Anxious, nervous feelings.

[Pine]

Okay, I've posted stuff in the mental health field before for depression, but right now I feel like I'm about to throw up..

I'm starting to wonder about my anxiety. I get these...stomach aches from time to time, like I'm EXTREMELY nervous and feel is throwing up. I have one right now. And it hurts.. and I don't know why it's showing. It's like I'm extremely stressed out..

And for the mental health department, I can no longer have happy thoughts anymore without some doubt or worry rush into it. Everything goes numb, I can't be happy, and I feel hopeless. It's like a never-ending headache, and I just want to get away from it..

[emoticon]

Can you tell us what has caused this? Hav you ever tried to talk yourself out of these thoughts?

[Pine]

It's really a lot of crap I don't want to go into a rant on here..

http://www.teenhelp.org/forums/f14-m...t40449-doubts/

Explains some of it, but it's not everything, but I feel terrible right now. I feel like I can't breathe and shaking and crying.. ugh

/doesn't want to sound like an attention whore.. so sorry if I do

[Miranda.]

Okay, well, I suffer from anxiety as well, and one of the symptoms are churning stomach, maybe even stomach pains. I think anxiety is a little different for everyone...some symptoms may be worse than others. But if you find these stomach pains unbearable and such, you need to go get checked out by a doctor.

However, if you are diagnosed with anxiety, the depression and hoplesness feelings are normal...I know hun..they are extremely hard to live with..I go through it too. It becomes an everyday battle if I miss my medication. Anxiety is also mostly caused by stress...so what you should do, when you have panic attacks and such, you should try to let it all out (in a healthy way) I mean its okay to cry, and its okay to be upset, but don't take it out on your body, just saying. Causing yourself more pain then what you are already going through is not going to help you in the longrun.

Don't avoid anxiety, try to solve the situation, or find a way to feel better about it. Avoiding situations that make you anxious might help you feel better in the short term. The trouble is the anxiety keeps returning, and has a habit of spreading to other situations. This can lead to you avoiding things like shops, crowded places, lectures or tutorials.

Things you can do AFTER you've let it all out, to make yourself feel better are:

• Learn to manage stress in your life. Keep an eye on pressures and deadlines and make a commitment to taking time out from study or work.
• Learn a variety of relaxation techniques. Physical relaxation methods and meditation techniques really do help. We have some relaxation tapes at Student Counselling that will help you get started. Health food shops also sell a variety of relaxation tapes.
• Look after your physical self. Eat healthily, get regular exercise and try to keep a regular sleep pattern. Avoid alcohol, cannabis and junk food.
• Practise deep abdominal breathing. This consists of breathing in deeply and slowly through your nose, taking the air right down to you abdomen. Visualise the air travelling right down to your abdomen and say the word "calm" to yourself as you breathe in. Then breathe out slowly and gently through your mouth. As you breathe out visualise the stress and tension leaving your body with your breath and think the word "relax." Deliberately let your muscles go floppy as you breathe out. Take three deep breaths at a time. If you breathe deeply for too long you may feel dizzy from the extra oxygen. You can repeat the three breaths after a short time of breathing normally.
• Learn to replace "negative self talk" with "coping self talk." When you catch yourself thinking something negative like "I can't do this, it's just too hard," try to change it to something more positive, like "This is hard but I can get through it." It can be helpful to think of "changing the tape" that runs through your mind. It is useful to make a list of the negative thoughts you often have and write a list of positive, believable thoughts to replace them.

I hope you feel better soon