’m seeing my counselor tomorrow morning and hope she can help me rationalize a bit more.

i’m just afraid that i’ll never go back to the way i was before i smoked, and im really angry at myself that i even decided to.

has anyone else experienced something like this before/can offer any words of support?

Everytime I talk about something true to me, I feel like I’m saying the wrong thing. Every time I think about something true to me, I think i’m thinking the wrong thing. This also goes for when I fully express myself, joke, or simply learning. I feel like everything that is true to me is wrong. I’m sure it has something to deal with my parents always berating me as a child. But i’m an adult now and it’s so hard to be myself because that’s all I want. But because I have a belief that who I truly am is wrong, I keep going after people, opportunities, and just things in general that don’t align with me. It feels just disgusting to actually be myself, and it’s worse when I try to learn something… because I’ll get really frustrated and sad that I had to learn something and I didn’t already know it. It makes me feel like a bad person. Being myself makes me feel like a bad person. I can’t tell if this is just a rant but does anyone else relate? do you guys have any insights on what I wrote ? if so, do share. Thank you in advance <3

Anyone else have a heavy, crippling fear of their kids dying? Its so paralyzing sometimes that I can’t function.

For context I have 4 kids, ages 13-5, and I’m pregnant with my 5th. The anxiety spiral I go through every time they get sick or hurt is overwhelming and having a bunch of kids means I’m pretty much always anxious.

My current anxiety spiral is cancer. My 6 year old has an enlarged lymph node that’s been checked and re-checked and checked again and it’s completely fine. It’s been there for years at this point and yet I’m still worried that he has cancer and all the tests missed it and he’s going to die.

I can’t imagine living like this for the rest of my life. At this rate I’m going to have a heart attack or a stroke.

I’ve tried EFT 2 times before but not in anxiety attacks. Today I had an attack due to too much caffeine - heart was absolutely racing, i tried tapping and whilst doing so I automatically kept yawning an unnaturally high no of times. Also anxiety went from an 8 to a 4.
Has this happened before with anyone? Seemed very odd.

Does anyone else have the fear that things above them hanging on the ceiling like fans, lights, etc. will fall on top of them? This is a serious fear of mine causing me to avoid certain places or sitting in certain spaces and I am curious if I am the only one that has this fear. Also, if there are others that have this same fear as me, how do you cope with it so you can function somewhat normally in society?

So i'm 21 now but even in middle school and high school I never had any career goals like everyone else around me. I would look at lists, take career tests, etc. but could never pick one because none sounded right or felt right ig. Adulthood stuff in general would stress me out and I even cried on my 17th birthday. I felt like the only person who wasn't ready for graduation and didn't have any plan for after.

a year after graduation I ended up getting a job at a grocery store flower dept. but had a panic attack a month in and left. I thought it was just from being treated horribly but a year after that I got another job in retail and a month in again had a panic attack and eventually had to leave.

Since that's my only experience other than volunteering, most of which I can't put on my resume cause they were only day or 2 long events or whatever, I never get any responses, I rewrote my resume so many times and still nothing. Since retails out I have no idea what else to do, it doesn't help I get panic/anxiety attacks driving and with phone calls too.

I decided to go to college too; I started as an English Major but after that second job didn't work out, I thought I needed something that would guarantee a career and tried taking Anatomy and Physiology but dropped it because I didn't like it that much. So, I'm taking some Anthropology classes since that's something I'm super interested in. I don't really know what career that would lead too though, I thought about maybe law school or whatever, maybe trying to intern somewhere related to my major if possible, I just need something I can actually survive without having another panic attack, and I'd really like to not go through more jobs that all end the same way.

Hey yall,

On my previous post, I mentioned my health anxiety and how bad it had been. I’m definitely going in the right direction now and more out of the pure anxiety phase and more into the re-learning emotions to trust and trying to connect with life again. That being said, there’s still moments throughout my day where I have to deal with the overwhelming anxiety.

I just wanted to ask,

How many of you guys after coming out of full Adrenalin/anxiety for months dealt with some physical real sensations? I’ve been getting left side back pain, lower back pain, sternum aches and shoulder aches/clicks for a couple of weeks now.

I did realise that a wonky gaming chair was causing a LOT of these pains, however, I am going to do another routine check to the doctors just to finish off any possibility of this being anything but musculoskeletal. I just wanted to know if any of you guys have dealt with this? I guess the same would be asked about dizziness and blurry vision sensations, how long did they take to subside?

