Sorry if this isn't the most detailed post ever I am new to the site.
So I am a 25(26 in august) year old male. I have never ever dealt with any depression or anxiety except for what I call "hangxiety" which is after a day or two of drinking. But it would go right away. A few weeks ago a work I went in to start my shift like any normal day, I had been drinking the night before but didn't feel hungover at all. I was in a great mood and had my favorite game(I am a table games dealer) and all of the sudden I got the shakes and had this horrible nausea in my stomach. I knew I couldn't continue the shift so I left and went home. Once I got home I was fine. I finished the work week and my shifts the rest of the week with no issues I chalked it up as a stomach bug. After my two days off I went back to work and had the same issues again but I stayed this time and it went on for a few hours. I had again been drinking on my days off. I finished my work week again and was looking forward to a 4 day weekend. I drank lightly my first night off lightly my 2nd night and went pretty hard the 3rd and 4th. I was shaking and had anxiety so bad the day I was supposed to go back I called out. But here is the problem. It's been 6 days since my last drink, and every single day now sober(which never happened before) I've been expierencing pannick attacks and worry. Each day of work since I have DREADED going in. Work was great before that first episode and I've HATED my job ever since. I've been digging up old issues i had and over analyzing them lately and these are things I've dealt with long ago. I have been on edge, and I've been feeling extremely spaced out. I get jitters, and I have a hard time feeling like my normal happy go lucky self. I don't have work for another 29 hours and I'm already ruining this day off by dreading going in tomorrow. Nothing traumatizing happened to me at work not to mention I'm good at my job, idk why this is happenning did I somehow develop anxiety? Can't someone who can relate give me some pointers? Thanks for reading!
Hi Mark,
If you are suffering with Anxiety the 'Spaced out' feeling may be depersonalization (Google it). It can be brought on by a traumatic event, PTSD, Anxiety etc.
I would suggest going to see your doctor on Monday and discussing your issues where you can get some professional advice and support.
Best Wishes
Hi Mark,
I suffered with anxiety (and still do now and then) for around 8-9 years before learnign all about it and coming up with my own techniques for dealing with it/getting rid of it.
This sounds like what I had experienced, and I usually get anxiety after a day of drinking because its hard to control your emotions.
I developed anxiety out of the blue also
you need to try free your brain/mind, a good way to do this is to say 'if I didn't have anxiety, what would I be feeling now/doing now', so if you didnt have anxiety you would be looking forward to work, and thats the real/truth, because when you have anxiety you always believe the worst thing is going to happen regardless of any evidence against it, thats just how anxiety is and thats why it makes people scared/anxious about things that seem silly to others. There's a little part of your brain that releases emotion and another part that processes information and they can become configured in a way where you can't rationalise.
When you get anxiety try listening to music that makes you happy or before you had anxiety and try and get into a stage/zone where you can rationalise, the cure to axiety is being able to rationalise and the music can help you get back into that state where you can achieve it.
Let me know how it goes, but remember you anxieties aren't real, you just need to find a way to convince yourself that which is easier said than done.
Hi mark.i have suffered from anxiety for as long as I can remember . Having to push myself daily to do what people would class as normal daily chores . I have already discussed how I developed a serious drink problem years ago. I kicked this but thought I was dying. You seem a bit of a binge drinker which will also mess with chemicals in your brain. When I stopped drinking the pain was agony but by far the worst was my mind. Anxiety racing thoughts.head wouldn't stop. The fear was unbearable, dread, fear of the future and of course ashamed to ask for help. Tell your doc he sees this a lot l
I'm sure. What we think isn't drinking too much can still mess up chemicals in brain and anxiety loves to jump in at our lowest. Good luck
Hey Gary I have a question . my anxiety came out of the blue too about a month ago and ever sense then I've been having shortness of breath and chest pressure. Did you have any of these symptoms? Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Shortness of breath I had but not sure why I used to have to roll the car window down all the time, I think its a byproduct of the anxiety and its not real but the feeling itself causes more anxiety.
Anxiety is caused by a rewiring of the brain, in simple terms
- healthy brain - rationalises situation then adds emotion
- anxiety brain - adds emotion then tries to rationalise
with emotion its impossible to rationalise, good way to think straight is to ask yourself 'what would somebody else think of my problems. would they worry?' or 'what would I be doing if I NEVER had anxiety?'
Just remember we all have issues and problems, nobody can judge anyone because emotions are very powerful and they can make you believe anything, like with anxiety its hard because our brains apply the emotion first, we need to learn to switch it back hence my music technique above, anything that takes the mind back to a pre-anxiety state, doing this continually when you have anxiety will eventually (can take months) reqire the brain back to the healthy state above.
Hey Mark,
Most probably you had a panic attack. Usually, panic attacks strike out the blue. They call it a severe anxiety attack.
However, because panic attacks are sudden and severe, most people think that they are haveing a heart attack or they are going to die.
Panic attack symptoms are pounding heartbeat, shortness of breath, foggy mind, light headiness, nausea, jittering and so on...
The worst comes after the first panic attack when your mind keep ruminating on the same thought "when is the next attack is going to happen?" or something in that nature - this symptom called panic disorder.
I don't want to diagnose your symptoms, but the way you described the symptom it looks like that you had a panic attack followed by panic disorder.
If you believe that your symptoms are health related just see a doctor, let them rule out all health related issues and then you can work on the anxiety disorder.
Alcohol, coffee, and tobacco can trigger anxiety attack and you should avoid them at any cost.