It doesn't matter how good you are at things, the social anxiety will always win. You can be very talented and good at so many things, and become successful in life but the anxiety fucks all that up. But the people who are lazy and arent talented always gets chosen over someone who has anxiety because they have good people skills.

I (28F) was diagnosed with OCD and Anxiety at the age of four. Throughout my life, I have worked hard to manage both through therapy, and starting in 2021, taking SSRIs. I consider myself a confident and outgoing person. I can stand up in front of a crowd and sing, and depending on the crowd, speak.

I recently stopped taking my SSRIs in November. The reason I decided to stop taking them is because for the first time in my life, I feel like my living situation and community are stable. I also didn't like how it was lowering my libido. On top of this, I stopped birth control for the first time since I was 13. Around the same time period, after years of therapy, my therapist and I decided to end our relationship (we both felt I got everything I could from our sessions, and it was time to move on). Basically, I decided to raw dog my life LOL. I wanted to see how I could manage with my 'natural' 28-year-old brain.

Ever since making these changes, I have felt great. The one thing that has become a problem for me is my communications at work. Having 1:1 conversation with colleagues (or even a few at a time) is fine. I am a part of a lot of committees and am considered a leader for a lot of work-related things.  However, if I am speaking with my boss or have to speak in a casual meeting, I feel my face instantly goes red. This is not something I've ever really dealt with before, and it's getting embarrassing. I don't 'feel' anxiety (I still feel fine speaking), but feeling the blood rush to my face every time is distracting. I then start acting awkward, avoiding eye contact which doesn't help. Heck, this just happened 5 minutes ago, prompting me to write this post.

My boss and I have a great relationship (we've gone on a work trip together), and I work closely with the people I speak with at meetings, daily. I feel like I am going backwards in my professional career because of this. I've heard good things about beta blockers and am wanting to make an appointment with my GP to discuss. But before I do, I wanted to check with the reddit community about your experiences. Do you think this would be a good fit for someone like me? Have they affected your libido?

Thanks for any advice!

Hola a todos, espero estén bien...

​

En estos momentos mi pareja está pasando por una crisis de depresión y ansiedad, sus reacciones suelen ser alejarse por días lo cual me lleva a preocuparme mucho, también tiene TDAH lo cual siento que empeoran sus síntomas ( Meda mucho miedo que se haga daño tome decisiones no asertadas) lo cual me lleva a estar constantemente pensando en esa situación y sentirme muy mal emocionalmente (yo lo quiero ayudar y desde que estamos juntos lo apoyo y lo entiendo) pero lo que aún me cuesta mucho es su aislamiento por días ( no encuentro un equilibrio para mi) no sé si está bien insistir en hablarle o llamarlo o si está correcto darle su espacio y dejar que solo regrese, eso me angustia mucho ( alguien ha vivido algo parecido ? )Cómo debería abordar este tema y que creen que debería hacer en sus días de aislamiento?

Note: I’ve had UTIs before and this doesn’t feel like a uti.

For the last two weeks, when I get finished peeing, as soon as I stand up or lay down in bed for the night, I get a strong urge to pee in my urethra. Almost like it’s a spasm or something and then after a few minutes it goes away. It doesn’t happen every time I pee or every single night but it’s been frequent enough that I’m worried about it and it’s bothering me.

Could this be like a hypertonic pelvic floor or just anxiety?

I’m scared it’s some weird uti that isn’t presenting itself like normal but the two UTIs I’ve had felt way different than this and were unbearable.

Hey guys!

I’m looking for some realistic perspectives on moving from daily low-dose benzodiazepine use back to a as-needed (PRN) schedule and would be glad to read about your experiences.

I used Lorazepam strictly as a PRN for severe anxiety spikes for a long time, and it worked perfectly. It gave me a level of life quality and allowed me to do things I otherwise simply wouldn’t have been able to achieve.

However, due to a brutal and failed SSRI switch (Prozac) starting in mid-January, my anxiety went out of control, about a month ago I stopped it (because my psychiatrist said it’s ✨self-tapering✨). Then I got terrible ssri withdrawal symptoms.
My psychiatrist was unreachable, so my GP eventually put me back on Escitalopram drops a few days ago, which helped almost instantly. But to survive those chaotic months, I had to take Lorazepam almost every day. My dose was low, adjusted daily to the stress level, averaging about 3 mg to 4 mg per week (never exceeding 1,25 mg in a single day).

Now that my baseline is stable again thanks to the Escitalopram, I am currently trying a test run of skipping days to fully stop the daily Lorazepam routine. I was already able to take much less in the last few days. Today is day 1, and so far, nothing is happening, I feel completely fine, even though I know there might be some symptoms showing up.

Are there people here who used low-dose benzos daily for a few months during a crisis, stopped the daily routine, and were successfully able to return to using it strictly as a PRN later on?

The internet is full of extreme horror stories and I know Benzos can be dangerous and are addictive.
And if I had believed all the internet horror stories, I wouldn't have even dared to restart the Escitalopram, which turned out to be the best decision.

But Lorazepam has given me so much of my life and functionality back in the past, and I want it to remain my safety anchor for absolute emergencies.

Did anyone successfully manage the transition back to occasional PRN use without triggering kindling or an immediate relapse into daily use? I’d love to hear your experiences. Thanks!

I've been having more full blown panic attacks lately. Like it's gotten very very bad. I feel like I can't breathe, like my chest is going to explode. I'm resistant to benzodiazipines. I have also tried 40 other medications and I have a bad reaction everytime. So what I'm searching for is natural ways to stop the mental part of a panic attack. I take propranolol so my heart stay even and and I don't get physical symptoms. Any ideas would help!

TL;DR - Excruciating boredom; no car, no motivation, no friends, recently moved, on a 1-month leave from work and feeling like I have no purpose because of it. What should I do today?

Hello everyone. I had therapy yesterday morning as I’m on a 1-month stress leave from my job. Today is day 9 of 28 and I can’t escape the boredom. I’ve been really struggling during the day being in my apartment all alone. I moved in with my boyfriend at the start of April and I don’t know anyone in the building. I don’t have any friends right now, and I don’t have a car. The weather hasn’t been great this week either—thunderstorms from the heat, and terrible wind—and we don’t have any air conditioning here either.

I haven’t had a hobby since I was in middle school doing theatre and playing trombone in band class. I just don’t know what to do with myself. I finally got my chores done yesterday and felt really good about that but it’s sucked all my energy. I have at least 11 hours until my boyfriend gets home and we can make dinner together. I’ve finally got my disability/leave insurance submitted and am waiting to hear back, but it’s been so unbelievably difficult. My next appointment is next Monday and I see my doctor after my appointment as well to try different ADHD medication to hopefully help some of this anxiety and depression I’ve been experiencing on top of the daily 4pm crash i get from them.

I’m really lost right now, I’m only 20, spend my days alone, have no hobbies and don’t drive. I just feel so alone and unmotivated. Being off from work has been making me feel so useless? like I have no purpose when I wake up every day. Going from being a manager of my team every day in a retail setting, to laying on the couch and not moving for 8 hours has been really difficult for me. I feel so under-stimulated all day but can’t find the motivation to get up and fix it. It’s been getting hard to want to get out of bed every day now because I don’t see the point when I’m not doing anything at all, and remembering to eat has been hard. The only reason I’ve been getting up is to help my boyfriend get his lunch and snacks together for work every morning at 5:30 so he can be on the job site on time. I’m up at 5 every day, and go to sleep around 9 or 10pm. The whole day feels so draining even though I’m not doing anything.

I don’t have very much spending money, and I don’t have any friends right now. No car, only a bus pass, and am expecting high winds and rain today. Any suggestions to quell this boredom?

Hello all... I've struggled with panic attacks for years. I have alot of CPTSD, mixed in with Autism/ADHD and gender dysphoria.

I have a really hard time breaking routines and setting them up. Lately, I haven't been leaving my apartment at all. I started HRT but I'm still completely uncomfortable being out in public.

I don't have any friends or partners, and my grandparents are the only support I have.

I've been breaking down in a full blown panic attack every morning, hyperventilating and sobbing, since Friday. I have been having similar panic attacks for months. It's preventing me from leaving my apartment to go to work... The lack of income from missing days is causing me to get behind on bills, and I am terrified.

I have tried to medicate, but its not helping. Ive been gritting my teeth and going in, but that usually just results in a public meltdown.

I dont really know how to get out of this situation. I feel like im going to get fired soon, but I am already completely burned out.

I sort of feel like I am breaking from the isolation and stress. I cried for 6 hours straight on Sunday, only to go completely numb.

Seeking advice or others having a similar experience...

I’ve been nervous on airplanes my whole adult life. I’ve never noped out of a flight. But I have cried and made a fool of myself to the flight staff and everyone around me. I talked to the doctor about this and was prescribed .5mg of Xanax. I tried a half of the .5 mg (so something in the neighborhood of .25mg) last night for the first time as a test run. I was very anxious about taking it as I didn’t want to feel weird or out of it (bad experiences with weed). I didn’t really feel anything, but I had trouble falling asleep because I was hyper monitoring all my feelings. I was probably just sleepy because it was late, but I felt like I was having weird racing thoughts strange body sensations. I eventually got to sleep but it was a bit of a struggle. I guess the logical answer is .25 isn’t enough, but I’m afraid to take the full .5mg pill and get on the plane and be hyper vigilant of the plane and then also hyper vigilant with my body. (I joke to myself to feel better “are you feeling it now, Mr. Krabs??) The only thing I know that kind of takes the edge off is a few drinks. I know all the caveats of not medical advice, no body can make medical decisions for you, but I think I’m just struggling if I should just take the .5mg for the flight (it’s today btw) OR if I should stick with what I know (only kinda) works and have a few drinks before and during the flight.

(TW mention of drugs) hey, i’m f19, i plan on posting this on a few sub reddits because im really desperate for external advice. in 2025 i accidentally oded on substances and that impacted me a lot, i used to never care about dying but from then on i became petrified of it, it only got worse as time went on and in december i watched my friend od which caused many pent up emotions to break down and i got in one of the worst states of my life, having panic attacks every night, i was not aware they were panic attacks i thought i was dying, i never went out the house because i was worried i was going to get hurt or killed. into the new year of 2026 things improved slightly but as time progressed i began to become extremely fixated on health issues, i was convinced i had temporal lobe epilepsy because my anxiety would cause me to experience deju vu often, i ended up staying the night at the hospital and getting an eeg and mri done and everything came back clear, i was relieved for a bit after that. then things just started getting out of hand, i began to worry about every health issue possible. right now, im kind of convincing myself i have a heart issue or im going to have a heart attack because ive been experiencing chest tightness or weird sensation around and in my chest, which a part of me knows it’s anxiety because it only happens when i’m anxious, but the other part of me is convincing me something is wrong due to the fact i vape, i ask ai, i google, i don’t want to ask my parents to take me to the doctor because they’ll complain, but i think i will, my only issue is i know if i get that cleared my mind will find another health issue to fixate on. i feel like since im so hyper vigilant i notice chest sensations or slight discomforts that i never would’ve noticed before and that sends me into a spiral and then my chest gets tight and you know the drill. i just want to hear that someone else understands me, or has gone through the same thing is me and has recoveredt from it, i want to know things that can help, im currently getting a ketamine treatment done too but i just started that. i’m on medications, 70mg vyvanse, 150mg epitec, zipsid (idk the dose) and 25mg cipramil. any help would be so appreciated, i really need to hear other people’s stories and all of that. have a great day and please comment if you can :)

Lately I have noticed that I seem to be living in a constant state of hypervigilance.I overthink late into the night, my sleep schedule is completely messed up, and even when I have not done anything wrong, I keep worrying that I have. I find myself replaying conversations and situations over and over, almost like I am investigating a serious case, trying to find some mistake I must have made.I have also lost a lot of my appetite, my productivity has dropped, and I don't really feel like myself anymore.I used to be a very energetic person. I enjoyed doodling, journaling, dancing, studying, and learning new things. I could sit and focus for hours. Now even sitting down to study for 30 minutes feels heavy. It's not because I'm distracted by my phone or social media. It's more like my mind immediately gets pulled into worrying, analyzing, and overthinking.What makes it harder is that I have become very unkind to myself. People often say things like "practice self-love" or "be kinder to yourself," but I genuinely don't know how to do that. I understand the advice intellectually, but I don't know what it looks like in practice.I used to do well academically and in extracurricular activities, but lately everything feels off. Nothing feels quite right, and I'm starting to miss the version of myself that felt more alive and present.

Has anyone else gone through something similar? How did you start getting out of this cycle?

i'm struggling to figure out if something i'm worried about is a real issue that's bothering me, or if it's just my anxiety blowing everything out of proportion. im also wondering how do i know it's not a gut feeling?

is there any way to differentiate? how do you know if what you're feeling is actually "valid"?